Mel Jay
The world doesn’t need more people collecting certifications. It needs practitioners and leaders who know how to hold space with safety, confidence, and integrity.
In a world where more people are seeking support than ever before, facilitation has become more than asking good questions or learning a new technique. It requires the ability to understand emotions, recognise nervous system responses, build secure therapeutic relationships, and respond to what is unfolding in front of you with attunement and ethical practice.
Emotion-Focused Facilitation Training is a 12-month immersive programme designed for therapists, coaches, community practitioners, support workers, healers and anyone who walks alongside others through change. Whether you’re already supporting people or preparing to step into this work, you’ll develop the confidence, knowledge and embodied skills to facilitate emotional processing in a way that is safe, trauma-responsive and deeply relational.
This training bridges the gap between theory and practice. You’ll move beyond simply understanding concepts to learning how to apply them in real conversations, real emotional experiences, and real-life complexity. Through live teaching, experiential learning, peer practice, supervision and your comprehensive facilitator workbook, you’ll learn how to respond with confidence when emotions arise rather than relying on scripts or rigid frameworks.
Grounded in the principles of Emotion-Focused Therapy, attachment theory, nervous system science and trauma-responsive practice, this programme draws together evidence-informed approaches with practical experience gained through years of community facilitation, therapeutic practice and working alongside people navigating trauma, addiction, family violence, grief and crisis.
This is not about becoming another practitioner who knows about healing. It’s about becoming someone who can safely hold the space where healing happens.
If you’re ready to deepen your practice, strengthen your confidence, and become the kind of facilitator people remember because of how they felt in your presence, this programme was created for you.
You might be reading for this training if ...
➡️ You want to deepen your ability to hold emotional, body-based and trauma-responsive spaces with greater confidence.
➡️ You’re looking for practical skills that go beyond theory and can be applied in real conversations and real client work.
➡️ You want to better understand emotions, attachment, the nervous system, and how they influence healing.
➡️ You’re ready to strengthen your practitioner presence, boundaries, and confidence while staying within ethical, trauma-responsive practice.
➡️ You want to build a practice that is both deeply impactful and sustainable, without sacrificing your own wellbeing.
➡️ You’re looking for more than another certification. You want an immersive training that challenges, develops, and grows you as both a practitioner and a person.
➡️ You believe the facilitator is just as important as the techniques they use and are committed to your own ongoing embodiment and growth.
If this sounds like the kind of practitioner you aspire to become, I’d love to walk alongside you.
What you'll gain through this program ...
➡️ A comprehensive understanding of emotion-focused and trauma-responsive facilitation: Learn how to safely guide emotional processing using evidence-informed, body-based approaches.
➡️ Confidence in holding emotional complexity: Develop the skills to respond to grief, shame, anger, anxiety, and overwhelm with attunement rather than uncertainty.
➡️ Practical facilitation skills you can use immediately: Learn emotional inquiry, nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, pendulation, titration, co-regulation, and more.
➡️ A deeper understanding of the nervous system, attachment, and emotional processing: Understand why people become stuck and how to support change without pushing or rescuing.
➡️ Stronger practitioner presence and ethical practice: Build confidence in your boundaries, scope of practice, cultural responsiveness, and ability to hold safe, relational spaces.
➡️ Experiential learning through practice and supervision: Receive ongoing feedback, participate in peer facilitation, and integrate your learning through real practice, not just theory.
➡️ The foundations of a sustainable practice: Learn how to create your own signature approach, market authentically, and build a values-led business that supports both you and the people you serve.
➡️ Your own personal growth and embodiment: As you deepen your capacity to hold others, you’ll also strengthen your self-awareness, emotional capacity, and confidence as a facilitator.
Program details
Imagine spending twelve months not just learning new techniques, but fundamentally changing the way you understand people, emotions, and the role of a facilitator.
Emotion-Focused Facilitation Training is an immersive programme designed to develop safe, ethical, and confident practitioners. Blending Emotion-Focused Therapy, nervous system science, attachment theory, somatic practice, and trauma-responsive care, you’ll learn how to facilitate emotional processing with confidence while remaining grounded in your scope of practice.
This programme goes beyond theory. Through live teaching, experiential practice, supervision, peer facilitation, and a comprehensive facilitator workbook, you’ll build the knowledge, practical skills, and embodied confidence to respond to real people, real emotions, and real-life complexity.
Throughout the year, you’ll deepen your understanding of emotional processing, nervous system regulation, attachment, practitioner presence, ethical practice, and group and one-to-one facilitation. You’ll also explore how to create a sustainable, values-led practice, develop your own signature approach, and build a business that supports both you and the people you serve.
One of the unique aspects of this training is its emphasis on real-world application. Rather than simply learning concepts, you’ll continually apply what you’re learning through experiential exercises, peer facilitation, supervision, and practical integration.
As part of the programme, you’ll also complete a practical project where you’ll identify a genuine challenge or unmet need you’ve observed in your community or client work, and design a trauma-responsive intervention, programme, workshop, or practice to address it, this project is designed to help you bridge the gap between learning and meaningful impact.
Whether you’re refining an existing practice or building one from the ground up, this training is designed to help you become the kind of facilitator who leads with confidence, attunement, integrity, and genuine care.
What you'll learn:
This programme is designed to develop confident, ethical, and trauma-responsive facilitators through a balance of theory, experiential learning, supervision, and practical application. You’ll leave with a comprehensive understanding of how to safely facilitate emotional processing while building a sustainable practice grounded in integrity.
Emotion-Focused Facilitation
Develop a deep understanding of emotions, emotional processing, and the principles of Emotion-Focused Therapy. Learn practical facilitation skills including emotional inquiry, working with primary and secondary emotions, supporting emotional expression, and guiding clients through meaningful emotional change without rushing, rescuing, or fixing.
Nervous System & Somatic Practice
Learn how the nervous system shapes behaviour, relationships, and healing. You’ll explore co-regulation, the Window of Tolerance, Polyvagal Theory, pendulation, titration, orienting, and body-based practices that help clients safely process emotions while remaining within their capacity.
Trauma-Responsive & Ethical Practice
Develop the confidence to hold safe, relational spaces grounded in trauma-responsive care. You’ll learn practitioner presence, attunement, cultural responsiveness, ethical decision-making, scope of practice, boundaries, transference, rupture and repair, and how to work alongside people experiencing adversity without becoming overwhelmed yourself.
Working with Individuals & Groups
Build the skills to confidently facilitate both one-to-one sessions and group programmes. Learn how to create safety, navigate emotional dynamics, manage group processes, and respond to the unexpected while maintaining structure, confidence, and flexibility.
Practitioner Development & Embodiment
The most important tool you’ll ever use is yourself. Throughout the programme you’ll strengthen your self-awareness, emotional capacity, practitioner presence, and confidence through experiential learning, peer facilitation, supervision, reflection, and your own ongoing embodiment.
Building a Sustainable Practice
Learn how to create a values-led practice that supports both you and your clients. We’ll explore creating your signature approach, designing ethical offers, authentic marketing, practitioner boundaries, pricing, business foundations, and building a practice that is impactful, sustainable, and aligned with your values.
Topics covered throughout the program:
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Trauma-Informed & Trauma-Responsive Foundations
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Emotion-Focused Theory & Emotional Processing
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Primary & Secondary Emotions
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Nervous System Science & Regulation
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Polyvagal Theory & the Window of Tolerance
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Somatic Facilitation & Body-Based Practice
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Emotional Inquiry & Working with the Body
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Attachment Theory & Relational Healing
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Practitioner Presence, Attunement & Embodiment
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Holding Safe Space, Silence & Emotional Expression
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Ethical Practice, Scope & Cultural Responsiveness
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Transference, Countertransference & Relational Repair
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Facilitating Individual & Group Programmes
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Integration, Reflection & Practitioner Development
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Supervised Practice & Peer Facilitation
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Creating Your Signature Facilitation Framework
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Building a Sustainable, Values-Led Practice
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Authentic Marketing & Business Foundations
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Community Impact Project
Our curriculum continues to evolve alongside emerging research, community practice, and the needs of each cohort, ensuring the training remains relevant, responsive, and grounded in contemporary practice.
The experience:
This programme is designed to be lived, not simply studied.
Learning to facilitate emotional work requires more than knowledge. It requires practice, reflection, feedback, and the opportunity to embody what you’re learning in a safe and supportive environment. That’s why this training blends teaching with experiential learning every step of the way.
12-Month Immersive Training
Over twelve months, you’ll move through a carefully designed learning journey that combines live teaching, experiential practice, supervision, self-reflection, and practical application. For the first nine months, we’ll meet weekly for 90-minute live sessions, alternating between teaching and experiential practice. Together we’ll explore the curriculum, practise facilitation skills, receive feedback, discuss real case examples, and integrate your learning through reflection and peer support. The final three months focus on monthly group supervision, giving you the opportunity to bring questions, reflect on your own client work, strengthen your confidence, and continue developing your facilitation skills with ongoing guidance.
Experiential Learning & Peer Practice
Facilitation is learned through experience. Throughout the programme you’ll regularly practise with your peers, experience the techniques yourself, facilitate exercises, and receive supportive feedback in a small cohort environment. This allows you to build confidence while developing your own authentic style of facilitation.
Community Impact Project & Presentation
Throughout the programme you’ll develop a project inspired by a genuine need you’ve identified within your community or professional practice. This may take the form of a workshop, programme, therapeutic resource, support group, or another meaningful initiative. You’ll also research and present on a topic that sparks your interest, allowing you to deepen your understanding while contributing to the learning of the wider cohort.
Real Case Discussions
We’ll regularly explore real-world scenarios and case studies together, helping you think critically, strengthen your decision-making, and confidently apply trauma-responsive principles to complex situations.
Facilitator Workbook & Resources
You’ll receive a comprehensive 30,000 word facilitator workbook to support your learning throughout the programme. Designed as both a training guide and long-term reference, it brings together the core concepts, frameworks, reflection activities, and practical tools you’ll continue returning to long after the programme has finished.
Small Cohort Learning
To create a safe, connected, and highly interactive learning environment, each cohort is limited to 6-8 participants. This allows for meaningful discussion, personalised feedback, and deeper connection with both your peers and facilitator.
Certification & Continuing Pathway
Upon successful completion, you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion in Emotion-Focused & Trauma-Responsive Facilitation Training, recognising your participation in this immersive 12-month programme. Graduates will also have the opportunity to continue into the second year of training, where learning shifts into advanced facilitation, increased supervision, and deeper practitioner development.
Who is this for:
This programme is for practitioners, aspiring facilitators, and purpose-led leaders who know that true transformation doesn’t happen through information alone. It is for those who want to move beyond surface-level coaching and develop the confidence, skills, and embodied presence to facilitate deep, lasting change.
This programme is ideal for:
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Coaches, counsellors, therapists, healers, breathwork facilitators, support workers, and wellbeing practitioners wanting to integrate emotion-focused, body-based, and trauma-responsive approaches into their work.
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Aspiring facilitators who feel called to create transformational spaces, groups, workshops, retreats, or their own unique modality.
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Professionals working in mental health, addiction, family violence, education, community, or social services who want practical skills for supporting people in a way that honours both the nervous system and lived experience.
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Those who understand that the facilitator is the instrument, and are committed to their own healing and personal development alongside learning professional skills.
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Anyone ready to confidently hold safe, ethical, and deeply transformative spaces that create meaningful, sustainable change.
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Those with lived experience of trauma, addiction, recovery, mental health challenges, family violence, justice involvement, or other adversity who feel called to use their journey to support others in a safe, ethical, and trauma-responsive way.
If you’re ready to become the kind of facilitator whose presence is just as impactful as the techniques you use, this programme was created for you.
Meet your facilitator
Kia ora! I’m Mel, founder of The For Her Movement and an emotion-focused, body-based therapist, passionate about creating spaces where lasting transformation can occur.
I am a devoted mother of three and community practitioner who believes healing happens through safe relationships, genuine connection, and experiences that involve both the mind and the body.
With a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Social Anthropology, postgraduate qualifications in Counselling, Māori Tikanga and Rongoā, and current postgraduate study in Clinical Mental Health and Addictions, my work is grounded in both evidence-informed practice and holistic approaches to healing.
Alongside my academic training, I facilitate therapeutic groups within community settings, lead breathwork and mirimiri experiences, and support individuals navigating trauma, addiction, recovery, and major life transitions.
My therapeutic approach is rooted in Emotion-Focused Therapy and body-based healing, recognising that lasting change happens when we work with emotions, the nervous system, the body, and lived experience together.
Rather than simply teaching techniques, I believe in helping people develop the embodied presence, confidence, and clinical understanding required to facilitate meaningful and sustainable change.
The Facilitator Programme was born from a vision to bridge the gap between mainstream therapeutic practice and holistic healing. I wanted to create the kind of training I wish had existed when I began my own journey.
I am deeply passionate about developing facilitators who are not only skilled, but ethical, trauma-responsive, culturally aware, and deeply connected to themselves. Because I believe the most powerful tool a facilitator has is not the technique they use, but the way they show up.
Whether I’m facilitating a community programme, holding space in a breathwork journey, working one-to-one with clients, or mentoring future practitioners, my mission remains the same: to help create a world where healing is more accessible, more embodied, and deeply human.
I’m honoured to walk alongside you as you begin or deepen your own journey as a facilitator.
Investment: $2299
Payment plans:
I offer private interest free payment plans to make this program accessible
12x monthly $208.25 or 52x weekly $48.06 or 3x monthly $833 or 6x monthly $316.50
Enrolments are open NOW. Next Cohort begins September 9th 2026 teaching is each week on Weds at 11am (NZ time) - afterpay is available along with private payment plans if you'd like to have this arranged we can make a custom plan for you. Please note we have limited spaces available in this cohort due to the depth of learning in the space we find smaller cohorts work best. This program only opens enrolment once yearly, please secure your space ASAP to avoid missing out by expressing your interest at the link below. A short phone/zoom interview is required for this program as due to the context and depth of the learning a certain readiness is required.