Our Story
Circle Back is a vision born from the hearts of Heléna Turner and Cat Bednarski, both trained Vision Quest Protectors in the Stalking Wolf Lineage.
This shared dream holds the beauty and inspiration that has arisen from our mutual devotion and connection to country, self and the great mystery.
Circle Back is a living prayer for connection and remembering. A community built on real and right relationship with Nature and our place within the living web that shapes all things.
Our Quest home is tucked into a valley of stillness and wild beauty near Mt Field, Lutruwita/Tasmania. We walk gently in deep respect and reverence with the Palawa spirit of this place and the wisdom that is held here.
Circle Back
Co-Founders and your
Vision Quest Guides
Hi, We’re Cat and Helena. We met in 2023 on Jinibara Garumngar Country and saw in each other a deep kinship and mutual love for the truth found in transformational personal processes like Vision Quest. We’ve since walked together in loving reciprocity of friendship and co-creation, bringing to life the seeds of our personal visions in rightness and devotion. We are honoured to tend to the living wisdom contained in the lineage passed down to us from Stalking Wolf and witness you in your own journey through Quest.
Cat
Circle Back Co-Founder & Vision Quest Protector
Cat Bednarski is an Earth-Connection Facilitator, Ceremonialist and Vision Quest Protector in the Stalking Wolf Lineage.
Over the past 4 years, Cat has supported over a hundred vision quest participants through their pathway of transformation and remembering.
Cat has been and continues to be generously mentored by Steve McKenzie (Soul Paths) for many years and has undertaken trainings and is in connection with Katie Rydge and Sam Robertson (Nature Philosophy) all within the Stalking Wolf Lineage.
Cat’s passion is in tending lands within her community as a lived embodiment of what it is to be alive in the reciprocity of life and in deep connection to country.
“Supporting the process of Vision Quest is a great honour to be walking with on my path of life. It has touched me deeply as both a quester and protector with its depth, simplicity and purity. The weaving of ancient ceremony with the spirit of the land, and the wisdom of this lineage creates a profound medicine that permeates into the depths of truth of any individual willing to be opened by such an experience.”
- Cat
Helena
Circle Back Co-Founder & Vision Quest Protector
Helena Turner is a Poet, Craniosacral Therapist, Wilderness Guide, and Vision Quest Protector in the Stalking Wolf Lineage.
Helena brings a breadth of skills refined through a lifetime of personal practice in dedication to the Great Mystery, over a decade leading and facilitating a wide array of group experiences in the arts, wellness and outdoor industries, with an instinctual love for curating transformative ritual spaces.
In recent years, she has guided hundreds of people through the wilderness landscapes of Tasmania, ushering humans on journeys back to self and back to nature. Helena gravitates naturally toward the integrity and potency of Vision Quest and its potential as a powerful ally for self-knowing.
Helena has trained with Katie Rydge and Sam Robertson (Nature Philosophy) and Steve McKenzie (Soul Paths) in survival skills, nature connection practices and awareness training and as a Vision Quest Protector and Guide. She continues to deepen her learning through ongoing mentoring and apprenticeship.
“Through my experiences with Quest, an unbroken thread has been woven back through the years of my life, bringing unending gifts through the lenses of both fear and love, revealing truth and hidden story, illuminating my capacity, power, and the immensity of love available for us here on Earth. In Quest I make contact with depth of peace and stillness that is impossible to express, I experience my true sense of self in intrinsic connection to all that is alive. For me, Vision Quest offers a space to contact the living intelligence present in us all, and a pathway for unearthing and accessing this power."
- Helena
“Cat and Helena are deeply soul-led, heart-centered beings who hold space with grounded strength and unwavering grace. With them as your Vision Quest Guides, you’ll receive an abundance of warmth, humility, and wisdom that only women who carry a deep connection to the natural world and her mysteries can provide. Their presence invites profound transformation, and I wholeheartedly recommend them as your Vision Quest Guides and Protectors.”
- Katie Rydge, Vision Quest Protector & Trainer in Stalking Wolf Lineage
Susanne
Susanne Feld is an Alexander Technique teacher, Gestalttherapist, Musician and Vision Quest Protector. She accompanies people through times of transition and transformation, exploring the often unmet richness in those in-between spaces and times.
With over 20 years of experience in the field of holistic embodiment, co-finding and running the Center for the Alexander Technique in Berlin Mitte, she has been sharing her work in many one on one Sessions, Workshops and Retreats.
Since 2013 she has been co-facilitating retreats for women and co-founded Mindful Music Making (https://www.mindfulmusicmaking.de/) in 2017. In 2018 she started her journey as a quester herself, and completed the training as a Quest Protector in 2019. She has been running Vision Quests since 2020.
Meet our
Protector Team
“Offering the protected space for other humans to follow their call to Vision Quest is a deep honor for me. Every time I encounter someone, who feels called to Quest - and when I actually protect a Vision Quest, I become very still and my heart starts listening even more deeply. I’m looking forward to protecting your Quest together with wonderful human beings whom I deeply respect and love - and of course together with this land, which you will be in conversation with and which will hold you through your whole journey."
- Su
Fern
Fern is a mother, art teacher, reiki teacher and soul nurturer, who facilitates sacred circles and ceremonies, using nature art and mandalas for healing, growth and transformation.
She holds space with an open heart and compassion, to support others to live in harmony and balance with their own, and the Earth’s seasons and cycles.
Her work is held in animistic values of deep listening, respect and reciprocity, as she inspires others to walk the spiral of life with trust and gratitude.
“Vision Quest has been my deepest initiation into truth, inner transformation, personal and ancestral healing. Through this sacred ceremony I experienced an ancient remembering - a true embodied knowing in my whole being, of oneness, of belonging here on Earth, and my interbeing in the web of life. Quest has blessed me with countless gifts including empowering and strengthening my devotion to tend to the visions held within my heart. My time in my circle continues to reveal wisdom years later, inspiring me to be of service to others who answer the call to Quest in this beautiful lineage.”
- Fern
Testimonials
- Ben Mullins, QLD
“Cat is more than a guide; she is a poet of the heart, a visionary, and a beacon of wisdom. She has a way of seeing beyond the surface, bringing to life the essence of a vision quest in a way that is both sacred and profound.
She creates a space so safe, so deeply held, that one cannot help but surrender to the journey of self-discovery. Through her guidance, I was able to explore the true calling of my soul, and that experience has stayed with me every day since.
If you are fortunate enough to cross paths with Cat, know that you are in the hands of someone who truly sees, truly listens, and truly cares.”
- Joelle, NSW
“During my vision quest I was fighting off whopping cough and felt very ill. When we were scouting our spots, Helena appeared as my guide to survey my spot, making sure it was safe and ticked all the boxes.
Helena’s beautiful and soft energy was like a port in the storm for me, she was deeply intuitive and nurturing to my needs. Her soft and strong energy felt so calming & supportive for me in those moments and I felt super grateful that she was my guide in those moments.
Thank you Helena.’’