Being Me Mastery 3-Year Practitioner Training
How You Could Train As A Trauma Therapist
in Gaia Pollini’s ‘Being Me Therapy’
in Just Three Years
(And Without Doing Endless Tedious Psychology-Only Therapy)
Watch this 20-minute video of Gaia telling the story
of her path to creating ‘Being Me Therapy’ and how you too can be a Trauma Therapist.
If you don’t see subtitles, you can switch them on by clicking ‘CC’
Watch this 20-minute video of Gaia telling the story
of her path to creating ‘Being Me Therapy’ and how you too can be a Trauma Therapist.
If you don’t see subtitles, you can switch them on by clicking ‘CC’
being me mastery –
3-YEAR TRAINING WITH GAIA
IN ‘BEING ME THERAPY’
TO MASTER ‘BEING ME’
AND TO STEP INTO
USING THE SYSTEM
WITH CLIENTS
Gaia Pollini has been helping people heal and transform for 20 years, including in her co-founder role in the ‘F**k It’ movement, and co-authoring of the F**k it books.
She has vast experience as a therapist, both in her extensive training (including in trauma and developmental trauma work) and in practices she has created herself over the years.
Her aim over the last 10 years has been to develop a therapy that brings all the best of her particular approach, her experience, her insights and her practices together into one powerful and accessible form:
This is ‘Being Me Therapy’.
And alongside this, her aim has been to create a training that allows people to fully learn and experience the system so that they can grow hugely and to the point where they can then use ‘Being Me Therapy’ with others.
This is the ‘Being Me Mastery Practitioner Training‘.
And the next intake for this 3-year training is January 2024.
THE THERAPEUTIC INTERSECTION
OF SCIENCE & MAGIC
GAIA: “My work brings together cutting edge psychology, with the new science of the nervous system and the ‘magic’ of energy work and intuitive and spiritual work.”
“Your eyes start to sparkle…”
“People have commented on what happens to my face when I talk about the Being Me Mastery practitioner training:
‘Your eyes start to sparkle’... ‘Your face lights up’.” Trainee T.D.
THE 6-STEP PATH to MASTERY of BEING ME THERAPY
Reading through these steps, you’ll probably notice that there is an element to it that is plainly chronological: maybe you’ll only be thinking about ‘selling the work’ in your third year, as you anticipate how you’ll take the work out into the world.
But there’s also a circularity to some of these steps too. It’s likely that you’ll go through the first 4 steps again and again: learning the modular parts of the training, and then processing that internally, then playing with the work, and then ‘being the work’, repeatedly throughout the 3 years.
Where I am:
I want to work therapeutically with people (for a living) or continue to work therapeutically with people,
but I feel I’ve still got some work to do being more me and I want a system to use that really resonates with me.
Where I’d like to be:
Hurrah!
I’ve done the work (of mastering Being Me Therapy) and I’m ready to share this great ‘Being Me Therapy’ system with others, in my own unique way.
“Training with Gaia enriched my work with clients…”
“Training with Gaia enriched my work with clients to an enormous extent. The way Gaia works in one–to–ones as well as in groups is both highly professional and deeply intuitive. Her system shows people the way back to their healthy self and to the divine too. ” Trainee F.W.
THE WORK – THE ‘BEING ME THERAPY’ BUTTERFLY MODEL
The Being Me Butterfly Model is both a tool to use for the therapy and also a thorough map of the whole SYSTEM.
This is the foundational process of the whole training, the whole of ‘Being Me Therapy’.
Looking at the butterfly model below, the movement is from left to right of the butterfly: a repeated diving down from any given ‘difficulty’ and ‘adaptation’ in someone’s life to the related trauma layer, may that be ‘original pain’ or ‘fear underneath’ or the ‘old belief’ and then out through the healing stages to eventually Being Fully Me.
“Working with the Butterfly Model, I can take the pressure off, and work from a free and intuitive place, feeling secure and at ease.”
P.H., trainee 2021-24
THE ELEMENTS –
These are the core elements of the Being Me Mastery training –
LIVE ONLINE DAYS & WEEKENDS
Gaia has been working and training online for years. You’ll be surprised at how powerful it can be to explore the work online from the comfort of your own home. And you’ll also learn how to work therapeutically online with others because of this.
The number of days and weekends depends on the phases of the training.
RESIDENTIALS IN ITALY
The in-person gatherings, in amazing locations in Italy, are the spine of the training.
You may well have been on retreats with Gaia already, so you’ll have a feel for how these get-togethers will be. But you’ll experience the perfect blend of exciting teaching, getting to know your fellow trainees deeply, and working person-to-person.
BEING ME UNIVERSITY ACCESS
You’ll have full access to Gaia’s ‘Being Me University’ as part of your training. This offers deep teaching, and a monthly point of live contact with University participants that allows you to witness and practise the work in a larger group setting. It is thus a core part of the training.
1-TO-1 PRACTICE + GROUP DEBRIEFS
A key part of your training is to work with the other trainees, exchanging 1-to-1 sessions.
This gives you a great chance to practise in a safe setting what you’re learning from Gaia:
developing your 1-to-1 skills, and then sharing the experience in regular online evening debriefs with Gaia throughout the year.
PLUS (in your third year) –
You will receive help from John in the business side of moving into using this work in the world.
John will take you right the way through how to set up a great, life-enhancing, living-providing business.
“Gaia shows us how to gently guide people…“
“Gaia shows us how to gently guide people to feel, to process and to embrace all the divine parts. She has also given us the tools, questions and steps to help other people on their journey, just as she guides us on ours.” Trainee T.K.
GAIA :
THE THERAPISTS’ THERAPIST
Gaia Pollini is the co-creator of ‘F**k It’ and co-author of the bestselling F**k It books.
Gaia is a psycho-bodily therapist with more than 20 years of experience supporting people 1-to-1, on retreats and in groups, around the world. Her training spans Somatic Experiencing (nervous system regulation and trauma healing), NARM (related to developmental trauma), energy work, breathwork, Hypnotherapy and Part Therapy.
As well as the evidence-based therapeutic work that Gaia uses, she supports the magic that occurs when people reconnect to their true and full selves (‘Being Me Therapy’). And it is this dance of science-based therapy with energetic ‘magic’ work – all on the dancefloor of the revolutionary idea that problems can be solved by being more ourselves – that both sets Gaia’s therapeutic approach apart from others’ and makes it so fulfilling and effective.
“Gaia’s magical blend…”
“Gaia’s magical blend of understanding, compassion, knowledge, insight and intuition has helped to transform my relationship with myself and my work with my clients.” Trainee N.G.
“THE SAFEST AND MOST RESPECTFUL OF SPACES…”
“Gaia’s training is a space where ALL my feelings and thoughts are encouraged, expressed and explored. The safest and most respectful of spaces. ” Trainee B.R.
A MODULAR SYLLABUS
The training is a mixture of more theoretical instruction, with experiential exercises (and with Gaia, both online and in-person on residentials),
and regular practice and coached practice.
The training is structured via modules that are available as ‘evergreen’ recordings to revise.
All the training is designed to be done alongside a full-time job, with the rhythm changing between Phases 1 & 2
PHASE 1
Phase 1 is likely to take you about one year to complete.
The rhythm of the training in Phase 1 is –
- Gathering once a month for one day’s online training with Gaia
- A 1-week residential in Italy (in the Autumn)
- Bi-weekly evening practice ‘pods’ (trainee-only small pods for therapist-client practice sessions)
- Bi-monthly evening coached practice (practising in therapist-client pairs with active coaching)
The content emphasis of Phase 1 is the PSYCHOLOGY of Trauma.
PHASE 1 / MODULES 1-3
EXPLORING THE REVOLUTIONARY MODEL OF THE ‘BEING ME THERAPY’ BUTTERFLY IN WORKING WITH DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA
A foundational principle of ‘Being Me Therapy’ is the revolutionary idea that simply being more ourselves can resolve many problems.
The Butterfly Model takes this further: that it’s by directly confronting the struggles arising from our adapted selves that we uncover not just ‘me’, but a true and sacred me that then connects us to the whole.
In these modules, you will learn the principles of developmental trauma, and how the Butterfly Model supports you in working with all layers of trauma.
The Butterfly Model is the revelation of a revolutionary idea – that we can access our true selves, and the divine, through our struggles.
And it is complete: in that it comprises the steps to such revelations and it points at the completeness of our own existence (that the struggle is both a doorway to the true self and a part of the divine).
PHASE 1 / MODULES 4-6
PLAYING WITH THE KEY: HOW TO FEEL YOUR FEELINGS FROM THE SAFETY OF THE NOW AND HELP OTHERS TO DO THE SAME
A key element in working with developmental trauma is being able to discern which feelings belong to the past (child feelings), and which feelings belong to the here-and-now (source feelings).
Then the key element in moving through the Butterfly Model, to access the fear and the old pain, without getting lost within them, is to develop the ability to access feelings ‘from the safety of the now’.
In the dynamics of developmental trauma, the unresolved past experience (ie. child feelings) is carried forward into the present. Body feelings, emotions and beliefs resulted from the ‘young’ experience getting stuck in our system and then being carried forward into adulthood.
In these modules, you will learn how, when we are able to uncover and witness the past feelings from the safety of the now, the past gets left in the past and we start living in the present.
And you will learn how to support clients in experiencing this.
PHASE 1 / MODULES 7-9
IDENTIFYING THE FEAR UNDERNEATH, UNCOVERING THE ORIGINAL PAIN, AND HEALING SELF-SHAME IN TRAUMA WORK
Being Me Therapy works with unconscious avoidance.
This question will often guide the process: “What am I avoiding here that is divine?”
Through exploring the mechanisms of attachment, in these modules you will discover how ‘The Fear Underneath’ and ‘The Original Pain’ are responsible for such involuntary avoidance.
You’ll discover that we learnt to avoid important parts of ourselves because they were denied in childhood. And how pain, fear and shame are actually associated with these divine parts that we’d actually like to bring back into our lives now.
So you will learn to look out for and identify the suppressed anger, fears, pain and shame hidden beneath, and work with them in the open. This is a core part of working with the Butterfly Model.
You will learn to ask yourself and sense “what is going on beneath?” and to facilitate bringing all that back into the light despite the avoidance.
PHASE 1 / MODULE 10
SPOTTING THE ‘PERSONAL LIE’
The personal lies are strong conclusions or self-judgments we carry with us from childhood.
Examples would be: ‘I am unwanted’, ‘I am not good enough, ‘I am not lovable’… or ‘I have to fight to get anywhere’, ‘people like me only if I am perfect’.
In these modules you will learn about the principles of ‘identification’ and ‘disidentification’ within the personal lie.
Although these personal lies are so painful, you will see that the personal lies and self-judgments are protection mechanisms.
In childhood they protected us from the pain of being let down by our parents.
For example, it is less painful for a child to conclude ‘I am unloveable’ than to feel the pain of having an unloving parent.
Spotting these lies helps us uncover the pain, and discover the total and divine self that was denied in childhood.
In this case how totally lovable we are.
“I now trust myself to guide others…”
“Since I haven’t been training as a therapist before this course, I’m happy to say that I now trust myself to guide others in this divine journey. Thanks to Gaia and the Being Me Mastery training, I now feel confident and open. “ Trainee S.A.
PHASE 2
Phase 2 is likely to take you about 2 years to complete.
The rhythm changes for Phase 2 –
- Gathering every 2 months for either a 2-day online training with Gaia, or
- 5-day residential in Italy (twice per year)
- Bi-weekly evening practice ‘pods’ (trainee-only small pods for therapist-client practice sessions)
- Bi-monthly evening coached practice (practising in therapist-client pairs with active coaching)
The content emphasis of the first year of Phase 2 is the SOMATICS of Trauma.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 1
THE THREAD THAT JOINS PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SOMATIC
As we reconnect to the truer parts of us, our power comes back.
The power that was previously shut down returns to our bodies. And the compressed energy expands.
In developmental trauma, the physical body and energetic body are deeply connected with the psychological structure. So shifts in self–perception (psychological structure) greatly affect body and energy and vice-versa:
the realisations about our true and positive identity allow shifts in the nervous system and energetic system, and vice versa.
In order to support this process, it is necessary to understand how the nervous system works and how to work with it. Gaia will mix the principles of Somatic Experiencing, of Polyvagal Theory and of Developmental Trauma to illustrate how to facilitate the return to a regulated nervous system and to our full power, supporting the true sense of self.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 2
RECOGNISING THE PATTERNS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN TRAUMA, AND WORKING WITH FIGHT, FLIGHT AND FREEZE
When we are able to recognise if a feeling, an action or a behaviour stems from fear and a sense of danger from the nervous system – rather than from curiousity and a sense of safety – we get access to huge healing of older patterns.
We will learn how to spot, in our clients, states of mobility and immobility that are fuelled by fear (fight, flight or freeze), and work with the nervous system to restore mobility and calmness fuelled by joy and life energy.
We will also learn how to rebalance the nervous system on our own (self-regulation) or through safe relationships with others (co-regulation).
Our true self can only be contacted when the body feels safe again.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 3-4
IDENTIFYING SOMEONE’S ADAPTIVE MECHANISMS, AND HOW THEY SHOW UP IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
‘Being Me Therapy’ allows us to see with clarity the ways in which we are not being true to ourselves. These untruths show up most overtly in our ‘adaptive behaviours’.
These are the behaviours that are not authentically ours, but have been learnt in childhood in order to adapt to our families’ requirements.
The different behavioural styles change depending on type of parenting and on the developmental age and at which we were not properly met.
You will learn the 5 adaptive mechanisms of developmental trauma work and their the corresponding behaviours, and how they show up in the nervous system (through fight, flight and freeze).
You will learn how to recognise these adaptive mechanisms, and how spotting such mechanisms can help you and your client work with the nervous system, see what is inauthentic, and getting in touch with the authentic feelings and behaviour they are unconsciously avoiding.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 5
THE TREASURE HUNT OF BODY-WORK
The Butterfly Model is a voyage of discovery.
Mostly the parts we are working with are hidden or unconscious. Memories are buried beneath mechanisms in the psyche and the body.
So it is important to have many ways to sense and tune into what is happening beneath the surface.
Working with body information here makes a huge difference.
Body information can help us and the client to get in touch with what is really happening beneath the surface.
We will learn how to sense the body, how and when to ask questions about body sensations.
How to use ‘body resonance’. How to enquire though body movements and ‘shapes’ of body sensations. How body and facial expressions can lead the client to uncover hidden emotions.
“(…Gaia)… revealed a whole new world of how to work with my clients…”
“I am a medical doctor and applied kinesiologist working a lot with trauma. My years with Gaia, first as a client, then as a trainee revealed a whole new world of how to work with my clients.” Trainee F.W.
The content emphasis of the second year of Phase 2 is the ENERGY & SPIRITUALITY of dealing with trauma.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 6-7
EXPLORING THE NEW FRONTIER: PSYCHOLOGY AS ENERGY
A great skill that Gaia wants to share in this training is experiencing the psycho-physiological (psychology and nervous system ) work through energy.
You will be trained in this throughout the 3 years, but this part of the training is specifically dedicated to deepening this aspect.
The psychological structures and mechanisms of self-pressures, the internalised voices, the avoidance mechanisms (and all the other elements of the Butterfly Model) can be experienced at an energetic level.
The different protective parts, as well as the freer and truer parts, have an energetic presence.
When you open to this, and in sitting with a client in trust and connection, sensing the different energetic qualities provides deep information that can be used in the process and can guide therapist and client to profound truths.
The work with the different energies is also fundamental in the way Gaia works with groups with the large butterfly on the floor.
Getting in touch with the different energies, and developing the skill of feeling the energetic field, gives you access to a profound way to work.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 8
INTUITION, TRUST AND MAGIC IN SERIOUS THERAPY
When we learn to trust ourselves by going beyond our own adaptive mechanisms (as we do in the butterfly journey); when go beyond our mechanisms of control, of seeking results or needing to rescue others, our work as practitioners takes a completely different quality.
We start working from a deeper presence and clarity.
We become able to truly listen to what is happening below the surface, and we start listening to a deeper language. We start intuiting and sensing. There will likely be a sense of ‘not trying’, and from that a session can be transformed by a few words we say that just come from a seeing or a sensing something, simply because we’re working from a connection with our core and our presence.
We are not lost in our own disconnections or projections.
The outcome of this is magical. From our core we invite and trust the core of our clients.
We are basically working with and inviting essence.
And work with essence has a magical and spiritual energetic field.
You will experience this in the work. The experiences of expansion, the intuitions, the depth of the experiences, will feel like magic and the ‘unplannable’ is an integral part of this process.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 9
THE GOD ME & THE HEALING PARADOX:
HOW INTERGRATING AND ACCEPTING ALL (HUMAN) PARTS MAKES US FULLY DIVINE
The God Me is a deep sense of self, which can hold, allow and include all the different parts, energetic parts, feelings and experiences that we have and have ever had.
The God Me (as Gaia describes this sense of the whole, and in order to point at the wider spiritual aspect here, and without any reference to a traditional sense of a ‘God’) appears in the Butterfly model as the container of all the elements and stages on the two wings of the butterfly beneath.
This is because, when we get in touch with this place within us, we become intimate with and accepting of all the different aspects of who we are and of our story. The shadow (on the left wing of the butterfly) and the light (on the right wing).
We will learn how to spot and work with the difference energetic parts of our clients. When clients experience that they’re made of different parts, they become able to embrace them all.
Both sides of the butterfly become okay. In the God Me, the apparent opposites become deeply connected. And it is the most humble of gods. This place in us completely accepts our humanity.
In this deep acceptance, we become so intimate with all that we are, that right and wrong disappear. Self-judgment disappears. A complete state of being, here, in the moment, with what is here, appears.
PHASE 2 / MODULE 10
THE DOORWAY TO THE DIVINE:
HOW THE HOMECOMING INTO OUR TRUE SELVES CONNECTS US TO THE DIVINE
As fears, lies and protections peel off in the journey of Being Me Therapy, the truer and here-and-now me emerges over and over again.
And then we accept that it is safe to be out there in the world as ME with all MY feelings.
When this happens, people then often describe a feeling of ‘homecoming’, or ‘the simplest and most natural place to be’ or a ‘landing right back in my body and myself’.
Experiencing this deep sense of ‘rightness’ in the moment, puts us in touch with a sense of ‘rightness of being’.
It becomes an experience of just being… here and now.
As we are, and as we are meant to be.
And as many masters describe, this ‘just being’ experience is a divine state…
A state of expansion beyond the restrictions of mind, body and time.
And thus by becoming fully ourselves, we go beyond ourselves…
Ultimately, by finally finding the true Me, we go beyond ‘Me’ altogether.
“I REALLY DON’T WANT THIS TRAINING TO END…”
“The last time I felt this alive, safe, passionate, confident, excited, inspired, was when I was raising my young family and I distinctly remember feeling I didn’t want it to end. I really don’t want this training to end. I’ve never been so eager to learn. Gaia what an inspiration you are, in so many ways.” Trainee S.M.
HOW DOES IT WORK TO JOIN THE ‘BEING ME THERAPY’ PRACTITIONER TRAINING?
1/ APPLY & TALK TO JOHN
If you’re excited about the possibility of this practitioner training, your path to joining will start with filling out a short questionnaire and then chatting to John (access to his diary and the questionnaire is below).
John will ask you questions about your interests (in this area), any experience you have, and why this is ringing bells for you.
He’ll also explain about the training programme (and its two phases) in more detail, and go through the pricing structure.
2/ TALK TO GAIA
If, during your chat with John, it’s all feeling like a good fit – that the training would suit what you’re after, and that you’d be great for the training and the group – then John will book you in to chat with Gaia.
You’re likely to be very excited about joining the training by this time.
So your chat with Gaia will likely be inspiring… of course, you can ask her any questions about the training, but it’s likely that you’ll connect deeply with Gaia and start to feel why this training is so unique and powerful… for you and then onwards to the people you’ll be sharing the work with in the future.
If Gaia’s feeling it too, she’ll offer you a place on the training.
3/ RESERVE YOUR PLACE
If Gaia offers you a place on the training, you’ll likely be bursting to get going – you’ll know deeply that the training is right for you and you’re right for the training –
you’ll then be guided (by Gaia’s team) in registering and reserving your place. Hurrah!
“What I am learning in this training is really showing up in my coaching practice…”
“What I am learning in this training is really showing up in my coaching practice with my clients. The work has given me new ways to hold my clients as they explore deeply within themselves. ” Trainee N.G.
WHAT’S THE FULL TRAINING PACKAGE?
This is a Comprehensive Multi-faceted 3-Year Training in
‘Being Me Therapy’
You’ve seen what the elements of the training are.
And what the full syllabus is (for the current training group).
Here’s a summary of what your Practitioner Training includes:
-
Training residentials in Italy
Your full training and venue rental costs are included. Accommodation (full board) is extra but at a special group price and usually at around £90-110 per night, depending on room choice. -
Online days (monthly for Phase 1) and online 2-days (bi-monthly for Phase 2)
-
Organized Practice ‘Pods’ for regular work between trainees
-
Regular 1-to-1 training, coaching, support and debrief sessions
-
Business support from John in Year 3
-
Special trainee rate of £100 on 1-to-1s with Gaia (her regular rate is currently £120-140)
-
Bonus – Membership of ‘Being Me University’ throughout the training
How much is the training?
When you apply and then speak to John about the training,
he’ll take you through the pricing and payment options.
“I’m very happy to have become a Being Me trainee…“
“I discovered Gaia’s work eight years ago. I was depressed and unable to feel anything without feeling completely overwhelmed. That first retreat changed my life and now, years and retreats later I’m very happy to have become a Being Me trainee. ” Trainee G.K.
Your 1-to-1 Journey with Gaia and her team (throughout your training)
Your personal therapeutic journey, and growth, during the training is essential to your development as a ‘Being Me Therapy’ Practioner.
Alongside your training, you will be having 1-to-1 sessions with Gaia, and at times, a member of her team (at the special trainee rate).
It is now not possible to work 1-to-1 with Gaia in any other way than through this practitioner training.
How many you have will depend on your experience and previous training. A minimum of 6 sessions a year are required and, for those who have less experience (and / or training), we ask that you do 10 sessions in the first year.
“to discover what divine parts I’m avoiding…“
“Gaia teaches me in a gentle way to look at myself, to accept anything that comes and to discover what divine parts I’m avoiding. And she shows how I can create space for other people to go on the same journey.” Trainee M.V.
BONUS… INCLUDED IN YOUR TRAINING FOR THE FULL 3 YEARS…
BEING ME UNIVERSITY
(MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP PROGRAMME)
Gaia has been running her Being Me University for 5 years now.
People from all over the world are thus experiencing being more themselves and seeing the power of that in their daily lives.
They love the combination of teaching, experience and community.
This is what it includes:
-
Monthly ‘Being Me Deeply’ masterclass recording
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Monthly live get-together with teaching, a 1-to-1 with Gaia for one of the group, breakout groups and community
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Access to core Being Me Training, including the full Adaptive Mechanism series (worth £297 in itself)
“magnificent work…”
“Gaia, I truly believe in the magnificent work that you do. ” Trainee, E.M.
“Thank you Gaia…”
“I’ve discovered on this training that my truth is Divine, so I want access to it. I believe we all should have the choice to access it. And now I am going to support other people in doing so. Thank you Gaia. ” Trainee S.D.