3rd Year Advanced Barefoot Practitioner Training
2025 Dates TBC
On this third year course we will go deeply into understanding more about the Tao, the nature of being human and looking at how to integrate this into your life and work.
The Tao is the undivided unity of being, both the essence and way of the universe. All things are one within the Tao, all emanate from it. We become at peace, fulfilled and enlightened, when we fully realise our oneness with the Tao.
We can realise this oneness by developing the ability to be conscious of ourselves as the essential presence within and recognise it in others and within all of life. This is a process that is beyond words or concepts: it happens deep within ourselves, it happens as we become fully present and conscious in our bodies, emotions, minds and souls - it happens when we become fully present within the depth and breadth of what is in this moment.
This is an earthy, grounded process - illusory ways of living fall away as we come into the actuality of who and what we truly are. It is a journey to awakening, a journey to become strong in heart and spirit, empowered, fully alive and integrated into the whole of life.
A barefoot practitioner traditionally is someone who has learnt healing ways and is able to share them in the community. Having integrated the ways of self healing into their own lives, the barefoot practitioner can enable self healing in others.
‘Barefoot’ also describes someone living in connection with the earth, who has found their inter-connectedness with the web of life and so can help others do the same.
On this third year course we will go deeply into understanding the nature of being. The Tao of Human Being. In actuality we are all very different to the small identities that we try to shoe - horn ourselves into.
The Barefoot journey takes you beyond the limitations of social and family patterned identity into an expanded, yet centred sense of the life that this human animal / spirit being is living.
This third year will take you further on your personal journey into living from the actual breadth of true personal and transpersonal self and help you develop your ability to guide others.
There will be opening meditations to expand self awareness leading into the practices and processes that we have already studied and some new ones, but with a clear focus on understanding why we are using them and how they are working. There will also be time for in depth questions and clarification and in-depth enquiry.
This course is about becoming a practitioner - in the sense that a practitioner is “one who practices a discipline, a profession or a way of life”- and so requires you to be regularly putting the practices of this healing way into action in your life. With this as a foundation we can then move much more deeply into the understanding and integration of all that is involved in the healing journey.
As usual there will be the opportunity to go right to the core of wounds and imprints and the resulting patterns and survival strategies and make much progress in integrating them. Journeying with a group of people who are all putting this material into practice and are committed to the healing journey is a very valuable and rare experience.
It is a place to learn from each other’s experience and also about giving and receiving real support. It provides a unique opportunity to work very deeply together in the safety of such a deeply committed space.
Course schedule:
Pre-requisites / group agreements.
The course is a unique opportunity to heal and grow at the deepest of levels so there are prerequisites to ensure the depth and safety of the journey to real freedom. This course is offered as deepest service into healing humanity’s condition on the planet and it is offered only to those who want to really deeply heal and transform and are prepared to deeply commit to the healing journey.
To join the course you need to:
Be committed to coming into full presence, self responsibility and conscious self awareness.
Be committed to working with the process of understanding and the integration of patterns, core beliefs and survival strategies, and practicing awareness and integration of inner fragmentation.
Be regularly engaging with the basic practices of self holding, body awareness, meditation on presence, conscious breathwork, and preferably practicing the microcosmic orbit and the Taoist sexual energy practices.
Be committed to being fully present, honest and self responsible within the group, to fully engage in the healing process and to work consciously and openly with any issues or feelings that arise.
To have mastered any habitual addictions to any drugs, alcohol or nicotine. If on the course you have a relapse, it is required that you be immediately honest about it and ask for help getting through it. If you do not you will be asked to leave the course.
Be willing to have individual sessions should it be clear that this is needed to aid the integration of the material. You will also need to do individual sessions if you repeatedly act out in unconscious ways in the group from unintegrated patterns and survival strategies. Although there will be opportunity to work with personal process in group space, both in partnered sessions and also in the circle, where it serves as an example to deepen understanding, you will not be able to rely solely on the course as a space in which to process and heal. Deep wounds, imprints and repeating entrenched patterns really do need individual attention. You will get most from the course if you are doing individual sessions on a regular basis - this will be with other group members as part of the support system within the group, but if you struggle to meet the challenges set by the course, I ask that you work with me. This will ensure that you will be able to step up to the level at which the course needs to be run.
Be committed to keeping the agreements, if you are not you will be asked to leave.
Have a clear relationship with me - Andy. If there is any difficulty or issue you have with me, it is a prerequisite to come and have a session, or sessions if necessary, to clear this before starting the course. This will be of substantial benefit to you - for instance parental transference is very likely to get triggered with group leaders and is a rich area to work consciously with.
If you haven’t worked with me (or us) since doing your second year (other than the 14 -15 group) I ask that you call me so we can see where you are and talk over the nature of the 3rd year course.
The (provisional) cost of the course:
£1,400 - £1,100 (concession rate)
Deposit: £300
(Prices to be confirmed when dates are released)
These are committed groups and payments of the full amount up front strengthens the group. However if you need to pay by committed instalments you will need to talk to me about this
and make an arrangement.
Group times: 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start on Friday evenings, then 10am - 6.30pm on Saturdays and 10am - 4.30pm on Sundays.
Food: Lunches will be bringing food to share, this is different from the foundation course.
If you are staying on site we provide filtered water and teas, please bring items for breakfast and for the evening meal on Saturday, you can bring ingredients for a communally created meal. Alternatively, there are many good places to eat locally if you prefer to have an evening meal out.
Staying on site: Staying in group room £14 a night. Camping £14 a night. Staying in the stable room £35 or £30 pppn up to 2 people. Staying in the cabin £38 or £32 pppn up to 2 people.
Bring your own bedding. Muesli, teas and toast provided, bring anything else you need.
We will provide filtered water and teas.
As we said on the first year and second year course I only certify someone as a Living Tao Barefoot Practitioner, after completing this Advanced Course and then only if I’m confident that there is enough personal integration and understanding of the healing process. I will provide a part of the website for those I feel have reached this stage of integration, and provide ongoing supervision for those setting up their own practices. There will also be ongoing support groups for those actively engaged in working in this way. Those who have already completed an advanced course and are practitioners please contact me if you want to explore this now.
Certification:
“This is the simple path: to return to the simplicity and naturalness we once had. The path of the breeze that gently whispers through the trees, of the bird that climbs into the open, clear blue sky. The way of the simple flowers that blossom without effort and through Wu Wei catch the warmth and blessing of the sun. The way of the waters that run through the veins of the earth and pass at last into the wide ocean. To feel Wu Wei is to know the inner pulse of the Tao, which is reality itself.”
Lao Tzu c 6th century BC