If you've ever asked,
"Am I just applying a Band-Aid?" - then this program is for you.
At the Vitalist School, we aren’t interested in the quick fixes that merely mask the symptoms.
While most practitioners desire to help, many haven’t been trained to go deep enough into the psyche and body to find the original wounding. Our culture, as well as many of our helping professions, are based upon changing and addressing external symptoms. From traditional therapy and weight loss programs to our current medical approach to health, the attention is often on the symptoms instead of the root of the imbalance.
Lasting change occurs when we dig deep enough to find the moments of disconnect and pain that have impacted and altered the way we live. As we learn to uproot and examine our unexpressed emotions and unmet needs, we begin to cultivate more compassion toward ourselves. By recognizing that many of our adaptive behaviors were formed during our younger developmental years as “safety strategies,” we start to find empathy for, rather than the pathology of, our inner wounds. As we confront outdated beliefs and begin to rewire and reprogram ourselves, transformation arises from the inside out.
If you feel like this program is what you have been looking for, please inquire about joining the 2024 cohort.
Our why…
Micah Mclauglin and Leah Grace have been working together since 2013 and have been a bit obsessive on their healing journeys. Driven by their own deep desire for contentment and meaning, they have traveled the world seeking out teachers and modalities of embodied transformation. With more than 35 years of combined experience, they are thrilled to share what they have learned in the simplest and most profound ways they know how. Arising from their deep calling to teach the teachers, Micah and Leah have combined forces to bring forth this work into the world.
Vitalist Core Principles…
Awakening the Vital Life Force
It is critical you learn to trust the vital healing force that lives within you. The part of you that knows how to let go, transform, tremor, cry, and laugh your way to your most authentic and beautiful life. At the Vitalist School, you will learn to work fluidly between the mind, heart and body to access that vital force. You will call forth the innate healer within you that knows the path to transformation. At the Vitalist School, you will be guided to remember the wisdom of your ancestors and to utilize modern understandings of trauma, the nervous system, and attachment theory all in service of honoring the vital life force that flows through all things.
Connection
To be human is to be interdependent. We need each other deeply on this journey of life; yet so many of us have experienced betrayal, violence and malevolence from those we loved and thought trustworthy. Unfortunately, we can’t heal these wounds in isolation-we need each other! Each year at the Vitalist School, participants come together to create a safe container to lean on each other for support. The inner journey can be isolating and lonely at times, so it is comforting to have new friends to walk alongside as you travel. While this work can be demanding and intense, we aim to bring as much playfulness, dancing, laughter, and good food to the community to make the path to healing as nurturing as possible.
Embodiment
Embodiment happens when awareness moves from your mind into your body, creating more space and vitality in your life as you uncover and live out your most authentic expression. You experience life with more ease, creativity, passion, and clarity. You stop repressing who and what you are meant to be, and allow your vibrant and natural expressions to bubble back up, releasing freedom, flexibility, depth and spontaneity. All classes implement embodiment practices including breathing, feeling, and rooting into the experience of being human.
Practitioner Heal Thyself
This school is for practitioners who are as dedicated to their own growth and healing as they are to their clients' transformation. Your ability to support your clients in their process of remembering their essential nature is directly connected to your own process of realigning. You are only able to guide and teach as deeply as you have traversed your own psyche. To be well-equipped to lead others, you must continue to do your own transformational work. As you are liberated from what holds you back, your mere presence gives others permission to grow.
What people are saying…
From Kaycee…
I learned the power of being able to share with someone when they have hurt my feelings. The shift inside of me has been vulnerable but it has shown me that I don’t have to continue to hold onto anger when my feelings have been hurt. Once I could peel back the layers and see that there was sadness underneath the anger, it gave me permission to let down some walls and receive love. Life feels so much lighter for me in that aspect.
I feel like the most beautiful gift I have ever given myself was going through the Vitalist School. I have had the opportunity to observe and begin shifting my patterns so I can show up as the best version of me for myself, my wife, my children and the world. It has been absolutely priceless. I would go through it again in a heartbeat.
Kaycee Joy-Vitalist School Student- (2019/2020)
From Lydia…
Cracked Open. Re-awakened. Belonging. My heart has been cracked open and filled with light. The numbness I once carried as a burden, has been transformed into ease. Feeling into my experiences, remembering the self exploration accomplished I feel re-awakened. Utterly alive and vibrating from the transformation within my physical, emotional, and spiritual body. The Vitalist Team co-created a sacred space of belonging, acceptance, and safety. I came into this experience disconnected and fearful within my body...and utterly alone -- I now have my soul family and purpose. I no longer break against the wind, rather I bend, dance, and sway within my own current. Thank you for creating a place to be human. A pause in time to deepen my internal experience and external appreciation.
Lydia Igo Vitalist School Student- (2019/2020)