Satir: The Journey to Self

This Satir-based program offers a meaningful opportunity to draw on your inner resources and release what no longer serves you.

Virginia Satir developed a range of healing and integrating processes designed to help people better understand themselves and one another. Her aim was personal growth and congruent communication, supporting individuals to become “more fully human.” This work invites you to honor the past and the strengths you developed within your family of origin, while also making room to express the resources you want to live from now. It also supports you in letting go of, or transforming, the learnings that are no longer helpful.

During the program, you may:

• Gain greater clarity around identity, autonomy, and boundaries
• Deepen your recognition and acceptance of yourself and others
• Develop greater self-responsibility
• Release beliefs and patterns that no longer fit
• Take risks in exploring new ways of living
• Experience a freer flow of life energy
• Move toward your highest potential

“Once again I soaked up being amongst people who were attentive, self aware, communicative, compassionate, vulnerable and knowledgeable. Oh and there was a lot of laughter! The content encouraged me to learn more about the Satir model.” participant April 2025

Format:

Satir processes draw on psychodrama, gestalt, guided imagery, sculpting communication stances, and techniques for accessing the unconscious. The work takes place in group settings and in triads.

Graemme, Louise, and Emmanuel trained and worked extensively with the late Maria Gomori, one of the world’s leading practitioners and teachers of Satir processes.

The Haven is an affiliate of The Virginia Satir Global Network.

Investment:

The Earlybird tuition of $1380 is available until one month before the program begins. Full payment is due one month prior to the start date, regardless of tuition price.

Private and shared room options are available.

Schedule:

Your program begins with dinner at 5:45pm and your first session at 7:00pm.

Daily schedule:

• Breakfast 8:00 – 8:45am
• Morning session 9:00am to 11:45am
• Lunch 11:45am to 12:30pm
• Afternoon session 2:45–5:45pm
• Dinner 5:45 – 6:30pm
• Evening session 7:00 – 9:30pm

Afternoon and evening sessions may vary. The program concludes with lunch on the final day.

Transportation:

If you are traveling to Gabriola as a foot passenger on the Gabriola Ferry, a shuttle to The Haven can be requested. Details will be included in your pre-arrival email.

Admission requirements: Students must have the desire and ability to learn, and demonstrate responsible self-care, responsible self-organization, and sound mental health. English understanding and speaking ability are required.

This program does not require approval by the registrar of the Private Training Institutions Branch (PTIB) of the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training. As a result, the registrar did not review this program.

Leaders

Graemme Brown

Graemme Brown (Dip.C / SEP) runs a private counseling practice on Gabriola Island. He has been connected with The Haven since attending his first experiential workshop there in 1985, and is committed to compassionate, gentle inquiry. Drawing on Virginia Satir’s family-systems approach, Jungian shadow work, and Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing trauma healing system, Graemme works to help people reconnect with their innate resilience and aliveness, while fostering healthier relationships within the self, with others, and with the planet. As a member of The Haven’s core faculty, he co-leads Come Alive and Living Alive: Self Awareness.

Louise Amuir

Louise Amuir (she/they), with diplomas in Haven Counselling and Group Leadership, is drawn to creativity and expressive arts as pathways to connection with self and others. Louise is committed to diversity, inclusion, equity, reconciliation, and collaborative process. Their diverse experience in theatre, writing, art, dance, music, working with street youth, youth in receiving and treatment homes, parenting, relationships, and meditation brings humour, mindfulness, curiosity, and playfulness to their work. As Haven faculty, Louise leads or co-leads Befriending your Inner Critic, Living the Questions, Inner Wisdom for Women, Awareness through Creative Expression, Journey to Self, and Haven New Year visioning.

Emmanuel Gaillot

Emmanuel has worked in a range of roles, including trainer, facilitator, systems jiggler, theatre translator, and software programmer. For the past fifteen years, he has helped the people he works with feel better about themselves, more confident in their choices, and proud of what they accomplish. With Maria Gomori as his teacher, Emmanuel trained extensively in the Virginia Satir approach and has developed a deep understanding of these teachings, which he shares in his work. He mostly lives in Paris, France.