“Because everything starts with these three things: curiosity, calling and courage.”

The Story of SoULL by Jeanne Denney

continued…

….During this unusual period between 2002 and 2008, I began to study and record the processes of human life. I watched how body, psyche and energy changed together in all kinds of bodies, both young and old, through time. I saw patterns of change that seemed to be organized, flowing movement.

But I observed something else. In the somatic training I was doing, later human life, illness and dying were absent, as if they were unimportant to life, or even anti-life. Similarly, I saw that somatic awareness was also missing from hospice work. Something felt wrong with this. I felt strongly called to design a different kind of bridge, one between disciplines. I taught a few early ideas to college students about life change, then to Thanatology students. I gave a lot of talks and conference presentations, still learning about what I was seeing. Finally, in 2015, I began teaching somatic therapists and other helping professionals. That is where the work took root.

Honestly, SoULL work was pioneering from its beginning, and the effect of the work on students was radical and positive. But it needed a structured, extended program to be taught well. It needed a community context and a natural setting to be fully learned. So in 2018, I designed and offered the first Pilgrim SoULL year (then called Somatic SoULL) as a series of retreats in upstate New York. It worked with the seasons. So Nature was the first and most important teacher I invited in to SoULL. Growing up in a rural place with a family of horticulturists, I had some clues about how to invite it in. Learning about African spirituality and practices of other indigenous cultures also shaped my teaching. Since then, gifted and curious students have come to study, and many have stayed to help build a community. I discovered that almost any open, curious person can learn this work. It is fortunately living in all of our bones.

In 2019, I chose to relocate the school to Wisconsin. Why? I was from the midwest and always considered these planes and hills and rivers to hold some kind of heart-centeredness for our country. We were and are in a very difficult time in the United States. Bringing this program by Lake Michigan, near corn fields and cows, was something I felt I could do to strengthen our (and my) broken “heart”. I no sooner got settled here than the pandemic erupted to change all of my plans. In recovery from Covid myself, I created an online program in 2020 which drew international students, and also formed a second year (Working with Human Nature). These new programs lost no power. We bonded together in learning during that truly wild year. I call all of this, up to 2021, our “Research and Development phase”. We grew and learned, together.

In 2021, we were ready for another shift: from a school led by a single founder, to a self-sustaining community of leaders working together to apply what we have learned. Thankfully gifted healers, therapists and doulas have been inspired to learn, teach and help form a community. They continue to sustain it. We became a non-profit. We tightened our vision to develop a training institute and we continue to deepen as a community. We are surrounded by many “Friends of SoULL” who support us with wisdom, skills and experience. We also gratefully continue to be sustained by our past and current students. You can learn more about all of us on the community and “Friends of SoULL” pages.

SoULL offers ordinary mortals peace, professionals continued training and CEU’s. We are also excited to be developing a Year 3 where we will offer certification for professional practice. SoULL practitioners will be trained to support and guide others through life challenges with whole life teaching, embodied wisdom and somatic awareness.

That is how we got here. And it isn’t over. We continue to evolve. If you are called, we invite you to be a part of this SoULL evolution. As you are curious and as you have courage, because everything starts with these three things: curiosity, calling and courage.

-Jeanne Denney