INTRO EMAIL
Greetings,
If you’re receiving this email, it’s because you feel called to the work of depth psychology, and you and I have, at some point, had a conversation about opportunities and intentions to create a vocation out of depth psychology by starting, growing, or promoting a depth psychological offering and/or creating educational content in the field of depth psychology
I’ve been thinking a lot about this because it is such a powerful urge in my own psyche, and I thought you may be interested in joining me in collaborating with likeminded others to explore ideas. (You may also be receiving this as someone with a vested interest in the Alliance who would like to keep abreast of what’s happening as (I feel) we’re on the cusp of a major transformation from an academic-focused community to an activist-based community.)
My vision is to have an initial online gathering of a smallish group of people who are answering the call to be “soul stewards” who, by invitation only, meet together online and introduce ourselves and share what we’re each doing currently.
The plan would be to use Collaborative Inquiry, council, and related techniques to help us each identify ideas, opportunities, tools, and processes, etc. that will help us choose a direction if we don’t have one, create a plan if needed, get support if alone, move forward if stuck, and learn from each others’ experience. For future sessions, as a group we can identify how to proceed with additional meetings that could allow us to learn and grow together and mutually support each other in ensuing work.
Maybe future projects will emerge where group members decide to work together; certain ones may decide to write an article together because they share a common interest or in order to combine two compatible fields or perspectives; or maybe they will publish an anthology, or host a webinar or course together, or deliver workshops, or make art, etc
The first initial gathering would be no-cost so you can see if you feel it would be beneficial (and practical) to continue, and then I’m suggesting we would meet periodically afterward on a pay-as-you-attend basis with a potential contribution of $20 per session to help cover the costs and time of facilitating the meeting via the Alliance. We could decide as a group how often to meet, and establish ways we can collaborate and support each other in between sessions. While the series of online gatherings may last a few weeks or a few months, depending on what we want to do, I’m envisioning the evolution of a professional, caring, and enduring collaboration that might last years among some (maybe all) of us as we live out our callings in the future.
At the same time, I am planning a more formal participatory course, a series of potentially 4 themed online meetings that would allow individuals to certify as an instructor on Depth Psychology Alliance. Once a person attends the 4 sessions and completes required readings and assignments (including a final project of offering a 30-60 minute teleseminar, webinar, or interview—either pre-recorded or live—via the Alliance), graduates could begin to offer events and/or courses via the Alliance.
I will start this formal course in the next few weeks and can share more about it when our small group meets, but essentially the course will prepare and qualify people to deliver events or courses, understand better how to promote and cross-promote, engage the depth community with social media, and how to use online platforms—including the Alliance—for delivering teleseminars, webinars and online events
Once a person completes the course, certified Alliance educators/instructors could then go their own way and offer events on their own, or offer them on the Alliance in exchange for a profit share of 60/40 (60% to the course leader) where the Alliance would handle registration, attendee management, and promote the event(s) and instructors to the larger community. The content for the formal course will probably have some overlap with our group conversations in come cases, but I think all four weeks of the formal happen before we manage to meet very many times as a small group. If some of you end up doing both, you’ll be super charged for a growth spurt, I guess!
I haven’t made a final decision on cost for the formal course, but will decide soon. I want to make it affordable, but enough to attract quality people and also to compensate the Alliance (and me) for being able to take advantage of the system, the brand name, and the community that has been put into place over the past several years.
If you’ve read all this to this point, I assume you’re somewhat interested! If you want to participate in the soul stewards support group, please let me know and we’ll try to find a time to meet.
If you’re interested, but not now—and maybe not for a few weeks or months, let me know that too. If there are enough people, we can always start a second cohort in the near future.
If I don’t hear back from you with a week or so, I’ll assume you’re 1) too busy to read this and therefore too busy to meet :), or 2) not interested in this format or at this time. Totally fine, of course, either way.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Bonnie
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