Foundations | WILD HEARTS

Foundations and Inspiration

A mix of proven methodologies

At Wild Hearts, our work is both intuitive and grounded.

Each experience, whether a circle, retreat, or journey, unfolds in response to what is alive in the moment, yet is always held within a strong and trusted framework. Our foundations come from evidence-based methodologies in body-led coaching, psychotherapy, somatics, trauma healing, and group dynamics.

This combination allows us to stay deeply responsive to each person and each group, while ensuring that every process is guided by approaches that are researched, reliable, and rooted in decades of practice.

These foundations bring safety, depth, and coherence to our work. They offer clear pathways for navigating emotion, trauma, and transformation, while leaving space for the mystery, creativity, and authenticity that arise in real human connection.

The methodologies that inform Wild Hearts include circle work, somatic intelligence, trauma healing, mindfulness, parts work, and depth psychology. Each offers a distinct lens, and together they create the living backbone of our coaching, therapy, and community experiences.

Heart Intelligence (Heart iQ) & Heart-Led Circle Work

Based on the work of Christian Pankhurst and Tej Steiner, these methodologies emphasize emotional intelligence in groups. They use circle structures to create safety, resonance, and honest communication. By engaging the collective intelligence of the group, participants experience faster insight, deeper healing, and more authentic connection than through individual reflection alone.

Wilderness Education & Coaching

Wilderness education and coaching is about learning with nature, not just in nature.
Wild landscapes become active teachers, mirrors, and co-facilitators , inviting presence, honesty, and adaptation.

Through time spent outdoors, guided reflection, and heart-connected group processes, participants reconnect with instinct, rhythm, and inner orientation. Challenges are met as invitations to listen more deeply, to regulate together, and to respond from truth rather than habit.

Essential Outdoor Adventure

At Wild Hearts, Essential Outdoor Adventure is about using adventure as a pathway back to essence.

Through raw, nature-connected activities ; climbing, moving in the mountains, multi-day treks, exposure, effort, rhythm — we step out of the habitual and into direct contact with what is real. The body engages, the mind quiets, and something deeper comes forward.

Adventure becomes a mirror.
It reveals how we meet challenge, uncertainty, fear, trust, cooperation, and presence , not as concepts, but as lived experience.

By engaging the wild through the body, we reconnect with the Self beneath the layers: clear, alive, relational, and true.
The outer adventure serves the inner remembering.

Inner Parts Work - Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Developed by Richard Schwartz, IFS is a systemic model of the psyche that works with “parts” of the self. It provides a framework for engaging protectors, exiles, and the core Self with compassion and curiosity. In practice, it helps clients integrate conflicting aspects of themselves and reduces shame, inner conflict, and self-sabotage.

Somatic Psychotherapy - Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing, founded by Peter Levine, focuses on restoring balance to the nervous system after stress or trauma. By tracking bodily sensations and completing survival responses, it helps release stuck energy and fosters a greater sense of safety. I combine this with other somatic psychotherapy methods that emphasize embodiment, regulation, and the body as a source of intelligence.

Mindfulness

Zen Mindfulness practice provides a foundation of non-dual awareness and the capacity to stay present with whatever arises. As a therapeutic tool, it supports self-regulation, reduces reactivity, and opens space for insight. It allows clients to cultivate stillness and a greater ability to respond rather than react.

Shadow Work - Jungian Psychology

Carl Jung’s depth psychology highlights the role of the unconscious, archetypes, and the integration of shadow aspects of the psyche. Working with archetypes and shadow material helps individuals access hidden resources, reclaim disowned qualities, and achieve greater wholeness.