Hi - I’m Erika.

I’m a social entrepreneur, an educator & an artist.
For over 20 years I’ve been helping people access higher levels of creativity, innovation and self-expression to enable personal, social and behaviour change.

I do it today with individuals who attend retreats, courses, or one-on-one coaching.
I do it with groups of people in organisations/communities to help them innovate, tackle social issues, address complex problems. And I’ve done through designing and teaching courses as a university lecturer.

In 2008 I created Act Out a social enterprise through which I facilitated community development projects and creative problem solving for challenging and complex problems, using applied theatre and other creative and arts-based approaches in communities, government departments and corporate organisations in Australia, Tibet and China.
Three of these projects were used as case studies from my PhD thesis.

In 2016 I founded Edgewalkers, now an international ecotourism company through which my team and I facilitate creativity retreats and walking adventures that give people opportunities to immerse themselves in pristine natural environments - like the rich biodiverse southwest of Western Australia and the remote wilderness of the Altai mountains in northwest Mongolia - to access self-expression, creativity and feel inspired and connected.

I co-designed and taught the Creativity and Innovation and Creative Thinking Skills units at Edith Cowan University and Murdoch University, where I taught for over ten years. I’ve also had the opportunity to teach international relations, social policy, popular culture, media studies, business leadership, academic writing, and Zumba!

Being creative, accessing ideas, applying them to create a fulfilling life we love, to solve problems, to make art, to express our feelings is an expression of our natural state, our humanity and important for our wellbeing.

Remembering that this ability to create is in our DNA; that we have access to limitless imagination and possibilities, because we are an expression of nature’s limitless creative power.
Every single object, concept, technology, ideology, cultural norm, social structure we can point to; anything that does not originate in nature, was created through the power of our limitless imagination.

We are highly evolved and intelligent organisms, for too long we’ve existed as if we and all our activities take prevalence over all other organisms, as if nature is there for us to consume, deplete and destroy; as if we are separate.

But we’re not.
Nature is what sustains, supports and ensures all aspects of our existence.

I’ve had a business in some form or another since 2002. I love the freedom it gives me, I love making a good living out of doing what I love.

I also believe, along with a growing number of large and small enterprises in all industries, that the only profit worth making is profit that doesn’t harm the people or the planet, but helps to regenerate and restore what has already been harmed.

For us at Edgewalkers it is biodiversity.
And even though we abide by principles of ecotourism, at Edgewalkers we are in the process of adopting a regenerative business model that is actively involved in the restoration and regeneration of some of the threatened ecosystems where we operate.

I have a specialised set of skills in generative and embodied arts-based activities that facilitate authentic dialogue and playful exploration of complex issues and difficult conversations; extensive experience in working with and engaging those who are difficult to engage; and a toolbox full to the rim of techniques and creative thinking tools and processes that spark creativity, help explore creative blocks and generate ideas.

The best contribution I can make today, in addition to our work at Edgewalkers, is to pass these on to individuals, entrepreneurs, artists and organisations that are driven by purpose and making the world, a better place.