Hi!
I hope this find you well. This is to let you know about some changes that are coming up in the way we will be delivering our Next-Steps and Further-Steps courses in 2025.
In summary:
- We will be opening up the live sessions. Live sessions will now be offered alongside courses, but separate from them too. This means you will be able to sign up for the live sessions even if you are not enrolled on a course but want to keep motivated with shamanic journeying and in touch with the community.
- The number of live sessions will increase from blocks of 4, to blocks of 6.
- There are some changes to the prices of the courses.
Over the last few months, we have been gathering feedback about the live sessions and putting a lot of thought into them. Having considered and discussed all the pros and cons of all the possible options (I’ll spare you the details!) we have decided on the following:
[Please note that all of what follows only applies to the Next-Step and Further Step courses. The First-Step courses remain unchanged, so if you have still to do your First-Steps course, none of the following applies to you.]
Opening the live sessions up to more people
As of 2025, the live sessions will be offered alongside our course, but separate from them. In other words, you will be able to either:
- Just sign up for a course, without the live sessions.
- Sign up for a course with the live sessions included as a bundle.
- Sign up for the live sessions even if you aren’t currently doing one of the courses (but only once you have completed the First-Steps course, as a bare minimum).
Course Fees
We haven’t put our fees up since we first went online in 2020. To just keep pace with inflation over that time, we would need to raise our fees by at least 10%. However, we really are committed to keeping our courses as affordable as we possibly can. We are also aware that, over the last few years, whilst inflation has risen, many people’s incomes haven’t kept pace, so prices have gone up but incomes have gone down. So, we do need to raise our prices a little, but we are going to keep as low as we possibly can. So:
- The cost of Next-Steps and Further Steps courses will remain the same. However, we are removing the live sessions from the ‘bundle’ and will charge for those separately. So if you are one of the 70% or so of students who sign up for our courses but don’t attend the live sessions, there will in effect be no change for you.
- When a Next-Steps or Further-Steps course is running, there will be live sessions running alongside it. Previously, on such courses, there would have been 4 live sessions (or 8 on double-length courses such as the Inner Tribe, or the upcoming Embodied Shamanism course). As of 2025 though, we are going to increase the number of live sessions from 4 to 6 (and to 12 when running alongside double-length courses).
- The fee for the live sessions will be just £30 for a block of 6 (or £60 for a block of 12). That is just £5 for a 2-hour long session, making it way cheaper than the average cost of a 2-hour yoga class or gym session, for example. That is the fee if you just want to book on the live sessions but not on a course too. However…
- In addition, if you book a course and the live sessions together as a bundle, you will get a 50% discount off the live sessions price, making the live sessions the equivalent of just £1.50 an hour. This then is a below inflation price rise, with the added sweetener of you getting 6 live sessions instead of just 4.
Facilitation
The live sessions will be facilitated by myself, Cat and Kaja. 2 of the 3 of us will be at each live session.
Clarification
In gathering feedback about the live sessions, one of the things that emerged its that some people haven’t been clear about what the live sessions are. So to clarify, they are not teaching sessions. Instead, they are about doing live shamanic journeys together, and then sharing these, and then discussing any issues that come out of this. They are also for meeting and getting to know fellow students. In other words, they are about community and community interaction. If this isn’t what you want, then the live sessions are not for you. With most of the people who do attend the live sessions though, the feedback we get, loudly and consistently, is that they get a huge amount from this community interaction. You can find more detailed information about the live sessions here.
Final Words
Our hope is that, in making these changes, we can adjust our prices whilst hopefully keeping any negative impact of that to a minimum. And with the live sessions, our hope is that, in opening them up in this way, it may help boost attendance numbers, and also provide a low-cost way for people to keep in touch with the college and with shamanic journeying even if they are not currently on a course.
And please don’t forget to check out our upcoming courses here.
Thanks for reading this, and please do let us know your thoughts – your feedback is always much appreciated.
With gratitude to you all,
Paul Francis
November 2024
Upcoming courses:
November 2024: ANIMAL, PLANT, STONE
Discover what they really are, their teaching and healing gifts, and how to work with them. Find out what understanding the Other-Than-Human People can show us about what Humans really are and should be, and how to take our healthy place again on the Web of Life.
February 2025: EMBODIED SHAMANISM
Discover what animism reveals about our four core aspects – Spirit, Soul, Self, and Body. Learn how modern spirituality often disconnects us from our bodies, impacting our relationship with the world. Instead, explore how traditional animist cultures lived in deep connection with their bodies, the Earth, and the Soul, honouring embodiment as a gateway to richer spiritual understanding. Tune into your body with insights from Wilhelm Reich’s character analysis, release old “body armour” formed through early experiences, and discover how techniques like Focusing and trauma-informed therapies can enhance your shamanic practice, making it grounded, somatic, and fully embodied.
February 2025: LIVE SHAMANIC JOURNEYING SESSIONS
Discover what they really are, their teaching and healing gifts, and how to work with them. Find out what understanding the Other-Than-Human People can show us about what Humans really are and should be, and how to take our healthy place again on the Web of Life.
… and more