Uncovering Genius:
Harnessing Your Inner Wisdom through Nature-based Parts Work
A 5-Day non-residential experiential training for therapists and helping professionals
July 22 – 26, 2023 (in the mountains near Boulder, CO)
Are you looking for more creative, nature-based, self-reflective experiential tools for working with clients?
Would you like to support your clients in tapping into their inner wisdom through relationship with and reflection from the natural world?
Are you ready to integrate a powerful nature-based “Parts Work” paradigm into your work with others?
Are you wanting to stand confidently in your capacity to lead nature-based therapy, coaching, or self-growth sessions and intensives?
Join us for this 5-day, highly experiential, deep dive into Parts Work theory and practice within the setting and support of the natural world. This training is influenced by many psychological models and modalities that acknowledge the complexity of our humanness and the brilliance of our inner capacity for wholeness and healing. You will leave with a solid understanding of the function of our inner parts, a roadmap to uncover and work with clients from this paradigm, and a deep awe of the way in which doing this work in the natural world can greatly enhance your work with clients.
What IS Parts Work anyway?
Have you ever found yourself saying the words, “a part of me really wants to do this (take a new job, go bungee jumping, or really try anything new), and a part of me is terrified?”, or “A part of me does not want to go to this party, but another part fears how someone will feel if I don’t show up?” Whether you have used this language or not, it is not uncommon to hear such sentiments in the world these days. We are complex beings full of so much wisdom and inner conflict. Through the intersectionality of brain chemistry, genetic predisposition, along with our unique, creative responses to both nurturing as well as stressful life experiences, human beings develop brilliant coping strategies to deal with a variety of complex logistical and relational situations. The challenge is that sometimes these strategies become more solidified into traits and states, and we begin to respond and react to the world in a handful of semi-predictable ways. Looking a bit more closely, we can begin to recognize patterned experiences of these different states and unpack the particular hopes and fears that are held with these different “Parts” of us.
Parts Work is a particular paradigm that has been identified, studied and developed for nearly a century in the world of counseling, psychotherapy, and self-growth work. In the early 1900s, Sigmund Freud identified 3 aspects, or parts of the self: the id, the ego and the superego. Since then, many additional theorists and therapeutic modalities have developed models for looking at the way we internally navigate the world and negotiate our own conflicting inner challenges and desires. Many say that the different parts of us have their own unique wants, needs, fears, values, physical postures, and even biochemical states.
In this training we will discuss the neurophysiology and function of this natural and brilliant phenomena within our human experience. Informed by a variety of Parts Work models, we will look at some of the common elements across modalities and engage in a plethora of creative, expressive, and nature-based experiential exercises that will support identifying, coming into relationship with, getting to know, and even beginning to shift some unwanted fears and behaviors, as well as strengthening resourced Parts in support of overall greater insight and health.
Influenced by techniques from Gestalt Therapy, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Ecopsychology, and Mandala Parts Work, students will explore an arc of uncovering and relating to the Parts of Self with the support of the natural world. These theories and tools will be immediately applicable to client work in a wide variety of settings and therapeutic formats.
Students will leave with an in-depth understanding of their own Parts, as well as the confidence to support clients in uncovering and mining the inner gems of their inherent wisdom.
Course Overview
The arc of this training will include the following components:
- Theoretical overview of Parts Work
- Tools for identifying different Parts of Self
- Experiential exercises to begin to deepen into uncovering and unpacking the wisdom of the Parts
- Focus on harnessing the health and brilliance of the resourced Parts of Self
- Many nature-based experiential exercises and tools to further explore, dialogue with, and bring understanding and healing to the Parts that need more love
- Explicit discussion of a variety of ways to incorporate these tools into a diverse settings and therapeutic formats
- Support for developing an individualized integration plan of your next steps integrating the course material into your work with clients
*Note: This training is highly experiential in nature. You will be invited to engage your own process by uncovering your inner Parts as well as facilitating others in uncovering and more deeply understanding theirs. That said, you always have choice as to what level you participate. We invite you to check in with the facilitators and staff for support if you desire to keep your personal exploration more contained.
Upcoming Training Dates: July 22 – 26, 2023
Tuition Investment: Reg Price ($1495); Early Bird Price ($1350) ends May 22, 2023
Location & Logistics: Course will be held in the mountains near Boulder, CO. Course will begin each day at 9 am and end around 5 pm. The last day of the course will end at 3 pm.
