Special Events - Experience Enki: an alternative to Waldorf and Montessori for classroom and homeschool using an experiential, developmentally based, sensory rich, arts integrated, multicultural, holistic program for gifted to special needs children

2012 Enki Events

Parenting as Path: one day workshop

This time it is YOUR child whining in the grocery cart and reaching to pull the candy off the rack. With a smile on your face covering clenched teeth, you cheerfully move her hands back into the cart. She hits you and quickly knocks the magazine rack down. You calmly explain why she mustn't hit, while you put the magazines back and pay the cashier.

But underneath the smile you have had it. You are frustrated and angry - enough already.

Tomorrow is the Spelling Bee (karate competition, gymnastics recital, or any other "performance"). You know your child can win and it would make him so happy - and validate your decision to spend extra time on his practice. But he is in his room alternately whining and stomping and saying he won't go. You gently encourage him, patiently telling him for the umpteenth time that he is the best and to just imagine how happy he will be when he wins.

But underneath the calm encouragement, you are anxious and full of dread - can't he just do this!

A decision has to be made - graduation is near and there is no such thing as letting this one go - any action or inaction is still a decision. You know the choice he wants to make is going to lead to trouble - but you know the sound of that door slamming, the ugly yelling, and the stamping out and not returning till late. So you say very little and put relevant articles you have cut from the paper on his bed (usually to find them crumpled on the floor later!). But you are treading carefully, giving him his wings.

But underneath the calm and quiet, your heart is racing, you aren't sleeping - after all, in the end he is still your baby and you have been through this!

How many of us actually feel good and energized after smiling through scenes like these? I often tease that it seems like children come in with a "cheat-sheet" for how to trigger their parents into their most off-balance selves. They do; at the top it is labeled "Hope and Fear." The unimaginable love that is parenting triggers hope and fear like few other experiences in our adult life. In turn, personal blocks we've carried with us since our own childhood years come roaring onto center stage. Therein lies our opportunity, hiding in the very feelings we think are undesireable, is a voice of extraordinary wisdom.

Consider the examples above. Where is the vitality in these scenes? So often we think the forced smile and surface calm show our strength and willingness to be who we should be. But, in truth, the frustration or anxiety is where the energy is, so that is where we find our own wisdom. Something deep within is using all its strength to try to guide us in a genuine and positive direction. If we can free that hidden voice, our reactions do not spill out on anyone else but instead reveal a deeper and wider knowing. From that place, anger and dread (or any other overwhelming and unpleasant emotion) become doorways to wisdom and guides for clear, supportive, and non-resentful action.

In this one day Parenting as Path workshop, through activities and discussion, we will begin exploring both the wisdom and the blocks, and look at ways we can use all of them to enliven our lives and enjoy our children as we walk the path of parenting.

Boston, MA 2012
May 5th, 9 am to 6:00 pm

$265 includes the one day workshop and a follow up consultation.

Register here

. . . and when there is no village?

You still deserve support! It has become clichéd to say that it takes a village to raise a child – no one knows this better than parents in the trenches. But what happens when there is no village? What then? That is the situation most parents face every day.

In the more than 40 years that I have been working with children and parents, I have talked with many parents about the challenges presented by the lack of community in our lives. There is much the modern world offers and each of us treasures the independence of our lives, but it does come at a real cost.

group laughter

What is it that community life offered in years past that we, in the modern world, experience as such a soul level loss? Is it practical help with caring for the children? Is it the relief of sharing the frustrations and delights with other adults who live in those same trenches? Certainly those things are a critically important part of a healthy family life, but I believe another very important aspect of community is the availability of those who have walked the path of parenting before us – those who have walked it but who are no longer living in the intensity and relentless demands of the childrearing years.

Why? When we are in the “parenting-trenches” it is hard, if not impossible, to take the long view, and harder still to trust ourselves when the stakes are so high and the demands so relentless. It is hard to know whether the explosive two year old or the outrageous 15 is just a passing phase, i.e. something you need to make peace with, or if the anger it rouses in you is your deep and wise alarm system letting you know help is needed. Without the perspective that was once a given in the multigenerational village life, what do we have to help us distinguish between the normal frustration of our very human adult struggles, and the voice of our wisdom alerting us to a deeper need?

Time and space certainly help – but of all the things in short supply for parents, these two top the list! So it becomes imperative to make better use of the time and space we do have. Over the years, many parents I have consulted with - whether by phone or in person - have described the consultation experience as one that provided an expansion of time and space that they didn’t believe possible. In a life where everything seems urgent, they found a fresh perspective – not just any perspective, but one that brought their own wisdom to the forefront.

If you would like to share in this sort of experience, I now offer consulting time for any interested parents – independent of work with the Enki curriculum. As well, if you would like to immerse yourself in a full day of “village” living, I invite you to attend the Parenting As Path Workshop this April. Details for both private consultations and the one-day event are below.

Podcast Interview with Beth

Finding the Wisdom within the Struggle
Parenting Consultation Reviews

Beth Sutton - Parenting Consultant/Educator

For conscientious and dedicated parents everywhere, who are seeking a holistically integrated life journey for themselves and their children, I highly recommend Beth Sutton's consulting services.

Beth is gifted with exceptional listening skills, endless depths of wisdom, love and compassion, and has profound insight into human nature and the universal truths that connect us all.

She draws from extensive professional and personal life experience and has unparalleled understanding and knowledge of health and healing, personal development and well being, motherhood, family life, child development, and education, making her poised to advise on any challenge one might face as a parent.

Through Enki Education and ongoing, private consultations with Beth we have been able to awaken, strengthen and affirm our innate capacities to parent our children, trusting and using our own intuition as the leading navigational compass. With Beth's guidance we are better able to evaluate options in a contemporary sea of information and offerings, and to continue to make decisions and choices from a core of values that we define as most important and life sustaining for our family. Beth's assistance always provides us with perspective, focus and calm, as we face our sometimes overwhelming parenting roles. Her sense of humor and lightness of being reminds us not to get lost in the issues at hand, her deep grounding keeps us focused on achieving realistic balance within our given life parameters, and her gentle and kind persistence guides us back to activities that nourish the life force within ourselves, so that our children in turn can source from us.

To work with Beth is to give yourself, your spouse and your children a gift for life, and she provides the support we all deserve and need as we meet the demands of our very important jobs as parents, raising our children and caring deeply about their future and the future of mankind.

Grete from California

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I needed help with sorting through the myriad of behavioral and learning problems after seeking out many other consultants and practitioners. Being desperate to help our special needs daughter and rarely relying on my instincts, I requested a consultation with Beth. From the beginning, Beth has given meaning and direction to what had seemed bewildering and overwhelming. It does not seem like she is on the other end of the phone; it seems as if she is right in our home without all the heaviness of the subjective thoughts. She listens, then she listens, and she might listen again. And then she asks questions from such a grounded, experienced place.

Then comes the all important time of listening to her. When she speaks it is as if listening to the secrets of the ocean with the wisdom that the tides bring to the shore. She brings forth not a clinician's answer but a deep sense of what is going on in the child. At this time, it is as if a new birth has taken place for me - what was just too much to weed through, vanished; what arises is a calm sense of knowing what to do.

From these consultations, I have new eyes to see our child in ways that support and help her. It happens every time. Every time - and I have been consulting with Beth for four years. Just like the tide rolling in, a sacred understanding that is constant like the tide happens every time.

Stacy in Austin, TX

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Thank you so much for our talk today. It is very rare that I even breath word that my son was ever sick and even more rare that I tell the entire story. I have never explained his illness to someone through his eyes. To be really honest, the experience was so painful for me that I have never thought that his view of the events might have been okay. In fact I have tried very hard to not talk about his illness at all because it has been so painful to recall. But now I feel different......Thank you, I feel talking with you about that event has lifted some weight off my heart and given me the power to see his experience as his own without my clouded painful memories. I didn't think we would be working on maternal healing today, but somehow we did. Thank you......

Lisa in Southern California

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Along the path of parenting, one experiences certain defining moments that help us to reflect clearly on our current lives, chart a new course, or simply stand back and celebrate the fruits of our labor. Our phone consultation with Beth Sutton, has proven to be one of those great defining moments. Beth's experience, knowledge, wisdom, clarity of thought and vision, compassion and non-judgment are rare and precious gifts that she generously shares. Our consultation revitalized us and instilled in us great optimism and renewed vision. The suggestions she gave us for improving our family's well-being have propelled us into a very nurturing rhythm. Beth Sutton is a beacon of hope and calm in today's world of parenting and teaching. We wish all parents the opportunity to consult with her.

Parents in California

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"Finding the wisdom within the struggle,” consultations for parents:

wanting to learn to recognize the voice of their inner wisdom;

in need of a sense of space and breath;

interested in taking a broader view;

with specific concerns about your child(ren) and the family system.

We offer two choices for the initial meeting to allow us to explore your needs and desires, and to see if our working together is a good fit: 1) a one day parenting workshop ($175); or, 2) an initial, one hour phone consultation ($125). On this base, ongoing consultations are available in packages (6 hours for $450). This time can be used in 1 to 1 ½ hour blocks.

To schedule consultations, click here

Rousing Intuition: 3 day workshop

Do you hear yourself saying...

"Uggh...I hate the way my wife makes decisions. Everything from our choice of restaurant to which couch to buy is made by committee."

"My son is driving me nuts. He never wants to go on play dates. I'm afraid he's not going to have any friends."

"I think my business partner is in la-la land. Every time I turn around, he's telling me not to stress about what our next move is. He doesn't care that we don't even have a plan!"

"My daughter is the most stubborn person on the face of the earth. In fact, not just stubborn, but contrary! If I say black, she wants white. If I say yes, she says no. It goes on and on all day long. I can't take it anymore."

If any of these statements resonate, you are heartily encouraged to join Beth Sutton for a weekend workshop of Rousing Intuition.

The Rousing Intuition Workshop explores ways to better recognize and trust the voice of our own intuition. Through a series of playful, active, and artistic exercises we begin to experience ourselves, and those who challenge us most, in a new light. We tease apart the expectations and assumptions that shrink our perceptions and block our intuition. We discover the ways fear and judgment shut down our perception, and we begin to open our ears to our own intuition. This deep knowing, in turn, informs our insight and understanding and opens life-filled options for us - moment by moment.

Are you Parenting? Managing a team? Or choosing which path to take at any given moment?

In all of these, our intuition steers us all the time. It is busily rumbling beneath the surface of both our emotions and our logical proofs. It rumbles out its clear message of "Yes. This is the way to go," or "No way, back off now!" The only question is whether we will hear its call, and whether we will trust ourselves enough to act on it.

We may believe logical decisions rule the day, but truly, anything can be argued logically. In fact, our rational minds often distract us from our own inner knowing. That which is intuitively known does not always fit in the logic box, but how do you know which is which?

Join us for a weekend of clay modeling, music, architectural installations, laughter, and provocative discussion. Working with the Temperaments (Rudolf Steiner), the Buddha Families (Tibetan Buddhism), and Sensory Learning Styles (Enki Education) we will open up our expectations and explore new perspectives and possibilities. From there, we practice hearing our own intuition as we take a fresh look at that which challenges us - from the screaming child, to the coworker who seems to be deaf, to the undertaking that defies our plans - learning to trust ourselves, regardless of the hurdle before us.

Connecticut
June 2012
Tuition: $365.00 per person
Details TBA
(class size limited to 16 persons)