Special Workshop: Calling home. Creating a Personal Spiritual Practice
Dec
7
9:30 AM09:30

Special Workshop: Calling home. Creating a Personal Spiritual Practice

With guest teacher Ekan Nangaku of Born as Earth Zen Academy

Having a spiritual practice, and doing it regularly, is an essential anchor to mental, emotional and physical well being. Maybe we learned practices as children or from a religion. That can certainly help. But most modern folks benefit from having something more than a generic practice given by authorities. How do we come up with our own practices, ones that are uniquely alive for our own mind and body? We will be exploring this question in a lively, experiential workshop. You will leave with something to start with that your own mind and body will recognize as a way to call home.

Cost: $125. (If you are struggling with this amount let us know.)

Time: 9:30 - 12:30 CT

You can register here.

Payment:

In order to reduce costs we don’t have automated payment. When we get your registration we will send you a request for payment. Or just pay here and come: paypal.me/soullcommunity

Glenn Nangaku Leisching, is a zen monk and initiated elder and shaman in African traditions currently working with students to establish a training center on the African Continent. The founder of BEZA,  Glenn is a meditation teacher, mentor, diviner and writer, and has studied with Zen masters, indigenous shamans, psychotherapists and mythologists for over 35 years. He guides students in reclaiming their natural sovereignty.

Also present and engaged:

SoULL Founder, Jeanne Denney is a transpersonal and somatic psychotherapist, educator, hospice worker, healer, and author of The Effects of Compassionate Presence on the Dying. She works in many venues to help people fearlessly embrace a life which includes aging and dying. Her insights on energy and the body through aging, illness, and dying are derived from a wide lens of human experience and deep understanding of our mortal journey.

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Elder Cafe
Jan
14
to Jun 10

Elder Cafe

  • Google Calendar ICS

6 Monthly meetings with your elder peers.

The elder years present a conundrum to many of us.  We are aging, our bodies begin to fail us.  How are we to approach these last years of our lives?   Elder Café offers an opportunity to engage with others to become more intentional, connected and directed in these years.  We will take up such questions as: 

  •    What is wisdom?

  •   How do we retain self-respect?

  • Who are we when our bodies begin to fail us?    

  •  What is our purpose?

  •  Where is our growth?

Let’s talk - together, we will craft a new relationship with age and support curiosity and excitement about the process.

6 Monthly meetings online - - Every second Tuesday of the month for 6 months. Sliding scale $75 to $150. ($75 if you are struggling, $110 if you are OK, $150 if you are doing well).

Register for the series here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcof--srT4qH9Tx9COd7iBN29ZgRtE63l5P

You can pay here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8YQK99ZF59CC4

Led by Barbara Pettibone LCSW and Jann Draper Eliot.

Dates. January 14 to June 10, 2025

Time. 9:00 to 11:00 CT

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Special Workshop: The Impulse to Leave. Working with Suicidal Thoughts through the Life Span
Feb
1
9:30 AM09:30

Special Workshop: The Impulse to Leave. Working with Suicidal Thoughts through the Life Span

The prevalence of suicide has increased dramatically in recent history, especially among youth. It is in fact very ordinary for people to consider their life’s end. For some it is a passing thought, for others a persistent preoccupation. A few will be moved to actively precipitate the end their life at some point or another. But the nature of this impulse can vary widely depending on life state and circumstance. How this impulse presents at different ages, and how we can work with it in others (and ourselves) is what we will discuss in this workshop. When is the inclination to die unhealthy? When is it healthy? Does age make a difference? How can we support the conversation about dying so that it helps a suicidal person come more actively engage with life? We will look at these existential questions.

Cost: $125. (If you are struggling with this amount let us know.)

You can sign up here

Time 9:30 - 12:30 CT

Payment: In order to reduce costs we don’t have automated payment. When we get your registration we will send you a request for payment. Or just pay here and come: paypal.me/soullcommunity

Workshop will be presented by Jeanne

SoULL Founder, Jeanne Denney is a transpersonal and somatic psychotherapist, educator, hospice worker, healer, and author of The Effects of Compassionate Presence on the Dying. She works in many venues to help people fearlessly embrace a life which includes aging and dying. Her insights on energy and the body through aging, illness, and dying are derived from a wide lens of human experience and deep understanding of our mortal journey.

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The Nature of Being Human ONLINE
Feb
8
to Mar 30

The Nature of Being Human ONLINE

We are proud to share our introductory SoULL program. This 8 week online program substantially improves the quality of people’s ordinary lives and expands pracitioners breadth of practice and stamina.

In this course, students are introduced to a somatically-oriented overview of human development, and a language of human life that includes growth, aging and dying. Students learn to see spiritual, energetic and physical experience as deeply connected through the human life span and even beyond. On its own, this course helps people reorient their ideas of life and death and know themselves as part of nature, not opposed to it, which radically reduces existential anxiety. This course also offers a way for students to step into SoULL material without a full year committment. f

Learn more HERE.

Apply HERE.

We look forward to seeing you.

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Special Worshop: Exploring Ideas of Male and Female
Apr
5
9:30 AM09:30

Special Worshop: Exploring Ideas of Male and Female

In recent years the fluidity of gender has been very much a part of collective discussion. We have both male and female aspects to our soul, while our bodies and hormonal systems seem to present as one or the other. How do we make sense of this? How do we know ourselves also as energy, come to peace with our own way in the world, and find tolerance for the way of others? Without defining either male or female rigidly, we will explore clues from the body and energy system and advance the conversation together.

Cost: $125. (If you are struggling with this amount let us know.)

Time 9:30 - 12:30 CT

You can sign up here

In order to reduce costs we don’t have an automated enrollment system. When we get your registration we will send you a request for payment. Or…just pay here and come: paypal.me/soullcommunity

SoULL Founder, Jeanne Denney is a transpersonal and somatic psychotherapist, educator, hospice worker, healer, and author of The Effects of Compassionate Presence on the Dying. She works in many venues to help people fearlessly embrace a life which includes aging and dying. Her insights on energy and the body through aging, illness, and dying are derived from a wide lens of human experience and deep understanding of our mortal journey.

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Special Workshop: Money and the Force of Life
Jun
21
10:00 AM10:00

Special Workshop: Money and the Force of Life

Date to be confirmed soon.

Money seems to make the world go round….it certainly causes us distress, and having it is something thought to be a good thing (is it?). But what is it really? More importantly, how do our body and psyche make sense of the invention of money? Does it understand it as real? I will argue, it doesn’t. Our bodies understand transacting a different “currency”, that of Life force and energy. Though some people say “money is energy”, I will argue that it really isn’t.

In this 3 hour workshop we will consider the origin or money, the gender of money and how we can distinguish it from vitality, and what really helps us know we are alive.

Cost $125. (If you are having difficulty with this amount let us know).

Time: 9:30 - 12:30 CT

You can register here.

Payment:

In order to reduce costs we don’t have automated payment. When we get your registration we will send you a request for payment. Or just pay here and come: paypal.me/soullcommunity

Workshop will be taught by Jeanne:

SoULL Founder, Jeanne Denney is a transpersonal and somatic psychotherapist, educator, hospice worker, healer, and author of The Effects of Compassionate Presence on the Dying. She works in many venues to help people fearlessly embrace a life which includes aging and dying. Her insights on energy and the body through aging, illness, and dying are derived from a wide lens of human experience and deep understanding of our mortal journey.

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The Nature Of Being Human
May
23
to May 27

The Nature Of Being Human

  • Google Calendar ICS

May 23,2024—May 27,2024

The Nature of Being Human is Unit 1 of Pilgrim SoULL - Year 1. This course offers a way for students to step into SoULL material without a full year commitment. In this course students are introduced to a language of human life that includes growth, aging and dying as we do a somatically-oriented overview of human development. Students learn to see spiritual, energetic and physical experience as deeply connected through the human life span and beyond. On its own, this course helps people reorient their ideas of life and death and know themselves as part of nature, not opposed to it. This radically reduces existential anxiety.

The Nature of Being Human is taught in small classes and, like all SoULL material, is both didactic, interactive and highly experiential. It is sometimes taught online (usually late winter) and sometimes in person (late spring in Wisconsin). Wherever we teach it, we support students in linking insights from this class to existing theories within somatic psychology, especially Neo-Reichian ideas.  However this material is powerful and completely accessible for people who are not therapists. Do not think that this course is only for professionals. Never fear. It is for any curious, open-minded adult.

Students are often interested in continuing to complete Units 2 and 3 of Pilgrim SoULL after taking this course. We hope you do this, and will accommodate as space allows in the class. However we encourage people to commit to the full program if they are able to.

WHO IS THIS FOR?

  • Therapists and other professionals who want to better support their clients through their existential anxiety

  • Regular folks who struggle to feel connected to their purpose

  • People who want to free themselves from the fear of death and dying so they can live more fully

Interested in joining us, but need to talk to someone? Book a free call with a past student so that you can understand the profound impact our programming has on people!

APPLY HERE

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Pilgrim SoULL - Level 1
May
23
to Oct 21

Pilgrim SoULL - Level 1

  • Google Calendar ICS

Pilgrim SoULL (Level 1) is a 3 unit, 120 hour certificate program that meets from spring to fall in 3 residential modules (4 days each), with online discussion groups between. It extends into winter home study with integration discussions.

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Whole Life Doula Program
May
23
to Nov 1

Whole Life Doula Program

  • Google Calendar ICS

The Whole Life Doula Program is a 400 hour program that explores unique theories of relationships and communities as they are connected to Nature, the body and our human development. These theories support leaders in other fields, including medicine and social justice, and those trying to envision a more vital, sustainable future for humanity.

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Free Intro to SoULL: Vitality and the Arc of Life
Apr
21
9:30 AM09:30

Free Intro to SoULL: Vitality and the Arc of Life

What is vitality made of? Is it youth? Health? Sexuality? Or maybe there is more to the story. In this short intro we will bring forward a few of the key ideas from Pilgrim SoULL, and explore the impact that changing our "life versus death" views has on our bodies, as well as our care for others. We will discuss the how and the why of SoULL, and take your questions.

FREE

Note: Time shown is CST

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkd-2gqT8pH9F47aGPmf5Qm4axxsrjNRk1

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Free Q&A about Life and SoULL
Apr
18
7:00 PM19:00

Free Q&A about Life and SoULL

Been curious about SoULL, or thinking about doing one of our programs? Have a life question that you just can't make sense of? We invite you to do a little "life learning" in this evening, bringing your own life questions forward in community. Or just...bring your questions about SoULL. We have answers, or at least we can deepen your curiosity.

7:00PM - 8:30PM CST

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkc-uorDMpHdYs_osv1PPMuQPP45vcYCBS

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Free Intro to SoULL for Men
Mar
17
9:30 AM09:30

Free Intro to SoULL for Men

In our time we are beginning to recognize the need to honor and nurture, not just Nature, but the deep cycles within life itself. We recognize that we need to engage new social forms, and leadership that is not based on domination and control. Yet where and how do we learn this, especially if you happen to be...Male? We have a few ideas and we would like to hear yours. Men, this gathering is for you. We would love to see you, hear your voices in SoULL, and imagine new forms of care and connectivity.

Note: Time shown is CST

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlfumgpjwqH93OuaiOzce9Aqa7VGj7Pzwd

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Free Q&A about Life and SoULL
Feb
15
7:00 PM19:00

Free Q&A about Life and SoULL

Been curious about SoULL, or thinking about doing one of our programs? Have a life question that you just can't make sense of? We invite you to do a little "life learning" in this evening, bringing your own life questions forward in community. Or just...bring your questions about SoULL. We have answers, or at least we can deepen your curiosity.

7:00PM - 8:30PM CST

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qduyopjgiHNB3OewuyXCClmmQiebMrMfP

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The Nature of Being Human ONLINE
Feb
3
to Mar 23

The Nature of Being Human ONLINE

This 24 hour introductory SoULL program substantially improves the quality of people’s ordinary lives and expands pracitioners breadth of practice and stamina. In The Nature of Being Human students are introduced to a somatically-oriented overview of human development, and a language of human life that includes growth, aging and dying.

View Event →
Elder Cafe: Making Meaning of Aging
Jan
23
to Feb 2

Elder Cafe: Making Meaning of Aging

The elder years present a conundrum to many of us.  We are aging, our bodies begin to fail us.  How are we to approach these last years of our lives?   Elder Café offers an opportunity to engage with others to become more intentional, connected and directed in these years.  We will take up such questions as: 

  •    What is wisdom?

  •   How do we retain self-respect?

  • Who are we when our bodies begin to fail us?    

  •  What is our purpose?

  •  Where is our growth?

Let’s talk - together, we will craft a new relationship with age and support curiosity and excitement about the process.

When:  Tuesdays, 9 - 11 am CST (10 am - 12 pm EST)

Dates: 1/23, 2/6, 2/20, 3/5, 3/19 and 4/2, 2024

Where: Online via Zoom

Cost for the six-week series: 

  • $100 if you are struggling,

  • $145 if you are getting by,

  • $180 if you are ok

Who:  Anyone interested in aging

How to Sign Up: Please click on the following link to sign up for the Cafe—

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/elder-cafe-tickets-769823431607

Group Leaders

Barbara Pettibone, LCSW, is a student at the School of Unusual Life Learning (SoULL), training to become a Whole Life Doula.  An elder herself, she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in practice for over 45 years in both inpatient and outpatient mental health settings.

Jann Draper Elliott, OTR/L, LMT, is an Occupational Therapist and a Licensed Massage Therapist, training to become a Whole Life Doula at the School of Unusual Life Learning.  An elder herself, she worked for 30 years with the senior population in multiple healthcare settings and continues in private practice as a massage therapist. 

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Vitality and the Arc of Life: Free Intro to SoULL
Jan
13
9:30 AM09:30

Vitality and the Arc of Life: Free Intro to SoULL

What is vitality made of? Is it youth? Health? Sexuality? Or maybe there is more to the story. In this short intro we will bring forward a few of the key ideas from Pilgrim SoULL, and explore the impact that changing our "life versus death" views has on our bodies, as well as our care for others. We will discuss the how and the why of SoULL, and take your questions.

FREE

Note: Time shown is CST

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcoc-GvpjsjEt0-UrISnToYuNVPN55o02gh

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Free Q&A about Life, Death, Grief and SoULL
Nov
16
7:00 PM19:00

Free Q&A about Life, Death, Grief and SoULL

Mark your calendars (time listed is CST) and sign up via Zoom link.

Been curious about SoULL, or thinking about doing one of our programs? Have a life question that you just can't make sense of? We invite you to do a little "life learning" in this evening, bringing your own life questions forward in community. Or just...bring your questions about SoULL. We have answers, or at least we can deepen your curiosity.

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlfuCvrzgvH9dTmbz3Fchsb7JDSBpm_eYn

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Special Workshop: Working with Illness with Jeanne Denney
Nov
11
9:00 AM09:00

Special Workshop: Working with Illness with Jeanne Denney

We tend to see illness in our time as strictly chemical, biological or structural, and often think it is something that someone else can fix. But of course it is also a deeply personal journey of healing, and we often look for meaning and personal empowerment when ill.

In SoULL we consider the body and energy systems as one, and learn how energy systems develop and hold consciousness. Adding this lens to the view of healing helps us begin to read illness like a poem, and give clues for how to guide and be with people who are ill, and our own illness. Illness tells a story. Together we will begin to learn to listen to it and let it guide and empower us.

Free and open to fully enrolled current students. Open to others for a fee of $125.

Times are CST

Registration Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvc-GupzkpG9G5wx6PVc2TYRCRMrjhCiGy

Payment can be made here: paypal.me/soullcommunity

Jeanne Denney is a somatic psychotherapist, educator, a hospice worker, healer and founder of the School of Unusual Life Learning (SoULL). Her work and experience has involved years at bedsides with the elderly and with children, in study and research, in contributing pioneering ideas to somatic psychology, in death and grief work, teaching, and years helping create and facilitate the Art of Dying projects in New York City.  

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Aug
27
10:00 AM10:00

Special Workshop: Exploring the Energy of Grief and Addictions with Jeanne Denney

Addictions are epidemic in our time. Almost no one escapes them in America. But what are they at root? In this program we will take up this question, look at what the body and energy systems show us about the condition but also its healing. We will consider whether addictions are an aspect of energetic system depletion, and what helps.

Free and open to fully enrolled current students. Open to others with a $125 fee. This program will reference theory we learn in SoULL, but will also be appropriate for people who have not done the program.

Registration Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqfuqvpz4qEte27oLj2yVOLF9NUsCnIyPI

Payment can be made through Paypal: paypal.me/soullcommunity

We send a confirmation of payment as soon as we are able.

Jeanne Denney is a somatic psychotherapist, educator, a hospice worker, healer and founder of the School of Unusual Life Learning (SoULL). Her work and experience has involved years at bedsides with the elderly and with children, in study and research, in contributing pioneering ideas to somatic psychology, in death and grief work, teaching, and years helping create and facilitate the Art of Dying projects in New York City.  

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Special Workshop: Cellular Presence with Marc Daniels
Jun
10
2:00 PM14:00

Special Workshop: Cellular Presence with Marc Daniels

To be fully present to the wisdom, emotions and feeling our bodies hold, while in connection with others, is an art. We will spend 3 hours with a master and of this art, friend, teacher (and former SoULL student) Marc Daniels.

Marc has taught workshops and been in private practice for over 40 years. His training has included acupuncture, structural integration, polarity therapy and sound healing. Since the early 1980’s he has studied with some of the greatest Tibetan lamas of the 20th Century.

This workshop is free to fully enrolled SoULL students. This program is $125 for others. If you are struggling with money you can let us know. We will do our best to get you in with a reduced fee as space allows. Space in this workshop is limited.

Sign up below. Pay here: paypal.me/soullcommunity

Registration Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctdO6spjIvH9U5O2oGwSo3dRlsRnPy3ca5

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Special Workshop: Reclaiming the SoULL of Human Connection: Restoring our broken capacity for Community
Apr
22
11:00 AM11:00

Special Workshop: Reclaiming the SoULL of Human Connection: Restoring our broken capacity for Community

Dr. Mark Brady is a neuroscience educator, psychologist, SoULL supporter and a friend. He will join Jeanne Denney in exploring how our capacity for human connection gets interrupted in the nervous system and might then become restored. It is only an introduction, but we will start the conversation, including how a history of Adverse Childhood Experiences might be restored to pro-social behaviors. We will connect this material to SoULL material for a lively exploration.

Free to current, fully enrolled SoULL students. For people who are not currently SoULL students, we suggest a donation of $125 or some other contribution if you are called to support our work. Thank you.

Note: Time show is EST.

Mark Brady is a psychologist and neuroscience educator. He spent 10 years at The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, one of the nation’s premier think tanks (stalking behavioral scientists in their natural habitat, undercover as the maintenance man!). He is also the prize-winning author of a number of books, magazine articles and academic papers.

Jeanne Denney is a somatic psychotherapist, educator, a hospice worker, healer and founder of the School of Unusual Life Learning (SoULL). Her work and experience has involved years at bedsides with the elderly and with children, in study and research, in contributing pioneering ideas to somatic psychology, in death and grief work, teaching, and years helping create and facilitate the Art of Dying projects in New York City.  

Registration Link

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEuce-urDIiE9KRUHCSjD3uZUr_npI1128X

SoULL is a 501c(3) You can donate HERE.

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Generous support provided by: