I’m excited to share the dates and information for the January 2022 Consent-Based Education Course! There is a waiting list for this course, and place offers will be sent out shortly. If you would like to be added to the waiting list for this cycle (subject to availabilty) or a future cycle, please email hello@sophiechristophy.com

2022 is the 5th year that the course has been running, and I can’t wait to get to work with a new cohort of change makers on this journey!

The course will take place via Zoom, time and dates are as follows:

Time:

7-9pm (GMT)

Dates:

Tuesday 11th January

Tuesday 25th January

Tuesday 8th February

Tuesday 22nd February

Tuesday 8th March

Tuesday 22nd March

Communication during the course:

Once booked on to the course and before we begin, I will add you to a private Facebook group, which we will use for the duration of the course. This is where I will share the resources that lead in to each session, the plans for the session, other important info, and it is also a community space that will exist after the course cycle has finished.

What is the course about?

As parenting evolves beyond the traditional authoritarian, patriarchal model of ‘power over’, and families make the choice to live together in more mutually respectful, socially just ways that acknowledge the personhood and agency of children, essential questions arise as to what that means in regards to our relationship with ourselves, others, and our outlook and interaction with the world around us.

Consent-Based Education is a response to this tension. What happens when authoritarianism/patriarchy is stripped away, and we become more questioning, self-directed and empowered in our own lives, and desire this for the children in our lives too? What does it look like to move beyond patriarchy, to embrace our own personhood, agency and autonomy, and question the education, socialisation, social norms and values that we’ve experienced until now? What does consent, voice and agency mean to us, and how do these things relate to authenticity, self-direction and self-actualisation?

This course is designed for parents and people who live/work with children, who want to explore and go deeper into their understanding and practice of Consent-Based Education, for their own personal development and to support life-long living and learning in a consent-based way. It is especially suited to unschooling parents and those working in/practicing self-directed education.

The course is made up of the following six sessions:

Session 1: What is Patriarchy, its impact and effect?

Session 2: Breaking Cycles – the Process of Change

Session 3: What is Consent-Based Education?

Session 4: Love and Relationships, Boundaries and Freedom

Session 5: Living and Learning, Creativity and Flow

Session 6: The Bigger Picture

Each session will last for two hours, and include the following:

Agreement making (how we are going to work and play together),

Check-ins,

Me sharing on the theme of the session,

Chance for reflection, questions and deepening the inquiry,

Exploring putting the theory into practice,

Check out.

As you would expect, the sessions/course is run on consent-based education principles, so that it experiential as well as content based. Basically, I’ll be practicing what I preach in the way the whole thing works!

An important note about the transformational nature of the course:

This course has a transformational quality to it – it has been described as “life changing” by multiple participants. It is designed through the lens and process of my own journey, which has been profoundly transformative and impactful to every part of my life. Every time I have run this course cycle so far, it has again had a deep impact on my life, and been catalystic of change. This has included the ending of important relationships, changes in family relationships, personal growth, loss, grief, liberated creativity, experience of self-actualisation, deep personal alignment and spiritual expansion. I have witnessed this also happen in the lives of those that have taken part. You will be encouraged to manage your participation in the course in the way that you feel ready for and is right for you (consensual engagement), however it is important that in booking on to the course you do so knowingly of the impact it may have, and that change in yourself and in your life may be catalysed as a result.

A note on partners:

I run the course with my partner, Max Hope, present in the sessions. This is for my own development in running the course (she gives me great critical feedback), for support during the course (it’s a very intense experience that is transformative for me too), and to support her own journey and process in this work (it’s super helpful to be in the same process together and sharing what is going on). Where partners are enthusiastic to be part of this course together, it can be an amazing experience and I highly recommend booking two places. If you have a partner(s), who will not be taking part, you may wish to consider how you can ‘bring them along’ your journey in some way, outside of the sessions.

To book: A place on the course is £288. People on the waiting list will be contacted in order shortly with booking details. If you would like to be added ot the waiting list for this course (subject to availability) or future course cycles, please email: hello@sophiechristophy.com