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 8 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.

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.

Having experientially encountered the bounty of Focusing, we will take a brief look at how the somatic inquiry field is evolving through the pioneering work of somatic repression specialist, Scott Kiloby. The Kiloby Inquiry method leverages precision tools to unearth mental and somatic content that is repressed in the unconscious recesses of the psyche and soma. Content that is difficult to access using traditional talk therapy alone and that is typically found at the root of issues such as addiction, trauma, anxiety and depression. In this program, we’ll touch briefly into some of the foundational Kiloby tools, with a dedicated program in the works.

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.

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.

Our program culminates in a 5 day nature-based retreat, 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.