Ayena Academy · A Ten-Month Mentorship Program
A deeper room for the people others turn to.
A ten-month mentorship for those who already hold space, and those being called to. Learn to support others by first studying your own life, in a small and curated group, across ten months and a little beyond.
You have already done real work on yourself, sitting with your own life and moving through what it asked. That work has left you with something real to offer, and people turn to you now, whether or not you have a title for it.
Still, there is an edge you can feel - a sense that what you were trained to do, or drawn to do, only reaches so far, and that a deeper way of supporting others asks you to keep going in your own growth first.
That is where Ayena Academy begins.
What Ayena Academy is
Ayena Academy: The Alchemy of Self
Ayena Academy is a mentorship for people who support others and want to go deeper in their own growth. The approach is phenomenological: you study your own life, and the gifts inside what you have moved through become the way you support others.
Wounds become the gift. The thing you moved through becomes the thing you can hold for someone else.
Over ten months, you build the depth, steadiness, and discernment to do this work without depleting yourself. This is a path for practitioners, and for those stepping toward this work for the first time.
Fit
Who this is for
This is for you if:
- You already support others, through counselling, energy work, bodywork, group work, or simply as the person people come to
- You feel the edge of what you were trained or called to do, and you want to go deeper
- You want to belong to a small room of people serious about this work, in a way that is sustaining rather than depleting
- You are somewhere along your own path of growth, and ready to keep going
This work asks for real depth of lived experience. We will talk through fit together on a call, so you can feel whether this is your next step.
The year
What the year makes possible
- 01A deeper relationship with yourself, including the parts you have set aside
- 02Discovery of your own gifts, and the skill to bring them to the people you support
- 03More capacity to hold complexity, with compassion and steadiness
- 04A grounded, sustaining way of doing this work, so supporting others does not hollow you out
- 05A sense of belonging and purpose, and a room of people who share it
In their words
In their words
This mentorship has shaped me in ways I didn't fully expect. I've developed a much greater capacity to hold complexity, with more compassion, patience, and trust in myself. I find myself moving through the world with more clarity, softness, and understanding.
I was surrounded completely, for maybe the first time in my life, by others who have the same innate drive to bring more love into the world. It healed deep wounds of separation in my system and reminded me of a reality that is possible.
Not only was the program transformational on a personal level, it taught me skills I now use in my everyday family life, at work, and in my community. I feel transformed. I have reclaimed part of myself.
Ten months. One deliberate year.
Structure
The shape of the year
The program runs ten months, from October 2026 through July 2027, built around ten modules and two practicums.
The modules build on each other, alternating guided learning with sharing circles, so what you study is felt in the body, not only understood in the mind. The two practicums are where it all connects: time to work with your own intentions and practice what you are learning alongside the group.
A small group. This year, a room of no more than six.
- Module 1Self-care, Boundaries & Code of Conduct
- Module 2Your Wound is the Gift
- Module 3Safety & Attunement
- Module 4Triggers & Somatics
- Module 5Connection to Supports
- Module 6The Power of Language, Prayer & the More-Than-Human World
- Module 7Neurology, Discernment & Non-Ordinary States
- Module 8Intention, Preparation & Protection
- Module 9Integration, Aftercare & Ethics
- Module 10Weaving it All Together & Finding Your Voice
A seasonal arc
The year, season by season
Phase 1 — Autumn
Laying the Ground
Modules 1 through 4. You begin with safety, boundaries, and the ethics of this work, then turn toward the heart of it: your own wound as the source of your gift, learning attunement, and meeting what arises in the body.
The foundation everything else is built on.
Phase 2 — Winter
Going Under
The first practicum, then modules on connection to your supports and the power of language and prayer. The work moves from the mind into the body, and becomes something you have lived rather than studied.
Where it stops being theory.
Phase 3 — Spring
Sharpening
Modules on discernment, non-ordinary states, and the intention, preparation, and protection that serious work requires. You refine your judgment and learn to hold space with steadiness.
Learning to trust what you know.
Phase 4 — Summer
Weaving It Together
The second practicum, integration and ethics, and the final module: finding your own voice. The threads of the year come together, and you return to your work more fully yourself.
The year closes, and what you learned here becomes part of how you hold others.
The heart of the year
The Practicums
Twice across the year, the group gathers in person at a private sanctuary for several days of deep, experiential work. These practicums are the heart of the program.
In the first, you experience the work directly, supported closely by an experienced facilitation team. In the second, you begin to hold it for others, practicing with a partner while facilitators support you throughout. This is deep experiential work, undertaken with care, preparation, and full support.
Both practicums include all food and shared accommodation in a peaceful natural setting.
The people holding the space
The Practicum Team
Paula Hamilton
Lead facilitator
A therapist, Craniosacral practitioner, and yoga instructor, Paula brings over ten years of experience weaving traditional and Western ways of holding space. Her work bridges the teachings of Western psychology and somatic practice with a deep reverence for the heart. Highly intuitive and empathetic, she creates a strong, safe container that brings people into connection, where together the group can remember its innate wholeness. She believes our wounds, once tended, become our greatest gifts.
Nicole
Co-facilitator
A Craniosacral practitioner and Reiki Master, Nicole has supported this work alongside Paula for six years. She has a gift for the unseen and a deeply compassionate, nurturing presence that helps people feel safe and held. Her connection to the natural world guides the way she holds space, opening new ways of understanding ourselves.
Ryan
Co-facilitator & therapist
Ryan has spent the better part of twenty years supporting others on their healing journeys. Drawing on his own path through grief, disconnection, and recovery toward self-acceptance, he helps people integrate their somatic, emotional, mental, and spiritual experience into a fuller sense of wholeness. You can learn more at sacredowl.ca.
Sarah
Ceremony assistant & ethics teacher
A graduate of the Ayena mentorship program, Sarah returns as a guest teacher for the ethics module and to help hold the practicum space. She brings a grounded, intuitive presence and a gift for reading a room and responding to what people need in real time. Her clinical training as a counselling student grounds her ethics teaching in lived practice, offering a framework for consent, boundaries, and duty of care. She holds additional credentials as a Life Skills Coach and Human Design Reader, with a background in psychology, and is the founder of True Nature Therapy.
Faculty
Who you will learn from
Paula Kelene leads the Academy across all ten modules, joined this year by guest teachers who bring their own depth to the work:
Cvita Mamic
Connection to Supports
Eshu Martin
The Power of Language, Prayer & the More-Than-Human World
Laurent Picard
Neurology, Discernment & Non-Ordinary States
Sarah Latremouille
Integration, Aftercare & Ethics
Sarah Rose
Weaving it All Together & Finding Your Voice
Leadership
About Paula
Paula Kelene
Lead facilitator and mentor
Paula's work centers on guiding others to find their own unique magic, fortify it, and bring it into their lives and work. Her gift is creating a space that is both safe and genuinely challenging, one that fosters learning, transformation, and genuine connection.
I am sensitive to different ways of knowing, and open to how my work lands for others. I share from my heart, with what I believe to be true, and I hold that I cannot know what I have not yet come to know. My work is rooted in love, with the intention to cause no harm. Where another's truth or experience can inform me, I welcome it, so I can hold a safer space for all.
Next step
How to join
It begins with a conversation. Book a complimentary Information Discussion, and we will talk through the program and whether it is the right next step for you.
If it feels aligned, the next step is a short application: a simple letter, no essay required, telling me about your experience supporting others, what you hope to learn, and why you feel called to this work.
Tuition and payment plans are discussed on our call, so we can find what works for you.
Whether you came to this through training or through calling, the next step is a conversation.