The Self-Guided Diploma

The Diploma

The highest practitioner recognition awarded only when you can demonstrate mastery across every dimension of the Processwork paradigm and completed a final project offering a unique contribution to the field.

Engaging in the Diploma in Processwork learning pathway nurtures students’ personal development and professional goals. Learning is guided by one’s dreams and passions. Internship placements, case work and the pursuit of an individualized project of inquiry provide avenues for students’ dreams and passions to be brought to the world. 

Credential


Graduates earn the title of Processwork Diplomate, as awarded by International Assiociation of Process Oriented Psychology

Typical Duration


3-5 Years

Demonstrate Competency


In the 8 areas of Processwork application

Format


Self-guided with modules available online and 2 in-person residencies a year in Protland, Oregon, USA

Why This?

Processwork is more than a set of skills. It is a commitment to learning how to connect inner experience to the world around us. Through the diploma experience, you to read the signals in one’s body, relationships, dreams, and the groups we move through and to work with them skillfully.


The Self-Guided Diploma gives students the freedom to design their own learning path choosing their teachers, training opportunities and areas of specialization.


Students build their program through seminars, courses, supervised internship work and a Final Project, which is an original contribution to the body of Processwork knowledge, in a form and domain chosen by the individual student.


The Self-Guided Diploma is not a beginner level program of study. People just beginning their Processwork learning journey are encouraged to consider enrolling in the Certificate in Processwork and completing the PWI Winter Intensive as foundational steps, or to explore other training opportunities to gain the fundamentals of Processwork knowledge and experience.
Testimonials

What Graduates are saying

In working with organizations around culture, leadership and performance. My education at PWI was extremely useful in supporting me in my professional development and career. My degree has really supported the one-on-one high-performance leadership coaching that is a significant part of the business.

Errol Amerasekera

Director of Bluestone Edge

The high level of methodology, tools and concepts has supported me in building my coaching and consulting business. I have been able to apply my learning in my work in very diverse settings: indigenous communities in Colombia, coaching 100s of leaders in the oil industry, teaching in the graduate program at the Center of High Studies in Business in Colombia. I felt a true sense of community at PWI and that Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is a deep value and modelled at the school. 

Adriana Del Rio

Senior Consultant, Master Coach

In two years, my practice has grown to full capacity, and I now have a wait list. I frequently hear appreciation from my clients about the usefulness and transformative potential of Processwork. PWI faculty offered me outstanding mentorship, a solid understanding of my ethical responsibilities to my clients and prepared me to practice conflict facilitation in a professional setting.

Caitlin Keitel

Therapist in Private Practice

What you will learn

Learning Objectives

Self-Guided Diploma students are responsible for creating their own program of study through seminars, courses, and other training activities with the support of a study committee to guide, support and evaluate their learning.

01

The ability to use process oriented facilitation techniques for:

  • Individual change processes including working with dreams, body symptoms or disturbing experiences
  • Relationship processes including process-oriented conflict facilitation in couples and small groups
  • Group facilitation and organizational/system level change.
02

Processwork Diplomates demonstrate:

  • leadership competencies including creative, process-oriented facilitation, unfolding, and problem solving, and
  • diversity awareness and cross-cultural communication skills.
03

And they develop personal and professional mastery of the following abilities:

  1. Recognize, appreciate and explore all aspects of experience – conscious or consensual, unconscious or dreamlike, and subtle or ineffable (practice of deep democracy).
  2. Use self-awareness techniques to work with one’s own difficult states, moods, biases and emotions and engages meaningfully with areas of difficulty and personal edges (innerwork).
  3. Able to relate to peers and other professionals and to see one’s self and work in the context of a larger system (field understanding).
  4. View and work with conflict, edges, and challenges as resources for personal growth and change
  5. View and value experiences, people and attitudes which are outside of one’s identity as aspects of oneself.
  6. Able to explore and engage meaningfully with feedback, present and discuss one’s own views and appreciate the viewpoints of others.
  7. Able to cope with areas and issues that have strong emotional and social impact personally, and maintain a sense of leadership
  8. Demonstrate an empathic connection with clients, peers and the community

Who is it for?

  • Have meaningful prior experience with Processwork training, therapy, or practice
  • Are self-directed enough to design and sustain their own learning across several years
  • Have a professional domain such as therapy, facilitation, organizational work, somatic practice, or other where they intend to apply Processwork in depth
  • Are drawn to rigorous personal development alongside professional skill-building
  • Want to make an original contribution and bring something into the field that reflects their unique perspective and experience
  • Can resource their own training and navigate the international Processwork community
Program Requirements

The Structure

Self-Guided Diploma students are responsible for creating their own program of study through seminars, courses, and other training activities with the support of a study committee to guide, support and evaluate their learning.

Spring Intensive: April

Autumn Intensive: October

Study Committees met together with the student once every 6 months. Study Committees include at least three Diplomates from the Process Work Institute, one Diplomate from another IAPOP recognized diploma training program, along with a student representative.

The Study Committee

  • Accompanies, challenges and supports the student in developing his or her unique talents and provides the opportunity for ongoing evaluation as he or she progresses through their learning journey.
  • Serve as the primary supervisors of the student’s practice and skill development, integral to the student’s learning, involving a recommended minimum expectation of 10 supervision sessions per year with each study committee member.
  • Evaluates the student’s progress and helps process and make use of the feedback the student receives from training instructors, supervisors, and peers.
  • Notices relationship and role dynamics that may occur during study committee meetings and explores how they might be present in other aspects of the student’s program.
  • Is responsible for recommending withdrawal in cases where a student is not making progress or the program requirements are unsuitable for the student’s process.

Students are responsible for planning and implementing learning activities through an annually updated learning agreement, 6 month progress report and end of year Learning Reflections Report. Learning Activities include:

  • Classes, workshops, seminars, online and in person, conducted by Processwork Diplomates
  • Live supervision (recommended minimum 90 individual supervision hours over four years, supplemented by group formats)
  • Case supervision
  • Personal development mentorship (therapy)
  • Peer Group Study
  • Individual sessions – tutorials, program advising
  • Internship activities, professionally supervised practice
  • Other activities approved by the Study Committee

Personal Processwork therapy is a confidential support that helps students use their inner experience in service of the learning process.

This develops the capacity to apply Processwork methods in uniquely personal ways, shaped by the student’s individual nature and life experience.

The minimum recommended therapy requirement for reaching the standards for recognition as a Processwork Diplomate is 120 hours over four years with at least 75% of sessions completed with one therapist.

Internships provide an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge, broaden their experiences, practice skills and expand their understanding Processwork as it is applied to real-world settings.

Internships may be completed in a single setting, or a variety of situations.

There are two recommended internships:

  • A Worldwork Internship is a project or activity that exposes the student to social or cultural groups other than those with whom the student identifies. 

 

  • A Clinical Internship is recommended to include at least 150 hours of direct client contact and a minimum of 250 hours in total, including supervision, at a placement site, or in a self-designed activity such as private practice. 

Two years of continuous enrollment in the PWI Self Guided Diploma program before being accepted to sit the Final Diploma Competency Evaluations.

The Final Project may take the form of an academic-style research thesis, an article suitable for publication, a presentation, a workshop, a performance or another kind of public event. The project must reflect original thought and make a unique contribution to the application of Processwork and/or Worldwork to one of its related fields, be it professional, academic, or artistic.

The study committee gives approval for the student to take the Final Diploma Competency Evaluations when they judge that the student is ready to meet the competency standards.

Diploma Competency Evaluation topics:

  1. Dream Work
  2. Body Work/Symptom
  3. Relationship
  4. Group 
  5. Working on you own conflict
  6. Inner work
  7. Long-term client: written case study with video analysis
  8. Extreme and Altered States video presentation.

Students must be able to read, write and speak English to a proficiency of upper intermediate level.

Program Costs

The following represent base costs. Additional expenses will depend on the courses, case supervision and other choices made by the self-guided student

Application Fee $100

Includes all application fees

payable in two installments on September 1st and March 1st.

$1,995 due when registering for competency evaluations $250 Reschedule Fee if requested less than 14 days prior to competency evaluation Delivery Date.

$1,900 per annum, payable in two installments on September 1st and June 1st.

Including individual therapy, additional courses, case supervision, etc. 

How To Enroll

Initial interview

Request an initial interview to discuss the program and whether it suits your goals and current level of Processwork experience. After the conversation, the Program Coordinator will either invite you to apply, or suggest preparatory learning to strengthen your candidacy.

To prepare: familiarize yourself with the Diploma Handbook and the Principles for Ethical Practice for Processworkers. Submit a brief statement — no more than 500 words — covering your goals, your Processwork background, and the dream or inner experience that calls you to this path.

Disclaimer

The Self-Guided Diploma learning pathway does not confer any academic degree, nor can it be used as the basis for licensure, admittance into an academic program, or membership in any other professional association besides the International Association of Process-oriented Psychology (IAPOP).