Jared Franks

‘Let both client and therapist wake up’

~ Papaji

THE LEELA SCHOOL

Lisa, Eli, Jared

The Leela School of Awakening is an educational non-profit organization based in North America, Australia and the Netherlands. Our mission is to serve world peace and freedom through universal self-realization.

Jared Franks is a teacher, mentor and director at the School.

The Leela School offers courses and personal mentoring for awakening out of personal suffering, and learning the skills to assist and guide others.

It is for anyone seeking certification to become a therapist, coach or guide, or improve their skills if already practicing as one. These courses are also designed for anyone who is simply committed to deepening in their own self-discovery and finding true freedom and happiness, in whatever role you play in the world.

Our commitment to you is that you will be trained in a compassionate and heart-based manner, and with the most advanced skill set for serving yourself and your community. You will learn how to address and work with yourself, and then with clients:

  • on the symptom level, dealing with phobias, addictions and negative behaviours
  • on the ego strengthening level, to gain self-confidence and strengthen their sense of self
  • and uniquely to our training, ego transcendence; waking up from the own egoic identification and realising the depth of Self.

Learning to be a True Friend

Our model for healing relationships we call being a True Friend: someone with a quiet mind, an open heart and the skilful means for therapeutic intervention. It means we do not try to fix anyone, tell them what to do or advise them. We simply assist them to discover that they have all the answers and resources they need by accessing their own innate intelligence.

Courses at the Leela School can be attended in North America (Ashland, Oregon), Europe (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Australia (Byron bay).

More about The Enneagram of Character Fixation
More about Leela Therapy

COURSES

True Friend Immersion
  • One-year, part-time course.
  • Three separate modules (it is possible to attend module 1 only)
  • Two 12-day intensive retreats
  • 10 hours of personal mentoring
  • Online video course

You will be supported in waking up out of the trance of ego by using the unique insights of the Enneagram of Character Fixation. This wisdom will give you enormous insight into your client’s presenting condition and their true nature. You will learn the basic skills for working with people, starting with understanding what it means to be a True Friend. Combining this with the skills of Leela Therapy can lead to profound outcomes.

Fully integrating these skills usually takes at least two years. Therefore, we encourage you to attend this course for two consecutive years. If desired, certification to become a therapist can take place after two years. After this, and if you are ready, you can apply to be trained in becoming a Leela School mentor and trainer.

More information, costs and registration

Ego or True Self: Enneagram of Awakening
  • Two five-day retreats (attending a single five-day retreat is possible)
  • Five online private sessions with a Leela School mentor
  • Part of our True Friend Immersion training (above), but can be attended as a separate course.

Based on ancient Pythagorean insights, the wisdom of the Enneagram of Character Fixation has been incorporated into the Leela therapeutic model. You will discover your particular ego fixation type and how this creates a false sense of self. Through direct experience, exercises and watching exemplars, we will investigate the movement of mind, emotions, body and circumstance. You will learn to see in what way your ego fixation creates a story of “me and my life”. You will also become proficient at recognising “the other’s” fixation, using these insights therapeutically for going straight to the cause of suffering, and using the appropriate intervention.

More information, costs and registration

Mentor and Teacher program

This program is for those who feel called and deeply committed to deepen in their skills. After attending at least two full one-year True Friend Immersion courses at the Leela School, you can apply to enter into the Leela School Mentor and Teacher Program. If you are accepted, you will enter this year assisting students of the school, while discovering what is required to be an effective Mentor and Teacher.

More information, costs and registration

For inquiries and registration please visit the School website here.

ABOUT THE ENNEAGRAM OF CHARACTER FIXATION

Am I being my true Self, or is this ego running? Are we truly living a life of love and freedom, or are we acting out our egoic patterns? These questions face all of us as we reflect on ourselves and awaken to our true nature. The Enneagram of Character Fixation, also referred to as the Enneagram of Liberation, is a wisdom mirror for this. When we are willing to investigate and hold a light to our deepest egoic movements – our emotions, thoughts and behaviours – they lose their hold on us. We can discover the capacity to be still and stop taking the world personally.
A radically new model

Eli Jaxon-Bear discovered the Enneagram in the 1980s in Berkeley, California. Originally a Pythagorean mathematical symbol, Eli reset it from the way it was being presented – as a personality system – to a radically new model of the ego and the psyche. He brought together his background in Buddhism with the Sufi work on essence and gave a fresh approach to awakening, by using the Enneagram’s nine fixated structures of ego to clearly describe who you are not.

This ancient Pythagorean insight has been incorporated into the Leela therapeutic model. It gives us the map showing how we mis-identify ourselves as our ego, so that we can find our way back to our true Self. For therapists it is a powerful model for bringing insight and clarity to a client’s presenting issues and the deeper fixated, subconscious drives. It allows them to see beyond the surface effects and go straight to the cause.

‘When I learned about the different ego fixation types, and saw the patterns of how we suffer, I immediately felt compassion; for myself, my family and friends, the whole world even. It became clear that everyone was in a trance, believing they are in control and know who they are. And yet, underneath this suffering trance, I saw love, intelligence and pure Being radiating in everything and everyone.’  Jared

ABOUT LEELA THERAPY

Based on over thirty years of a life’s work, Eli Jaxon-Bear developed Leela Therapy combining several specific therapeutic models, including Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistics and The Enneagram of Character Fixation. Together these form a coherent, effective and powerful medium for therapeutic intervention.

A Leela Therapist has insight into their client’s presenting condition, knows which intervention is appropriate and has the flexibility to generate their own unique interventions. They work on three levels of therapeutic intervention:

  • on the symptom level, such as dealing with phobias and negative behaviors;
  • with ego strengthening, in gaining self-confidence or dealing with fear;
  • and uniquely to our training, ego transcendence.
In meeting the client where they are, Leela Therapy offers the possibility of true happiness for anyone.
The Three Levels of Therapeutic Intervention

The first level is working at the level of symptom cure and habit control. The next level of intervention is ego strengthening, by dealing with deeper layers of the psyche and addressing fundamental issues of the person’s life. Healing childhood wounding, trauma and deep-seated fears are just a few examples. As the structures of mind are re-wired, self-confidence, true love and deeper clarity emerge.

The third level of Leela Therapy focuses on ego-transcendence. Through working with ego and true essence, both in internal investigation and in working with others, the structures of the psyche are explored. Deep insights and realizations naturally arise in the sacred space of silence and love that is the ground of all Being.

Let Both Client and Therapist Wake Up
In addition to these foundational skills, Leela Therapists experience the interventions as both client and therapist in their extensive training. In this way they gain both familiarity with the process, as well as insight into their own deep psychological structures. They have received a minimum of 200 hours of in-person training, as well as 20 hours of personal one-on-one mentoring with experienced Leela Teachers and Mentors over a 2-year minimum period, to perfect their skills and deepen themselves.

‘Particating in the Leela School is not just creating a new career for your future. It is to rediscover yourself. Expect to be supported, seen and transformed.’ 

Kemilia, Vancouver BC

Have absolutely no judgement whatsoever,
then see what happens to the ego.