It’s Never Too Late to Heal
A 4-Session Online Program to Build Trust in Nature's Plan
Nov. 9, 11, 16 & 18 | 2 Tuesdays & Thursdays
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Sacred Fire LifeWays programs LifeCycle Living and Living Life Aligned with Nature show us how human beings move through natural stages of development—from infancy through childhood, adolescence, adulthood and elderhood.
Lack of support and unmet needs at any stage stunt our potential to live balanced, attuned, fully fruitful lives.
Recognizing that your personal limitations and life challenges are rooted in incomplete developmental processes can feel depressing and insurmountable. And realizing that you’ve passed down this arrested development to your relationships and your children can be a deep source of grief and shame.
It’s never too late to heal one’s wounds of childhood—and then pass that healing along. And it’s never too soon to weave Nature’s plan into a nurturing nest for your children and grandchildren yet to be.
Denise Findlay founded and offers a “relational-emotional ethical approach” to caregiving that facilitates a return to the wisdom of community and nature-based knowledge systems.
During this Sacred Fire LifeWays program, she and co-presenter Marla Klyne Kolomaya will take you on a deep dive into the role togetherness plays in bringing deep rest to the nervous system—and how this is not dependent on skills or training, but is rooted in one’s innate, intuitive, felt senses.
You will be provided with insight into the ways of nature and the many possibilities that open up to us when we re-orient from a human-centered approach to one that focuses on creating the context for nature to work her magic!
Relationship is medicine. Learn more about Denise’s groundbreaking work from her program website, Gathering Our Medicine
Can’t attend the live event? Your registration gives you access to view the program videos later.
How does Nature’s Plan differ from the Western approach to healing? Compare these two perspectives:
The Western View
“According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 1 in 3 of all adolescents ages 13 to 18 will experience an anxiety disorder. These numbers have been rising steadily; between 2007 and 2012, anxiety disorders in children and teens went up 20%.These stats combined with the rate of hospital admissions for suicidal teenagers also doubling over the past decade leaves us with many concerning questions.
“According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 80% of kids with a diagnosable anxiety disorder are not getting treatment―and anxiety disorders are highly treatable! As with most problems, the earlier it is diagnosed the easier it is to treat. The most effective treatments with for anxiety disorders are cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) and SSRI medications.”
— Healthychildren.org, Claire McCarthy, MD, FAAP
Nature’s Plan
“Our families and communities today are bombarded with fragmented information, contrasting views and a myriad of approaches regarding children and development that can feel overwhelming and disempowering. The majority of professionals serving today’s families, whether they are educators, mental health workers, or other helping professionals, have been trained in predominantly Western world views where behavioral and medical approaches underpin and guide their practice. These approaches, while useful in some cases, focus on measuring and treating symptoms and fixing problems.
“Root causes of developmentally and emotionally rooted problems where the solution may lie within the kinship circle’s sphere of influence in their relationship to the child can easily be overlooked. These approaches also fail to include a child’s spiritual and cultural development in the context of being a human being living in a community with a long lineage of sacred teachings and life ways.”
It is through the integration of Indigenous Wisdom and scientific knowledge that we can practice walking in two worlds, weaving together a better future for people of all ages and stages of life.
Contemporary society tends to be impatient, seeking results prematurely and working from a human-centric paradigm where we feel it necessary to make something happen as soon as possible. In many cases we end up interfering with the natural processes that are inherent and only require the right conditions to flourish. It is in our relationships to one another, the land, animals and spirit world that our growth unfolds spontaneously. This is not the realm of experts, but of families and communities; parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and mentors.
Get to know the true nature of your life’s natural process. By the end of our 4-session series, you can anticipate having:
- A clearer understanding of the experiences essential to the unfolding of human potential (ideally provided during the early years of development)
- An increased ability and courage to identify some of the wounds or challenges you carry because of inadequate support at previous life stages
- A better understanding of steps you can take to meet, accept, transform, and integrate those wounds and challenges
- A more hopeful feeling about your own life and a clearer sense of how to serve your community just as you are
Sacred Fire LifeWays Presents
It’s Never Too Late To Heal
2 Program Sessions plus 2 Bonus Discussions
Tuesday, November 9: Session 1 – Sensing Nature’s Plan
Thursday, November 11: Bonus!— Online Discussion with Denise and MarlaTuesday, November 16: Session 2 – Weaving Nature’s Plan
Thursday, November 19: Bonus!—Online Discussion and Next Steps with Denise & Marla
Can’t attend in person? Programs are recorded and available for later viewing with your registration.
All sessions are online with Zoom from 7:00 – 8:30 pm EST (US)
$75 for the 4-session series
Featuring
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Denise Findlay is a bi-cultural person of Indigenous Coast Salish and settler ancestry, proudly belonging to the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), who has dedicated the last 20 years to travelling throughout British Columbia and across Canada working exclusively in Indigenous communities facilitating processes focused on collective healing. Denise’s work is strongly focused on de-centering experts where child and youth mental health is concerned and restoring dignity to the role the natural kinship circle plays in providing care to Indigenous children and youth. Denise is responsible for leading the development and implementation of Gathering Our Medicine, in collaboration with community-based advisory and working groups. She is currently undertaking a PhD. in Philosophy of Educational Practice and Theory at Simon Fraser University. She has been awarded a Social Sciences Humanities Resource Council Scholarship (Canadian Graduate Scholarship) for her ground-breaking research. For more about Denise visit https://gatheringourmedicine.ca/facilitators/
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Marla Klyne Kolomaya is a certified counselor and parent consultant offering services for families struggling with making sense of often perplexing behaviors commonly seen in children and adolescents. Marla specializes in providing consulting and professional development for parents, educators and helping professionals who are yearning to make sense of the kids in their care.
After spending several years as a counselor within the education system, relishing in supporting students and their families with a developmental-relational model of building relationships, Marla made the decision to transition into private practice while completing an internship with Dr. Gordon Neufeld – a foremost authority on child development and a leading interpreter of the developmental paradigm. Marla now serves on the faculty of the Neufeld Institute and has returned to her roots, supporting families within community through the Gathering Our Medicine model, and it is a most natural fit. For more about Marla visit https://gatheringourmedicine.ca/facilitators/
Registration
Unable to attend the webinar programs? Your registration includes access to program recordings. Registration will remain open during the event so you can join while the series is in progress.
Register NowSchedule
Tuesday, November 9: Session 1 – Sensing Nature’s Plan
Thursday, November 11: Bonus!— Online Discussion with Denise and Marla
Tuesday, November 16: Session 2 – Weaving Nature’s Plan
Thursday, November 19: Bonus!—Online Discussion and Next Steps with Denise & Marla
All sessions are 7:00 – 8:30 Eastern time U.S.
Price
$75 for 2 program sessions plus 2 bonus discussions with our presenters. Cost includes access to the recorded programs.
For more information
For more information, contact at sacredfirelifeways@sacredfire.org