Pure Presence Practitioner Training

Now Accepting Applications

For the past 17 years, as an educator and spiritual director, I have been developing a protocol for holding presence and providing compassionate listening that I call "Pure Presence."

I have successfully used it with clients in my private practice as a spiritual companion since 2003, and am currently using it as lead teacher with our students in The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute and as Visiting Professor of Spiritual Direction for The Graduate Theological Foundation.

Pure Presence can be used by caring people from all walks of life, and is extremely useful for physical, emotional and spiritual care professionals who wish to deepen their listening and offer the deepest empathy and spiritual care to whomever they are with. This is presence without judgment, bias or agenda.

Pure Presence is unique in that it offers an interfaith/interspiritual approach to formal presence training. It can be used by and with individuals of all religious, spiritual and ethical persuasions.

Testimonials

"As a therapist of many years, this training helped me see that my listening had become flat and rote. It needed an upgrade and so did I! This training did that for me." S.J., USA

"As a person who has had a lifetime career where listening has been a critical element, it's been fascinating to learn to listen in a whole new way. I love that I am learning to listen with my mind, heart and body. I am grateful to be listening with no agenda except to companion the speaker, to take in and hold their stories as deeply as possible so they may feel more deeply connected to themselves, to Source, to the world."
~ B.B., Spiritual Director& Retired Social Worker,
California

Now You Can Receive Pure Presence Practitioner Training

Pure Presence Practitioner Training (PPP) is a comprehensive, personalized training program which results in formal certification for use in one's profession or calling. The program takes 5 months to complete.

Pure Presence certification is ideal for spiritual companions & caregivers; ministry professionals; social workers & counselors; healthcare professionals & hospice workers; holistic healers; educators; any individual who wishes to deepen and expand her/his/their ability to listen carefully and to hold compassionate space for others for the purpose of healing and wholeness.

Pure Presence Practitioner Training offers a new paradigm of listening and presence rooted in both the Eastern and Western traditions of body-mind science and contemplative spirituality.

How the Training Works

• 5 mos. of long-distance education (online) with personalized training for your unique profession
• 10 learning modules, one every two weeks
• Modules are written, audio & video based
• Additional coaching with Jan via Zoom (1 hr. every two weeks=10 hrs. of personal instruction)
• Praxis based; students are expected to apply principles and practices to actual conversations
• Use of the Pure Presence Workbook & Journal, plus 2 additional texts
• Demonstration of mastery results in Certification as a Pure Presence Practitioner

Curriculum ~ 2 comprehensive areas of focus & mastery

Pure Presence contains these foundational teachings, beginning with learning how to cultivate presence for oneself. Without this element, deep empathetic (non-judgmental) listening is nearly impossible. Without it, we will continue to listen through the filter of perceptions that keep us distanced from one another physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Pure Presence with Oneself
• Establishing and holding attention in the body; mindfulness of body and Sacred Breath
• Cultivating inner space, developing the compassionate witness to transparently notice thoughts and feelings, especially those that create separation
• Applying self-compassion principles and practices (rather than guilt or shame) to what is discovered
• Ongoing and consistent contemplative practice of choice to deepen self-awareness
• Fostering a deeper understanding of self and "the sacred"; deepening one’s relationship to ultimate reality as you uniquely understand and experience it

Pure Presence with Others
• Understanding who “the other” is to you and who you are to them
• How to be a welcoming presence; preparing sacred space; holding peace
• Compassionate witnessing of self and other simultaneously
• Expanding the “heart-mind” for deeper listening
• Asking the right questions for clarification and self-awareness; choosing the compassionate response
• Witnessing the movement of the sacred in the other; cultivating gratitude and appreciation for the seeker’s journey; finding the gifts and invitations within the companioning relationship
• Accessing "the Third Heart"
• Moving beyond “other”, beyond duality, to celebrate the oneness of experience

If you are ready, hearing the call to companion others in a deeper way,
Pure Presence Practitioner Training may be for you.

Presence dwells in the ‘spiritual heart’, as yogic sage Ram Dass calls it; within the ‘true self’ as Thomas Merton explained it. Indeed, it is the journey of a lifetime to empty oneself, to eliminate one’s own small idea of what someone should believe or how they should live; to bear loving witness to the wonder and Mystery of an individual’s spiritual formation and unfoldment.

Your Investment:

Pure Presence Practitioner Training - 5 month program
$1450
Payable by credit or debit card or cashier's check upon acceptance.

Apply Today

Contact me with your questions and/or for an application.
If you cannot begin Sept. 16 and have another date in mind to get started, contact me. Customized programs are available.