the unfolding course
about the course
There is a common language that lives in all of us, but many have forgotten. It is the language of the body. Already we know we have been avoiding and discounting our powerful emotions and bodily sensations, conditioned since childhood to value only the information of the mind. You’re already smart. If the challenges of your life could be solved intellectually, you’d have done it already.
What if our naturally occurring human feelings hold the keys to resolving the very challenges, habits and self-attitudes that plague our experience of our life, and us in it? This course is about waking up the language of the body in you; repairing your relationship to your emotions and feelings so that they can powerfully serve you, instead of debilitating you. This course is about remembering how to live in a body.
is this for me?
Regardless of how long you’ve been searching, if you are ready to trust that the answers to your struggles aren’t going to be found outside of you, this course is for you. You are here because you want to believe that nothing is missing, broken or deficient in you, despite what popular self-improvement culture keeps suggesting of you. You’re ready to experience yourself as complete, whole, enough. You desire to repair your relationship to your body.
what will i learn?
The short answer that you want to hear is that you will recover a relationship with your body’s emotions and sensations that allows you to effectively resolve the problems you’re experiencing right now. And you will. The longer answer that you need to hear is that problem-solving isn’t developmental. There are no quick fixes. I will be sharing with you a life practice that will resolve everything that you struggle with, but on its own time, and in its own order. You have to be in this for more than a quick-fix.
From our very first session, you will be gaining the insights and developing the competencies needed to navigate the challenging events, relationships and decisions of the moment, and all of those yet to come. These competencies and this language are incredibly simple, surprisingly intuitive and available to every human. They’re already in you, and we’re going to wake them up.
logistics
16 live interactive group sessions over Zoom. Weekly partner practice. Private coaching.
2024 Course Dates: Jan 9, Jan 16, Jan 23, Feb 13, Mar 5, Mar 26, Apr 16, May 7, May 28, Jun 18, Jul 9, Jul 30, Aug 20, Sep 10, Oct 1, Oct 22
what participants are saying
“What an incredibly supportive environment...Showing myself, over and over, and not feeling judged, it was liberating, and now I find myself showing more to the close-in people in my life too.”
“Learning how to connect with the internal parts of myself that were literally screaming for help was extremely empowering. This is unlike anything I have ever done before”
“To wake up to the notion that these things I kept doing and couldn’t shake, weren’t actually me, and that they were in fact trying to help me, was both shocking and incredibly relieving. In that moment, I noticed my attitude toward myself beginning to change.”
“I had learned to live with and ignore these feelings that arose every time I did something that wasn’t perfect. Now, instead of pushing them away—which never worked—I befriend them, welcome them, give them a place to be and inquire into what they are really trying to tell me.”
“I could literally see in my mind where all of this pain that I hadn’t even been aware of had originated, and it all made perfect sense. And I felt that pain, like it was happening right now, and I gave it space, and then it dissolved.”
“Knowing this about myself opened up so many more options for how to navigate what I was experiencing. The hold that these defenses had on me loosened, and I became curious and open. I feel that I am un-stuck, and I can finally move on.”
“I feel powerful. Like, really powerful. I don’t think I have ever felt like this before, and yet, it doesn’t feel new. It feels old, actually. It feels like mine…and I immediately knew, like knew in my bones, how to resolve the situation that had dogged me for months.”
frequently asked
WHAT IS THE STRUCTURE OF THIS COURSE?
The Unfolding Course is a ten-month personal development program, including sixteen 2-hour live-interactive group sessions, an hour of weekly partner practice and private coaching sessions. Group sessions include instruction, demonstration, practice and discussion, with special emphasis on learning through direct experience. The first three sessions are held every week as we build momentum and competence as a group, and the following 13 sessions will be scheduled once every three weeks, allowing time for one hour of weekly partner practice and integration between sessions. Participants will also schedule private coaching sessions with the course leader to deepen integration.
WHAT IS THE COST OF THE COURSE?
The tuition for the entire course program is US1,850.00, including private coaching sessions. Additional coaching sessions with the course leader can be explored for a fee, though practicing with faculty cannot take the place of our experiential learning practice with our assigned partners, which is a critical component to learning and embodying this method. Contact the course leader directly if you feel you need additional support.
WHAT IS THE TIME COMMITMENT OF THE COURSE?
The time commitment averages 1-2 hours per week over the duration of the course, to integrate the essential learning components of our work together. This time is spent participating in the online sessions, practicing with your partner, and in online Q & A. You must be able to commit to meeting with your assigned practice partner for an hour each week.
WHAT IF I NEED TO MISS A SESSION?
We ask that you do your best to attend each session live, so that you can benefit from experiential learning breakouts that will not be captured in that session’s video recording. But a recording of all general sessions will be available for independent viewing if you have to miss one.
WHAT EXPERIENCE OR COMPETENCIES DO I NEED TO PARTICIPATE?
None. Believe it or not, the language and method of this course already live within you; we’ll be waking them up. Prior experience with inner work (yoga, mediation, breath work, journaling, spiritual or religious traditions is helpful, but not at all essential for learning and embodying what you’ll discover here. All you truly need is a desire to know more of yourself, and a willingness to experiment with turning toward your inner experience with curiosity and compassion, instead of turning away or trying to rid yourself of it.
WHAT IS THE FORMAT OF THE PRACTICE SESSIONS
The best teacher of this is your own direct experience of it, so we begin practicing this together in our very first session, drawing on whatever challenges are present in your life that day or week as the path to learning this language.
HOW CONFIDENTIAL IS THE PERSONAL INFORMATION I SHARE WITH THE COHORT?
Confidentiality and trust are essential to fostering an environment of safety and vulnerability for our deep explorations. All participants agree to our “FrieNDA”, a mutual commitment to non-disclosure and discretion. Our session recordings are safeguarded for the sole use of the participants in our cohort, and are not distributed or available publicly.
I IDENTIFY AS _______________________. WHAT CARE IS GIVEN TO HONORING MY DIFFERENCES?
Every. We cannot support each other or deepen ourselves as humans without first seeing, understanding, accepting, loving and valuing each other, exactly as we are. Because we are a developmental community, we must turn toward intolerance with love and strength and resolve. We will gladly and compassionately educate and support individuals who need assistance in broadening their definition of respect and inclusion, but never at the expense of another member of our cohort.
I DON’T REALLY FEEL ANYTHING IS WRONG RIGHT NOW. WHAT WILL I GET OUT OF THIS?
Not in crisis at the moment? Great. But there is always something to work on, and you can learn this language through exploring the troublesome relationships, habits and complexities that are always present in your daily life, so that when the major crises do come, you’ll be ready to meet them with grace and power.
I’M ALREADY WORKING WITH A THERAPIST. WILL THIS BE REDUNDANT?
This is not what you’ve been doing with your therapist or coach, and reawakening this language in you will both enrich and expedite your current explorations with them. This is also true of any other inner work you currently practice.
DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING SPECIFICALLY FOR PARENTS?
While this course is open to everyone, you may be finding that the greatest challenges at this time in your life arise in your relationship with your young children. Some incredibly caring and skillful colleagues are offering a similar and equally supportive course specifically for the parents of children aged 2-12, and it will be a great pleasure to connect you.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR ME FOLLOWING THIS COURSE?
One of the most critical human competencies we will develop in this course is the capacity to vulnerably solicit support for our personal development, and by the end of the course we will have fostered relationships with individuals who have the interest and capacity to continue holding us in that deepening, beyond the course.
Often individuals find themselves profoundly inspired by the transformation they witness in themselves and others through this work, and desire one of two things: those who want to continue deeper into themselves will have access to a follow-on course for that purpose; those who feel called to share this way of being more broadly in the world through supporting others as a coach will be connected with a coach training program.
Have a different question?
Send an email to connect@outlierlifedesign.com