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Find Emotional Freedom & Inner Peace

Gain new perspectives on emotions, mental wellness, and happiness, grounded in the classical and medieval approach to mental well-being and happiness, also known as natural law philosophy. Natural law is a theory of nature which forms the basis of Greek and western philosophy as well as used by Ayurveda (under the rubric dravya-guna shastra).

In this course you will discover:

• Abiding happiness that is independent of circumstances, from a realistic perspective.
• Strong character based decisions grounded in mental excellence through the virtues. The goal here is not merely inspiration, but also stability and reason. You will learn to inhabit the virtues as stable touch-points in discernment and decision making.
• Perspective and freedom from emotional instability while honing emotional intelligence & instincts - yielding a warm, vibrant emotional life in sync with natural meaning & value of human affairs.
• Build the mental strength necessary to love, hope, and believe in difficult circumstances. You will learn how to defend yourself from addiction, distraction, spiritual dryness, triggering mental patterns, and shutting down.
• To better appreciate the beauty of creation - the rich tapestry everywhere infused into the garden of life. We aim to fill hearts with warmth, meaning, purpose, and grace, helping others to see what is wonderful in creation, and worth living and loving.
• Answer basic spiritual questions such as the meaning of life, what happiness is, and what can we know and think about God and the natural world through reason alone. This course will answer puzzling questions, such as "What is spirituality, anyway?". We will attempt to make sense of the Medieval spiritual world

Insightful & Pinpointed Emotional Assessment

You will discover practical methods for improving happiness, character strengths, managing emotions, and harnessing the motivational energy of the passions. These insights will equip you to aid clients in directing themselves to happiness, improved relationships, and successful, intentional living.

This 1-year online training program aims not only for personal excellence, but your ability to communicate these principles to others, assess gaps in their mental well-being, and offer corrective mental health coaching.

Virtue Psychology & Natural Law

It is a positive model, presenting a theory of wellness. It does not focus on disorders only, as newer psychological systems have generally done. This program presents classical mental wellness perspectives and practical advice from Greek antiquity through the medieval Christian period and up to the modern day.

As the medieval model is inherently spiritual in nature, their mental health paradigm answers questions about meaning and value which are impossible in the secular materialistic sciences. This model offers not only general wellness, but also the possibility of fulfillment, and even ecstatic fulfillment and peace.

Educational Approach & Format

Weekly live class discussions, as well as exercises, will supplement presentations to ensure you attain a firm grasp of virtue psychology and virtue based counseling methods.

Certification & Credentials

This course gives you all the training necessary to practice as a character strengths coach legally in the United States. A character strengths coach is a type of wellness coach: someone who supports clients in working toward the well-being and flourishing they seek. A person who becomes a character strengths coach encourages and assists others - offering them practical strategies and helping them marshal their inner strengths for success in the circumstances they face.

The field of wellness coaching has been growing steadily for years. "According to some surveys, 60% of Americans want health coaching, but 80% of them have never had it offered to them." (Source: Health Coaching Gains Favor Among Consumers, Insurers, & Employers) This course can help you meet this need, while equipping you to provide a positive vision of psychological well-being, something often missing in the modern world.

Student Body

Educational Outcomes

• In practical detail, a traditional Western understanding of human nature, the human passions (emotions), and human virtue, including--
  • What it is that makes a person truly, enduringly happy.
  • The role of the various passions (emotions)--love, hatred, anger, sadness, avoidance, desire, etc.--in achieving happiness, and how the passions can undermine happiness as well.
  • Why developing a virtuous character is an essential part of becoming happy.
  • How the virtues interact with and support each other in the formation of character: for example, why one cannot have perfect fortitude without hope or charity without faith, or why temperance helps you achieve justice.
  • How to avoid unhealthy behaviors that can easily feel like virtue, but are not.
• In the context of life, how to assess the numerous passions, discern their causes, and use them effectively: for example, how to determine how much a particular pleasure is conducive to happiness, or determine whether a particular anger is healthy or not and what to do about it.
• Concrete, practical approaches to managing one's passions and strengthening the virtues of a noble character.

By the end of the program you will be able to:

• Educate clients about the traditional Western ideas of human functioning, happiness, and virtue.
• Help clients, on the basis of their own insight into their strengths and weaknesses, to find practical strategies, suited to their lives, for managing their passions, increasing virtue, and directing themselves to happiness.
• Offer these insights into human functioning in a professional setting--either standalone as a character strengths coach, or alongside existing services you provide as a counselor, wellness coach, teacher, spiritual director, etc.

Career Outcomes

• Wellness coaches will learn a time-tested understanding of motivation and success, along with practical strategies, that they can share with clients to help them achieve well-being.
• Teachers will be better able to help students understand their emotions and desires and advance toward virtue.
• Mental health professionals will gain familiarity with a model of human functioning and flourishing, not of mental health pathology alone. They will also gain a detailed understanding of the traditional psychology that has left a mark on Western societies, helping them to better communicate with and aid clients from these cultures.
• Ministers or spiritual directors will learn new skills for advising those who seek their help, according to an ancient Christian understanding of emotional health and moral growth.

Community Need

"Probably 20% of people in the country have some form of mental health issue at some point in their lives...on a continuum from very little to very severe." (Source: What Mental Health Statistics Can Tell Us)

Health coaching is a particular growth sector: "Market data estimates that the total U.S. health coaching market was worth $6.14 billion in 2017, up 15% from 2014. The total market is forecast to grow at a 5.4% average annual pace, to $7.85 billion by 2022, with 121,000 coaches practicing." "According to some surveys, 60% of Americans want health coaching, but 80% of them have never had it offered to them." (Source: Health Coaching Gains Favor Among Consumers, Insurers, & Employers)

Limitations

Why Study the Virtues?

This thought provoking course explores history's practical answer to modern mental health and wellness. The program is based on the works of Josef Pieper, Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the greatest minds of western civilization.

The virtues were developed by Greek philosophers from antiquity, and provided a model for mental well-being for thousands of years before it was replaced by modern psychology. But has something valuable been lost in modern psychological methods? This course brings the wisdom and insight of a longstanding tradition into the modern era.

Curriculum

Introduction to the Human Person P1,2

Happiness / Unhappiness

Mental Health & the Passions, Appetites, Emotions, and Instincts

• Love (amor)
• Desire (desiderium/concupiscentia)
• Pleasure/joy (delectatio/gaudium/laetitia)
• Hate (odium)
• Avoidance (fuga/abominatio)
• Pain/sadness (dolor/tristitia)
• Hope (spes)
• Desperatio (despair)
• Fear (timor)
• Daring (audacia)
• Anger (ira)

Virtue Theory

• Prudence - Improving goals & means
• Justice - Becoming kind, building relationships
• Fortitude - Growing in strength
• Temperance - Attaining serenity
• Faith - Improving confidence
• Hope - Reaching for greatness
• Love (Charity) - Finding fulfillment

Is There a Link Between Ayurveda & the Virtues?

About the Teacher

From mathematician at Harvard, to muslim in Morocco, to meditating yogi, John found Jesus after a personal crisis left Him in deep need of the Lord. Returning to his roots in the Catholic Church, John now uses his passionate academic skills to present Catholic philosophy & theology in engaging, practical language for modern use.

John lives in Asheville, NC with his wife and 7 kids. He is director of joyfulbelly.com, a popular website dedicated to natural health. He is passionate about helping the ‘spiritual but not religious' crowd rediscover and appreciate the wisdom of the Catholic unity in the body of Christ

John Immel is the director of a leading health and wellness college known as Joyful Belly Ayurveda. He is president of the National Association of Ayurvedic Schools and Colleges, and director of intelligentherb.com. He has a degree in mathematics and computer science from Harvard University. He lives in Asheville, NC with his wife and 7 children.

Tuition & Financial Aid

• Option 1: Enroll for only $183/month. Offer valid until January 31st. Payments start the month you register. See payment plan details here.
• Option 2: Register with a $600.00 deposit now and pay off tuition later. Save an additional $125 by paying your entire balance before the first day of class.

Click here to apply for a partial scholarship. Financial aid is offered based on income. Scholarships may not be combined with other discounts.

For complete tuition & fee information, please see our course catalog. Note: Your payments are