Learn to lead your own life. At any age.
Residential programmes for young people aged 10 to 17 and for adults, in the countryside of northern Italy. Four international weeks each year are taught in English.
Three programmes. One way of working.
Each one is built for a different stage of life. All three share the same principles and the same teaching team.
LeadershipAdults
For adultsLeading others starts with leading yourself.
Leadership today is less about giving orders and more about understanding how you make decisions, especially under pressure. The programme puts strategy and the human side of leading in the same room, so that results at work don’t cost you everything else.
KindleAges 10–17
For ages 10 to 17Finding out who you are, without being judged.
It starts with a residential stay in the countryside. Young people learn to ask their own questions, to be part of a group and to rely on others. Three rules hold it together: respect for nature, respect for people, no judgement. Parents, still their first example, learn how to support them.
Safeguarding. Supervision, staffing and travel arrangements are set out in full on the Kindle page.
MasterclassAdults
For adults · parents, business owners, professionalsSix days to find your bearings. A year to keep them.
For anyone responsible for other people. Six residential days with a limited number of places, then twelve months of follow-up with the tutors. The aim is practical: steadier judgement about yourself, your family and your work.
Where time runs a little slower.
Our centres are in the countryside, away from the usual pace and distractions, with room to think and people to think with.
Il Borgo del Monte Antico.
A historic hamlet near Varzi, in the province of Pavia, among the woods and hills of the Oltrepò Pavese. It’s home to the Change Your Life Academy programmes for adults and young people, including the international weeks.
Open in Google Maps ↗
A centre in England.
La Finca de la Paz.
We’re still looking for the right building, and we’d rather take our time than get it wrong. Until it opens, the international weeks in Varzi are open to English-speaking students.
A country estate in Almorox, in the province of Toledo. A place to slow down, spend time with other people and let things start to shift.
La Finca de la Paz.
La Finca de la Paz.
A country estate in Almorox, in the province of Toledo. A place to slow down, spend time with other people and let things start to shift.
A country estate in Almorox, in the province of Toledo. A place to slow down, spend time with other people and let things start to shift.
See the centre in Spain ↗The people behind each programme.
Teachers, tutors and educators who work with you in the room and in the months afterwards. They teach what they practise themselves.
He spent years in business before choosing to work with young people. He developed the approach used across the Academy’s programmes and leads AND Academy, a project in which teachers from across Europe share educational methods that are then offered to schools free of charge.
His story ↗His booksShe graduated in Political Science, International Relations and Human Rights from the University of Padua. Her study of how the mind learns, and of advanced learning methods, shapes the way she teaches. Each year she works with several hundred students and professionals on how they approach work and life.
He started on his own personal development at six, learning from his father, Filippo Rossi. He has since completed courses from Michigan State University, Imperial College London and the University of California in emotional intelligence, neurobiology, creative thinking and applied problem solving.
He started playing chess at four, became a Grandmaster in 2013 and Italian champion in 2014. Trained by Filippo Rossi, he went on to study communication and set up Educating through Chess, a project that uses the game as a tool for learning and personal growth.
A psychologist specialising in specific learning difficulties (SpLD), such as dyslexia, he leads the tutors across the Change Your Life Academy programmes. He uses that background to adapt learning strategies to each participant.
She previously taught the courses Meditation of Presence and Communicating with Children and Young People, and now teaches on the Change Your Life Academy programmes. She also works on AND Academy, developing a new educational model for teachers and young people.
What stays with people afterwards.
The people they met, the days spent together, a different way of seeing themselves and others. It’s what adults and young people tend to talk about once they’re home.
Change Your Life Masterclass“People who were complete strangers on Friday are now sharing their lives, and have built a bridge so they can keep seeing each other.You can tell that you believe in this project and live it yourselves.I see it as a personal awakening, a chance for my own life and for the people I love, especially my son. I think the best thing I can leave him is freedom.”
A young participant · Kindle · in ItalianA young participant · Kindle · in ItalianWe can’t think of better work than helping people see themselves more clearly, and choose with their eyes open.
That’s what Change Your Life Academy is for: working alongside young people and adults through a period of real change, in how they think, what they feel and what they value.
None of it is a quick fix. It’s work, done in good company.
DYNAMISMNew directions, and the wish to do better.CHANGEPlay, curiosity, finding out about yourself.CONCRETENESSSolid knowledge, and time to reflect.Changing your life doesn’t mean becoming someone else.
It means becoming more fully who you already are. We think everyone carries a sense of direction. Our job is to help people recognise it, and find the nerve to follow it.
01020304Variety within unityThinking, feeling, believingFreedom to choose who you areGrow by helping others growThe mark is generative. Triangle, circle and square rearrange themselves for each principle: three different shapes gather round a single centre.three shapes overlap, and something new appears where they meet.a sequence that rises, towards a direction you choose.one shape grows and makes room for the others.
Everyone is different, and nobody grows on their own. Different ages, histories and stages of life start from the same place: the belief that each person has something worth finding, and worth giving.
You can’t change one part of yourself and leave the rest behind. What we think, what we feel and what we believe need to be worked on together, because together they decide who we become.
We’re born free, but as we grow up we get used to limits we never chose. Freedom isn’t doing whatever you like. It’s choosing, deliberately, who to be.
People who’ve been helped tend to help. Those who’ve learned something become a guide for someone else. That’s how a change in one person reaches a family, a team, a community.
Our publications.
Teachers and educators at the Academy have written up years of study and fieldwork in undergraduate and master’s dissertations, alongside a review of the scientific evidence. They’re open to anyone who wants to read further.
Scientific review · 2026 · In Italian · PDFA review of the scientific evidence.