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Kay Gardner is best known for her work as a founding member and Senior Lead Trainer of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a model she has studied and contributed to since 1991.
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With over 40 years of clinical experience and 30 years in private practice, Kay brings a wealth of expertise and a compassionate presence to her work. Her background as a therapist and teacher of Hakomi Body Centered Psychotherapy enriches her approach, combining body-centered awareness with spiritual depth. Known for her heartfelt and skillful teaching, Kay creates an inviting space for transformative learning and healing.
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Kay is currently and most intimately working with Legacy Burdens - offering workshops and retreats around the globe and currently writing her first book on the subject.
about
Currently Featuring:
Legacy & Cultural Burdens Retreat in Italy
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October 1-5, 2025​
Embark on an embodied healing journey with a focus on Legacy & Cultural Burdens, using IFS therapy, breathwork, and other somatic practices. Join Kay this fall in Italy!
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This retreat is a process of insight and inner transformation, with the Internal Family Systems model serving as its guiding framework. Our program is a unique combination of daily teaching and guided experiential processes, somatic embodiment practices (movement, dance, breathwork, sound bath), local excursions (hot springs, visit to a nearby town), and unscheduled integration time.
Join Kay in Portugal:
The Spiritual, Energetic Lens of IFS
March 1 - 6, 2026
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This retreat will help you expand your experience and understanding of parts work to include a rich and deep resonance with energy and spirituality. Kay has taken the things that have enriched, inspired and enlivened her along this path and included them in this retreat.
All the systems we will explore (the chakras, the enneagram, the dakinis, the sacred marriage, the marriage within, shadow work, the survival strategies etc ) are there to help to wake us up, to not only who we are, but how our patterns run energetically.
The Retreat will take place in Sesimbra, Portugal. Sesimbra, a hidden gem just a stone's throw from Lisbon, is a charming town, beloved by locals. Sesimbra is beautifully situated next to Arrábida National Park, where you'll find stunning hills covered in Mediterranean vegetation, dramatic cliffs, and untouched beaches.
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Legacy Burdens Retreat in Colorado Springs
La Foret Conference and Retreat Center
May 16th - 18th, 2025
Details
Legacy Burdens are beliefs, feelings, and emotions that are handed down through the family line either directly or indirectly. These beliefs turn into burdens if tied to shame. Sometimes legacy burdens only go back a generation or two, but others can go far back, even hundreds of years.
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This retreat offers participants a framework and greater clarity on working with clients' legacy and cultural burdens. With a small group, intimate setting this in-person retreat will be highly experiential as well as didactic allowing for a deep dive into the exploration of legacy burdens.
Participants will learn what legacy burdens are through their own personal exploration of their own legacy burdens. Additionally, participants will gain deeper insight as they are invited to explore their ancestors’ burdens and their relationship with them.
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Schedule
Thursday night check-in
Friday & Saturday:
8:00 to 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 to 12:00 pm Explorations and Meditations
12:00 to 1:00 pm Lunch
1:30 to 5:00 pm Continue Experiential Practices
5:30 to 6:30 pm Dinner
Sunday:
8:00 to 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 to 12:00 pm Ancestors/Grief Ritual/Closing
Current Offering
IFS Retreat: Legacy Burdens in Bali
April 6th to 12th, 2025​
Legacy Burdens are beliefs, feelings and emotions that are handed down through the family line either directly or indirectly. These beliefs turn into burdens if tied to shame. Sometimes legacy burdens only go back a generation or two, but others can go far back, even hundreds of years.
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Participants will learn what legacy burdens are through personal exploration of their own legacy burdens. Additionally, participants will gain deeper insight as they are invited to explore their ancestors’ burdens and their relationship with them.
This retreat offers participants a framework and greater clarity on working with client’s legacy and cultural burdens. With a small group, intimate setting, this in-person retreat will be highly experiential as well as didactic, allowing for a deep dive into the exploration of legacy burdens.
SOLD OUT:
A Possibility of Awakening
Workshop will be held on Zoom
February - December, 2025
During these uncertain times, have you been in relationship with fear? With grief? With disapointment? And as you quietly consider this question, has this relationship mostly been influenced by reacting to… or responding to situations? If the energy of responding too arouses curiosity… This program could be a seed for you.
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Details
We will spend Friday mornings together, exploring our energy bodies, getting to know Parts, and the issues that live in each chakra. Through processes such as tantric meditation, parts work, and a practice called "Feeding your Demons (Tsultrim Allione)" we will work together to awaken the possibility of unburdening parts and bringing ourselves into a state of self-love and authenticity.
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Schedule
Feb 28, 9am to 12:30pm CST
April 18, 9am to 12:30pm CST
May 9, 9am to 12:30pm CST
June 6th (all day)
July 11, 9am to 12:30pm CST
August 8, 9am to 12:30pm CST
Sept 12, 9am to 12:30pm CST
Oct 31, 9am to 12:30pm CST
Dec 5th (all day)
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