Living Wisdom Schools
This unique two week course teaches basic competency in Pastoral Therapy along with some advanced psychological skills to anyone with a desire to improve their own life, help heal the lives of their family/friends and acquire helping/counselling skills for the wider community. It has been affectionately described as a ‘check-up from the neck-up’ or ‘uncommonly common sense’, as it seeks to address real life issues with real answers.
It has been constructed as a successful blend of theology, psychology, philosophy and fun. The best of theology is explored along with the best of psychology and the mix of the two forms a potent recipe which – when grasped – has the ability to revolutionise a life.
Many attest to this 2 week School being a major turning point in their life as they learned the ‘how-to’s’ so missing in many curriculums today. This is not a class of Christian clichés, hope-so and magic thinking, but is an honest appraisal of where our own thinking has been working against us.
Misbeliefs resident in our thinking patterns have the power to destroy our relationships, our work, our leisure time and our finances, and these lies are uncovered, examined and replaced with new truth and insight, resulting in a new feeling of liberation.
There are answers available to the hard questions of life as we grasp the vitally relevant truth for any particular difficult situation. Life does not have to be one long slog, then you die! There is a better way. When your mind works to support, encourage and back you (becomes your friend), life will be very gratifying.
The Living Wisdom School is dedicated to help ensure that this becomes the experience of every attending student. Each student receives a personal application counselling appointment to help ensure application of the insights received.
David and Rosemary have travelled the length and breadth of New Zealand conducting these 2 week Schools over the past 30 years. They have been run as a ‘mobile class’ in a wide variety of premises and thousands of students have attended over those years.
However they are not as young as they used to be so all New Zealand Schools taught by David & Rosemary are now conducted in the Living Wisdom classroom in Stoke, Nelson. Overseas Schools have previously run in Australia, Scotland, Uganda and Zambia, and these continue to feature on the Living Wisdom calendar from time to time as David responds to invitations to conduct courses abroad.
The School is offered on Three Levels.
Level One students are those attending for the first time. This introduces them to the following:
• Basic Living Wisdom methodology & glossary
• Mental/emotional health in the context of Christianity
• Counselling and pastoral care topics
• Psychological awareness
• Marriage/relational/sexual skills and issues arising.
• Toxic religious insights and theological input.
Because of the concentrated nature of the material, students are not expected to fully process the information in the 2 weeks available, but they do leave with a comprehensive School Manual outlining all lectures. And although Level One is the first step in the methodology, many choose to repeat the School at this Level, and they attest to a second or third attendance as being a very worthwhile exercise as they grasp new truths they missed in previous Schools.
Level Two students sit in class alongside Level One students, listening again to the material. However their task is to choose a topic they feel passionate about and begin an Assignment on that topic. This is designed to further their own learning and abilities in that specific area with the aim of teaching the topic to others in a Seminar/workshop setting.
Level Three students have completed Levels One and Two and their task is to produce a researched essay of not less than 5,000 words focused on a life-related topic. This is produced for the purposes of publication, heightening their teaching profile, and increasing academic proficiency in that area.
Although the 2 week Course is too brief for NZQA accreditation, it does attune a student to the language of future tertiary endeavours, and qualifies as a pre-entry course.
A Living Wisdom School typically follows this format:
• Monday – Friday for 2 weeks. (Weekends are your own)
• 9am – 3pm with tea breaks and 45 minute lunch break.
A student can expect to receive:
• A School Manual with the lecture outlines fully documented.
• A Daily Insights book – a meditation guide.
• Two exercise books (1 for note taking, 1 for journaling)
• A pen and a bag to keep materials together.
• A personal appointment with David
• Opportunity to sit-in as an observer to a counselling appointment.
• Access to a lending library.
The Curriculum of the School can be viewed here. Not every topic in this Curriculum is taught at every School, but full notes on all topics in this Curriculum are included in the School Manual.
School Fees
• School fees are $950 for the 2 weeks of class (GST inclusive.) A deposit will be requested on registering.
• On site accommodation is offered at $45 per person per night (gst included). Rooms are twin share, bathroom is shared. Accommodation costs are not included in the School fees.
On site Accommodation
This is available while students are attending the School. Details of this are outlined on the Accommodation page. Generally students booked into the onsite accommodation choose to arrive on Sunday evening prior to class commencing, and depart on the final day, late afternoon/early evening, or early the following morning. Onsite accommodation is limited so early booking is advised.
In Summary
A curious characteristic of this School is that those with little formal education and those with many years’ university education are equally enthusiastic about it. A difficult phenomena to explain, but together with the many stories of how students are miraculously enabled to attend, this repeatedly affirms the divinely inspired nature of this course.
Students frequently report to this course being one of the most profound leaning experiences they have ever encountered.
Registration
You can register attendance in an upcoming Living Wisdom School on the Calendar and Registration page where you will find upcoming school dates, a registration and an enquiry form.