An Invitation

The Universal Family Gathering is a one-day educational workshop offered at the intersection of non-duality and psychotherapy. It is designed for mental health practitioners who wish to explore psychological suffering without framing therapy as a project of self-improvement, optimisation, or personal becoming.

This gathering does not offer a spiritual teaching, a therapeutic intervention, or a developmental pathway. It does not promise insight, healing, awakening, or change. Nothing is presented as something to be applied, practised, or used in order for something else to happen.

Instead, the day offers an orientation — a way of contextualising experience that allows both the absolute perspective of non-duality and the relative appearance of mental health to be held together, without collapsing one into the other.

Many practitioners already live and work within this paradox: recognising that nothing is fundamentally wrong with a person, while responding daily to very real human needs for care, safety, regulation, and understanding. This gathering creates space for that paradox to be explored clearly, without compromise and without agenda.

The Context

Psychological and somatic patterns commonly described as anxiety, trauma responses, compulsions, addictions, attachment difficulties, and mood disturbances can be understood, on the relative level, as adaptive responses of the mind–body to stress, threat, or unmet needs. These patterns arise through ordinary conditioning and cause-and-effect dynamics. They do not require ownership, narrative identity, or belief in a separate self in order to function.

The falling away of the sense of separation is not an intervention into these conditions. It is not a treatment, a regulatory mechanism, or a corrective force acting upon the organism. Long-established neuropsychological habits and trauma patterning may continue exactly as they are. Their presence or absence follows relative dynamics rather than absolute insight.

There is no contradiction between the absence of separation and the continued appearance of psychological symptoms. Behaviour does not need to change for separation to be absent.

At the same time, the sense of being a separate self can participate in the maintenance of certain conditions — not as their cause, but as a stabilising factor. Through identification, vigilance, and narrative continuity, adaptive responses may become embedded as chronic patterns. When this identification falls away, the additional layer of personal reinforcement may also fall away. In some cases, this allows a softening of secondary suffering. In other cases, patterns continue unchanged. There is no necessity either way.

Psychotherapy is understood here in the same way as other relative responses to suffering. It operates within ordinary cause and effect and may appear whether the contracted energy of separation is present or not. Its appearance neither confirms nor contradicts non-duality.

The Universal Family

At the heart of the gathering is a simple metaphor — The Universal Family — offered as a shared language that bridges absolute and relative perspectives.

The metaphor does not rely on introducing concepts such as awareness or consciousness, nor does it ask participants to adopt a new philosophical position. It is presented as a natural orientation that many people recognise immediately when it is described.

Within this metaphor:

• What is may be understood as an ever-present parental reality — always whole, always complete, never in need of repair or improvement. This is not something to identify with, cultivate, or access, but simply what is already the case.

• Mind appears as an adolescent-like intelligence: adaptive, creative, and functional, yet inherently fragmenting. Because it cannot perceive wholeness directly, it generates and maintains the illusion of a separate self as a stabilising substitute.

• The body, inseparable from the wider environment, appears as a child-like, innocent expression of being — responsive, relational, and alive. Bodily responses, including stress reactions and emotional patterning, are understood as organismal expressions rather than personal failures.

Importantly, this metaphor remains useful even when a client experiences themselves as a separate self. It does not require insight, identity dissolution, or non-dual recognition. It offers a way of contextualising experience that can reduce threat without challenging lived reality.

While the Universal Family is not presented as a method, it is acknowledged that re-parenting appears and regulation appears within human experience and therapeutic work. Seeing the mind as adolescent-like is innately re-parenting. Seeing the body as an innocent appearance of being is innately regulatory.
When this orientation is present, certain movements may naturally appear.

These movements are not instructed, applied, or directed toward outcomes. They arise as ordinary responses when experience is no longer organised around deficiency or threat.

How the Day Is Structured

The gathering runs from 2:00pm to 7:30pm and is structured in three 90-minute parts, with 30-minute breaks between each section.

Each part takes the form of a short presentation followed by group dialogue. The presentations introduce language and context; the dialogue provides space for reflection and clarification. Dialogue is not process-led or therapeutic, and personal disclosure is not required.

Part One: Orientation and the Universal Family
Introducing the overall orientation and the distinction between absolute and relative perspectives.

Part Two: The Appearance of Self-Consciousness
Exploring the emergence of self-consciousness within the adolescent-like functioning of mind, including fragmentation, narrative identity, and vigilance.

Part Three: The Appearance of the Body and Environment
Attending to the appearance of the human body and its environment, including needs, protection (regulation), healing (re-parenting), and learning (skillfulness), understood as natural organismal movements rather than techniques or goals.

A written booklet accompanies the day, offering a descriptive companion to the material without exercises or practices.

Who This Gathering Is For

This gathering is likely to resonate with therapists, counsellors, and mental health practitioners who are already familiar with non-dual perspectives, or who have encountered them through their own inquiry, and who wish to work with psychological suffering without framing therapy as a project of self-improvement or personal becoming.

It may be particularly relevant for practitioners who have recognised a tension between radical non-dual understanding and conventional therapeutic models, and who are comfortable holding paradox, uncertainty, and the absence of guarantees.

The gathering is well suited to clinicians working with chronic or complex presentations — including trauma, addiction, compulsive behaviours, or long-standing anxiety — and who recognise these as adaptive mind–body responses rather than personal pathology.

It is less suited to those seeking techniques, outcomes, or assurances of change, and more suited to those open to a descriptive, non-prescriptive exploration of what is already the case.

What This Workshop Is / Is Not

This workshop is:

• An educational offering for mental health practitioners

• A conceptual orientation rather than a clinical method

• A space for reflective clarity and shared language

This workshop is not:

• Therapy or group treatment

• A spiritual teaching or awakening process

• A training in techniques or interventions

• A promise of healing, liberation, or change

Reflections from Previous Gatherings

Reflections from previous gatherings suggest that many people resonate with the clarity and accessibility of the Universal Family metaphor, and with the grounded, conversational tone of the space.

“The Universal Family metaphor is beautiful and resonated with me immediately. I appreciate the clarity and simplicity with which it is shared.”
— Philip Wade, Non-Duality Teacher

“I love the way the Universal Family metaphor is presented in these gatherings — it brings things together in a very natural way. I found the space to be clear, grounded, and easy to engage with. The explanations feel logical, gentle, and accessible.”
— Suzanne Lång, Non-Dual Executive Coach

“The exploration of the Universal Family dynamics was deeply engaging. I appreciated the openness and sense of possibility that arose through the conversation.”
— Peggy O’Neal, Coachguide

“These gatherings have a rare blend of clarity, compassion, and gentle humour. Freyja brings a deep simplicity to subtle inner dynamics, creating a space that feels grounded and open.”
— Sander Tideman, Founder & CEO, Triple Value Leadership

“These gatherings offered a clear and accessible way of speaking about what had long felt like a complex subject for me. I appreciated the grounded and relatable way the exploration was held.”
— Jennifer Broadley, Therapist & Executive Coach

“I attended a gathering with Freyja and appreciated her warmth and enthusiasm. The space felt grounded and supportive, and the way psychological understanding was held alongside a more spacious perspective felt natural and refreshing.”
— John Lloyd, Therapist

“It was a pleasure to be part of this gathering. The materials were clear and well structured, and I appreciated the quality of the shared space.”
— Lisa-Jane Szijarto, Family Systems and Sex & Intimacy Coach

About the Facilitator

The gathering is presented by Freyja Theaker, who brings together a lifetime of sharing non-duality with many years of professional experience in the field of mental health.

Alongside her ongoing sharing through meetings and writing, Freyja has been a professional member of the Human Givens Institute for nearly fifteen years and has worked extensively as a psychotherapist. Her clinical experience includes many years working with complex trauma, including supporting clients through the national charity PTSD Resolution, as well as working with a wide range of other mental health conditions.

From this combined background, she brings the Universal Family metaphor — a framework developed through both therapeutic practice and long-term engagement with non-dual inquiry — offering a way of addressing relative psychological suffering without reintroducing a project of self-improvement, while remaining fully aligned with a non-dual understanding of human experience.

Practical Details

• Time: 2:00pm – 7:30pm

• Format: In-person / online (as applicable)

• Includes: Full day gathering and accompanying booklet

• Fee: €95