PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION
A Seasonal Community of Practice for Helping Professionals
Cultivating Therapeutic Animism through personal practice, professional reflection, community, and relationship with the living world.
Why This Exists
Many helping professionals spend years learning how to care for others, yet have few places where they themselves are deeply supported.
Professional Integration is a seasonal community of practice for therapists, social workers, educators, coaches, chaplains, and other helping professionals who want to explore Therapeutic Animism as a living way of relating.
This is not a certification program.
It is an ongoing practice of integrating relationship with self, others, the more-than-human world, and mystery into both life and professional practice.
You are welcome to join for one season or continue for many.
What You'll Receive Each Month
Individual Integration
Two 60-minute Therapeutic Animism counselling sessions
A dedicated space to explore your own wellbeing, professional questions, case reflections, ethical dilemmas, burnout, purpose, and the ways Therapeutic Animism is unfolding in your work.
(These sessions may be eligible for reimbursement through extended health benefits when covered under Registered Social Work.)
Professional Practice Gathering
Professional Integration Gatherings are the heart of the seasonal container: monthly in-person group counselling and reflective practice spaces for people who want to integrate Therapeutic Animism more deeply into their personal life and work. These gatherings offer a place to slow down, bring forward what is alive in your practice, and explore the questions, tensions, and transformations that emerge when relationship becomes central to how we live and care for others.
Together we explore:
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Therapeutic Animism
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Relational practice
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Experiential learning
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Discussion
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Seasonal themes
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Professional reflection
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Case consultation
Each gathering may weave together therapeutic process, guided reflection, discussion, seasonal themes, relational inquiry, experiential exercises, and opportunities for case or practice reflection. Some gatherings may feel more intimate and process-oriented, while others may focus more explicitly on a particular theme, teaching, or area of integration. Over time, they are intended to support not only professional development, but a deeper way of practicing—one that is more relational, embodied, ecological, and rooted in ongoing relationship with self, others, place, and spirit.
Seasonal Immersion
Each season includes a Seasonal Immersion—a special retreat-style day designed to slow down, deepen, and enter the work more fully. These gatherings are longer, more spacious experiences that may include seasonal reflection, guided therapeutic process, ritual, creativity, embodied practice, time in nature, shared meals, and opportunities for rest, integration, and connection. They are intended to feel different from the monthly rhythm of sessions and gatherings: less like a class or workshop, and more like a day of stepping out of ordinary time to tend your relationship with yourself, your practice, and the living world in a deeper way.
Online Community
Between in-person gatherings, members have access to a private online community for ongoing reflection, connection, and support. This is a space to stay in touch with the work between sessions, share resources, ask questions, continue conversations, and receive seasonal invitations or prompts connected to the themes of the program. While Professional Integration is rooted primarily in in-person relationship, the online space helps extend the container between gatherings and supports a sense of continuity, community, and shared practice throughout the season.
Public Therapeutic Animism Groups
Throughout the season, members receive complimentary access to Therapeutic Animism groups at Earth in Sky. These gatherings offer a chance to experience the work in a wider community context beyond the professional container itself. Themes may shift with the seasons and with the evolving needs of the community, but often centre relationship with self, others, place, spirit, and the more-than-human world. Depending on the gathering, this may include reflection, ritual, seasonal practice, conversation, creativity, nature-based invitations, or facilitated group process. These groups are intended to support both personal nourishment and a deeper felt sense of Therapeutic Animism as a lived practice.
Therapeutic Animism Directory
The Therapeutic Animism Directory is an evolving public directory of practitioners, helpers, and service providers who are in ongoing relationship with this work. Over time, it will offer a way for the public to find animist-aligned practitioners, as well as a way for members of Professional Integration to become part of a wider ecosystem of care, collaboration, and visibility. Inclusion in the directory is not automatic simply by joining; rather, it is intended as a developing pathway for those who have participated in the community over time and are meaningfully integrating Therapeutic Animism into their personal life, practice, or offerings.
Our Rhythm
Rather than semesters, we follow the living seasons.
Autumn
September 22 – December 20
Winter
January 10 – March 19
Spring
March 20 – June 20
Summer
June 21 – September 21
You may join for one seas
on or continue through many.
The Heart of the Practice
This is not about learning a technique.
It is about cultivating a way of being.
We explore how our relationships with ourselves, one another, place, the more-than-human world, and spirit influence the way we live, heal, and care for others.
There is no single way to practice Therapeutic Animism.
Each participant develops their own authentic relationship with the work.
1 hr 30 min
250 Canadian dollars
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this therapy or professional development?
Do I need to identify as an animist?
Can I submit the individual sessions through my benefits?
Can I join for just one season?
Is this only for therapists or social workers?
What if I can’t attend one of the gatherings?
Can I be part of this if I’m bringing it into my personal life, not my professional work?
Can I join at any time, or only at the beginning of a season?
It is both, held within a social work and therapeutic integration framework.
Professional Integration is designed for people who want support in their personal life, professional practice, and the relationships between them. Through individual sessions, group process, and immersive monthly gatherings, we explore the questions, challenges, and transitions that shape how we live and how we care for others.
This may include things like burnout, purpose, grief, ethics, relational patterns, identity, spirituality, vocation, and the integration of Therapeutic Animism into everyday life and work.
Nope! This space welcomes people of all backgrounds, spiritual beliefs and religions who feel curious about relational, ecological, spiritual, and spirit ways of understanding healing and practice. You do not need to use the word animist for yourself in order to participate.
If your extended health benefits cover services provided by a Registered Social Worker, Professional Integration may be eligible for reimbursement.
This program is offered as a social work service and is designed as a therapeutic process that includes individual counselling, group counselling, and personal/professional integration work.
Because every benefits plan is different, I recommend confirming your specific coverage directly with your provider.
Professional Integration is designed as an ongoing therapeutic process rather than a one-time workshop.
You can join monthly, seasonally, or for the year, depending on the level of commitment that feels right for you.
If you’re looking for a one-time way to experience the work, you’re welcome to attend the drop-in Therapeutic Animism gatherings at Earth in Sky by the session.
No.
While this community is especially relevant for helping professionals, it is open to a wide range of service-oriented practitioners, caregivers, facilitators, and people who want to integrate Therapeutic Animism into their personal life and professional practice.
This may include social workers, psychotherapists, counsellors, nurses, educators, chaplains, coaches, community workers, bodyworkers, spiritual care providers, and others in caring or relational roles.
Life happens. While the community is designed to be experienced in person, occasional absences are understandable.
Your individual sessions can still be used during that month, and the online community helps you stay connected between gatherings. If you know you’ll be missing a gathering, you’re welcome to let me know in advance so we can consider how best to support your continuity in the process.
Yes.
While many members may be in helping or service-oriented roles, this space is also for people who feel called to bring Therapeutic Animism more fully into their personal life, relationships, worldview, and everyday way of being.
You can join monthly, seasonally, or for the year. If you’re joining mid-season, we’ll orient you to the current rhythm and themes so you can enter the community with clarity.