The Active Practical Love Initiative
Developed by Tessabella Lovemore PhD
Who We Are
Briar Grimley
For years as a friend, teacher, wife, mother, I knew that Love was the only way. But how to do it in the minute details of everyday life, escaped me. In 2006 I discovered the Active Practical Love courses – and my journey to conscious, practical, authentic loving began. As it flows through me and my life, I am constantly touched to tears as I experience those with whom I do this work, finding themselves, relationships healing, growing, flourishing, as I myself heal and grow too. I offer How to Love courses to groups, and individually, online and in person.
Cobie Roelvert
Active Practical Love has become a powerful force in my life and it is something that I turn to in my quest to strengthen relationships. It has helped me to transform relationships not only with the people close to me – my husband, my daughter, my step-children, and my parents – but also with friends and colleagues. As a grandmother I value what it teaches me about the formative years of a child and how children respond to being loved. Teaching the How to Love course is deeply rewarding. It is special to witness how the course practices help the participants to open to the possibility of discovering the source of love.
Donata Hoesch
All of the Active Practical Love courses and their corresponding exercises have given me a new language for understanding others, for expressing myself in meaningful ways and for solving everyday dilemmas. They have deeply nourished my family relationships in many exquisite ways and brought about a new understanding of psychological research and a deeper appreciation of art and beauty. I have been teaching How to Love courses for nine years in English, and in French for three. I work in close collaboration with my APLI colleagues, sharing inquiries, peer-supervision and continually supporting each other's growth. I hold a particular interest in infant mental health.
Erica Stephanson
Active Practical Love has such a positive impact on my life that I want to share with others the ways in which it has helped me. This work is so different from other "instructions" which were meant to inspire and direct me; it is about noticing, discovering and practically working to make my life feel more full of love. It is difficult to evangelise Active Practical Love because it is so quiet, subtle and gentle. My work as a teacher, mother, wife, daughter and friend has all been bettered through its practice, which I come back to time and again. Through my experiences with families and children I am humbled by the love that all parents have for their children and I am inspired to help strengthen these connections.
Fabienne Danjou
For more than ten years, I have had the privilege to experience the healing power of the Active Practical Love in my work and personal life. Working with these practices deepens my offering towards healthy and remedial sensory integration which is informed by phasic development through meaningful and playful activities. I believe APL practices are also potent in mediation work, supporting the brain in the development of a skilled mind and for positive interdependency with other living beings and for the acknowledgement of the healing power of unconditional positive regard.
Julie Lam
I am grandmother, school founder, author, mentor and guide devoted to nurturing connection in childhood, family, and community. Rooted in my book From the Heart of Childhood and the work of The Art of Connected Presence, my path centers on deep listening, authentic relationship, and the transformation born of shared presence. Active Practical Love (APL), my lifelong guide, continues to shape this work—inviting presence as a living practice that renews how we care, relate, and create together.
Kathryn Kelly
My life has taught me to practise being open to the ‘other’. The Active Practical Love courses have confirmed this and enabled me to see how, through awakening to my own attitudes, feelings and actions and also through listening, I can not only change myself but also begin to give others freedom to develop, grow and thrive. Having children and grandchildren, also working with young children and special needs adolescents with challenging behaviour has been part of my practising. I would like to enable others to benefit from working with Active Practical Love, particularly to recognise love and joy in parenting.
Johanna Kazungu
The content and exercises of the Active Practical Love courses keep guiding me on the magical journey towards learning to love every thing and every one in my life. Through them, I have gained a deeper understanding of who I am. I have practiced to listen in a way that helps the other discover themselves. And I have learned to deeply love and enjoy parenting - a gift I will forever be grateful for. I would be honoured to share these gifts with you - one on one, or in groups.
Kelly-Louise
Active Practical Love has transformed my life and the lives of those I love. With the light of love as my guide, I find courage to journey into the darkness and hope that I may bring freedom where I encounter suffering. I deliver all aspects of APL for groups and, if a more therapeutic or individualised approach is required, on a one to one basis.
Michele Kaye
Originally a teacher of Biology and Nutrition, now a movement teacher for the last 18 years, a mother and grandmother, I have come to realise that what the "How to Love” course provides is so much more than a course, but more of an invaluable ongoing lifestyle practise. Having completed the “How to Love Course” many times as a participant I am now happy to be offering this course.
Paul Webber
I use what I've learnt on the How to Love course as a solid foundation stone for much of my work and personal life. The warmth of patience, compassion and simplicity. I've personally set up and held a weekly Men's support circle for the last 18 months and am now in the process of bringing this caring and compassionate support to under 18 year olds. I've know Tessabella for over 10 years and she's been a grounding rock and shelter in many a storm for me. I feel very blessed to know her, have been able to study her work and to be able to call her my friend, along with many others who I'm met through her courses.
Penny Perrin
Through practising Active Practical Love, I’ve come to know love as an action - one that steadies me when life unravels and opens my heart when I’d rather close. It has changed the way I listen, parent, and relate, inviting a slower rhythm, deeper presence, and the courage to meet life with an open heart. Each time I share this work, I rediscover that love really can be practical, teachable, and transformative.
Rose Maher
Active Practical Love has been a potent and influential force in my work and my relationships. It offers very practical tools and on-going support enabling us to explore what is actually real as we navigate the ups and downs of life and its untold mysteries. I love to deliver the How to Love course to new participants and old timers alike as it is always different and renews me every time. I enjoy working creatively with groups and individuals guiding them gently to the truth of who they are. This is my 6th year of delivering the How to Love course and I will always be a student of it too. I work on line and in person.
Lara Kuppers
When I was younger I often felt helpless to the pain in the world. The dream to make the world a better place was debilitating. 'Be the change you wish to see in the world' was a dream because I couldn't understand how to get there. Along came 'How to Love', 'How Children Learn', 'Listening for decision making' and working with the senses, which have given me the insight and the practical tools to be the change and a light in the darkness. I truly love my parenting and am inspired to help parents to love their own journey with their children and partners so that we can raise a generation of truly grounded and happy children that are loved for who they are and where we can delight in the gifts they are bringing to us. I can now imagine the world in which we move forward in love.
‘Every person is a world to explore’
Thích Nhất Hạnh