Join The New Cohort
A Year-Long Sacred Space Holding Mentorship
Become A Leading Edge Radical Witness
There is a new path being born, a new way.
The critical call in the world and the crucial call in our communities is to create dynamics of relating that allow each one of us to be seen, witnessed and heard.
Learning to hold space and witness one another is a humanitarian art.
It is not a profession, but a Way Of Life.
We need not hide this art away in the towers of academia and the silent libraries of great institutions.
But rather, we need to make this art accessible and widely recognized so that our relationships, our communities and our humanity strengthens.
The way that we train our space holders, therapists and counselors, often leaves students so burnt out that they do not even want to sit with clients after they are done with school.
We are creating a new way here - a way of learning that amplifies self-knowledge as well as the ability to hold healing space for clients while feeling refreshed and alive.
New Cohort Begins February 2024
Learning to Radically Witness Changes the World
Our culture teaches us that theories and academic knowledge train us to be effective space holders. While this can be an important part of learning to be a practitioner, what changes our lives and the lives of our clients, is our presence and the quality of relationships we learn how to build. We can only learn how to do this through real time practice and experience.
I’m Jen
I’m gonna be your guide the whole way.
I have been moving through the healing arts world since I was 22 years old and I have been through A LOT of trainings. From Massage Therapy School, to Holistic Midwifery training, to Shamanic Arts Practitioner training, to over a decade of Astrology training and finally, I went on to receive a masters degrees in Depth Psychotherapy. I have seen the good sides and the very dark sides of the healing arts and space holding world.
I have sat with hundreds and hundreds of clients from all over the world, acting as a compassionate and attuned witness. I understand what it takes to allow people to feel seen, heard and to ultimately find spaces of healing. I want to teach you how to do the same.
I have been to psychics, therapists, Shamans, pastors, preachers, tarot readers and more. Some of my experiences were wonderful and incredibly healing - some were psychically traumatic. I want us, as sacred space holders, to do more good than we do harm. The work you will learn how to do is tender, vulnerable and intimate and I will teach you how to do it with incredible integrity.
This Program Is For People Who...
- Want to learn how to offer sacred space for individuals (we will not be working with couples in this program)
- Practitioners who are already doing their Work and want to add space holding and counseling skills to their tool set (yoga teachers, homeopaths, massage therapists, midwives, etc)
- Want to improve intimate relationships in their own lives
- Want to dive more deeply into healing from their own relational and attachment trauma
Words From Jen's Clients
"Jen is one of the most profound space holders I’ve ever met. She is so present, so willing, so patient, so deep and so REAL, that anything and everything can come to light and alchemize in her presence.
Jen continues to change my life every time she holds space for me.
I feel radically witnessed and held by Jen, and this time of space holding is rare to come by -- Jen’s a gift."
-Samantha Gilbert, Sedona, AZ
"As a practitioner within the wellness industry for 10+ years, I have worked with numerous healers and therapists all over the world. I personally have found it rare to step into a space with another human being, where there was such a saturation of unconditional love and non-judgement.
Jen is able to navigate very murky, cold, and dark waters, and hold a light for all parts of your psyche, body, nervous system, and energy field to be seen, felt, witnessed, and understood.
Jen does this without any old paradigm or outdated self-help tools. She isn’t selling anything here. She just is. She walks the talk. She embodies a sacred space of healing.
She uses her ability of radical empathy, raw relatedness, and grounded loving reverence for the human condition, to create a container where you can feel that every part of you belongs on this earth, and every part of you matters.
I believe some people are just innately born with gifts to hold space, through a lineage of universal truths that she has clearly been a part of for lifetimes. I highly recommend working with her in any capacity if you feel called."
-Lauren Snyder, Montana
Our Curriculum
-
February: Exploring the Role of the Wounded Healer
In our first month together, we will explore what brings you to this particular kind of work. We will take a deep look at your own wounding, your family roles and what draws you to helping others. In diving into holding space for others, it is important to come to recognize our own unconscious goals, desires, and agendas in doing this work.
-
March: The Art of Assessment
In our second month together, we will explore how to do initial sessions with clients. You will learn how to assess for client challenges that you do not feel comfortable working and how to refer certain clients out. We will also learn how to navigate and prioritize your own spiritual and emotional safety in sessions with clients.
-
April: Attachment and Bonding
In our third month together, we will explore attachment theory. We will explore your own relationship to attachment as well as how your clients will attach with you and how to work with it. We will explore how to help your clients build secure attachments with you and in their relational lives.
-
May: The Tenants of Space Holding
In our fourth month together, we will begin exploring the actual tools and art of space holding. We will learn about the art of silence, how to ask appropriate questions, how to track present moment experiences in the body and psychic space, how to work with intuition, self-disclosure and how to discern with clients when to be directive and when to sit back. We will practice all of these tools and skills in class together.
-
June: The Tenants of Space Holding Continued
The same will be true for our fifth month together — we will learn and practice the skills of sacred space holding.
-
July: Group Intensive in Northern New Mexico!
We will gather at Jen’s home and farm in Northern New Mexico to meet one another in person, share in delicious food and to dive into real time practice together. As a group, we will practice the skills we have learned together so far and watch one another work with collaborative and skillful feedback. We will also learn about transference and countertransference in client relationships and how to work with this in session. There will be time during this retreat (for interested students) to dive into your astrological chart with Jen and learn how it informs your Work as a sacred space holder. We will also have several classes during this retreat taught by Heathar (Jen’s wife) on the benefits of sunlight and implementing low EMF environments into your Work with clients and your own life.
-
August: The Psyche of CPTSD + Trauma
In our seventh month together we will learn about CPTSD or, complex post traumatic stress disorder and how to sit with clients who come from various backgrounds of trauma. You will explore your own relationship with CPTSD and trauma and learn how to use this in the Work that you do.
-
September: CPTSD + Trauma Continued
- In our eighth month together, we will explore more tools and strategies to work with clients who have experienced long-term relational trauma. We will explore how most "diagnosis" that clients receive, stem from untreated CPTSD.
- In September, you will also begin working with a minimum of 3, weekly clients that you will then bring into class to discuss and receive supervision around. You will be working with at least 3 clients from September through the end of the program.
-
October: Attachment to Place, Eco-psychology and Connecting Clients with the Natural World
In our ninth month together, we will explore an attachment system that is not often talked about: attachment to place, land and home. You will learn how to explore your client’s attachment to place and what it means in their lives as well as your own relationship to place and how it informs your attachment system.
-
November: Cultivating Boundaries
In our tenth month together, we will talk about the ethics of working with clients and how and why we create boundaries with our clients. We will explore the kind of boundaries that feel appropriate for you and the Work you will be doing in the world.
-
December: The Dark Arts — Erotic Countertransference
In our shortened eleventh month together, we will study erotic countertransference and how to work with attraction (subtle and overt) as it comes up in the space with clients.
-
January: Working with Clients in Crisis
During our twelfth month together, we will talk about working with clients who become actively suicidal or have suicidal ideation. We will also talk through domestic violence, certain situations surrounding abuse and how to recognize severe psychiatric disorders. We will explore your comfort levels with this kind of crisis intervention work and explore tools and resources.
-
February: Graduation + Celebration In The Tropics!
In our last month together, we will gather to share in a special and sacred ritual together to honor and witness everyone’s skills as a healer and sacred space holder. By the end of our time together, you will have a beautiful understanding of your specific gifts and the way you work with clients. We will also have several classes to help you cultivate your business as a sacred space holder during this retreat and how to move out into the world with your Work. You will receive a copy of Jen's book: Self-Employed Outlaws as well as your certification of completion from the program!
You are going to learn to hold the role of the teacher, the guide, the healer, the witch, the wise one, the intuitive and the seer.
These are ancient and sacred roles to hold in our community - let's do it with deep integrity and accountability.
The Year-Long Sacred Space Holding Mentorship Is For You If...
-
You are already a healing arts practitioner and want add sacred space holding to your work with clients
-
You have never worked with clients before and want to engage in training before you begin to hold space
-
You are not drawn to a traditional masters program and want an alternative form of education
-
You have been curious about counseling, coaching, therapy and sacred space holding but have not found a program that feels unique enough or creative enough for you
-
You are ready to dive into your own trauma and relational history and heal at the same time you learn how to hold space
-
You want to find and cultivate Work you deeply love and feel passionate about
-
People naturally come to you with their problems and challenges and you want to learn how to hone your natural skills and abilities into sacred Work
-
You are hungry to connect with community who hold the same passions and interests as you do
-
You have experienced the healing quality and power of space holding and want to learn how to do the same for others
-
You want to build skills that will serve you in not only your Work, but in all relationships in your life
Program Logistics
How Does This All Work?
- This year-long program is broken up into 4 quarters or 3 month segments. Each student can miss one live class per quarter (one class per three months) in order to stay enrolled in the program. If you do miss a class, class recordings will be available for 48-hours after the class ends so that you have a chance to watch the class and make up what you missed. (We want you to come to class! YAY!)
- We will meet in person two times over the course of our year together for intensive group work and celebrations. In July 2024, we will gather together at Jen’s farm and homestead in Northern New Mexico and in February of 2025, we will gather for a graduation celebration in the tropics.
- We will take time off for Christmas and New Year holidays in December of 2024.
- The cost of travel to and from retreats is not included in the price of this program. Students will be responsible for their own lodging during retreat time. There will also be a $250 charge for meals and food preparation during both retreat times together.
- During retreats, lunches and dinners will be prepared for students by Jen's wife, Heathar Shepard. All food will be local and organic and accommodate people's food sensitivities and we can promise ya, it's gonna be damn delicious.
If you are interested in the extended payment plan option (not listed below), please indicate this on your application and Jen will be happy to discuss this with you in your interview.
Please note, there is a $75 application fee required upon submitting your application that will be put towards your total tuition cost.
One time payment
$6500
13 monthly
payments of
$500
Start Your Application Now!
Application Deadline is December 15th, 2023
Receive All The Updates About the Sacred Space Holding Mentorship
More From Jen's Clients
“I originally went to Jen to help me with my anxiety
and I have to say that I've tried several other types of therapy before but my sessions with Jen are really the only things that have changed the trajectory of my anxiety. I've really changed the way I think about my anxiety. When I feel an anxiety attack coming on - which is less and less these days - I kind of lean into it. I know that sounds simple and silly but it wasn't something I was capable of considering before Jen brought it up in our sessions. I'm now able to let myself feel all the feelings of my anxiety attack - not fight it -so they're shorter and less intense. The biggest thing is the next day, I really honor myself with some deep, beautiful self-care. I don't expect myself to be able to hit the ground running in the morning. I now honor that my body, my mind and my emotions have been through a lot and I feed myself nourishing food, read a good book or watch a movie and just take that time to myself, without feeling guilty and without beating myself up. Those are the two biggest things I've taken away from my sessions with Jen." Tiphini Axtell, Santa Fe,
“I am so grateful to Jen for her guidance through one of the most painful and transformative periods of my life.
I've been struggling to see what's true and authentic in my life and Jen is consistently an anchor for me when I feel so adrift. I have so much love for Jen.” Lisa Roach, Santa Fe, NM
“One of the most challenging aspects of life is feeling like you haven’t been seen or heard.
Jen has a way of working with her clients so that we are seen, we are heard — and, importantly, the conversation doesn’t feel clinical or prescriptive. Jen’s approach is soul-refreshing, and I truly enjoy her spirit and candor.” Kim Bryden, Washington, DC
“I came to Jen with a very specific intention for healing that I wanted to see if her work would be able to touch.
I was delighted that it did and immediately registered for her program. Her work has been invaluable in unraveling some old identity patterns and feeling my way into new relational dynamics with everyone in my life, but particularly with my family of origin. Her skill and intuition gently guided me through some major wounds, which have finally been able to clear, giving me the energy and courage to move forward in many areas of my life. I am very discerning in choosing practitioners to allow into my inner world and I have found Jen to be skilled, compassionate and wise. She is a Healer’s, Healer. Working with her has reignited my own introspective curiosity to a whole new level and I love sharing energy and space with this powerful, conscious woman. I will keep coming back for sure!" Justice Bartlett, Bozeman, MT
“I feel like a reborn human since starting my sessions with Jen
Jen is truly a life raft in the storm for me. I wish I had other words besides thank you to express what Jen’s work means to me. I really feel like I've claimed my wild self - that I understand Her and more of who I am. I am so grateful to operate from this place of being! I know Jen is holding space for me even when I'm not emailing or talking to her on the phone. I can SO feel it and I often sink into it when I need it. I am so appreciative that Jen is holding that big big supportive container for me! Thank you!" Stephanie Halligan, Boulder, CO
FAQ's
I have so many clients that come to me and say, "Jen, my last astrologer told me that I will never find love. Do you think this is true?" Or, "Jen, my last therapist told me that instead of working on things with my partner, I should just try polyamory."
Y'all. This is DAMAGING. People take on this stuff and carry it with them for DECADES. I do not want you to be one of these practitioners. I want you to leave your clients feeling seen, empowered, confronted and valued.
I want to teach you how to hold radical space so that your clients do not feel shamed and doomed, but so they feel they can make autonomous choices for their lives that lead them in creative directions.
When we lift our clients up in validating and truthful ways, we change the course of people's lives and we heal relational trauma.
Let's do this.