Next In-Person Training Retreat: May 30 - June 4, 2024

2024 Training

March 11, 2024 Programs Update: The Training Retreat Cohort for this 2024 residential has filled and we have a waitlist. Please reach out to us via the contact form to join the waitlist for the training May 30-June 4th in Sonoma. If there does become a place available due to unforeseen circumstances-we will help expedite the application and enrollment process for the first person on the waitlist who can commit to attending. We will contact the waitlist in the order your email was received.

2023 Continuing Education: This course was approved for 30.75 Continuing Education Credits*

Track 2. The Experiential Training Course Module (Retreat Only)

Existential-Humanistic Therapy: Principles of Practice

EHI Co Directors of Clinical Training: Nader Shabahangi, PhD, MFT  & Nance Reynolds, PhD, LCSW

EHI now offers this program track for those primarily interested in attending the experiential training retreat in Sonoma, “Existential-Humanistic Therapy: Principles of Practice,”. This is the same training retreat that is a requirement of the Foundations Certificate Program. This training is focused on principles of Existential-Humanistic (E-H) therapy practice skill development.

Why Do Therapists Attend This Training Retreat?

"The program showed me a doorway within myself into territory that I was aware of but had yet to fully conceptualize."

Training Retreat Module Description

This track is an opportunity for EHI to provide our experiential training to students who are not enrolled in the Foundations Certificate program. Students may opt into the certificate track at a later date if they would like to.

This skill-development training module focuses on learning to: 

(a) identify meaning-making processes unfolding in the present moment, 

(b) illuminate these “actual but often unrecognized” processes by cultivating intrapsychic and interpersonal presence, 

(c) develop a safe and intimate therapeutic relationship, 

(d) recognize and work with existential life issues which may be present but disguised, and 

(e) recognize and work with transference and counter transference issues within an existential framework.

Requirements

Residential Course Module w/ Optional Consultation Group

This residential training course is the annual experiential training historically held as a retreat at Westerbeke Ranch in Sonoma, CA.  There is an experiential evaluation on the final day of the training. This module is the only module with in-person requirements any other optional modules are completed remotely.

*International & out-of-state program participants please note: Students are only required to attend in-person the Experiential Training, that is the only mandatory travel required for this program. 

This module is held remote. The video consultation groups meet once per month for 4 or 5 months via Zoom. The consultation module will begin the following the training and consists of five 2-hour or four 2.5-hr group consults (depending on group leaders).  Group participants will consult on applying the training into real world client work.  Two EHI instructors will be group co-leaders.  The video consultation module is priced separately and if enrolled prior to the retreat is discounted for retreat attendees.

Once accepted into the Experiential Retreat Training Program you will be able to enroll and participate in the experiential training module. You may also choose to enroll in the optional video consultation group module. Some retreat-only attendees chose to upgrade to the Foundations Certificate program after attending the retreat; this is an option that any retreat attendee can do in the future and have their attendance at the training retreat count towards the Certificate requirements.

The Experiential Training

photo of 2022 training cohort at Westerbeke Ranch

The Experiential Training is the Core of EHI Programs

The 5-night experiential training residential is the heart of EHI’s programs. It allows licensed professionals and graduate students in psychology or counseling programs to come together in a safe environment, get to know one another, and experience how E-H therapy is practiced up close and personally. All EHI’s education programs feature this existential therapy training.

Schneider and Krug’s APA textbook, Existential-Humanistic Therapy 2nd Ed, will be a core resource. Additional supplemental readings of Rollo May, James Bugental and Irvin Yalom will be provided.

For a more info about the training course residential please visit the Training Course Description page.

EHI President, Kirk Schneider, introduces the training retreat.

Training Approach

EHI instructors, noted leaders in the field, emphasize the key ingredients of the E-H approach, including empathy, acceptance, and genuineness, to model how trainees can create safe, collaborative and life-changing therapeutic encounters. They demonstrate how the therapeutic relationship, in and of itself is a vehicle for healing and change and how therapeutic “presence” cultivates sensitivity and appropriate responsiveness to clients emotions, relational patterns and inner worlds.These two essential principles: building the therapeutic relationship and working in the “here and now” are the foundational blocks of E-H therapy and EHI training

2024 Experiential Training Dates

May 30th - June 4th, 2024

The residential starts at 3:30pm on the first day and ends 2:30 pm(after lunch) on the final day. Approximately forty-five hours of programming are scheduled in this experiential. This training is formatted as an intensive, expect days to be 8 am – 9 pm with a couple of evening breaks.

Westerbeke Ranch is a beautiful retreat center on acres of land in the heart of Sonoma. Built in the 30’s, the Ranch is a contemplative environment, nourishing to both body and soul. 

Westerbeke as a retreat center has historic significance for our community, as it was the meeting place for many of the seminal writers in Existential Humanistic theory and practice such as Rollo May and James Bugental.

See this short video of Westerbeke Ranch from YouTube

poolside at Westerbeke Ranch the retreat center for EHI's Existential therapy training

"The retreat is an opportunity to be part of a community where we can think together using the themes of E-H. We can apply theories to cases, watch the work of our mentors and each other. By living together we experience an intimacy that creates an environment that reduces barriers and the ensuing connections foster a greater capacity for learning."

Tabs with Info on Enrolling, Tuition Fees, Safety, Eligibility & Travel

*Continuing Education Info

2023’s course retreat was approved for 30.75 CEs.  Please contact us through the form below for more info regarding the course and to request disability accommodations. 

APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. APA Division 32, Society for Humanistic Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

 

Contact Us

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please reach out to us. We look forward to talking with you more about the program!

Clinical Training Co Directors

Nader Shabahangi, PhD, LMFT

Nance Reynolds, PhD, LCSW

Clinical Training Coordinator

Stephanie Weissman, PsyD

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