For thousands of years, our ancestors intimately relied on the land in which they lived for their survival, forming an unbreakable bond which is embedded in our bodies and psyches. Rediscover how nature can support self-healing and the cultivation of wholeness.

Wholeness is living fully from all possible dimensions of our selves. Cultivating wholeness entails identifying and developing the facets that are under-developed, while continuing to engage in practices for the facets that we're good at. In this intensive, we'll explore the seven directions of the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche by Bill Plotkin, Ph.D., with a focus on the four facets of the Self. For each facet, we'll explore nature's influence on the psyche, considering the cardinal directions, windows of knowing, the archetypes of wholeness, and the subpersonalities -- the protective, wounded parts of ourselves.

The first half of the intensive explores self-connection while cultivating wholeness in the four facets of the Self. The second half is focused on self-healing connection with our subpersonalities (fragments of the self), welcoming them home, while inviting our wholeness to become our primary place of being.

DATES/TIMES: Thursday October 24 at 4 PM to Sunday October 27 at 4 PM. Please plan on participating for the duration of the intensive.

LOCATION: Rising Ranch, Oskaloosa Kansas (link to @rising_ranch on Instagram)

ACCOMMODATIONS: This is an all-camping offering. Please bring a tent/shelter and other camping gear you might need for the duration of our time together. Also please be prepared for all weather conditions.

WHAT TO BRING: Participants are responsible for personal transportation to and from the program. This is an call camping intensive. A list of more specific “what to bring” will be sent in prep letter after registering.

MEALS: All breakfasts and dinners will collaboratively created by participants starting with dinner on the first day, and ending with brunch on the last day. Participants are responsible for providing their own snacks and lunches.

COST: Sliding Scale: $400 to $649 — you are free to select any price within this range.

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: a minimum of 5 participants is required to hold the intensive. The maximum number is 12. Please do not purchase transportation until the intensive has been confirmed (likely 3 weeks before event).

RELEASE FORM: you will be required to sign a release form in order to participate.

REFERENCES:  This intensive leverages Marshall Rosenberg’s “Nonviolent Communications - A Language of Life” (NVC), Bill Plotkin’s “Wild Mind - Field Guide to the Human Psyche” and the endless care of mother nature.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES:

"Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a way of focusing our attention on what's alive in order to facilitate self-compassion, along with compassionate giving and receiving." -- Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D.

"From now on, I choose to have my actions flow from connection with nature and to direct my attention where it supports this flow." by Marshall Rosenberg, excerpt from the poem "From Now On"

"It’s time to take another look at ourselves — to re-enliven our sense of what it is to be human, to breathe new life into ancient intuitions of who we are, and to learn again to celebrate, as we once did, our instinctive affinity with the Earth community in which we’re rooted. We’re called now to rediscover what it means to be human beings in a wildly diverse world of feathered, furred, and scaled fellow creatures; flowers and forests; mountains, rivers, and oceans; wind, rain, and snow; Sun and Moon. It’s time to take an ecological and holistic look at the human psyche, to make a fresh start with Western psychology." - excerpt from "Wild Mind" by Bill Plotkin

"Our human psyches possess astonishing resources that wait within us, but we might not even know they exist until we discover how to access them and cultivate their powers, their untapped potentials and depths. Wild Mind identifies these resources — which Bill Plotkin calls the four facets of the Self, or the four dimensions of our innate human wholeness — and also the four sets of fragmented or wounded subpersonalities that form during childhood. Rather than proposing ways to eliminate our subpersonalities (which is not possible) or to beat them into submission, Plotkin describes how to cultivate the four facets of the Self and discover the gifts of our subpersonalities." -  excerpt from the "Wild Mind" by Bill Plotkin 

Based on Bill Plotkin’s book, Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, this 4-day intensive is an experiential exploration of our human psyches as unique expressions of the universal forces and patterns of nature. We will work with what we call the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche, which is, among other things, a comprehensive inventory of what can be right about a person, a “shadow” version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), mainstream psychology’s list of what can go wrong with people.

Our wild minds possess astonishing resources, untapped potentials and depths that we might not even know exist until we discover how to access them, cultivate their powers, and eventually integrate them into our everyday lives. In this intensive, we’ll access these depths and potentials — which we call the four facets of the Self, or the four dimensions of our innate human wholeness — and also the four sets of fragmented or wounded subpersonalities that form during childhood.

Rather than attempt to eliminate our subpersonalities (which is not possible) or to beat them into submission, we’ll cultivate the four facets of the Self and uncover the gifts of our subpersonalities. Our goal is to fully embody our multifaceted wild minds, commit ourselves to the largest, soul-infused story we’re capable of living, and serve the greater Earth community.

Discover:

• how to recognize and consciously cultivate the four facets of the Self — your innate human wholeness

• how to identify the subpersonalities that supported you in childhood and adolescence to adapt to the challenges of family and social life, but ultimately became barriers to your full and authentic humanity

• practices and guidelines for cultivating relationships between the Self and your subpersonalities, enabling you to heal your subpersonalities, discover their gifts, and foster Self-actualization

• how each facet of the Self provides essential resources for the underworld journey (the descent to soul), its radical transformation of personal identity, and for living as a visionary artisan of cultural evolution.

We’ll explore the landscape of the psyche through a variety of practices, including creative expression, self-designed ceremony, solo exercises while wandering on the land, group work, movement, voice dialogue, journaling, and deep imagery work.

The windows of knowing are the ways in which we perceive and know what is happening around us and within us. Based on Carl Jung’s cognitive functions, extended by Steven Gallegos, Bill Plotkin and Marshall Rosenberg — these windows of knowing can be cultivated and expanded to deepen our relationship with life itself, fundamentally changing our experience of and how we interact in everyday life. Acknowledging and connecting with archetypes in a natural context supports a process of self-healing and integration, to live more fully and congruently with your authentic Self.

Benefits of the Wild Heart Intensive

• find inner peace, mental clarity and autonomy thru Self-Healing
• become more grounded in yourself, reawakening dormant capacities
• re-wild yourself while accessing natural compassion
• develop enhanced self-empathy and self-healing skills by befriending subpersonalities
• freedom from reactivity, reduced recovery time from triggers while working with subpersonalites (creating a relationship with the unconscious)
• expanded windows of knowing, flexibility in strategies/outcomes
• sense of connection and belonging to the natural world, reduced loneliness
• increased autonomy, conscious choice and agency resulting in self-empowerment
• re-discover your indigenous connection to Nature, a re-wilding of how you show up in the world

Wild Heart extends the internal practice of Nonviolent Communication through archetypal depth psychology by Bill Plotkin's Wild Mind. Each of the NVC components (Observations, Feelings, Needs, Requests) are mapped to the 4 cardinal directions of the Wild Mind Map, exploding the potential for self-connection and self-healing through cultivating wholeness practices. We'll explore the four facets of the Self for expanded experiences of who we are and the resources available to us in every moment. We will also identify and befriend our subpersonalities -- the fragmented parts of our selves -- as a means of integrating them into our wholeness. This intensive combines the works of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) with Wild Mind.

The first half of the intensive is focused on Cultivating Wholeness -- the identification and development of innate resources required for a full and healthy life. The second half is focused on Self-Healing -- identifying, and befriending our subpersonalities/Fragments through connecting conversations -- guidance is provided with the goal of developing the capacity for self-facilitated healing. Here's the general outline for the intensive (subject to change as we listen to the flow of the intensive):

Cultivating Wholeness - Conscious Self

• Deep Imagination/Needs - West: Dark Beloved Muse — creativity, imagination, identity
• Embodied Feeling/Feelings - South: Wild Indigenous One  -- embodiment, aliveness, movement
• Present-Centered Sensing/Observation - East: Innocent/Sage/Trickster — presence, knowing, understanding, play
• Heart-Centered Thinking/Requests - North: Nurturing Generative Adult — compassion, contribution, growth
• Four-direction Circle for Cultivating Wholeness

 Befriending Subpersonalities/Fragments - A Relationship with the Unconscious Self

•  North: Loyal Soldiers
• South: Wounded Children
• East: Addicts, Escapists
• West: Shadow, Shadow Selves
• Four-direction Circle for Self-Healing
   

Note: The purpose of this training is to provide information and practices for Nonviolent Communication combined with Wild Mind. Participants are responsible for their own personal safety.

Discounts are available for "Low Income/Students". You may also send money through Venmo @Jaime-L-Prieto-Jr, or PayPal to james.prieto@gmail.com (as friend to avoid fee).

About the facilitator
 

James Prieto guides towards wholeness, connection and integration of our natural selves by cultivating inner-resources, self-healing, and compassionate communication (NVC). James has a Center for Nonviolent Communication trainer certification (cnvc.org) and is certified by the Animas Valley Institute as a Wild Mind Practitioner (animas.org).