The Vitalist school exists to provide a deep and full-bodied transformational experience for coaches, counselors, bodyworkers, or anyone with a commitment to creating more consciousness in the world.
What to Expect
The core curriculum at the Vitalist School uses a trauma informed approach to transformation rooted in Poly-Vagal Theory. Going through the program, you will learn to skillfully guide clients in one-on-one settings to safely unpack the beliefs and traumas stopping them from living out their most authentic expression. Utilizing Reichian character structures (5 Personality Patterns) and bioenergetics, practitioners will become adept at being able to identify where the body is armored and where vital life force is not flowing. Much emphasis and practice is placed on the practitioner being able to work in the domains of mind, heart and body. Through the understanding of trauma, breathwork, somatic practices, neuroscience, and the ancient practices of our ancestors, students will learn to work with the natural rhythms of the body. Deep heart and soul connections overflow from this program, and participants often experience profound connections to themselves and each other. The most common word we hear from past participants is that this 9 months is “transformational.”
Is this for you?
While this program has been written and designed for practitioners, it is not essential that you are a practitioner. Most skills learned are applicable to family, work life, and friends. Anyone taking the course will have an opportunity to do their own transformative work due to the nature of the content. However, considering the depth and intensity of this school, it is not recommended that this be your first foray into developmental work.
The nature of working to such depth and vulnerability with other humans is life-changing and a deep honor. Any participant taking the program will run into their own traumas, stuck places, fear, and shame. While the nature of this work can be heavy at times, we will rely on playfulness, humor, and not taking ourselves too seriously as we transform and remember who we really are.
Curriculum
The bulk of the training for this program takes place over 8 weekends
All sessions will take place Friday evenings from 6-9 p.m. Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Session 1: Connect to Self
This session lays a foundation for the entire program and starts to answer the question: “How are we not ourselves?”
By taking a step back to observe our thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, we may notice that many of our responses in the present are actually reactions from our past. When we create awareness around the habitual ways in which we think, feel, and act in our everyday lives, we take the first step towards transformation. We might catch ourselves reacting instead of responding, defending instead of listening, or shutting down instead of being present. In these moments, the simple act of watching and observing allows us to name the patterns, beliefs, and responses that run our everyday lives. As we cultivate the courage to tell the truth, awareness invites us to take an honest look at what is and isn’t working in our current situations. This class drives home the concept of “practitioner heal thyself.” Our dedication to our own internal growth is foundational to our ability to assist others on their journey.
Session 2: The 5 Personality Patterns
Much of how we respond today (especially when we are scared or upset) is based upon methods we perfected in childhood. These default settings were wired into our bodies as children and became safety strategies we reflexively turned to whenever we didn't feel safe. Some of these strategies include leaving our bodies, performing perfectly, trying to get others to fix problems for us, hunkering down, or becoming aggressive. All of these are habitual attempts to get our needs met. Having little agency or authority over our own lives as children, these patterns became a means to help us survive what felt painful or scary. As adults, however, many of us continue to operate from these childhood patterns of survival. While “in pattern,” we are not able to deeply connect to our authentic selves or others. Being in pattern drastically affects our ability to stay in the present moment and respond to the here and now.
Maps allow us to see where we have come from, where we are, and where we might want to move next. The “5 personality pattern” map can assist us in seeing our own habitual behaviors to draw what lives in the subconscious into our awareness. This map is compiled from the work of Freud, Wilhelm Reich, and Steven Kessler. This course equips practitioners to identify their own patterns while developing a keen understanding of how to skillfully and compassionately work with their clients' resistance and strengths through the lens of this incredible map.
Session 3: The 5 Personality Patterns Part 2
This session presents an even deeper dive into the 5 Personality Patterns and their developmental stages. We’ll explore somatic and experiential exercises to learn how to stay rooted in oneself. Participants will learn to ask questions that guide clients back to their childhood wounds to further understand how their subsequent compensations developed. We will practice the energetic skills necessary to stay in connection to self and to navigate life from this centered place. Students will learn how to recognize their own patterns and to more skillfully move out of them into presence, thus being a cleaner mirror for their clients. As we teach clients how to move out of their overwhelmed and fearful state, we impart an incredible tool for healing.
Session 4: Somatic Unarmoring and Trauma
This session is very experiential and involves a deep dive into the body. Somatic practices are ways to learn from the body as opposed to learning through the mind. Through the Polyvagal theory and observing the “felt sense,” students will learn how trauma shows up in the body and in session. As it is crucial to co-create safety with clients, practitioners will learn essential exercises to better support clients as traumatic experiences are felt and brought up in session. Through questions and prompts, practitioners will learn how to safely allow their clients to engage, explore, release, and integrate the traumas and beliefs that have kept them locked in the past. Practitioners will also learn how to identify when additional support on a case is required.
Session 5: Practice and Embodiment
This session invites students to go deeper by integrating all the skills taught in the previous four classes. By practicing and receiving feedback, participants start to grow in their confidence to safely show up and guide a one-on-one session.
Session 6: Embodied Breathwork
This session teaches how to utilize the breath as a main tool for exploration and transformation. Through intentional use of breath, practitioners learn to guide clients back to feelings and sensations. This technique unearths and engages the buried material stored in the subconscious instead of having to constantly wrestle with the mind. By gaining direct access to the emotions, sensations, and the charge of a past experience, integration can occur without always having to engage the story behind the wound. Through working with the breath and body, this class emphasizes the need to feel in order to heal.
Session 7: Therapeutic Touch
Sometimes talking is not the best option, especially when clients arrive feeling anxious or agitated. This is a time where helping someone ground and settle through touch can be very useful. As humans, our nervous systems are wired to co-regulate with each other, and gentle supportive touch is powerful medicine. Practitioners will learn simple and safe therapeutic touch as a way of supporting their clients’ inner work. Additionally, in cases of past abuse, safe touch can be used to assist in regulating a dysregulated nervous system or releasing stored emotion or energy from the body. This class will offer opportunities for practitioners to coach their clients through touch for grounding, resourcing, and self-referencing.
Session 8: Bringing it All Together
This entire weekend allows for practice and coaching, as well as celebration. We will bring the courses together to move seamlessly between mind, emotions, and body, allowing plenty of time for practice on each other and with live cases. Participants will be able to integrate and apply all that they have learned.
Additional Commitments…
Required Reading
Because of the depth of material in this course, it is crucial to form the foundation of understanding through the required texts. Successful embodiment of the material begins with your ability to prioritize your time outside of class reading and studying the information. You can start reading as soon as you decide to take the program. These books are incredibly rich and dense, and it wouldn't hurt to read them multiple times. As class time is prioritized around experiencing concepts presented in these readings, it is critical you have a basic understanding prior to coming to class. Please start with the required reading in this order:
The 5 Personality Patterns: Your Guide to Understanding Yourself and Others and Developing Emotional Maturity
By Steven Kessler
The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation
By Deb Dana
Bioenergetics: Healing Trauma & Conditioning
By Devaraj Sandberg
Practice Sessions
We will pair each participant with a practice partner. Between each class, we ask that you meet once in-person or online to connect, share, and practice the relevant skills we are learning. Partners will be changed up at least once over the 9 months.
Professional Track (optional)
For those of you who are aiming to integrate this work beyond your personal growth and into your professional practice we have created additional support through our professional’s track.
What we learned is that the weekend sessions themselves are so immersive, experiencing the work in your own body and focusing on your own healing journey, integrating how you offer it to others is a lot to wrap your mind around.
The professional track provides additional training, mentorship and coaching, outside of the intensive weekends to support you in bringing this work forward in the world. We will focus on 3 key areas; how you are integrating the Vitalists Methodology into your existing offerings, taking steps in setting up or evolving your practice, and stepping more fully into the role of the practitioner.
Includes : 3 group trainings via zoom + 2 individual coaching sessions
Additional Sessions (optional)
As a student you will have access to discounted sessions from Micah, Leah, or Angela during the course of the program.
While we don’t build this service into the program, we highly recommend that you set an intention for receiving extra support throughout the course. Experiencing the work yourself, gaining mentorship, and integrating what you are processing within the program will add significant value to your experience.
Applications Are Closed
Enrollment for the 2021-2022 cohort is now closed.
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From Inger…
The greatest gift I’ve received by being a part of the Vitalist School has been the means to excavate my inner light, allowing me to bring myself more fully alive and to life in ways that would have felt too vulnerable in the past.
Through embodied learning, it asks us to practice and develop the skills of gentle-yet-piercing inquiry to help us get under the stories that keep us stuck, while developing the capacity to be deeply present with ourselves and others. The fun and engaging curriculum is truly holistic—honoring the whole person—and forgoes feel-good platitudes and quick-fix substitutes in favor of lasting change and freedom.
Inger Brown - Embodiment Practitioner- Vitalist School Student (2019/2020)
From Caitlin…
“Participating in the Vitalist School has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. The knowledge I've gained about myself alone is invaluable, but the tools and modalities I've learned have awoken my spirit and helped me step into my own light and lessen my own suffering. This work has forever changed me for the better. Micah creates the most beautiful safe space for connection, expression, vulnerability, and growth. I have come to love myself and the humans I've met on this journey so dearly. I don't want this program to end!”
Caitlin Grant -Breathwork Practitioner and Vitalist School Student (2019/2020)
From Erica…
As I finished the Vitalist School, I took stock of the ways my life had changed for the better. I had improved relationships with my partner and children, more honest communication, a greater sense of freedom, new ways to support my clients, and being part of a beautiful community of souls. I asked myself, “What if you were to do this work again and even more deeply, from this new starting point?”
Now, halfway through my second journey with the program, I know it was the right decision for so many reasons. It has deepened my understanding of the wisdom and practices that are shared. It has been easier to show up and participate, and also to acknowledge when I need something else. My life continues to evolve in a way that feels authentic and aligned for myself and also as a partner, parent, friend, and practitioner.
Above all, the community of souls who bring their presence and demonstrate vulnerability, courage, warmth, support, and honest reflection to the experience is a beautiful phenomenon. The opportunity to be a part of this is something that is difficult to describe fully, but it is transformational.
For anyone who is ready to explore under the surface, looking for tools that they can implement in their personal and professional lives, craving change in their lives, and/or new ways to be present with themselves and others, the Vitalist School may be just what you’re seeking.
Erica Bretz - Naturopathic Practitioner - Returning Vitalist School Student (2019-2020)