​
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.
​
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.
​
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
Spirit of the Land Retreat
October 4–9, 2026
Kilkenny, Ireland
Step onto sacred soil and into sacred remembrance. Guided by the deep teachings of Kay Gardner. This retreat offers an embodied experience of spiritual and energetic systems. You’ll explore how intention, presence, and ancestral connection can deepen not only your personal healing, but also expand the depth of your therapeutic practice. Expect fun and the unexpected in ceremony, sacred connection to the land, communal healing, storytelling, and space to soften into what you’ve inherited and what you are ready to transform. Come home to your Self, your lineage, and the spirit of the land.
Legacy Burdens:
An IFS Retreat For Ancestral Healing of Cultural Burdens and Invoking Blessings
Avila Center For Community Leadership in Durham, NC
December 11 - 13
Details
This transformative workshop offers an inspiring, experiential exploration of our inner landscapes, with the intention of working with our legacy and our cultural burdens and blessings. Participants will have a rich opportunity to explore what we carry from both our ancestors and our culture.
We will spend our time together in experiential meditations and embodiment practices, sculpting our parts and sharing deeply with one another in the sacred space of our collective Self-energy. We will also deepen our relationships with our Whole and Well ancestors, often reaching far back into our ancestral lines. We will culminate our time together with a grief ritual for our ancestors.
Join us for this deep and intimate exploration of our cultural burdens, our blessings, and our ancestral lines.
​​​
Join Kay in Portugal:
The Spiritual, Energetic Lens of IFS
March 1 - 6, 2026
​
​
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.
​
NEW! Mystery School
​
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.
​
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.
​
Join Kay & Ted on Zoom every day from 9am to 12:30pm:
March 20
April 24
May 22 (all day)
June 19
July 31
August 21
Sept 18
Oct 30
Nov 20 (all day)
Cost: $900.00
​
​
Remembering Ourselves Home:
5-day Retreat for Women in Ontario
led by Kathy Cox and Kay Gardner
May 11–16, 2026 in Elmhurst, Ontario
As we transition from one stage to the next, women often face obstacles in realizing our full potential. Join Kay Gardner and Kathy Cox in a workshop that will allow each woman, no matter our age or phase in life, to break down those barriers and step into their authentic power. Through movement, art, writing, time in nature, and deep connection, you’ll:
-
Break through inner barriers
-
Reclaim your personal and authentic power
-
Identify and shift blocks to manifesting your calling
-
Reflect and be witnessed in heartfelt community
​
Coming soon...
-
Legacy Burdens in Michigan (May 2026)
-
Womens' Retreat (May 2026)
-
Spiritual Lens of IFS (Virtual with Souliology, June 2026)
-
July 16-18. Seattle legacy burden retreat (July 2026)
-
Energetic Lens of IFS (Virtual with Souliology, December 2026)
