MENTORSHIP

The Mentorship

has been our prayer for a world with more peace; less pain and suffering.

The Mentorship

has been our prayer for a world with more peace; less pain and suffering.

Since its inception, we have been inspired and moved by the courage and commitment of so many who have joined us, some multiple times, on this journey.

We began offering our year-long Mentorship Program in 2007 in response to a shared desire to use what we have inside ourselves to make a contribution, one that we've always hoped would ripple out to affect change in the world.

The Mentorship is open to everyone,

though it speaks most strongly to those who have committed professionally to holding healing space for others.

Through this program, you will join an alchemical community of hearts, minds, and voices gathering to explore the edge of healing; a community of daring seekers willing to exit states of denial and escape, and open to the opportunities (gold) buried in the impasse (lead) of our current planetary crises.

As a community, we ask deeply into the question, “What is being asked of us now as acupuncturists, energy workers, and alternative health care practitioners during this time of planetary upheaval and transformation?”

The Mentorship takes participants on an embodied journey through the cycle of Wushen – the Five Elements and Wuxing – the Five Spirits.

With the Elements and Spirits as organizing principles and guides, we explore the art of Alchemical Healing and its relevance to the psychological and spiritual issues of our time. The course is didactic and clinical as well as an engaged experience of personal healing as transformational process.

The goal of the Mentorship is to prepare you to support people in moving skillfully through the extreme challenges and crises currently sweeping our planet and to cultivate the potential for the transformation of consciousness implicit in these challenges.

TEXTS

We assign reading from Lorie’s three books – Five Spirits, Kigo, and The Alchemy of Inner Work. We also provide pdf handouts and ask you to engage with pre-recorded audio and video teachings throughout the program.

SYLLABUS

The syllabus includes concepts, tools, skills, and practices drawn from Chinese medicine, Western depth psychology, somatic psychotherapy, consciousness studies, energy medicine, astrology, and other alchemical traditions. The emphasis is on ways of working that support the arising of new possibilities rather than the return to old ways of being. In addition, the Mentorship serves as the foundation for the work of “healing at the edge” as we seek to cultivate emergent possibilities for the expansion of human consciousness and the healing trajectory of Gaia, our planet.

In addition to learning a host of Alchemical Healing skills and practices, you will benefit from year-long supervision of clinical practice from Lorie as well as support for personal inner work process from Lorie, Benjamin, Program Assistants, small group partners, and the larger A New Possibility community.

FORMAT

The Mentorship follows the cycle of the seasons beginning in January with a two-day weekend introductory live virtual session. Five subsequent one-day virtual live sessions are scheduled seasonally with emphasis placed on the related seasonal Element and Spirit. There are seven full days of live teaching via Zoom. All recordings of the live virtual sessions are made available.

The in-person Zoom sessions are supplemented by:

Additional pre-recorded lectures to be viewed between live sessions at your convenience. These lectures are approved for a total of 14 CEUs with NCCAOM and the California Acupuncture Board.
Assigned readings and suggested ongoing “lab work” with partners between live sessions.
Five 90-minute Clinical Integration Sessions with Lorie and Benjamin to discuss experiential exercises, questions, integration, and case presentations.
Free one-year membership in the A New Possibility Inner Healing Circle for ongoing access to a vibrant broader community of people committed to Alchemical Healing.

PREREQUISITES FOR PARTICIPATION

The Mentorship is geared towards certified practitioners of acupuncture and Chinese medicine who are interested in working “alchemically.” This focus entails the expansion of clinical skills in the domain of emotion, psyche, and soul as well as a deep dive into the spiritual and transformational aspects of Chinese medicine. The program is also open to practitioners and committed students of other healing modalities as well as anyone seriously interested in becoming an Alchemical Healer. The caveat is that during the Mentorship we do at times speak the untranslated language of Chinese medicine and a certain amount of “confusion tolerance” is necessary for those not yet familiar with the language.

CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS

The Mentorship is approved by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) and the California Acupuncture Board for a total of 56 CEUs (42 hours for the scheduled sessions plus 14 hours for the pre-recorded lectures).