-NOW OPEN: An Online Immersion in
the Alchemy of Transformation and Healing –
Tending to the Soul
A 5-Session Journey of Being and Belonging, and a Spirituality of the Heart
with Matt Licata, PhD
INCLUDES: Over 8 hours of Teachings, Guided Meditations, and Experiential Practices
“The freedom we long for will never be found in the eradication of the unwanted, but only in deeper layers of attunement to the wisdom and information it carries.”
Matt Licata
A Personal Invitation from Matt Licata
Dear Friend,
There are times in each of our lives when a chapter comes to an end, when we find ourselves on the precipice of rebirth and renewal.
Something has dissolved – the dream of me and my life and the way it was all supposed to turn out – but it’s not yet clear what’s going to arise from the ashes to take its place.
As disorienting as these times of transition can be, they are evidence of a sacred process occurring deep in the personal and collective soul. For it is only from a shattering that the phoenix is able to emerge.
The question now for so many of us is: what is it that the soul wants? Not what I thought I wanted, what I should want, or what others want for me, but what is calling to me from the depths of who and what I am, into a life of new vision, purpose, and meaning?
As we engage in this holy reassembling, it can be so easy to lose track of our home base, whether we imagine this center as the palace of the soul, the light of the spirit, or the ventral vagal safety-pathways of the holy human nervous system.
The great poets, alchemists, wayfarers, and mystics have declared that the path is everywhere but it can take a slowing down and a cleansing of our perception for this to become a living reality.
Here is an overview of the course sessions:
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Session 1: Opening into the Unknown and the Mystery of Light
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Session 2: Drinking from the Alchemical Fountain
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Session 3: Embodied Spirituality, Polishing the Heart, and Traveling the Path of Wholeness
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Session 4: The Blue Landscape and the Unexpected Allies of the Soul
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Session 5: Trauma, Reorganization, and the Life of the Alchemical Wounded Healer
The spiritual path is a matter of direct revelation, of primary first-person experience, and must be lived in order for its fruits to be tasted and shared with others.
Contrary to the beliefs of a world steeped in networks of transgenerational trauma and trance, our unique sensitivities, vulnerabilities, and eccentricities are not obstacles to our path, but are the very path itself. Yet how can we come to trust in our experience when things have fallen apart and are only just beginning to come back together?
In the tradition of alchemy, the process of transmutation involves converting the lead of habitual consciousness into the emerald, silver, and gold of our natural, embodied aliveness, creativity, and imagination. This transformation takes place out in nature and also simultaneously in an inner laboratory deep within you, where experiments of wisdom and grace are being conducted.
As relational beings, it’s not easy to make the journey on our own. I’m offering Tending to the Soul online course to support you in the exploration of a more subtle attunement to your body, psyche, and nervous system – deepening in compassionate awareness and discovering purpose and meaning in your life.
The soul is always calling out to us, but often in ways that are hidden to ordinary perception. It is my hope that our time together will help us connect more deeply with the Inner Guide, the Inner Companion and Friend who is always nearby, shape shifting and taking unexpected forms to call us Home into the natural mandala of being and belonging.
Warmly,
Matt Licata
***PLEASE NOTE: The Tending to the Soul online course was originally recorded in a live online format in October-November of 2021. If you participated in that original presentation, you would not want to register for this version, as you already have access to all of the course materials. As part of the course, you will hear Matt responding to questions from participants as well as greeting them upon arrival into the live session room. You will be able to easily skip through these parts if you wish.
“Even though it may seem as if we are alone – and in part we must walk this path by ourselves – we are never truly alone, as unseen helpers, friends, and companions are always nearby.”
Matt Licata
What’s Inside the Course
Session One:
Opening into the Unknown and the Mystery of Light
The very foundation of transformation and healing is our capacity to slow down and bring new levels of awareness to our experience, as a way to cut through billions of moments of habitual consciousness and collective networks of trance. In the Daoist alchemical text, The Secret of the Golden Flower, we are invited to “turn the light around,” which is an evocative metaphor for inner work as alchemists of our own lives.
The reality is that most of us were not trained to practice embodied, compassionate self-attunement and our increasingly electronic, speedy, and fragmented world does not always provide a sensitive holding environment in which to be a true friend to ourselves.
As we tend to the soul and the body together, we’ll lay down the networks of a neural- and soul-scaffolding required for a life of play, exploration, and unending self-discovery.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- Slowing down and replacing habitual consciousness and perception with that of curious, compassionate, empathic attunement
- How the spiritual path will inevitably ask us to step into the unknown and how that isn’t always going to feel certain, clear, and safe
- Simple, yet effective self-attunement and soul-tending practices you can engage daily, even if you don’t have hours of free time
- The discovery of a natural trust and confidence in our immediate, embodied experience, even in difficult times
- The organic process of things “falling apart” and coming back together again and how cycles of rupture and repair are the essence of deep soul work
Session Two:
Drinking from the Alchemical Fountain
The ancient alchemists were in search of the elusive philosopher’s stone, that ruby red portal into the sacred world where spirit and matter were ultimately revealed to be one. The alchemical way is one of direct revelation and requires that we enter into the laboratory of the soul where the water of life is flowing and emerging into consciousness.
The emerald, silver, and gold are always already here but it does seem to require some cleansing of perception in order to see them. At times, they can be hidden in the earth and her forests, as well as inside the body and neuropathways of the human person.
The vessel we have in which the laboratory work can take place is that of the holy human body and the majesty which is this human heart, which we can become attuned to in more and more subtle ways.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- The relevance of alchemy in a contemporary, embodied, imaginative approach to transformation and healing
- Becoming an alchemist of your own life and working the minerals and materials of your own heart
- The alchemical yellowing, the sacredness of dissolution, and the holy invitation when things fall apart
- Unearthing the alchemical tincture and medicine hidden inside the wound
- How difficult and challenging emotional experience – especially in relationship – is the prima materia for the alchemist to work with in the laboratory of the soul
Session Three:
Embodied Spirituality, Polishing the Heart, and Traveling the Path of Wholeness
The healing and spiritual journey is not one size fits all and the reality is that our path is never going to look exactly like someone else’s. The human soul is vast, mysterious, nuanced, and subtle and there are an infinite number of alchemical doorways, portals, medicines, and tinctures which are the most wise, skillful, and compassionate in a given moment.
All spiritual realization and all healing is embodied, meaning it requires a new level of conscious, empathic attunement to the unfolding of our immediate experience, moment by moment, in the vessel of our own bodies.
There are areas of the psyche and the soul which are not always best addressed by “more spiritual practice” and the fields of somatic psychotherapy, relational neuroscience, and analytic psychology can help us to become sensitive alchemists of the inner world.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- How any integral path of spiritual transformation can benefit from psychological, emotional, somatic, and relational sensitivity
- The metaphor of light and the importance of “making the darkness conscious” on the path of wholeness
- How we can use our relationship with spirituality to avoid a direct confrontation with “the shadow,” unresolved relational trauma, and “the unlived life”
- The importance of radical honesty with ourselves on the healing and spiritual paths and the capacity to practice kindness toward the unwanted parts and pieces of the psyche
- Becoming an alchemist of the inner landscape and working consciously with the “metals” and “minerals” of our immediate, embodied experience
Session Four:
The Blue Landscape and the Unexpected Allies of the Soul
As open, sensitive human beings, we will all be visited at times by the bluer and darker shades of the emotional spectrum. While our contemporary culture has lost touch with the initiatory and healing potential of these states, the great mystics, poets, alchemists, and wayshowers remind us of the transformative potential of experiences such as melancholy, pure sadness, heartbreak, and aloneness.
One of the most transformative (and holy) of these experiences is that of grief. To feel fully alive, we must have a conscious, embodied, and compassionate relationship with this unexpected and often unwanted visitor as it is a unique passageway to life. Not only is there our personal grief – the grief of our unlived life – but cultural, collective, and cosmological grief.
What does it mean to grieve consciously and how is grief a “temple” which we can enter into and walk with as a partner, ally, and unique Friend on our life’s journey?
In this session, we’ll explore:
- The transformative potential of the “blue” range of the spectrum of consciousness
- How grief is a portal and temple in which we can enter into with greater awareness and compassion
- Opening to “the unlived life” and what remains unfelt and unintegrated within us
- Meeting and dialoguing with the lost orphans of psyche and soma
- What it means to experience our feelings all the way through without falling into the extremes of denial or fusion
Session Five:
Trauma, Reorganization, and the Life of the Alchemical Wounded Healer
We’ve all been wounded in our lives, affecting our capacity to feel intimate, connected, and able to participate in the bounty of what is possible in this world. Whether we conceive of this wounding as the appearance of the dark night of the soul, as relational trauma, or as a profound sense of meaninglessness or aloneness, when unresolved, this wounding will color our perception and our capacity to feel safe and that we belong.
From within the landscape of the wounded healer – which is the rightful and noble inheritance of many of us who walk the path – the wound is holy and serves an initiatory function in the psyche. But how do we see through the thick haze of intergenerational trance and conditioned perception, step out of the matrix, and embody the radical invitation that the path truly is everywhere… especially in those places we least expect it to be.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- The courage to walk alone at times, leading with our eccentricities, vulnerabilities, and sensitivities, which requires going against the psychic status quo
- How the cycles of reorganization and the alchemical putrefactio are the soil from which the phoenix of the heart can emerge
- The inherent messiness of the spiritual journey, and the chaos and glory of what it means to be fully here and to participate in the unfolding of the soul
- Unshaming and depathologizing intense, unwanted, and uncomfortable emotional experiences, and honoring times of unknowing and liminality
- Updating neural and soul-circuitry with empathic attunement and embodied kindness
Here’s What You’ll Receive Inside the Course
#1) 5, 90-minute Video Teaching Sessions with Matt Licata
Over five, 90-minute sessions, Matt will present the teachings and curriculum for the Tending to the Soul online course, including guided practices and experiential exercises, talks and presentations on the course curriculum. During the sessions, Matt also responds to questions asked by participants who joined him live for the recording of the sessions. You can work through all of the content at your own pace, and in an order and timeline that is right for you.
#2) Access to All Course Content Through Video, Audio, and Written Transcripts
As part of the course, you’ll receive video, audio, and written transcripts of each session, that you can study and work through at your own pace. Once you register for the course, you’ll have a library of video and audio material to work with over the months and years, as well as a set of written transcripts (est. 60+ pages) of teachings that you can integrate into your daily life and practice.
#3) Private, Members-Only Access to a Library of Guided Meditations and Exercises for Integrating Course Curriculum
You’ll receive access to 8 guided audio meditations and exercises to help integrate course materials which can be used in establishing a personal practice.
#4) A Private Member Portal [Website, Mobile Phone, and iPad Accessible]
All of the video, audio, and written transcripts will be available in a private member portal for easy access. You can watch, listen, and engage with all course materials on your computer and smart devices.
Plus Receive These 3 Bonuses…
Bonus #1:
An Invitation to Rest Your Nervous System (mini-webinar and pdf article)
Bonus #2:
Guided Meditations for Resting Your Nervous System
Bonus #3:
The Union of Sun and Moon: Meditations for Integrating the Solar and Lunar Shadow
In these two guided meditations, Matt invites us to meet, embrace, and integrate the “shadow,” those lost pieces of psyche and soma that we’ve had to push out of awareness to fit in, to adapt, and to stay safe, which was the activity of intelligence at an earlier time in our lives. But it is through a re-meeting, a re-union of these lost ones that we are able to feel more alive, integrated, and whole.
Not only do we disembody or split off from so-called “negative” parts of the personality, but many of us have lost the capacity to feel joy, creativity, spontaneity, and to play, which are also part of the shadow that longs to be integrated. Through these meditations, we’ll work with both aspects of the shadow.
Your Guide for the Course
Matt Licata, PhD is a psychotherapist, writer, and independent scholar who for nearly three decades has been involved in the unfolding dialogue between psychotherapeutic, meditative, and neuroscientific approaches to personal growth, emotional healing, and spiritual transformation.
He is the author of A Healing Space: Befriending Yourself in Difficult Times (Sounds True, 2020), and The Path is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You (Wandering Yogi Press, 2017).
Matt Licata presents:
Tending to the Soul
A 5-Session Journey of Being and Belonging, and a Spirituality of the Heart
INCLUDES: Over 8 hours of Teachings, Guided Meditations, and Experiential Practices
Here’s what you’ll receive:
1. 5, 90-minute Video Sessions with Matt Licata PhD
2. Complete Session Audios, Videos, and Written Transcripts
3. Guided Meditations and Practices
4. Private Membership Portal
You Will Also Receive Bonus Gifts:
Bonus #1: “An Invitation to Rest Your Nervous System” Mini Webinar and PDF Article
Bonus #2: Guided Meditations for Resting Your Nervous System
Bonus #3: The Union of Sun and Moon: Meditations for Integrating the Solar and Lunar Shadow
REGULAR PRICE
$397
INTRODUCTORY OFFER
$197
Join Matt for Tending to the Soul
A 5-Session Online Journey today.
Choose the single payment or the easy payment plan below:
or checkout with Paypal here (single payment only):
My Personal Guarantee & Promise You
I created Tending to the Soul as a source of guidance and inspiration in an uncertain world. This course is a direct expression of my own personal and professional journey and experience. My sincere hope is that you will benefit from this offering from my heart. If you are not satisfied with the first week of online experience, you can simply email us and receive a full refund within the first 7 days.
Matt Licata PhD
Praise for Matt’s work and new book
A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times
“A Healing Space is a brilliant weave of Jungian and Eastern contemplative wisdom. In this powerful new offering, Matt Licata guides us to a place of sacred refuge, where we can meet even our greatest moments of confusion and suffering with compassion and grace.”
– Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness
“Matt Licata pinpoints a space within us where healing, awakening, and a vibrant reckoning of who we actually are can be realized. The wisdom hidden deep within our darkest experiences comes from not turning away from these, but by directly tending to them with gentleness, love, and compassion. This book depicts a way of genuine freedom.”
– Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Compassion
“In A Healing Space, Matt Licata serves as a compassionate and insightful guide to the transformative task we all must face: how to forge our pain and sorrow into remedies of Spirit that can illuminate our way. With the soft clarity of a magnifying glass, Matt brings into view the many things that inhabit our nature, though they are seldom easily seen. Stay in conversation with this book and you will be a better friend to yourself, those you travel with, and to life itself”
– Mark Nepo, author of The Book of Soul and Drinking from the River of Light
“Weaving the wisdom of reflective practices, the insights from Carl Jung and the alchemists, and the relational truths of attachment research and psychotherapy practice, Matt Licata offers us a beautiful tapestry of truths to transform trauma into healing and strength. Adversity can constrain us, but with this wonderful book, we can find the perspectives and courage to embrace the reality of life’s innate uncertainty to guide us on a journey of growth and discovery—moving from post-traumatic imprisonment to liberation.”
– Dan Siegel, MD, clinical professor at UCLA School of Medicine, director of Mindsight Institute, and author of Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence and Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation
“If you are looking for a book to be a companion to you during this extraordinary time, it’s this one. A Healing Space is a robust guidebook into the inner territory of yourself, assisting you in the exploration of deep and rich personal and life questions that lead, always, to wondrous realizations and growth. What a treasure to find in these times of great change.”
– Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Intimate Conversations with the Divine
“Tender, profound, and deeply useful, this book is gem. Remarkably, Matt Licata weaves together self-compassion, depth psychology, and radical acceptance into a beautiful, passionate, soaring exploration of all that it means to be human.”
– Rick Hanson, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Neurodharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness
“A Healing Space is a beautiful, insightful, and moving contemplation of the journey of healing we all undertake as human beings. It illuminates how self-compassion—holding our own pain with love—transforms our experience in a profound way so that we can learn the lessons life offers us moment by moment.”
– Kristin Neff, PhD, associate professor, University of Texas, and author of Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself
“A Healing Space is a beautifully written book exploring how walking through the darkness ultimately brings blessings, wisdom, and beauty to your life, and moves you onto a path of evolution that you simply cannot perceive during difficult times. Matt Licata is a perfect guide as evidenced through his life experience and work as psychotherapist. This book is so timely and filled with helpful tools to guide you from the darkness into your own divine light.
– Sandra Ingerman, MA, award-winning author of twelve books, including Walking in Light and The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the sessions live or prerecorded?
All of the sessions were previously recorded and are in the membership site for easy access. You can watch all course videos in the member site as well as download audio and written transcripts to listen and read at your convenience.
How can I get support?
We are here to support you along the way with any questions you may have about accessing the course.
*For support please email: support@mattlicataphd.com.*
Please always use this support email rather than contacting Matt directly. We typically answer within 24 hours or sooner and we are here to make your journey as easy as possible.
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