What a Shift Class Is Like
Shift grew out of a synthesis of ideas and practices that changed how I understood my own experience.
Internal Family Systems helped me understand the parts of us that protect, react, and carry old stories.
Trauma and body-based work helped me understand that our reactions aren't happening only in our minds.
Interpersonal neurobiology helped me understand the relationship between awareness, integration, and our capacity to remain present.
But the most important discovery came through practice.
I could understand exactly why I was reacting and still be completely inside the reaction.
What began to change things was learning to notice what was happening in my body, stay with my experience instead of immediately escaping or reacting to it, and gradually increase my capacity to remain present.
The more capacity I developed, the less easily I lost perspective.
And when I could stay present, I had something I often couldn't access before:
Choice.
Shift is my attempt to turn that understanding into a simple practice we can do together.
45 Minutes. Three Parts.
ARRIVE
We begin with How We Practice Together — a few simple agreements that create a safe, respectful space.
Nothing to prove.
Nothing you have to share.
No advice. No fixing.
Then we arrive.
Not just in the class.
In ourselves.
LEARN · 8–10 minutes
Each class begins with one simple piece of learning drawn from the ideas that inform Shift — awareness, the nervous system, physiology, protective patterns, emotion, attention, capacity, and choice.
The purpose isn't to accumulate more information.
It's to help us locate ourselves.
What is happening in me right now?
What is my body doing?
Am I present, activated, shut down, defended, open?
Am I experiencing what is actually happening — or has an old story begun to take over?
Understanding what's happening gives us a map.
Then we practice using it.
PRACTICE · 20–25 minutes
This is the heart of the class.
With gentle guidance from the steward, we turn attention toward our present-moment experience.
We notice.
Thoughts.
Emotions.
Sensations.
Impulses.
Resistance.
Space.
And rather than immediately analyzing, fixing, suppressing, or escaping what we find, we practice staying.
Not forcing.
Not flooding ourselves.
Building capacity, a little at a time.
This is a bottom-up practice: instead of beginning with the story and trying to think our way out of it, we become curious about the experience occurring beneath and before the story.
Over time, we're expanding our capacity to experience more of life while remaining present for it.
REFLECT · 10–15 minutes
We finish by noticing what happened.
What did I experience?
Where did I lose awareness?
Where was I able to stay?
Did anything change when I stopped trying to change it?
Participants may share what they noticed, ask a question, or simply listen.
Sharing is always optional.
The purpose isn't to interpret one another's experiences or solve anyone's problems.
We witness. We reflect. We learn from practicing together.
Why Practice?
Awareness is easier when nothing is happening.
The practice is learning to stay present when something is.
Each time we notice what's happening, stay with ourselves, and allow the experience to be here, we build a little more capacity.
And we don't have to practice alone.
There is something powerful about witnessing another person stay with their own experience.
We recognize ourselves in each other.
We discover that feelings we thought were too much can be felt.
We see someone make room for fear, sadness, anger, joy, uncertainty — and remain present.
Their experience expands our understanding of what may be possible in our own.
We practice for ourselves. We learn from each other. We build capacity together
The old story may still arise.
The shift is realizing we have a choice: believe the story, or stay present enough to see what is actually here.