Virtual Embodied Leadership Group Coaching w/ Chris Wilson
This group will help you grow as a human being and a leader!
We meet on Zoom on the first, second, and third Thursday of every month from 5:30 to 7:30 PST. In each session, we will drop in, get real, and learn to craft meaningful stretches and support to grow in all areas of our lives and work.
Only 10 Spots Open + 2 Facilitators (The group will fill before the start date)
Our next season starts Thursday, Jan 9th, 2024 @ 5:30 to 7:30 PST
Cost = $4500 for 6 months with 9 sessions of 1:1 coaching
Click here » to schedule a free 30-minute intro session to apply to join the group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Part 1: Curious
Part 2: Evaluating
Part 3: Enrolling & Group Agreements
Part 1: Curious
The stakes - Why would I want to join this group?
I’ll speak for myself: I want to learn how to become the embodied leader of my life, work, and relationships so I can respond to the challenges in my life more empoweringly. I want to do this as a gift for myself and all the people and things I encounter.
If this resonates with you, you are likely a good fit for this group.
Our lives and work are constantly on. We live in a time of incredible technological connection and information overload, yet we are all more disconnected than ever. Loneliness, burnout, trauma, anxiety, stress, confusion, reactivity, insecurity, and numb-out are not just epidemics but real-life issues we are all faced with every day.
This training is a REAL HUMAN GROUP. The conditions and quality of relational space that you will experience inside this container will create the opportunity to show your nervous system and brain directly that various life-awe-inspiring ways of being are possible. The utility of receiving this direct experience for your nervous system, brain, and protective parts of you is beyond words. Often, group members will realize they feel more alive, energized, and effective by making tiny shifts during specific trailhead moments in their day-to-day lives that would have previously gone unnoticed. This is something you will learn to target in the group.
This experience is sometimes like “taking the blinders off” or “seeing your life more clearly.” The physical experience inside the group will show your body and protective parts that a new way of “being with” the challenges of your life, work, and relationships is possible. This is an “unblending” from our protective managerial parts of ourselves, which hold us back from accessing our creative, courageous, and persistent deeper Selves.
How can a 2-hour group, only three times a month, inspire this change in a person’s life? We will all leave the group and return to the world of our default lives. But we will do so with tools, awareness, stretches, and visions of new ways of responding to what is challenging us. The social-emotional scaffolding of the group will then become a training space, and your group members will be your training partners. This form of relationship is unique and again required to become a mature, Self-led adult, but how many people have access to this kind of relationship? Very few.
We will learn to practice together, and you will receive training to prepare you to use the group and to leave the group to return to the flow of your default life, work, and relationships. When we do this together and alone and then return to the container to reflect and check in on what happened in the high-stakes environment of our default lives and work, we get to witness and discover the intimate, paradoxical, and often hidden process of growth and transformation.
We all need this to see that it is possible to grow. This direct experience allows humans to relax, open, and connect so they can get back to growing, and this is exactly what is missing from our modern social environment. Authentic, intimate, co-regulated connection is held with the dual intention of maintaining a brave space while doing our best to reinstate safety when lost. The quality and texture of elastic space is a central component of leadership growth and development.
This is why you should join this group. It’s real, and I promise it will help you connect more deeply to yourself and your real life. This brings me to the next question.
How will this change my life in three months?
This group will give your body, brain, and mind a new way of seeing your life, relationships, and challenges. But what does that mean? To me, it means your life becomes more vast and open. You experience less anxiety and more joy. With the spaciousness comes the ability to take more skillful action. This creates a virtuous cycle in your life that, in my experience, can only come from practicing embodied skills.
This will happen by following a seasonal process of transformation and chance. You and your body are a natural part of the environment, and this group follows a natural seasonal process of transformation and change. You'll discover this process when participating in the group for one season. After one, two, or three seasons, you will deepen your appreciation and connection to this process even more. Our aim is that you take what you learn in your first season and connect it to your own life to continue practicing when/if you leave the group.
What kinds of things will this group help me with?
Any challenges you authentically bring to the group. The value of this type of group is the holistic depth of the practice. Even if group members have different challenges, you will likely see a reflection of your life through your group members’ experiences.
What is embodied leadership training?
Intentionally choosing to practice physical, mental, and emotional skills to get out of our heads and unconscious protective patterns so we can learn to respond to the challenges in our life, work, and relationships with more resources (resources means access to the *5P’s and 8C’s of Self). This is what it means to be an embodied leader.
*5P’s and 8C’s of Self: Purposefulness, Precense, Patentience, Playfulness, & Perspective, Courageousness, Confidence, Creativity, Calm, Clarity, Connectedness, Compassion, and Curiosity.
Part 2: Evaluating
Do you have any introductory materials I can review?
Yes, subscribe to the Return To Practice Toolkit and Newsletter to receive access to the five embodied leadership intro trainings plus all of our supporting practices and exercises.
When is the last chance to join & when does the group officially start?
The next season of the group officially starts Thursday, Jan 2, 2024 @ 5:30 PM PST.
Can I try the group first to see what it is like?
Yes, schedule a free intro session to speak with us before. If a seat is open in the group, you are welcome to attend one group before enrolling. If all seats are full, you must wait until a seat opens.
What is the history of this group?
In 2018, Chris Wilson started these embodied leadership groups as men’s circles in San Francisco. The groups ran weekly for five years, working with over 400 men. As the practices and culture of the groups matured, we expanded and deepened the practices to be for all humans, and Return to Practice—Embodied Leadership Training groups took shape.
Who’s facilitating, and what is their experience level?
Chris Wilson is a somatic life and leadership coach for founders, executives, and teams. He is the founder of Return To Practice Life and Leadership Coaching. Chris has over 4000 hours of intentional group and one-on-one coaching experience. He works 15 hours a week with leaders, individuals, and teams and is a full-time student at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He intends to graduate with a master's degree in somatic psychology and continue his embodied leadership training practice to serve humans who want to do deeply transformative work and become fully resourced embodied leaders in their lives, work, and important relationships. Contact Chris Wilson directly at Chris (at) returntopractice.com or schedule an intro session here.
Hi, I’m Kathryn Hill. I guide and engage with clients as they envision a better life, space, or career. I work with them to identify challenge areas, and together, we personalize solutions and create a roadmap to achieve specific goals - whether creating a mission statement for your life, finding your next great job, or designing a Zoom background bookshelf that reflects your true self.
I am a Co-Active trained coach. Co-active means living in the paradox of being and doing. It is built on the foundation that every person is naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. Nobody is broken. When we start with this belief, we can only find answers and move toward growth.
My background also includes psychology and interior design. I grew up developing a love for travel and an appreciation for other cultures. I’m a proud San Franciscan with roots in Chicago. My happiest day is walking the city and popping into new shops to discover delicious snacks.
Who is the group for?
People who want to take personal responsibility to practice tools and skills to grow are professional, mature adults with many responsibilities, good jobs, full lives, traumas, businesses, and real-life challenges.
This group is only for people capable of taking responsibility for showing up more deeply and powerfully. This means this container is not a good fit if you are experiencing significant addictions or mental health issues that would cause you to be unable to take responsibility for yourself. This is a training group, not therapy, although in many ways, in our experience, this is more effective than traditional therapy for many people. If you work with a therapist outside the group, we ask that you let your therapist know you are joining the group.
Are my challenges a good fit for the group?
You have a choice of what you bring to the group. Still, we invite members to take the risk of being as authentic and open as possible about real-life challenges, traumas, anxieties, arguments, pains, and life leadership quandaries. If you have questions, schedule an intro session.
How is the group facilitated?
Group sessions are 2 hours long. The group is a co-active experience facilitated by Chris Wilson and Kathryn Hill. All of the members in the group are invited to learn to co-lead and to participate in co-owning the space. Each session follows a step-by-step process that will allow group members to work together and learn to use the power of the group to grow and transform their embodied leadership skills. You will likely leave each group feeling more energized / not tired even after a long day.
What is it like to be in the group?
Group members have often described it as paradoxically energizing yet relaxing. This is often the most significant AHAH moment for members. After two hours of group, you realize you feel more energized for life, even after a full day of work and it being late in the evening. How could this be?
The group experience is often called a dojo or a training space. It is a space where the normal rules of engagement for life do not apply, and you experience a quality of being that enlivens you and allows you to see the challenges in your life in new and awe-inspiring ways. When you leave the individual group sessions, you bring this insight into your life and get to return to the group to reflect and practice again.
Part 3: Enrolling & Group Agreements
What are the group agreements?
Please read and comment on the group agreements… “I full name - agree.” Show us that you have read these agreements.
Pricing: How much does the group cost?
$1,500 per three-month season, seasons paid for in advance, hold your seat
$4,500 with personal 1:1 coaching (9 sessions per season)
Dates & Times of Live Group Sessions (Oct, Nov, Dec 2023)
Unless otherwise noted, the groups meet each month's first, second, and third Thursdays from 5:30 to 7:30 PST. Those dates are:
10/3, 10/10, 10/17
11/7, 11/14, 11/21
12/5, 12/12, 12/19
Dates & Times of Live Group Sessions (Jan, Feb, Mar 2024)
Unless otherwise noted, the groups meet each month's first, second, and third Thursdays from 5:30 to 7:30 PST. Those dates are:
1/02 (Too close to New Years, moved to 1/23), 1/9, 1/16, 1/23
2/6, 2/13, 2/20
3/6, 3/13, 3/20
What happens if I miss a group?
We ask that you send a message to the group. See agreements.
Time & work expectations outside the group
Everything you will learn in this group is designed to fit into your busy, full, real life.
One to two hours of intentional practice a week or reading and reflecting is a great addition. Still, many of these practices take 3-30 seconds to perform, and the refractory period or benefit lasts for hours or days.
Resources: The Embodied Leadership Training Manual 200 Pg. PDF
When you subscribe to the Return to Practice toolkit + newsletter, you’ll get access to the complete toolkit and all the live updates to follow with the group. This includes the manual below.
You can also download the 200-page PDF—The Embodied Leadership Training Manual. This is the most current version of the manual, which I will update each season as we move through the process in the group. It is currently in version 21, which is 21 seasons or 5 full years of being updated.
Click here to schedule a free intro session.
Before we speak, please fill out the application below as well. It should take 5 minutes.
100% YES, I want to join the group! Click here to Apply Now - Jan 2024 Embodied Leadership Group with Chris Wilson & Kathryn Hill
Enroll Now
If you pay before being admitted to the group and find that you are not a great fit, we will refund your payment immediately. However, there are no refunds once you’ve been admitted and attended your second group.