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Mode
Online Study
&
Retreat
Qualification
Certificate of Completion
9 Months + 5 day retreat
Duration
Wild Reverence: Somatic Ecopsychotherapy
Everything is ceremony in the wild garden of childhood
~ Pablo Neruda ~
Welcome to Foundations in Somatic Ecopsychotherapy. This course is a love letter to embodied Truth, providing an experiential introduction to two profoundly powerful paradigms in healing and wholeness: somatic inquiry and ecopsychotherapy. On this multi-stage journey, participants will learn tools to embark on a voyage into their depths, and ways to cultivate a more holistic wholeness that encompasses the four dimensions of being: psyche (mind), soma (body), soul (a thing’s ultimate place and purpose in the web of life) and spirit (the divine, non-dual substance from which we are wrought). The program is iterative in nature, starting with a foundational module in a somatic inquiry paradigm known as Focusing that will, in turn, catalyse a richer experience of, and deeper unfolding, in the ecotherapy module. This offers participants a rich opportunity to explore the powerful synergy of somatic work and ecopsychotherapy, and the possibility of being in deeper relationship with nature through embodied practise. Ultimately, the program seeks to offer its own medicine in these times of disconnection, dissociation, depression and despair, offering up the salve of wild wholeness in service of the more than human community and consciousness herself.
2025 Dates TBC: The next course start date is not yet confirmed.
Please register your interest here:
Upcoming Events
Acknowledgements
Before we begin, a few acknowledgements.
We acknowledge the legacy of deep listening that was born through the dreaming of aboriginal people: the practice of listening to self, to place, to each other and to the dreaming itself. We acknowledge that Somatic Inquiry and Ecopsychotherapy flow in the same river, and borrow much from the wisdom traditions of First Nations.
We acknowledge the privilege and rank we hold as white, western practitioners, and that this shapes our perspective on life and healing, together with our world view. What is offered in this program is drawn from practices that have deeply benefited us and we encourage you to explore whether they work for you. Your own experience is the best litmus for what is right in your life.
We acknowledge that, for aboriginal people, deep healing must also involve reconnection with land, ancestors, family, culture and community. This holds true for us as well, and we invite you to explore whether it holds true for you.
Program Overview
Part 1
Map of the Terrain
Standing at the trailhead of our journey together, we take a look at the topography of the landscape we’ll be travelling through over the next 9 months. This includes a map of the holistic human being, which draws on the work of Stephen Gallegos, Bill Plotkin, Ken Wilbur, Carl Jung, A. H. Almaas and others. The map plots the inter-relationship between the different dimensions of human wholeness (psyche, soma, soul and spirit) and the facets of each dimension, which helps to orient us on the path. We also take a look at some of the fundamental principles that will define our work together.
Part 2
Somatic Inquiry - Inner Relationship Focusing
Our journey continues with an introduction to a powerful inner work paradigm known as Focusing, which was discovered by Eugene Gendlin in the late 70s. Students will learn how to attune their awareness to a dynamic inner phenomenon known as the felt sense, which opens a doorway into the vast intelligence of the body. Like a radio telescope detecting signals from deep space, Focusing connects practitioners to the emerging edge of their inner world and a dimension of being where growth, insight and true creativity become possible. Learning how to come into relationship with the wounded and orphaned places inside of us, we discover that healing unfolds naturally out of the ‘life forward’ energy that is contained within the felt sense itself. That even our darkest and most challenging inner parts contain the medicine we seek.
The Focusing module is foundational to the ecopsychotherapy component. It equips students with a somatic language that empowers them to more deeply catalyse, or be catalysed by, processes that are naturally precipitated through eco-therapeutic practice. In this way, students become voyagers in the lineage of the great Mystery schools, learning to tend the living edge of inner processes that seek, always, to call them Home.
Students who complete part 1 of the Focusing training will be eligible to apply for a future training that will take the focuser deeper into relationship with the felt sense and the myriad inner parts that emerge on the transformational path.
Part 3
Ecopsychotherapy
Building on their grounding in somatic inquiry, students will then pivot to a foundational module in ecopsychotherapy. This work explores how wholeness can be cultivated through nature-based work, bringing us into a deeper, embodied relationship with the Self and with the animate Earth. In this component of the course, students will learn about some different types of ecotherapy, each with their own philosophy, objective and practises.
Ecopsychotherapy also explores themes of belonging, and students will have an opportunity to explore their felt sense of connection to the natural world, ways of being in relationship with it, together with the inner obstacles that can emerge on the way. Having a grounding in somatic inquiry, students will be uniquely equipped to amplify the power of the eco therapeutic work in nature, exploring, unfolding and integrating psychological, somatic, and transpersonal material that emerges in response to their time on the land.
Part 4
Beyond the Map
At the tail end of the course, we continue the somatic dive with an introduction to the transpersonal facets of wholeness that lie beyond psyche and soma: soul and spirit. We’ll explore a contemporary understanding of nature-based soul work, the chthonic descent and a remembering of one’s deepest place and purpose in the web of life. This module touches into Bill Plotkin’s Soul Craft and Arnold Mindell’s concept of life-myth, giving students an understanding of the transpersonal scope of somatic ecopsychotherapy and ways to pursue it further beyond the program.
We will also explore the application of somatic inquiry and nature-based work in cultivating an embodied spirituality. One that is responsive to our times, imminently tangible and deeply accessible, moment by moment, amidst the tumult of an ordinary life. In this module, we take a look at the embodied spirituality of A. H. Almaas, and the palpable, transpersonal structures of Being that can be discovered on the path inward. In this way, somatic inquiry becomes a doorway into sacred depths.
Part 5
Nature-based intensive
Our program culminates in a 5 day nature-based retreat, at Bamarang Bush Retreat near Nowra, where students will get the opportunity to explore, practise and deepen in the crucible of wild nature everything they have learnt so far. This is a rich time for us to gather in wild council, for solo and paired work in nature, as well as for periods of deep somatic inquiry on the land. We’ll follow and unfold the signals that emerge spontaneously from the depths, from the living field between us, and from the temenos of the more than human other that also holds us and bears witness.
Information Talk
Scope of the Course
This course is highly practical and experiential in nature. Week by week, students will be given practical tools they can apply in their own life on the path of healing and wholing and, for those in the therapeutic arts, in their work with clients. Outside of Zoom learning sessions, students will be invited to deepen their learning with applied practise, either solo or in dyads. This is a fundamental component of the learning, taking time to integrate the conceptual content of the course so that it can become embodied.
We’ll look at real world examples of how the tools can be used to work with a gamut of presenting issues such as depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma, loneliness, self esteem issues, creative blocks, meaninglessness and more. In deep reverence for the lineage of mystery schools, from which this program borrows, our work together also explores transpersonal terrain and the living edge of the sacred (soul and spirit) that seeks to unfold in, as and through us.
This foundational dive into the fundamentals of Somatic Inquiry and Ecopsychotherapy is a response to these strange times in which we live. It meets a longing to be embodied in a world where the body is so often quarantined as a container of trauma. Out of the catastrophe of the sixth mass extinction, the ravages of industrial growth society and the ongoing epidemic of trauma, it seeks to cultivate a deeper relationship with the wild places within and without. And in a fundamentally secular era, in which so many of us meander, seemingly without purpose, untethered from the chthonic rumblings of soul and exiled from the living substance of our sacred nature, this course beckons us home into a deeper remembering of the transpersonal truths from which we are wrought. Truths that are integral to the holistic human wholeness that is our birthright.
Type | Fee |
|---|---|
Full Price | $5,520 |
Early Bird Price (10% discount) | $4,968 |
Alumni Price (15% discount) | $4,800 |
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(5-day final retreat costs not included - $TBC per person for 4 nights, Early Bird and Alumni discounts do not apply to the retreat price)
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Metavision alumni: 15% discount available to graduates of our 1-year or 2-year program (not applicable in conjunction with early bird discount)
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An early Bird discount of 10% is available to students, Dates to be confirmed
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Non-refundable Deposit is required to secure your place in the course $1500 - (a credit card fee may be applicable)
Payment plans are available
Payment plans are available enabling students to pay fees in monthly instalments.
Investment
2025 Dates TBC
Timings
Your Guide
Rob Engels
My calling as a guide to the inner wilderness began in childhood, and was forged through big, life-altering traumas that led me to believe there was something inherently wrong with me. As a young adult I wandered aimlessly, seemingly without purpose or any real sense of who I was. I moved through bouts of depression, imprisoning myself in a tight complex of deficiency stories that felt like despair. In my late teens I turned to meditation to transcend my suffering rather than face my demons head on.
At some point, however, Mystery called me to turn inwards to heal. This launched a lifelong pilgrimage of deep self inquiry and spiritual wandering as I learned to question everything I had taken to be true about myself. Aided by plant teachers, human elders, Jungian writing, the profound wisdom of nature and, in time, the inner teacher, I tended my wounds, called in the lost, forgotten and disavowed parts of myself and awakened a deep sense of wholeness.
With Animas Valley Institute, I embarked on a long program of nature connection, Soulcraft and Wild Mind training. This culminated in a vision quest in the wilds of Wollemi, NSW, including a four-day wilderness solo and water fast, during which time I underwent an initiation with soul: the mythopoetic remembering of my ultimate place and purpose in the web of life. This seminal, earth shattering encounter gradually restructured my psyche and entire way of being, propelling me into a life of service, guiding others through the inner wilderness to the truth at their centre.
In addition to postgraduate training in holistic psychotherapy, I guide nature connection programs to rewild the human soul, empowering a deep discovery of what is fundamentally right about you. As co-founder of the Wild Edges nature healing program in the Blue Mountains, I have guided others to call home the lost, forgotten, and disavowed parts into the family of wholeness. As both an ACMM-certified meditation teacher and Focusing teacher (International Focusing Institute), I guide others into the practice of mindful awareness and somatic self inquiry, facilitating deeper self awareness, personal growth and transpersonal exploration. I am also a trained facilitator of the Kiloby Inquiries method, a ground-breaking, mindfulness-based approach to treating depression, anxiety, trauma and addiction, which has intensive outpatient centres across the US. Honouring my commitment to the practice of embodied listening, I am also co-founder of the Blue Mountains Men’s Group. My collected work falls under the banner of Wild Reverence, which is a love affair with the wild earth, a remembering of our own wild wholeness, and a communion with the inner sacred.
My journey has been light and dark, wild, beautiful and, gnarly, and I would be honoured to guide you in this treasure of an offering: Somatic Ecopsychotherapy, on the path of healing, wholeness and self discovery.
