Become a Heart iQ Facilitator & Certified Trauma-Informed Space Holder
Learn to Lead Transformational Group Experiences That Create the Kind of Healing One-on-One Work Canât Touch
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A 8-month professional training that certifies coaches, therapists, and healers in trauma-informed group facilitation, deepens your impact, and equips you to run paid Heart iQ circles and events.
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Join The Facilitator Training ->
âI've been a therapist for 30 years & if others like me want to shed the therapist paradigm &Â move into real heart centered, transformative work, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE!"Â
Joyce Lynn, Graduated in 2013Â
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Youâve Touched Transformation. Now Learn to Lead It.Â
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Youâve felt the power of presence. Youâve witnessed breakthroughs. You know what itâs like to hold space â but now, youâre ready to master it...
This training is an initiation into a new level of embodied leadership â one thatâs not just about what you do, but about who you are when you walk into a room.
The Circle Work Facilitator Training teaches you how to create the kind of group spaces where transformation becomes inevitable.
Where the field does the heavy lifting.
Where people feel safer, go deeper, and experience healing they didnât know was possible.
Youâll learn how to tune into subtle energy, lead with your whole being, and hold a coherent field that invites truth, emotion, and emergence.
This is where facilitation becomes art.
This is where coaching becomes sacred.
This is where you become the kind of leader who doesnât just guide â but awakens.
Apply Today
âHealing happens in connection, not isolation. When we gather in tribe, we unlock a field of transformation that no one can access alone.â
CHRISTIAN PANKHURST, FOUNDER OF HEART IQ.
Why This Training. Why Now.
The world of coaching and facilitation is evolving. What used to work is no longer enough â and deep down, you know it.
Clients are craving more than insights. More than information. They want embodiment. Resonance. A place to feel seen, held, and changed.
This training isnât just timely. Itâs essential. Here's why...
Go Beyond One-to-One Work
Youâve likely felt it already: the limitations of working only in one-on-one containers.
There are places your clients canât reach alone.
Heart iQ and Circle Work unlock a new realm of transformation â powered by the intelligence of the group field.
Learn to lead spaces where collective resonance creates the breakthroughs no single session ever could.
Stand Out in a Crowded Market
Coaching has exploded. So has competition. If you want to rise above the noise, skill isnât enough â mastery is.
Most facilitators are trained to guide individuals. Very few know how to hold a room.
This training gives you a rare and potent skillset that positions you as a leader others remember, trust, and refer.
Multiply Your Impact and Income
Group work isnât just more powerful â itâs more scalable.
When you know how to hold deep, safe, and amplified group spaces, you can serve more people, more deeply â without burning out.
Whether you want to run retreats, grow your community, or expand your offerings, this training sets the foundation.
Step Into Whatâs Next
There comes a point on every facilitatorâs path where technique isnât enough.
Where you realize youâre no longer meant to follow methods â youâre meant to embody a transmission.
Youâve done the trainings. Youâve read the books. Youâve coached, guided, held space.
But something in you is stirring â a deeper knowingâŚ
That the next chapter of your leadership wonât come from more information â it will come from transformation.
This training isnât just about learning a new tool.
Itâs about becoming the kind of leader who channels wisdom in real-time, who reads the room without words, and who creates spaces where others remember who they truly are.
Itâs about anchoring into a kind of presence that doesnât just facilitate growth â it amplifies it.
Youâre not here to stay in the known.
Youâre here to become a vessel for something bigger than yourself.
To become a clear, coherent signal that calls others home.
And this work â this training â is the initiatory path to take you there.
This is more than an upgrade. Itâs a return to your original power.
This is where your facilitation becomes embodied leadership.
This is the beginning of your next becoming.
The Depth of a Plant Medicine JourneyâWithout Substances
What if you could guide clients into the same profound states of expansion, emotional release, and awakening that they often seek in plant medicine ceremonies â but do it without any substances?
What if the breakthrough, the clarity, the deep opening theyâve been craving could happen naturally, through rhythm, presence, and the power of the group field?
In Heart iQ Circle Work, we create a ceremonial space where your body, mind, and heart can open organically â held by music, movement, deep presence, and masterful facilitation.
This isnât just a training.
Itâs a somatic ceremony of awakening â
a natural portal to deeper truth, connection, and embodiment.
Where Leaders Go to Expand Their Capacity to Hold SpaceÂ
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Anyone can learn techniques. But the worldâs most impactful leaders donât just share informationâthey transmit a deeper frequency of presence, mastery, and embodied transformation.Â
If youâre a coach, therapist, facilitator, or leader, the Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training is a full-bodied immersion into a new way of holding space. You wonât just learn how to facilitate; youâll experience firsthand the power of a high-coherence field and what it means to anchor transformation in your own being.Â
Great leaders donât just guide others through changeâthey become the change. This is where you step into that level of mastery.
Client Spotlight: Jenni Morris, Colorado, USA
Click the image above to hear Jenni share her experienceÂ
BE INSPIRED
What Others
Have Experienced
"This training is heart-centered, heart-led and heart-opening. You will laugh. You will cry. But most of all you will deepen in an experience of what it is to truly feel loved and to love others authentically from your innermost heart.â
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- Priya Mahtani, Graduated in 2014
"I can't see how I could do the work in my community helping and mentoring young men, giving them a sense of purpose and belonging, without using the Heart iQ model. Now I am giving back. Thank you!""
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- Dan Hartley, Graduated in 2012
"Since using Heart iQ with my clients, I'm having amazing results. It's changing peoples lives! They're sharing, expressing, and feeling without holding back."
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- Marc Adams, Graduated in 2013
"It has made such a HUGE difference in myself and my abilities to be present with clients. It has TRANSFORMED MY COACHING!"
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- Kim Joy, Graduated in 2014
"This young man, Christian Pankhurst, knows how to articulate these messages as well as, if not better than I can. He is a profound source of wisdom and depth.
NEALE DONALD WALSH, NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR OF CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Your Professional Journey at a Glance
You have two ways to step into this work:Â
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Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training â The complete 8-month journey (Parts 1â5) into the skills, fluency, and embodied presence needed to lead Heart iQ Open S.P.A.C.E Circles. This track gives you the education, practice, and transformation â without certification.
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Professional Track with Certification â Includes the full Facilitator Training plus The Field online program for trauma-informed facilitation. This track qualifies you as a certified trauma-informed Spaceholder, giving you the credentials to lead paid offerings, obtain insurance, and expand your professional practice.
Option 1:
Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training
March 1st - October 25th, 2026
A transformational 8-month training to learn the foundations of Heart iQ Circle Work.Â
Through live calls, video content, an in-person immersion, and supervised mentorship, youâll gain the skills, confidence, and experience to begin leading deep, resonant group experiences. This is your gateway into embodied facilitation, emotional fluency, and relational presence â the essential starting point for becoming a Heart iQ professional.
This option offers education in the Heart iQ Circle Work modality only. No certification or accredation is offered by Heart iQ. Recommended for existing therapists, coaches and professionals who have an existing qualifcation in trauma-informed culture of care.Â
Option 2:
Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training
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The Field - Certified Facilitator Training
March 1st 2026 - April 2027
A 14-month certification training in trauma-informed group facilitation.Â
You'll first complete the 8 month Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training. After graduation, you'll begin an additional 6 month online journey, afterwich you will be equipped to confidently support individuals and groups with trauma-informed principles of safety, regulation, and care.
This option offers education in the Heart iQ Circle Work modality AND certification and accredation. Through the successful completion of the course materials and the final assessment, you will receive a certificate from the Culture of Care (accredited by IPHM), designating you as a Certified Trauma-Informed Space Holder.
Option 1: Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator TrainingÂ
PART 1
Fundamentals
March 1st - 31st
Four Weeks to Build Your Foundation in Heart iQ Circle Work
Your journey begins with a four-week online immersion into the foundations and core practices of Heart iQ Circle Work â the essential groundwork for everything that follows.
Through a blend of on-demand training, live group calls, and supervised small-group practice, youâll be guided step-by-step into the culture, language, and basic structures that make Heart iQ so powerful.
Hereâs whatâs included:Â
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Weekly Live Group Calls with Christian â Join the founder of Heart iQ for interactive sessions where youâll explore core protocols, ask questions, and practice implementing the fundamentals in real time. Calls are 90 minutes and take place March 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st at 7pm CET.
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Weekly Supervised Pod Calls â Work in an intimate pod of eight participants led by a certified Heart iQ facilitator. These two-hour sessions are experiential, giving you a front-row seat to Circle Work in action and helping you embody the principles youâre learning. Pods are scheduled by your and our supervisors availabilty.
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On-Demand Video Tutorials â Access clear, step-by-step lessons that walk you through every protocol and structure of the foundational Heart iQ Circle.
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Two Cohorts, One Journey â Youâll be part of a 32-person Europe group or a 32-person USA group, journeying in parallel toward your in-person immersion.
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At this stage, youâre not yet facilitating â youâre absorbing, embodying, and preparing. Youâll be âlandingâ in the Heart iQ way of being, building the relational safety and cultural fluency needed for the live trianing retreat.
By the end of these four weeks, youâll be ready â both practically and energetically â to step into Part Two: The Immersion with confidence and clarity.
PART 2
The Immersion
Seven Days of Live, In-Person Training â Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Choose Your Location:
đłđą Europe (Netherlands)
 April 6th-12th at New Eden
đşđ¸ USA (Colorado)
April 27th - May 3rd at Casa Sagrada
After laying your foundation in Part One, youâll step into a seven-day deep-dive retreat â the heart of the training and the place where your skills come alive.
This is where youâll receive a direct imprint and transmission of Heart iQ Circle Work while also stepping into practice as a facilitator. Each day blends live demonstrations, hands-on practice, expert feedback, and immersive retreat experiences that anchor the work in your body.
Hereâs what you can expect:
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Live Demonstrations with Christian â Watch the work unfold in real time as Christian leads live demo circles. You can observe from the audience or step into the demo to experience the facilitation process from the inside.
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Skill Development & Practice Pods â Learn the core skills for leading a Heart iQ Open S.P.A.C.E Circle, then immediately put them into action in small pods under the supervision of our most experienced facilitators.
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Daily Debriefs & Harvesting â Reflect on what youâve seen and practiced, ask questions, and integrate the dayâs learnings with your peers and mentors.
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Afternoon Transmission Circles â Step out of the facilitator role and into the seat of the participant, receiving the work as a retreat experience. This dual perspective â holding space for others, while welcoming your full humanity â is essential to embodying the quality of leadership Heart iQ is known for.
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Integration & Co-Regulation â Each evening, we close the day by grounding and integrating together, ensuring the nervous system is settled and the learnings are anchored.
The week is carefully designed:
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Day One â Set the container, create coherence, and prepare the field.
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Days Two to Six â Mornings are devoted to skill development, practice, and feedback; afternoons immerse you in the retreat space, receiving and experiencing Heart iQ firsthand.
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Final Day â Integrate your entire journey and close with our signature Sunday Church ceremony â a collective, heart-opening celebration of everything youâve learned and become.
By the end of this immersion, youâll leave not just with techniques, but with a felt sense of the field and the kind of embodied leadership that comes from living the work, not just learning it.
Your meals are included in your package, however accomodation at New Eden is extra (approximately âŹ65 per night for a shared room)
PART 3
Mentorship
May - September
Four Months of Guided Practice, Feedback & Deep Integration
The immersion may be complete, but your real growth as a facilitator is only just beginning. Over the next four months, youâll be supported through a high-touch mentorship process designed to refine your skills, deepen your embodiment, and integrate everything youâve learned.
We begin with an Integration Call the week after the retreat â one for the Europe cohort and one for the USA cohort â to reconnect, harvest the learnings from our time together, and set your focus for the months ahead.
From there, the heart of this phase is your weekly supervised pod practice:
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Pods of Eight â Meet in your dedicated small group every week for a two-hour call.
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Hot Seats â Each week, two people step into the facilitator role to guide an Open S.P.A.C.E Circle while the rest of the pod participates, witnesses, and learns.
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Real-Time Feedback â Receive targeted feedback from both your pod peers and your certified supervisor, with the option to pause, reflect, and recalibrate in the moment.
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This practice develops two essential skills:
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One-to-One in a Group â Learning how to support an individual to feel safe, open, and express fully within a group setting.
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Reading & Working with the Field â Engaging the entire group so that the experience moves from personal to transpersonal, ensuring that every participant receives medicine from every moment.
Even when youâre not in the facilitator seat, youâre learning â absorbing imprints from your peers, witnessing different styles, and experiencing how the work lands from the inside.
Alongside pod practice, youâll also receive:
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Seven Group Mentorship Calls with Christian â Space to ask questions, receive deeper insight, and watch live demonstrations.
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Home Study Resources â Including on-demand training videos, case studies, and âpull back the curtainâ commentary where Christian breaks down exactly whatâs happening in a live circle.
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Specialized Applications of the Open S.P.A.C.E Model â Explore how to adapt this work for grief circles, generational healing, conflict resolution, wisdom councils, and more.
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This phase is deliberately high-touch and intimate, with limited enrollment to ensure that every participant gets multiple opportunities to facilitate, receive feedback, and anchor their learning in real-world application.
By the end of these four months, youâll have a deeply embodied confidence in your ability to hold space â not just as a technician of the method, but as a leader who can read the room, respond to the moment, and transmit the Heart iQ field wherever you go.
PART 4
Integration
September 16th - October 13th
Four Weeks to Refine, Complete & Step Into Whatâs Next
The final month of your journey is designed to tie everything together â not with a rigid curriculum, but with a living, responsive approach that meets the group exactly where itâs at.
Over four weekly 90-minute calls with Christian, youâll enter emergent Circle spaces where anything thatâs still alive in you can be brought forward â for insight, clarity, corrective experience, and deeper imprinting. This is where the gaps close, the edges get smoothed, and the wisdom of the whole group is brought to bear on each individualâs journey.
What to Expect:Â
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Weekly Emergent Circles â Held September 22 & 29 and October 6 & 13 at 7 p.m., these calls are shaped by whatâs needed most in the moment.
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Space for Whatâs Alive â Bring forward parts of yourself that need to be seen, felt, or integrated before graduation.
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Personal & Collective Focus â We work both with individuals and the field as a whole to ensure nothing is left unresolved.
Alongside these live calls, youâll receive home study content introducing the R.E.A.L. Model â four advanced Circle energies that expand your range as a facilitator:
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Relational Circles â Coaching two or more people simultaneously, exploring the space âbetweenâ and deepening connection, polarity, and intimacy.
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Emergent Circles â A surrender into whatâs naturally arising, where the field itself sets the direction â often dissolving the circleâs fixed form into a more fluid, alive configuration.
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Alchemy Circles â Trauma-informed spaces for corrective experience and deep nervous system repair, often involving mat work for full-bodied integration.
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Liberation Circles â Emotional range expansion and shadow reclamation, bringing home the parts of ourselves weâve denied, exiled, or orphaned.
While mastery of these formats takes years, this phase offers a powerful introduction to the possibilities they hold â giving you a roadmap for where your facilitation can evolve long after the training ends.
By the time you complete this month, youâll not only have integrated your learning, but youâll also be carrying forward a holistic, embodied confidence in your ability to hold space in both structured and fully emergent environments.
PART 5
Graduation
October 9th - 11th
 A Homecoming Like No Other
Your eight-month journey culminates in a weekend unlike anything youâve experienced before â The Ecstasis Heart Summit event.
From the Greek word for âstanding outside oneselfâ, Ecstasis describes a state of expanded, transpersonal love â a place where the boundaries between me and we dissolve, and the field becomes one living, breathing organism.
Over the course of this extraordinary weekend in the Netherlands (also available via livestream), youâll step into a high-frequency, amplified circle of 300+ souls â graduates, newcomers, tribe, and family â all opening, deepening, and surrendering together. Even in such a large group, the space is held as a single circle, with the same resonance, safety, and coherence youâve been training in⌠now magnified many times over.
What Makes Ecstasis Unique:Â
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A Living Circle at Scale â Imagine the depth of your pod or training circles, now expanded into a room of hundreds, yet still intimate, attuned, and alive.
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Full-Field Transmission â Christian will lead from the stage, weaving music, movement, and emergent facilitation into a seamless, embodied journey.
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Transpersonal Breakthrough â This is where personal work meets collective awakening, giving you a lived experience of whatâs possible for humanity when we come together in truth, love, and presence.
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Celebration & Recognition â Youâll be officially honored for completing the Heart iQ Facilitator Training, receiving your Certificate of Completion in the presence of your peers and the wider tribe.
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A Bridge to Whatâs Next â As a graduate, you may also be invited to assist, support, or act as an ambassador for future cohorts â carrying the work forward.
Ecstasis is not just a celebration â itâs a homecoming. A chance to integrate your personal journey into the greater story of the Heart iQ community, and to witness the next wave of transformation already beginning.
Your ticket to Ecstasis is included in your training, though travel, accommodation, and meals are not. While livestream participation is available, we strongly recommend making the trip â because to be in the room, in the resonance, and in the arms of your tribe⌠is an experience words canât touch.
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At the heart of this entire journey lies the Open S.P.A.C.E. Circle â the foundational practice of Heart iQ. What follows is a deeper look at what makes this model so powerful, and why itâs the core of everything youâll be practicing.
What is a Heart iQ Open S.P.A.C.E Circle?Â
The Core of This 4 Month Training
At the heart of this four-month training lies the Open S.P.A.C.E Circle â Heart iQâs foundational practice and methodology for trauma-informed, attuned group facilitation.Â
This is not just a module. This is the root system of all that youâll be embodying, practicing, and mastering across the full training â from the online sessions to the immersive retreat, to your peer-led integration pods.Â
An Open S.P.A.C.E Circle is a somatically anchored sharing space â one that invites truth to arise naturally from the body, not the mind. Itâs undirected, unforced, and co-created moment by moment, based on whatâs alive in the field.Â
Unlike therapy, coaching, or advanced trauma process work, Open Space is not about fixing or performing. Itâs about cultivating a group nervous system of presence, resonance, and coherence â so that when someone speaks, they are not just heard, they are felt.Â
This is where the magic begins.
The Open S.P.A.C.E. Framework
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Heart iQâs Open S.P.A.C.E Circle is guided by five core competencies:Â
S â Slowing DownÂ
We create safety through tempo. By slowing down, we allow the body to speak, the field to settle, and truth to emerge gently and fully. Healing happens when things become feelable â and feelable happens when thereâs space.
P â PresenceÂ
We train our capacity to stay with what is â to witness without rushing, fixing, or pulling attention. This is the ground of all authentic facilitation.
A â AttunementÂ
We listen with our entire nervous system â becoming available to feel and be felt, to track impact, and to reflect with sensitivity and care.
C â ConnectionÂ
We build a resonant, relational field where individuals feel not only accepted, but belonged. Where your truth can touch others, and theirs can touch you.
E â EmbodimentÂ
We support truth to be shared not just with words, but through tone, breath, sensation, posture, and presence â so that whatâs felt becomes fully expressed and integrated.
What Youâll Be Learning and PracticingÂ
Across the full four months, youâll be developing the real-world, embodied skills to:
- Create and maintain somatic safety and co-regulation in a group setting
- Hold space for truth-telling without fixing, teaching, or collapsing into emotionÂ
- Track subtle cues and amplify whatâs alive in the room â without taking over
- Invite depth, authenticity, and connection in a way that feels gentle, clean, and clearÂ
- Help participants share from their bodies, not their stories â and be witnessed in wholenessÂ
- Reflect and mirror with precision and care, so others feel seen, felt, and metÂ
- Practice attuned leadership that slows down the field, bringing safety and coherence
- Guide a group to speak into whatâs unspoken â not through confrontation, but through presence
Explore Whatâs Possible â Without Needing to Master It All Now
Youâll be shown whatâs available in the wider arc of Heart iQ sharing formats, giving you inspiration for future mastery.
- Grief Circles â help others name and feel their losses in a safe, held field
- Shame Sharing Circles â invite exiled parts to be met with love and resonance
- Wisdom Council Circles â access the intelligence of the group without advice-giving
- Dare to Share Circles â open tension-releasing truth in the group for greater unity
- Needs & Boundaries Circles â support participants in naming and expressing what they truly want
- Generational Release Circles â create space to speak what no longer belongs to us
- Clearing Circles â resolve unspoken tension and restore relational coherence
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The R.E.A.L. Model of Heart iQ Facilitation
A Glimpse into Whatâs Possible as You Advance
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By the time you reach the final month of the training, youâll have learned how to lead a Heart iQ Open S.P.A.C.E Circle â the foundational circle for creating safety, resonance, and heartfelt sharing.
But this is just the beginning.
In the final month of the training, youâll be introduced to four additional, more advanced circle types â each representing a unique layer of transformation in the Heart iQ landscape. The purpose of this training module is to show what's possible in Heart iQ Circle Work, rather than teach you how to do it, as these deeper layers of the work take many years to master.
Together, these four circles form the R.E.A.L model, a dynamic map of how group intelligence expresses itself through different kinds of group spaces.
Once you see it, youâll never hold space the same way again.
Relational Circles
A space where two or more individuals come together to explore the intelligence of the field between them â deepening intimacy, polarity, truth, and connection.
This is the evolution of âus.â
Emergent Circles
A surrender into the intelligence of the collective field â where âweâ awakens and something greater moves through us all.
This is where âmeâ becomes âweâ â and the magic unfolds.
Alchemy Circles
A therapeutic group space where trauma is gently revisited, re-patterned, and healed through physicalization, attunement, and corrective experience.
This is healing in motion â where the nervous system rewires in connection.
Liberation Circles
A space for shadow work, emotional range expansion, and the reclamation of bound life force.
This is where power and permission meet.
Option 2:Â
The Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training
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The Field - Certified Facilitator Training
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Lead with Presence, Facilitate with Care
After completing your Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training, participate in an additional 6-month online professional training designed to certify trauma-informed space holders and elevate your ability to lead transformational group experiences rooted in safety, attunement, and emergent wisdom.
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November 2026 â April 2027 Online Training | 100-Hour Certification | Accredited by IPHM
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This program integrates trauma-informed principles with the art of emergent group facilitation. Youâll gain the somatic intelligence, leadership presence, and real-world skills to create spaces where authentic healing and transformation can naturally unfold â without overriding nervous system capacity or forcing breakthroughs.
â Learn to hold group fields with sensitivity, structure, and sovereignty. Â Â Â
â Cultivate embodied leadership rooted in care, regulation, and clarity   Â
â Become a Certified Trauma-Informed Space Holder accredited by IPHM
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What Youâll Experience:
- Trauma-Informed Education with Culture of Care: You will embody the principles of trauma-informed care, learning how to create group spaces where every participant feels safe, supported, and empowered to engage in transformational work.
- Emergent Group Facilitation: Learn how to read and respond to the energy of a group in real time, allowing the wisdom of the collective to guide the process. You will develop the intuitive and embodied skills needed to facilitate spaces where magic happens.
- Holding a Safe, Brave Space: Navigate the delicate balance of creating spaces that are both structured enough for safety and fluid enough for authenticity. You'll learn to cultivate an environment that allows for both individual and collective transformation.
- Nervous System Awareness: Gain mastery over the nervous system dynamics within group settings, understanding how to regulate your own system and help others feel secure enough to engage fully.
- Leadership Through Embodiment: Develop your presence as a leader who embodies the qualities of compassion, attunement, and resilience. This isnât about doing moreâitâs about being more. The facilitatorâs essence and consciousness is the key to creating a truly transformational group field.
- Regenerative Self-Care: Learn how to center yourself and expand your capacity to hold safe, regulated spaces for others by prioritizing your own well-being and energetic boundaries.
- Regenerative Business Skills: Discover how to plan and host events in alignment with your natural rhythms, avoiding burnout by embracing sustainable practices that allow you to receive as much as you give.
- Money Relationship: Develop a secure, embodied relationship with money, fostering receptivity and ease as you allow financial flow to support you in your personal and professional life.
Program Highlights:
- Field Facilitation Training: Delve deep into the art of facilitating "the field," the energy that arises in group settings. You will learn how to guide participants beyond the surface, working with the mystical and practical elements of group energy, nervous system dynamics, and emergent wisdom.
- Culture of Care: Provides a comprehensive trauma-informed education, offering tools for ethical leadership, relational skills, and the power dynamics that arise in facilitation. Youâll learn to hold the high standards of care needed to ensure that your spaces are healing and inclusive.
- Embodiment & Somatics: Become fluent in the language of the body, tuning into the subtle cues and sensations that guide the flow of group dynamics. You will build the skills to lead from an embodied place, responding to what the group needs moment-to-moment.
- Practical Leadership Skills: Gain hands-on experience in event creation, from marketing to space-holding. Youâll learn to set up the physical and energetic container needed for your work to have the greatest impact, while also stepping into your unique leadership style.
- Live Facilitation Practicum: Apply everything youâve learned to your own live real-world events, where youâll co-create, produce, and facilitate group experiences then bring those experiences back into the training for reflection, integration and supervision. This immersive practice will cement your skills and help you find your unique facilitation voice.
What You Will Gain:
- A Trauma-Informed Certification: By completing the program and assessments you will be recognized with certification in trauma-informed group facilitation accreditation is through the IPHM
- Unshakeable Confidence: Develop the skills, knowledge, and self-trust to guide groups safely and powerfully through deep, transformational processes.
- Proficiency in Emergent Facilitation: Learn how to facilitate dynamic group fields where creativity, healing, and connection flourish in service to the greater whole.
The Facilitators of The Field
Rachel Rickards
is a trailblazer in the realms of personal transformation, intimacy, embodiment, and relational dynamics, wielding her expertise as a group facilitator, event producer, and devoted mother
Having co-founded Embodied Intimacy in 2014, Rachel nurtured it into a globally renowned organisation, offering transformative trainings and events focused on intimacy, trauma healing, somatic education, and community building.Â
In 2019, Rachel assumed leadership of Belly2Belly Facilitator Training, succeeding her mentor David Cates. Through Belly2Belly, she imparts healing practices designed to regulate the nervous system and foster deep relational connections.Â
Rachel launched "The Field Facilitator Training," in 2022, this work embodies her commitment to revolutionising group facilitation. Rachel guides participants toward dynamic and fluid collective leadership, nurturing the blossoming of group soul dynamics within shared spaces
Catherine Hale
is a transformative coach and educator specialising in nervous system coaching and leadership. She empowers clients, including coaches and leaders, to harness post-traumatic growth and align with their deepest purpose.
Catherine advocates for heart-centred entrepreneurs to redefine their relationship with abundance, promoting businesses that resonate with their nervous systems and thrive authentically. Beyond personal transformation, Catherine champions trauma-informed practices, emphasising safe, compassionate spaces for healing and growth.
She leads efforts to create a culture of care in coaching and facilitation, ensuring practitioners meet clients with empathy and understanding, fostering profound and lasting transformations.Â
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Hear From Those Whoâve Experienced It
Watch as past participants share how this facilitator training has transformed their professional and personal livesâmore impact, more income, doing what they love.
VERY SOONÂ THIS COULD BE YOU
More Participant Experiences
"Eye-opening is the best way to describe this retreat. I was confronted with difficult truths and shadow aspects of myself, yet in the safety of the field, I was able to face them, move through them, and step into liberation. The experience was deeply transformative, and Iâm leaving with so much to carry forward into my life."
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Anselm Achberger
"Every Heart iQ retreat leaves me with a full heart and a renewed sense of possibility. It has expanded my capacity to feel, express, and connect more deeply than anything else in my life. The experience is nothing short of magical, and Christian and Sumir are masterful facilitators who hold the space with unwavering presence."
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Sasha Langesfeld
"Experiencing Heart IQ Circle Work was nothing short of profound. It felt like stepping into an ancient way of healingâwhere deep listening, attuned touch, movement, and raw expression replaced the numbing and suppression of modern life. In this masterfully held space, I confronted and embraced parts of myself I had long rejected, receiving imprints of compassion that redefined how I want to live. Witnessing others in their liberation became my own. This wasnât just personal healingâit was a portal for collective awakening."
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Karmen Kovic
âOne of the biggest gifts I received from my time with Christian was learning to trust my body as a guide for authentic connection. A simple yet powerful exercise on co-regulation helped me realize that my attempts to connect with my partner through words werenât enoughâwhat she needed was presence, attuned physical touch, and deep listening beyond words. That night, I simply held her, and like magic, we refound our connection. Since then, this practice has transformed how we relateâbringing more depth, presence, and ease into our relationship. Iâm deeply grateful for this unexpected yet life-changing gift."
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Chris Brawer
Client Spotlight: Coco, NC, USA
Some More Client Spotlights
Meet Christian...
Before I could guide others into wholeness, I had to find it for myself.
Hi, Iâm Christian Pankhurst, founder of Heart iQâ˘, and Iâm honored to be your guide on this path.
My journey began in a childhood marked by intensity and unsafety â experiences that led me to years of anxiety, panic, and inner disconnection.
Through these challenges, I developed Heart iQâ˘: a trauma-informed, body-based approach to healing and group facilitation that now helps thousands of others lead with more presence, depth, and authenticity.
Iâve spent the last 20 years refining this method and training facilitators across the globe.
Along the way, Iâve integrated wisdom from both Eastern and Western traditions â always with the goal of creating safe, attuned group spaces where transformation happens naturally.
If youâre ready to deepen your impact, lead from your heart, and become a master of embodied spaceholding, Iâd be honored to walk beside you on this journey.
Now, let me introduce you to the rest of my team â the ones whoâll be supporting you every step of the way.
Training Begins in...
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Option 1 â Heart iQ Circle Work Facilitator Training Only
 8-month journey (Parts 1â5). Education only.Â
Includes:Â Â
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Part 1: Fundamentals â 4-week online training with weekly live calls, supervised pods, and on-demand modules.
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Part 2: Immersion â 7-day live Heart iQ Facilitator Intensive (Netherlands or USA), meals included at the venue.
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Part 3: Mentorship â 4 months of weekly supervised pod practice, hot seats, peer feedback, and mentorship calls with Christian.
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Part 4: Integration â Weekly emergent Circle calls and an introduction to the R.E.A.L. advanced circle model.
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Part 5: Graduation â Ticket included for the large-scale amplified field weekend (travel, food & accommodation not included; livestream available).
Certification:Â
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Not included.
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Designed for those who want the education, skills, and transformation without accreditation, or who already hold a professional qualification.
Ideal for:Â
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Coaches, leaders, and facilitators who want to deepen their skills and embodiment without the need for formal certification.
Tuition:
âŹ5,000 pay in full or twelve payments of âŹ500 using our easy pay plan.
Tuition includes meals at both the week long facilitator immersion and the Ecstasis Heart Summit.
Accommodation for both events is extra. Budget between âŹ30-âŹ100 per night for your stay at New Eden.
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Option 2 â Facilitator Training + The Field Certified Facilitator Training
  8-month journey (Parts 1â5) plus trauma-informed certification.Â
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Includes:Â
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Everything in Option 1 (Parts 1â5).
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The Field Certified Facilitator Training â 6-month online program in trauma-informed facilitation, nervous system regulation, and Culture of Care principles (IPHM-accredited).
Certification:Â
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Certification as a Trauma-Informed Space Holder.Â
Ideal for:Â
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Those who want formal accreditation, insurance eligibility, and credentials for paid facilitation work.
Tuition:
âŹ7,500 pay in full or twelve payments of âŹ750 using our easy pay plan.
Tuition includes meals at both the week long facilitator immersion and the Ecstasis Heart Summit.
Accommodation for both events is extra. Budget between âŹ30-âŹ100 per night for your stay at New Eden.
New Eden.
Where The Magic Happens.Â
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The Live Training Retreat takes place at New Eden, our own dedicated venue located in the Heart of Friesland, Netherlands, surrounded by 50 acres of beautiful forest and nature. It is completely private and is gloriously free from the noise and distractions of modern life.Â
Staying at New Eden is like stepping into a different reality of wonder and magic. We go to great lengths to create a strong and loving container for you to stretch into the best version of yourself while creating a culture of acceptance, authenticity, depth of practice, mastery and heart-centered living. This is a space where you can thrive!
Frequently Asked Questions
ALL YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED HERE
What is the Heart iQ Academy?
Is there a pre-requisite to attend this training?
Do you offer certification and accreditation?
How much time will it take?
I have no experience. Is this still a fit?
Can I upgrade to a single room for the event?
How do I get to New Eden?
What if I need to cancel?
What's the Price of the Training?
What if I already have a professional qualification?
Do you offer support to help build my business?
Can I attend the advanced modules before graduating?
I have other questions... What do I do?
Click on the 'Live Chat' to reach us via WhatsApp.
The Final InvitationÂ
This isnât just another training. Itâs a turning point.
If something in you feels the pull â a knowing, a quickening, a quiet âyesâ â this is your invitation to follow it.
Whether youâre ready to expand your impact, deepen your embodiment, or finally feel part of a community that gets you, this journey will meet you where you are⌠and take you where youâre meant to go.
You donât need to have it all figured out. You just need to show up.
đ Click âBegin Your Applicationâ to take the first step. If itâs a fit, weâll invite you to register and join us for this life-changing experience.
We canât wait to meet you.
Begin Application ->