Like a Pro:
The Wheel of Consent for Professionals
In-person or online
Like a Pro brings the transformative model of the Wheel of Consent to professionals working with topics of consent, boundaries, relational intimacy, body sovereignty, trauma recovery, sexuality, communication, and touch. Originally developed for touch practitioners, we also welcome non-touch professionals. This course is for massage therapists, psychotherapists, physicians, tantra practitioners, sexuality guides, escorts, counselors, bodyworkers of all stripes, teachers, educators, coaches, and just about anybody working with people.
Partial scholarships available for those who are part of or are working with marginalized communities.
Learn:
- The single most important skill a practitioner can have and how to develop it.
- What Giving and Receiving really are and why knowing the difference is crucial for getting profound results for you clients and students.
- Assessment - finding out what your client is ready for and - more importantly - what they are not. This must be done with guided somatic experience, not just with conversation.
- Containment - how to create a strong container for your clients that has enough safety for them to get into the real work they are coming to you for.
- Quadrants - how the Quadrants of the Wheel of Consent fit into your sessions and how they don't.
Teach your clients and students:
- To notice, value, trust and communicate their needs and desires
- To notice and be responsible for their boundaries
- A simple touch practice/game to take home
- To identify the tendency to go along with what is being done and how to reverse it
- To gain confidence and clarity in their ability to touch
- To notice they have a choice about how they are being touched and how to choose how they want to be touched.
What Like a Pro IS NOT
Therapy - though it will likely challenge you personally and bring you insights!
An anti-oppression or social justice training - though we will look at how those dynamics affect one's ability to consent!
A training to teach the Wheel of Consent to groups - though you are welcome to add what you are learning to groups you are already teaching.
What Like a Pro IS
Like a Pro teaches you a practice - the Wheel of Consent. We do our best to help you experience each of the four quadrants. Once you have the experience, we talk about how to bring these insights and practices to your work with clients. As you continue with the practice, you will gain insight into how it applies to many situations in your life, including family, work, community and social dynamics. That will be up to you!
Support our Scholarship Fund!
We offer some scholarships to students who need it, mostly people who are members of or work with marginalized communities.
Like a Pro in-person
The in-person format is the original Like a Pro. It's 5 full days, 10 am - 6 pm each day. Includes practice, theory, and discussion.
The first three days, we take you through a series of somatic experiences in which you experience each of the four quadrants of the Wheel of Consent. The focus is on you.
Then over the next two days we build on that experience and show you how to apply the principles to your client sessions, including how to offer it as a practice for your clients to take home. (Also expect it to affect your personal life).
Like a Pro Online
Like a Pro online is - surprisingly effective! After teaching the in-person course for 15 years, like many others, we developed an on-line version over the last couple of years. We have been pleasantly surprised at how much our students can learn about touch and consent while working online.
The course includes thorough video and written resources, theory, discussion, and home-study practices. Then we add live Zoom calls for somatic experiences and lively discussion.
Twelve live Zoom calls of 3 hours each (36 hours), plus home study. Closed captioning included. All calls recorded for your review.
COVID update
Due to significantly lower numbers of COVID cases in recent months, the School of Consent has eased COVID precautions that were in place for in-person courses, which included testing on the first day.
If cases significantly increase, we'll reinstate our previous protocols if needed, and that information will be posted here and emailed to course participants.
Faculty
For the in-person courses, it's Betty Martin, creator of the Wheel of Consent, or Robyn Dalzen, who has trained directly with Betty and has been teaching the Wheel since 2017, and their co-facilitators, assisted by Certified Wheel of Consent Facilitators and other local experienced practitioners.
2023 Schedule
North America
September 27 - October 1: Seattle, with Betty Martin and Katie Spataro -- Class is FULL. You may apply for the waitlist.
October 4-8: San Francisco, California, For men who work with men, with Michael Dresser and JoJo Bear
October 18-22: Seattle - Also Betty and Katie -- Class is FULL. You may apply for the waitlist.
Europe
November 16-20: Berlin, Germany, with Robyn Dalzen and Puma Hoflich - Class is FULL. You may apply for the waitlist.
Australia/New Zealand
February 14-18, 2024: Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, with Michael Dresser and Stella Topaz - Applications open Nov 1
February 28 - March 3, 2024: Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington, NZ with Michael Dresser and Stella Topaz - Applications open Nov 1
Online
October 23 - December 5: 9 am- 12 pm Pacific, Mondays and Tuesdays with Robyn Dalzen, Michael Dresser, and Max Pearl
Cost
- $1800 USD, classes held in Australia and New Zealand in 2024: $1700 USD
- Returning students (already taken Like a Pro): $900.
- Work-study (Helping with set up and clean up. You won't miss any class time.) $1600
- Partial scholarships available for those who are part of or are working with marginalized communities. Make a note on your application.
- Scholarship schedule: We do our best to help everyone who wants to take the course to be able to take it. To that end, we gather the scholarship requests for the first month of applications and then determine how we can best disburse the funds, to help as many people as we can.
- Purchase of Betty's book, The Art of Receiving and Giving: The Wheel of Consent, is required for the online course (and highly recommended for the in-person course). $24 US to be purchased on your own.
- Life happens! Cancellation policy here.
Apply
New students:
1) Read the group guidelines for the workshop space.
2) Fill out the application linked below.
3) Pay the $200 deposit.
4) Have a conversation with us to make sure we are a good fit.
5) If we are a good fit, you're in, and your deposit counts toward your course fee. We'll give you the link to make the rest of your payment. (If we are not a good fit, we'll refund your deposit right away.)
6) If we are full, you'll be added to a wait list.
7) If you request a scholarship, see the 'Scholarship schedule' above. It may be a week or more before we can tell you how much we can give you.
Returning students:
We have room for 3 half-cost returning students in each class.
However some courses are full for this discount. Please ask! [email protected]
Introducing Robyn
(2019)
