"The Most Important Relationship of Your Life"

This course was designed and created by Stephanie Garcia, LPC and Paola Garcia, LMFT-S after facilitating a therapy group in the Fall of 2024 where we explored how to build and/or deepen your relationship to yourself. After concluding our group we were inspired to design a course to expand upon the topics that were covered in group and provide a self paced model that would be easily accessible and go further in depth on this topic. We trust that you will find this course to be beneficial whether you are in the beginning stages of developing a relationship with yourself or looking to deepen or fortify this relationship. At the end of this course you will be able to reflect on what has shaped your current relationship to self as well as how this impacts you and the relationships with those around you. In addition to this you will also gain various tools to support you to build a positive and enduring relationship with yourself and others throughout your life. We recommend coming back to the topics covered in this course over time as our relationship with ourself is ever evolving.

Understanding Yourself to Cultivate Healthier Relationships Internally and Externally

When we understand our roots - our lineage, the past stories and experiences that have impacted us, build and/or strengthen our relationship with ourselves in the present, and understand our part in relational patterns we can ultimately build healthier relationships with ourselves and others.

This self-paced course was designed by two licensed therapists to help you tap into your inner wisdom, develop self-trust and self compassion, and move through life with confidence and resilience.

Life experiences—including trauma, neglect, and systemic pressure—can force us into a state of "survival mode." In this state, the focus shifts from nurturing our inner world to managing our outer environment. This can then create a disconnect between who we are and how we show up in the world. This course was built to support you to develop stronger congruence with your inner world which then impacts how you show up in your outer world, and in your relationship with yourself and others.

Some things that you might notice if your relationship to yourself needs tending to:

Disconnection from Self: Experiencing a disconnection from your inner knowing, your body, and your emotions.
Repeated Self-Sacrifice: Accommodating and pleasing others while consistently ignoring your own boundaries and needs.
Outsourcing Your Feelings of Worth: Feelings that your worth is conditional rather than inherent.
Wearing a mask: Appearing to be functioning well on the outside while feeling deeply disconnected or struggling internally.
Productivity as Protection: Using constant busyness and external achievements to avoid the discomfort of being with yourself.
Restricting your voice: Keeping the peace at all costs because you feel that who you are is "too much" or "troublesome."
Conditional Self Acceptance: A relentless drive to "fix" or "improve" yourself because the version of you that exists right now doesn't feel safe to love.

Course Goals

This program is a self-paced journey designed to help you:

Cultivate Curiosity: Related to where your beliefs around your self concept originated.
Learn about the concept of self through a decolonized lens: Whether you are just beginning to build your relationship to yourself or looking to deepen your practice.
Repair rather than fix: Focus on relationship building/repair with yourself rather than fixing.
Build Sustainable Practices: that will support a positive relationship to yourself throughout your life and improve overall functioning.
Improve Your Relationships with others: As you compassionately examine how your view of self impacts your interpersonal relationships.

The Curriculum

Module 1: Intros & Exploring Our Roots

Meet your instructors, Stephanie and Paola.
Create a visual map of your lineage to identify familial patterns
Engage in a guided inner child meditation to explore how love and care were modeled to you in your formative years.

Module 2: Relationship with Self

Compare Western, Feminist, and Indigenous views of identity and discover what perspective you currently align most with.
Explore your current relationship to your body, pain, and emotions as well as the political, economical, and medical systems that may have influenced your relationship to these parts of you.
Become curious around how popular culture and media may influence your relationship to yourself.
Learn tools for building self-trust and self-love.

Module 3: Noticing Relational Patterns & Our Role in These Patterns

Build relational awareness and practice loving accountability as you begin recognizing your own patterns in relationships without falling into shame.
Learn strategies and tools to practice boundaries in action to protect your emotional and physical energy and well being.

Module 4: Tenets of Healthy Relationships & Integration

Explore the tenets of healthy relationships.
Take all of what you have discovered in the previous modules and integrate them into your being. This will look like either having built a solid foundation in your relationship with yourself or having fortified and deepened it.
Move forward knowing that your relationship to yourself is ever evolving.

Enrollment Details

Format: Self-paced, on-demand, online course.
Includes: Lifetime access to 4 modules of information including audio meditations, journaling prompts and creative exercises along with information regarding herbal allies to support you as you journey through each section of the course.
Suggested Supplies: A journal (paper or digital), basic art supplies (magazines, glue, markers), and herbs (rosemary, rose, passion flower, and lemon balm).
Investment: USD total $15o upfront (or two monthly payments of $72). Sliding scale available via application.
Policy: All sales are final due to the digital nature of the materials.

This course is a Good Fit for me if:

I am looking to build or enhance my relationship to my authentic self and move at a slow and intentional pace.