teaching
“IT’S AN INCREDIBLE GIFT TO CRAFT AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE PEOPLE CAN HEAL THEMSELVES.”
As a teacher Rythea balances empathetic facilitation with structure. She creates a safe container through clear and honest communication, providing step by step tools that are accessible and empowering. Passionate about creativity and transformation, Rythea has led Expressive Arts workshops, Performance Art intensives, therapeutic support groups, movement-based practices, peer to peer counseling courses, and now parent support groups.
PEER COUNSELING INTRO SERIES with Rythea Lee and Divinah Erving
Sunday Evening, 6 Week Session from 7-8:30 EST (may run over 15 minutes)
on Zoom, May 5th-June 9th, 2024
Peer Counseling is a listening/support modality that is practiced by peers to help heal, break isolation, find natural solutions to problems, and feel a sense of belonging. In this course, you will learn the basics of holding space for each other, being heard, seen, and held with empathy. We will learn how to create a sustainable and enlivened space that can become a regular practice in your life.
I have been teaching this practice for about 5 years (and doing the practice for 30!) and Divinah and I taught together throughout the pandemic. We are excited to create a community of people who are open to exploring feelings and connection.
If you have been in any kind of mental health crisis in the last 6 months, please email me before registering at rythea@crocker.com
This is an introduction to the practice, so it's Level 1.
Cost: $350 for six weeks, payment plans accepted, email us about it if needed. Inquire about BIPOC Scholarships and low income spots for this series, these go quickly.
Register by making payment to Venmo at Rythea-Lee or PayPal (use my email address), Make sure to send your email when you register!
Cancellation and Refund Policy: Once you pay your deposit, there are no refunds. If there is an emergency and you let us know 2 weeks before class starts, we can put your payment towards another class. This does not apply to missed classes during the course you pay for. Missed classes will not be refunded and cannot be made up. Cancellation after 2 weeks notice cannot be applied to other classes.
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Thank you for your interest!!!
TOWARDS NON-COERCIVE, CONSCIOUS PARENTING: A SIX-WEEK SUPPORT GROUP
with Rythea Lee
6 Sundays,7-8:30 EST ZOOM
This is a six-week support group for parents who are hungry for options other than authoritarian, power-over, traditional parenting approaches. It’s for those who have been deep in an alternative path with their kid(s) and those who are just starting out. It’s for parents who feel confident in being outside of the mainstream, those who are constantly unsure and doubtful, and those who vacillate from one to the other.
I have been an all-in non-coercive, conscious parent for almost 7 years. I have been a trauma therapist for 28 years! My daughter is 11 years old and has been on the journey with me and my partner in developing collaborative, mutually respectful, play-based ways of relating and being close. It has felt scary, unknown, and often lonely to treat my child as an equal, to see her as someone whose opinions, desires, and needs are equal to mine, to empower her voice, her knowing, and her choices. BUT the joy, love, and closeness I have with my daughter is unmistakable. My partner and I have been able to help her work through divorce trauma while staying connected to her family, her creativity, her friends, her feelings(!), and her wonderful essential self. Parenting has only gotten better, more fun, and easier through this collaborative, relationship-focused approach. And it has been transformative for our family.
Through posting videos on TikTok and Instagram, I have discovered a huge number of parents and child advocates who are interested in this approach. To my happy surprise, I have found parents all over the world who are working to take responsibility for their triggers, generational traumas, and reactivity in their parenting. I have had the honor of meeting with them for parent mentor sessions and I love it. Breaking cycles of generational and societal parenting is the hardest thing I know of and that is why I am offering this group.
I will give attention to your stuck places, deepest questions, problems, feelings, and the isolation that comes with trying to change your mindset as a parent. We will also celebrate your wins, your courage, and the amazing fact that you are willing to grow. Also, and this is HUGE: I’m excited to connect you with other parents who are on this healing path and trying to be closer with their children in a new way! This support group is designed to create a community that can support and encourage each other over time and I have so much to share with you! Non-coercive, conscious parenting is a whole field of study and I can’t wait to dive in.
This group is for you if: You have seen my videos about non-coercive, conscious parenting, and you feel drawn, curious, and open to learning about this way of parenting.
WHEN: 6 Sundays:
PRICE: $350 if you register by deadline, $400 after that date. Please email me about scholarship and low income options.(I close the groups at 12 people so they fill up).
I am committed to providing equity in relation to my services and the needs of parents whose identities or financial reality puts them in a marginalized systemic situation. This is why I’ve set up options for BIPOC parents and low income parents who otherwise could not take this course. Please contact me to find out more.
HOW TO REGISTER: Send payment to either Venmo at Rythea-Lee or PayPal at Rythea@crocker.com. Once you register, I will send you a Zoom link with a few registration questions so I can know a bit more about you and your family.
LINKS for learning more about Rythea.
Online Youtube show: www.rythea.com/advice
All links including social media: https://linktr.ee/rythea
Cancellation and Refund Policy: Once you pay your deposit, there are no refunds, although you can put your payment towards the next group I offer of this kind. This does not apply to missed classes during the course you pay for. Missed classes will not be refunded and cannot be made up. I do record the sessions and send out recordings of each group.
Testimonials from participants of recent support groups:
“Connecting with other parents helps me "keep the faith" that our children matter and love is real! We can love our children unconditionally and be great parents. We can mess up, apologize, repair, and keep trying! Our children are amazing.”
“Parenting in America is such an isolating experience, even among friend groups it feels like you can’t say (or have to say) certain things. Just curating a space where we can share and hold each other was healing and helpful.”
“Finding Rythea has literally been life changing! I am so thankful I was able to be a part of this group and took so much away.”
“So glad I did this group! The take-aways are hard to explain, but my soul has been fed by it.”
“Rythea did a wonderful job balancing compassion and empathy for parents in the group, while also holding us accountable for our behavior as parents. Rythea holds the space with so much curiosity and enthusiasm, it is easy to bring more openness and joy to this intense work!”
"Having this support has been huge for me. Non-coercive, collaborative parenting is working to bring me into flow and into the most special closeness with my two kids. Nothing is more important or more enriching in life, and Rythea is such a warm, open, funny, relatable and wonderful guide. Her philosophy is total and it has helped my little family be its best. I am eternally grateful!"
"I am so grateful for this support with non-coercive parenting . It was so helpful to learn that so many other parents are struggling with the same things. Coming together once a week was a beautiful ritual to create for ourselves and our children. I am very grateful. It is hard for me to show up, I am glad I did!" 💚💚💚
"Parenting is isolating. Parenting is Lonely. It's a minefield of triggers and dark holes. This group simultaneously allows that to be ok and disproves it. Thank you Rythea for creating a safe place for parents to struggle."
"This group was worth the time. you remember that it's ok to not be perfect and you gain the strength to shift your mindset."
"Rythea Lee and the non-coercive parenting support group was a wonderful experience. I learned that many of us feel the same pang in our hearts when hearing traditional parenting advice, and she has provided a safe place to talk about those issues generally, and to be able to get into specific situations. Other parents sharing vulnerably, what they were going through on their journey, helped me feel less alone in this immensely rewarding, but society-defying road to long-term connection with our children. What a gift."
“A+ for Rythea (and assistant Maggie) you're both wonderful. I really appreciate how you can make space for literally anything that comes up. You really hear people and don't try to manage them. You validate their experience on a human/universal level, and then respond with actual guts and have some sort of a relatable answer and way of weaving in a story that demonstrates practical steps (always in a humorous or disarming way). You really know your shit, and you're not afraid to call out what you see but you do it with such acceptance and compassion of the person. Thank you!”
“Parenting is one of the most isolating parts of life. Being able to go on a journey with other parents trying to love our kids better is really a bright spot in a sometimes dark and lonely world.”
“I am so happy to see my kiddo want to spend time with me as we've gotten to know each other. Knowing she trusts that I will take care of her emotionally and physically is terrifying and I'm so happy that's where we are.”
“This parent support group has been so wonderful. In just six weeks I have seen so much change in myself and my relationship with my children. I highly recommend.”
“Rythea is amazing. This group switches gears from behavior modification to acknowledging the triggers and trauma we are projecting at our kids. In doing this it has created such connection and transparency with our kids; really allowing us to see them for who they are and what they need.”
“I can't think of any advice, any blurb or pump up poster that helped me get my parenting in line with where I wanted it to be before this. I will never be perfect but I will never be the way I used to be either. I would recommend this to anyone.”
“Rythea is an enthusiastic and perceptive guide to no-coercive conscious parenting. You learn just as much about yourself as your child and you meet a group of supportive parents who are going through diverse but relatable experiences. A real community. If you are interested in no-coercive, conscious parenting - i.e. tired of the same old toxic results from authoritarian parenting which seems to put more and more distance between you and your child - this is a great starting point! Thank you Rythea!”
“Having a group of other parents to learn and grow with as I work to improve my relationship with my child has been incredible. Rythea is warm, genuine, and a brilliant facilitator who created a safe space from the first session, with a diverse group coming from many different experiences as parents.”
“The structure was phenomenal - the grounding meditation, the freewriting, the peer counseling, and sharing with the group, the size of the group so that we could all feel like we got to talk with the whole group and also had these meaningful connections with individuals via the peer counseling. All really facilitated deftly with questions when folks needed to go deeper. I know some folks mentioned wishing it were longer but it was a super powerful use of 75 minutes.”