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Kay Gardner is best known for her work as a founding member and Senior Lead Trainer of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a model she has studied and contributed to since 1991.
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With over 40 years of clinical experience and 30 years in private practice, Kay brings a wealth of expertise and a compassionate presence to her work. Her background as a therapist and teacher of Hakomi Body Centered Psychotherapy enriches her approach, combining body-centered awareness with spiritual depth. Known for her heartfelt and skillful teaching, Kay creates an inviting space for transformative learning and healing.
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Kay is currently and most intimately working with Legacy Burdens - offering workshops and retreats around the globe and currently writing her first book on the subject.
about
Currently Featuring:
Legacy & Cultural Burdens Retreat in Italy
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October 1-5, 2025​
Embark on an embodied healing journey with a focus on Legacy & Cultural Burdens, using IFS therapy, breathwork, and other somatic practices. Join Kay this fall in Italy!
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This retreat is a process of insight and inner transformation, with the Internal Family Systems model serving as its guiding framework. Our program is a unique combination of daily teaching and guided experiential processes, somatic embodiment practices (movement, dance, breathwork, sound bath), local excursions (hot springs, visit to a nearby town), and unscheduled integration time.
Join Kay in Portugal:
The Spiritual, Energetic Lens of IFS
March 1 - 6, 2026
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This retreat will help you expand your experience and understanding of parts work to include a rich and deep resonance with energy and spirituality. Kay has taken the things that have enriched, inspired and enlivened her along this path and included them in this retreat.
All the systems we will explore (the chakras, the enneagram, the dakinis, the sacred marriage, the marriage within, shadow work, the survival strategies etc ) are there to help to wake us up, to not only who we are, but how our patterns run energetically.
The Retreat will take place in Sesimbra, Portugal. Sesimbra, a hidden gem just a stone's throw from Lisbon, is a charming town, beloved by locals. Sesimbra is beautifully situated next to Arrábida National Park, where you'll find stunning hills covered in Mediterranean vegetation, dramatic cliffs, and untouched beaches.
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Legacy, Cultural Burdens & Blessings Retreat in California
Soquel, CA
January 16 -18, 2026
Details
Legacy Burdens are beliefs, feelings, and emotions that are handed down through the family line either directly or indirectly. These beliefs turn into burdens if tied to shame. Sometimes legacy burdens only go back a generation or two, but others can go far back, even hundreds of years.
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This retreat offers participants a framework and greater clarity on working with clients' legacy and cultural burdens. With a small group, intimate setting this in-person retreat will be highly experiential as well as didactic allowing for a deep dive into the exploration of legacy burdens.
Participants will learn what legacy burdens are through their own personal exploration of their own legacy burdens. Additionally, participants will gain deeper insight as they are invited to explore their ancestors’ burdens and their relationship with them.
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Online Workshop:
Undoing Cultural and Legacy Burdens
Saturday, September 13th
Live and Online
Cost: $108 (Venmo or PayPal)
In this workshop, you’ll become present to ancestral heirlooms—aspects of your culture you want to cherish, nurture and pass on—and also learn to identify and energetically resolve burdens that no longer serve you. This is powerful, meaningful work that can have a positive, lasting impact on you and the web of life we share.
Remembering Ourselves Home:
5-day Retreat for Women in Ontario
led by Kathy Cox and Kay Gardner
May 11–16, 2026 in Elmhurst, Ontario
As we transition from one stage to the next, women often face obstacles in realizing our full potential. Join Kay Gardner and Kathy Cox in a workshop that will allow each woman, no matter our age or phase in life, to break down those barriers and step into their authentic power. Through movement, art, writing, time in nature, and deep connection, you’ll:
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Break through inner barriers
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Reclaim your personal and authentic power
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Identify and shift blocks to manifesting your calling
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Reflect and be witnessed in heartfelt community
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Spirit of the Land Retreat
