The Quiet Work
Learning to Stay with Ourselves
When Things Feel Hard
April 8 – May 13
“To be accompanied with empathy and presence is the hidden medicine of the soul. When another can feel with us – without judgment or agenda – we discover a doorway into belonging that no technique or solitary practice alone can open.
It is in this sacred field of companionship that our grief can be honored, our shame softened, and our tenderness welcomed as part of the path. To walk together in this way is to remember that healing is not a project of self-improvement, but a journey of coming home – again and again – to love.”
– MATT LICATA
A Personal Invitation from Matt Licata
Dear friend,
This course is an invitation into a slower, deeper kind of work — the kind that begins when the ways we’ve learned to navigate life no longer feel adequate, and something more honest asks for our attention.
Many of us arrive at moments in life where something feels undone or unsettled: old identities loosen, familiar strategies stop working, and we find ourselves face to face with emotions we can’t think our way out of. The Quiet Work is about learning how to remain present in these moments without rushing to fix, bypass, or prematurely resolve them.
Rather than offering techniques or quick answers, this course explores how we develop the capacity to stay with ourselves as life unfolds — especially in times of uncertainty, grief, or inner change.
Drawing on depth psychology, contemplative practice, and embodied awareness, we’ll explore what it means to meet experience with honesty, gentleness, and steadiness. This is not a course about becoming someone new, but about learning how to stay — with what’s true, what’s tender, and what’s asking to be met — so that integration, clarity, and a deeper sense of wholeness can emerge in their own time.
With appreciation and in friendship,
Matt Licata
P.S. If you have any questions about the course, please write to us at support@mattlicataphd.com.
“Matt’s understanding of the subtleties and nuances of the healing journey, and how meditation and psychological work fit together were a key for me which unlocked the door to a part of myself that I had forgotten about. The way he held my experience and contained it with such love and kindness allowed me to end the war with myself and to begin to perceive even my most challenging emotions and sensitivities as allies and just how he’s right when he says that the path really is everywhere. Spending time with him was a real fork in the road in my life, a true turning point that opened up a whole new way of being for me.“
–J.R., London
What We’ll Explore Together
SESSION ONE
When the Old Ways Stop Working
Recognizing the Threshold We’re Standing In
This opening session sets the tone for the entire course. We’ll explore what it means to arrive at a moment in life where familiar strategies no longer work — where effort, insight, or spiritual practice can’t quite resolve what we’re feeling. Rather than seeing this as failure, we’ll begin to understand it as a threshold: a moment of initiation that invites a different kind of listening, pacing, and presence.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- How and why old coping strategies eventually stop working
- The emotional and psychological signs of a true life transition
- Why “trying harder” often deepens exhaustion and confusion
- The difference between collapse and initiation
- What it means to begin from where you actually are
SESSION ONE
When the Old Ways Stop Working
Recognizing the Threshold We’re Standing In
This opening session sets the tone for the entire course. We’ll explore what it means to arrive at a moment in life where familiar strategies no longer work — where effort, insight, or spiritual practice can’t quite resolve what we’re feeling. Rather than seeing this as failure, we’ll begin to understand it as a threshold: a moment of initiation that invites a different kind of listening, pacing, and presence.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- How and why old coping strategies eventually stop working
- The emotional and psychological signs of a true life transition
- Why “trying harder” often deepens exhaustion and confusion
- The difference between collapse and initiation
- What it means to begin from where you actually are
SESSION TWO
Learning to Stay
Presence Without Forcing or Fixing
Many of us have learned to relate to difficulty by either analyzing it or trying to get rid of it. In this session, we explore a different possibility: learning how to stay with experience without pushing it away or rushing toward resolution. This is the foundation of the quiet work — cultivating a kind of presence that can hold complexity without collapsing or numbing out.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- Why “staying” is often harder than doing
- The difference between presence and endurance
- How we subtly abandon ourselves when things get uncomfortable
- What it means to offer attention without agenda
- The role of gentleness in real transformation
SESSION TWO
Learning to Stay
Presence Without Forcing or Fixing
Many of us have learned to relate to difficulty by either analyzing it or trying to get rid of it. In this session, we explore a different possibility: learning how to stay with experience without pushing it away or rushing toward resolution. This is the foundation of the quiet work — cultivating a kind of presence that can hold complexity without collapsing or numbing out.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- Why “staying” is often harder than doing
- The difference between presence and endurance
- How we subtly abandon ourselves when things get uncomfortable
- What it means to offer attention without agenda
- The role of gentleness in real transformation
SESSION THREE
Meeting What We’ve Learned to Avoid
Shadow, Protection, and the Intelligence of Our Defenses
This session introduces shadow not as something dark or pathological, but as what we’ve learned to set aside in order to survive, belong, or stay safe. We’ll look at how protective patterns form, how they show up in adult life, and how they can be met with curiosity rather than judgment. The emphasis is on understanding, not fixing.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- How the shadow forms through adaptation and protection
- Why symptoms and patterns often carry intelligence
- The difference between awareness and self-attack
- How to recognize when a part of you is trying to help
-
SESSION THREE
Meeting What We’ve Learned to Avoid
Shadow, Protection, and the Intelligence of Our Defenses
This session introduces shadow not as something dark or pathological, but as what we’ve learned to set aside in order to survive, belong, or stay safe. We’ll look at how protective patterns form, how they show up in adult life, and how they can be met with curiosity rather than judgment. The emphasis is on understanding, not fixing.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- How the shadow forms through adaptation and protection
- Why symptoms and patterns often carry intelligence
- The difference between awareness and self-attack
- How to recognize when a part of you is trying to help
-
SESSION FOUR
The Body as a Place of Knowing
Listening Beneath Thought and Story
Much of what we carry lives not in words, but in sensation, posture, and rhythm. This session turns toward the body as a source of wisdom — not something to manage or override, but something to listen to. We’ll explore how the body holds memory, emotion, and meaning, and how learning to sense rather than analyze can open new pathways of understanding.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- Why insight alone often isn’t enough
- How the body carries what the mind cannot
- The difference between thinking about experience and feeling it
- Subtle forms of dissociation and over-control
- How embodied awareness supports integration
SESSION FOUR
The Body as a Place of Knowing
Listening Beneath Thought and Story
Much of what we carry lives not in words, but in sensation, posture, and rhythm. This session turns toward the body as a source of wisdom — not something to manage or override, but something to listen to. We’ll explore how the body holds memory, emotion, and meaning, and how learning to sense rather than analyze can open new pathways of understanding.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- Why insight alone often isn’t enough
- How the body carries what the mind cannot
- The difference between thinking about experience and feeling it
- Subtle forms of dissociation and over-control
- How embodied awareness supports integration
SESSION FIVe
Grief, Loss, and the Unlived Life
Making Space for What Could Not Be Carried Before
Grief is not only about loss — it is also about what was never fully lived, expressed, or received. In this session, we explore grief as a natural and necessary movement of integration. Rather than something to “process” or overcome, grief becomes a doorway into tenderness, truth, and deeper self-connection.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- The many forms grief can take beyond bereavement
- How grief relates to identity, longing, and meaning
- Why unacknowledged grief often shows up as anxiety or numbness
- The difference between emotional release and emotional presence
- How grief can soften and deepen rather than overwhelm
SESSION FIVE
Grief, Loss, and the Unlived Life
Making Space for What Could Not Be Carried Before
Grief is not only about loss — it is also about what was never fully lived, expressed, or received. In this session, we explore grief as a natural and necessary movement of integration. Rather than something to “process” or overcome, grief becomes a doorway into tenderness, truth, and deeper self-connection.
In this session, we’ll explore:
- The many forms grief can take beyond bereavement
- How grief relates to identity, longing, and meaning
- Why unacknowledged grief often shows up as anxiety or numbness
- The difference between emotional release and emotional presence
- How grief can soften and deepen rather than overwhelm
SESSION SIX
Living the Quiet Work: Devotion, Ordinary Sacredness, and the Unfinished Path
Where Healing Becomes a Way of Living
In this session, we’ll explore:
- What integration actually looks like over time
- How to recognize subtle shifts in capacity and presence
- Letting go of the need for closure or certainty
- Living with greater honesty and self-compassion
- Carrying the work forward in a grounded, sustainable way
SESSION SIX
Living the Quiet Work: Devotion, Ordinary Sacredness, and the Unfinished Path
Where Healing Becomes a Way of Living
In this session, we’ll explore:
- What integration actually looks like over time
- How to recognize subtle shifts in capacity and presence
- Letting go of the need for closure or certainty
- Living with greater honesty and self-compassion
- Carrying the work forward in a grounded, sustainable way
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been with a teacher or therapist who saw me so transparently and so lovingly. At first it was uncomfortable, scary, and I wasn’t sure if this was for me. But the kindness that came from Matt and his insight and presence into my wounding and vulnerability melted something within me. It was like years of conditioning came crashing down and I felt real love for myself and compassion for the little girl that was raging alive inside me. There is a way that I finally felt safe, to unravel and fall apart and be fully empowered, with him there next to me. After all the healing I had “thought” that I had done, Matt helped me to see that there were always deeper realms of the body and heart to excavate and open to the light. Also, just how human and real and authentic he is meant so much to me. He wasn’t “trying” to be someone he wasn’t, honest about his own biases and brokenness, and that just made it so much more natural for me to open.”
– J.P., New York
When You Join the Program, Here is What You’ll Receive
1) 6 Live Teaching Sessions with Matt
Over the course of six rich sessions, you’ll move through a thoughtfully designed journey with Matt as your guide, accompanied by a circle of fellow travelers who have walked this path before you. Each 90-minute gathering invites you into a compassionate, reflective space where the mysteries of healing and transformation can unfold at your own pace.
2) Lifetime Access to All Video & Audio
You’ll have access to this content indefinitely and will be able to refer to it at any time for further study, reflection, and contemplation.
3) A Private Member Portal [Website, Tablet or Mobile Phone Accessible]
All of the course video, audio, and exercises will be available in a private member portal for easy access. You can watch, listen, and access all course materials on your desktop computer, iPad, or through a mobile app which you’ll be able to access anywhere. You will be able to view the video and download the audio, save them on your device, and watch them as many times as you’d like.
4) A Private Member’s Only Facebook Group
When you become a member, you’ll receive an invitation to join us on Facebook for our private members’ group where you can connect with others around the world who are making the journey with you. Please note that the Facebook group is totally optional and you will not miss any of Matt’s teachings, meditations, Q&A’s etc. if you do not join.
Additional Gifts for Your Journey
To support you in The Quiet Work, I’ve included a set of additional resources — recorded teachings, guided practices, and short written reflections — designed to deepen and extend your experience.
These gifts are meant to accompany you beyond our live sessions, offering teachings and practices you can return to whenever you need support, grounding, or renewal.
Some participants explore these materials alongside the course, while others return to them later, allowing the work to unfold in its own rhythm. However you engage, these resources are here to help you feel held and supported as you continue your journey.
Gift #1
Guided Journal eBook
The Courage to Heal:
Staying Close to What Hurts
A Guided Journal for Presence, Compassion, and Emotional Integration
This beautifully designed guided journal is a companion for the deeper work of healing — a quiet place to slow down, listen inwardly, and stay close to your own experience with kindness and curiosity.
Blending depth psychology, somatic awareness, and contemplative practice, The Courage to Heal offers short teachings, gentle guided reflections, and spacious writing invitations that support the slow integration of what has been hurt or left unseen. Rather than offering techniques to master or problems to solve, this journal invites a different orientation — learning how to remain present with your inner life as it unfolds.
Many participants use this journal alongside The Quiet Work, returning to its reflections and practices between sessions as a way of deepening contact with the body, the heart, and the soul’s unfolding path. It is not a journal to rush through, but a companion you can return to again and again, across many seasons of your life.
Gift #2
Selected Writings eBook
Returning Home
A Collection of Writings
This collection brings together a selection of my most widely shared writings — reflections on healing, embodiment, trauma, relationship, and the soul’s unfolding path — gathered into a single volume you can return to whenever you need inspiration or grounding.
These pieces were originally written across many different seasons and contexts, yet together they trace a living thread: the movement of returning to the body, to the heart, and to the deeper intelligence that lives within us. Each reflection offers a doorway into the quiet work of presence — learning to stay close to experience with honesty, compassion, and curiosity.
Many participants keep this collection nearby throughout the course, opening to a page at random or returning to passages that speak to their lives in a particular moment. It is meant to be lived with rather than finished — a set of writings you can return to again and again on the path of coming home to yourself.
Gift #3
Complete Audiobook + eBook
The Path is Everywhere
Unlocking the Jewels Hidden Within You
This foundational book explores the heart of the path — how healing, awakening, and transformation unfold not somewhere else, but within the ordinary moments of our lives. The Path is Everywhere traces the movement of learning to meet experience with presence and compassion, discovering that even our struggles and uncertainties can become doorways into deeper meaning and wholeness.
Along with the complete eBook edition, you’ll receive the full audiobook — personally narrated by me as a contemplative teaching you can listen to at your own pace. Many participants find that hearing these reflections spoken aloud allows the teachings to land in a different and more intimate way, making the audiobook a powerful companion for walks, quiet evenings, or moments of reflection.
Even if you already own the printed book, this audio version offers a unique opportunity to engage the material in a more personal way — as a living transmission you can return to again and again.
What You’ll Receive as a Member
Matt Licata’s
The Quiet Work
Learning to Stay with Ourselves
When Things Feel Hard
As a member you’ll receive…
1) 6 LIVE training sessions with Matt Licata
2) Lifetime Access to all Course Videos, Audios, and Bonus Materials
3) A Private Member Portal
4) A Members-Only Facebook Group where you can connect with others around the world who are making the journey with you
Plus you’ll receive these gifts:
GIFT #1: Courage to Heal (digital Journal)
GIFT #2: Returning Home (writing collection)
GIFT #3: The Path is Everywhere (audio+ eBook)
Total Value: $697+
REGULAR PRICE: $397
TODAY’S INTRODUCTORY OFFER ONLY: $197
Join The Quiet Work today.
Choose the single payment or the easy payment plan below:
or checkout with Paypal here (single payment only):
Our Promise and 100% Guarantee
I created The Quiet Work as a vehicle for us to connect with one another and open to the mysteries of healing and spiritual self-discovery in a way that’s embodied, compassionate, and kind. The course is a direct expression of my own personal and professional journey and experience over these last 35 years. My sincere hope is that you will benefit from our time together and find it interesting and supportive. If you are disssatisfied with the first session of the course, you can receive a full refund by emailing us no later than April 10th, 2026.
-Matt Licata
ABOUT
Matt Licata
Matt Licata, PhD is a psychotherapist, teacher, and spiritual mentor whose work bridges depth psychology, trauma-informed somatic healing, and contemplative spirituality. Trained in the psychology of religion, Matt offers a relational, embodied approach to transformation—one that honors the nervous system, the soul’s rhythms, and the intelligence of lived experience.
He is the author of A Healing Space: Befriending Yourself in Difficult Times (Sounds True), The Path Is Everywhere, and the forthcoming The Return of the Imaginal: Trusting the Deep Imagination in Times of Change.
Matt’s Featured Books:
Praise for Matt’s book, A Healing Space
“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.”
– Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Compassion
“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.”
– Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness
“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
“This inspiring book invites us to trust the intelligence of whatever is unfolding in our lives, especially when it hurts, and to meet it in a deeply compassionate way. Matt Licata is a cartographer of the human heart. He knows the ineffable space where healing occurs and offers us a map for getting there, right up to the threshold. The rest is alchemy. We have been waiting for a long time for a book like this.”
– Christopher Germer, PhD, clinical psychologist and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, author of The Mindful Path ot Self-Compassion
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the sessions live or pre-recorded?
This is a live course. Sessions will be held on Wednesdays, April 8th – May 13th at 9:00 AM Pacific / 12:00 PM Eastern / 5:00 PM London.
What materials are required for this course?
There are no required readings or materials needed for this course. Just come as you are.
Although not required, some members ask about Matt’s books. In case you are interested in that, you can find his books here:
The Path is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You
How can I get technical support?
We are here to support you along the way with any questions you may have about the course, accesssing content, etc.
*For support please email: support@mattlicataphd.com
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