Mission


Mission: Inner Compass Learning reorients us toward healthy relationship with ourselves, one another, and this Earth.

Why: We believe in dominant Western culture we are not living healthy, connected lives with ourselves, one another, and this earth. This disconnection hurts everyone and everything.

How: Group Workshops, School Circles, and 1-1 Coaching for People in Times of Transition

What: Nature Messages, Creative Expression, Communication Practice (Nonviolent Communication & Internal Family Systems), Somatic Practices, Energetic Practices (Reiki) and more.

We work with people in times of transition:

  • Youth moving through Puberty & Young Adulthood (ages 9-20)

  • Women* moving through Pregnancy

  • Women* & Partners moving through Postpartum

  • Women* and Partners moving into Parenthood

While women* is the dominant way of talking about the pregnant person, there are people who don’t identify as woman who are also pregnant, birthing, and moving into postpartum. We are open to working with all people who feel aligned to our mission.


Vision


Inner Compass Learning wants to be part of a world where we are all living in balance.

We believe, in the dominant Western culture of the US, built upon systems of power including white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, able-bodiedness, and more, that people are more and more disconnected from self, one another, and this Earth.

To create healthy, sustaining change, we believe:

  • Each individual has the responsibility to learn deeply about their values, identity, power, & culture, both ancestrally and presently

  • With knowledge & awareness, we better navigate our communities with compassion, curiosity and care

  • Youth have power to transform this Earth, but it is not their responsibility alone

  • Women, in particular mothers, are creative, intuitive, powerful sources of collective change, but can often feel unsupported and disconnected

  • Creating radical, creative, nature-loving community helps dismantle silos of individualism where youth, mothers, and parents feel alone

Strategies/Practices include
(see more in Scope and Waiver)

  • Nonviolent Communication (NVC)

  • Somatic practice

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • Creative & Nature Journaling

  • Outdoor Experiential Learning

  • Self-Healing Reiki

  • Vision Boards

  • Drawing and Painting

  • Interviewing

  • Nature Messages

  • Hiking & Camping

  • Storytelling

  • Birth Doula & Pregnancy Support Practices

  • Role Plays

 


Training & Experience: Kristen Sawyer


Bachelor’s Degree in Cultural Anthropology- UNC Chapel Hill, 2012

Teach for America Phoenix Alumni- 2014

Master’s in Education, focusing on Creative Development for Youth- Arizona State University, 2014

Shamanic Reiki: Master’s Level- SWIHA, Phoenix, 2020

Wilderness First Aid- Renewing 2023

Intern: Healing Roots Communitymunity.com/- 2021

Embodied Social Justice: 50 Hour Certification- The Embody Lab

Somatic Practice: Embodied Practice Level 1 & 2- Strozzi Institute

Nonviolent & Authentic Communication Student: 100+ Practice Hours since 2020- Authentic Communication Groups

Internal Family Systems Student: 50 Practice Hours since 2020- Authentic Communication Groups

Certified AZ Master Naturalist- 2022

Conversational Oral & Written Spanish

DONA Birth Doula: Certification in Process 2023