An intensive course for awakening to your true nature and a 2-year part-time certified therapist training for those who are ready to end personal suffering for themselves, their clients and communities.

• Receive direct & compassionate support to see through your egoic structure and awaken to your True Nature
• Deepen your self-realization through private 1:1 mentoring
• Learn trauma-informed skillful means to support others, including the Enneagram of Character Fixation, the True Friend stance, NLP, and clinical hypnotherapy
• Deepen your existing therapy/counseling/healing/leading or teaching practice
• Become part of our global True Friend community and receive ongoing support for your self-discovery and skills mastery
• Receive an A.C.H.E. accredited certification upon successful completion of the 2 years

The essence of our program

Being a skillful True Friend

Have you explored different healing modalities, sacred substances, spiritual paths, meditation and mindfulness but some residual suffering remains unresolved?

Are you willing and ready to end this cycle?

Do you want to support others to heal, awaken and live a fulfilled life?

This training is for you.

“Let both the client and therapist wake up.” With these words, Eli’s Teacher Papaji sent him back into the world and asked him to share the gift of self-realization one heart at a time. The True Friend Immersion uniquely combines Papaji’s direct transmission of Silence and Eli’s decades of therapeutic mastery in a single intimate container - a form of therapy beyond therapy. It is our mission to enhance the quality of life in the world by evoking self-realization in leaders, therapists, coaches, healers and teachers.

The course is heart-based and entirely experiential. It is founded on the principle of being a True Friend, which simply but powerfully means meeting yourself and the world with a silent mind and an open heart. A True Friend is a wisdom mirror - it adds nothing, it removes nothing, it takes nothing personally. Empty, quiet and free, it reflects back to the apparent “other” the wisdom, love and beauty of their own True Nature. For you to reflect this clarity, it requires your own depth of realization which is our primary focus.

This self-discovery and deep healing work is supported by trauma-informed skillful means. You will absorb and learn different hypnotherapeutic skills, NLP and self-inquiry, rooted in the non-dual teachings and the clinical hypnosis certification program Eli Jaxon-Bear ran for many decades. Learn to be an awakened guide in the lives of those around you, whether it is family, friends or clients. Discovering what it means to be a True Friend for yourself and others, you will experience what this means in a practical way, living in the world in skillful harmony.

This course is for you if you…

• Have explored different healing modalities, sacred substances, spiritual paths, meditation and mindfulness but some residual suffering remains unresolved
• Are already teaching, coaching or have a successful private practice but would like to take your own service to a deeper level
• Hear the call to discover your Essential nature deeper than your ego
• Are willing to look through your fixated patterns and beliefs
• Are ready to end your personal suffering and wish to support others

The structure of our program - Join us online or in-person

You can attend only a single Module 1 retreat which is a twelve-day immersion. If you are called to certification, this is a two-year part-time course, offered in 3 modules per year - two twelve-day retreats (module 1 and 3) and a series of one-on-one mentoring sessions (module 2) plus numerous avenues for practice and meeting other students in the school. You are welcome to take the modules separately or attend the full program. However, you will be eligible for therapist certification after 2 full years of attendance.

In 2022, Module 1 and 3 can be attended either in person or online via zoom. The in-person retreats are held in Ashland, Oregon, Byron Bay, Australia, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Module 2 takes place entirely online.

“The Leela school is different from other therapy schools I know. Even though there is structure to the program, [It] doesn’t break things into mind-controlled rigid steps. Learning is never from outside in - it is always from inside out.” Kemila

Module 1

In-Person & online Retreat/Course ~ 12 days ~ 80 hours

Prerequisites: none

A 12-day retreat with Eli Jaxon-Bear, the founder of the Leela School, alongside Leela Teachers and Mentors.

In this module you will learn:

• What it means to be in Satsang with Eli - an opportunity to speak with him directly and ask your burning questions
• What it means to be a True Friend
• Exercises to discover the nature of reality
• An introduction to the enneagram and its detailed map of the psyche
• Hypnotherapy fundamentals
• Therapeutic techniques to clarify the present & desired condition in a client
• Resourcing, anchoring & reframing
• The Meta model & NLP tools to break the trance of suffering
• Basic trace inductions & therapeutic interventions for deep healing
• Ecology
• The Ethics of the therapeutic profession

“I just finished Module 1 and I can't find words to describe the magnitude of the shift I am experiencing! I worked with clients as a psychotherapist before, but I did it from a totally different perspective. This course changed everything.” Silvia

Module 2 

This module takes place online ~ 40 hours

Prerequisites: having attended module 1

It includes:

• 10 hours of private 1:1 mentor sessions on zoom to help you deepen your realization & refine your skills
• Videos: watch videos of Eli’s session with various inductions and interventions, broken down and in parts that you can study and practice
• Practice sessions: practice each type of induction and intervention on somebody and submit a report

Module 3

In-Person & online Retreat/Course ~ 12 days ~ 80 hours

Prerequisites: having attended module 1 and 2

• Satsang with Eli - in module 3, everything starts to land in a deeper place
• Refresh the skills and modalities from module 1 and 2
• Advanced meta-model, reframing, anchoring
• Nesting of emotions and the black hole
• Practice sessions, reports and supervision
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Student demonstration of a full session
• Establishing a private practice
• Demonstration sessions (for students who are applying for certification)

Please note, as each retreat is unique and individual, not all of the syllabus will be covered in person during the retreats.

"Module 3 was so powerful. By this stage of the process, the questions, skills and exercises started landing in a much deeper place and became an embodied experience, rather than an intellectual knowledge. I felt like I was listening with my heart, rather than my ears. This simple shift has changed my teaching and therapy work profoundly." Iri, UK

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