Karen O’Dougherty is the creator, owner and teacher of Body Basics and Beyond which for 20 years has been providing confidence and puberty education for girls and the grownups who raise them. She offers after school programs for grades 4-8 and Teen Village, monthly talking circles for teenagers.
A retired elementary school teacher and the mother of 3 adult children, Karen holds a heartfelt belief that all youth deserve to learn about puberty and adolescence in an environment that grows their confidence. She wants to see the next generation of leaders rise with the confidence, empathy, and poise to meet what lies ahead of them. In order for this to happen, she maintains that youth need to understand their bodies, their emotional selves and the influences that may challenge who they are becoming.
Karen believes that parent education is an essential piece in preparation for adolescence, and to aid parents she provides confidence and support through one-on-one coaching and group sessions.
To learn more please visit Karen’s website at www.bodybasicsandbeyond.com or email her directly: karen@bodybasicsandbeyond.com
I spoke to her in Ashland, OR in 2021
Music by: Manpreet Kaur @manpreetkaurmusic
www.sacred-truths.com
Karen O’Dougherty is the creator, owner and teacher of Body Basics and Beyond which for 20 years has been providing confidence and puberty education for girls and the grownups who raise them. She offers after school programs for grades 4-8 and Teen Village, monthly talking circles for teenagers.
A retired elementary school teacher and the mother of 3 adult children, Karen holds a heartfelt belief that all youth deserve to learn about puberty and adolescence in an environment that grows their confidence. She wants to see the next generation of leaders rise with the confidence, empathy, and poise to meet what lies ahead of them. In order for this to happen, she maintains that youth need to understand their bodies, their emotional selves and the influences that may challenge who they are becoming.
Karen believes that parent education is an essential piece in preparation for adolescence, and to aid parents she provides confidence and support through one-on-one coaching and group sessions.
To learn more please visit Karen’s website at www.bodybasicsandbeyond.com or email her directly: karen@bodybasicsandbeyond.com
I spoke to her in Ashland, OR in 2021
Music by: Manpreet Kaur @manpreetkaurmusic
www.sacred-truths.com
Karen O’Dougherty: I really came to understand that our society has done a huge disservice around the myths and taboos that have been created around what adolescence and puberty is.
And it’s something to be afraid of, it’s something to avoid, something to use authority over and that’s not what it is! And I started doing research in understanding the history of adolescence to come to find that it’s very recent that it was actually seen as a generation. In the 1950’s. Prior to that, adolescents were considered adult children until they were adults. So, we’re just coming to understand more about what this time of life is.
But meanwhile, we have set up a lot of myths around it and it is so unfortunate that our youth have to step through those myths in their becoming and anticipate what it is they’ve heard.
I’m changing that experience.
Karen O’Dougherty is the creator, owner and teacher of Body Basics and Beyond which for 20 years has been providing confidence and puberty education for girls and the grownups who raise them. She offers after school programs for grades 4-8 and Teen Village, monthly talking circles for teenagers.
A retired elementary school teacher and the mother of 3 adult children, Karen holds a heartfelt belief that all youth deserve to learn about puberty and adolescence in an environment that grows their confidence. She wants to see the next generation of leaders rise with the confidence, empathy, and poise to meet what lies ahead of them. In order for this to happen, she maintains that youth need to understand their bodies, their emotional selves and the influences that may challenge who they are becoming.
Karen believes that parent education is an essential piece in preparation for adolescence, and to aid parents she provides confidence and support through one-on-one coaching and group sessions.
To learn more please visit Karen’s website at www.bodybasicsandbeyond.com or email her directly: karen@bodybasicsandbeyond.com
I spoke to her in Ashland, OR in 2021.
Emmy: Good morning, Karen!
DO: Good morning, Emmy.
Emmy: Thank you for being with me today.
DO: It’s a pleasure.
Emmy: You have shared what you call “The Body Basics Story”, it’s on your website and it is just delightful and it’s also pretty heart wrenching about how you developed this education curriculum for puberty and how it was received in your public school classroom many years ago. Would you tell us this story?
DO: Well, yeah, I was a 5th grade teacher at our local elementary school and it was spring. And it was the first year I taught 5th grade and I was handed a curriculum that I felt didn’t educate youth authentically on what puberty was like and what to experience. It felt more like an advertisement, and very distant and cold. And I was a very hands-on teacher at the time. So, I asked my principal if I could write some curriculum and I’m a bit of a curriculum junkie, I love writing it and she said, “Sure, go ahead! Show me what you got!” Long story short, I wrote what is now, today my 5th grade program called “Body Basics” which is pretty much the same as I wrote it over two decades ago.
And she approved it and I got to try it out in my class with both boys and girls at the same time because I don’t believe in separating them. And it was a powerful experience. And we had to get through the giggles and the squirms and the gagging of certain body part words and after a couple of weeks, like children do, they just normalized it. And we got to learning. And now I have the children of those kids coming through my program.
I’ve had four come through my program.
Emmy: Oh, how beautiful. When did this start?
KO: Well, it’s been in the 90’s. And, I ran it through 3 times I think over a 3-year period. And then I stopped teaching for a while to have my own family, and then it wasn’t until one of the families that had gone through my class came to me and said, “I have another daughter. Would you mind if I pulled a group together would you teach it?” and that’s how this version of Body Basics was created.
Emmy: I love how you allow the kids to giggle! And just get it out of their system. And you still include that today! It’s a big piece of it.
KO: It’s a huge piece of it: is normalizing their reactions. Because their embarrassment and their awkwardness is not inborn in them. That is a result of what our society and culture has modeled for them as the way to react to giggly, uncomfortable stuff. And so, once we normalized that it’s okay to feel embarrassed and awkward and why it is that we feel that way and they’re given permission actually to be playful with it, and to acknowledge those feelings of discomfort and know that they can get through it.
It’s a huge life lesson in a lot of ways. I do a whole lesson just on embarrassment as I do incorporate more emotional intelligence education into my programs.
I see that embarrassment is an emotion that can really drive us away from experiences, but if we allow it and we feel safe enough with it, it opens up so many doors if we can get to the other side.
Yes, it’s so important to giggle and we giggle hard until we’re done giggling.
Emmy: (laughs) How did you know this?
KO: I follow the children, you know? I believe in them developmentally, that they are set up to become who they are supposed to be. And that along the way, adults are guiding them but truly they know what it is that they need. So when they’re embarrassed, they need to laugh and giggle. So, one day, rather than trying to sush them, I completely allowed it until they were done. And I kept writing up giggly words on the board and they had so much fun with it and they were exhausted in the end, but they were ready to learn.
That discomfort moved through them. It’s just what they needed, so I follow them.
Emmy: Your current classroom is what used to be called the clubhouse for your girls. It’s part of your garage that you remodeled into a kind of a playroom when your girls were young and it’s still called the Clubhouse and it’s where the girls meet for these Body Basics and Beyond classes.
And it’s filled with art and inspiration and it’s cozy and I think it’s a very important learning environment and consciously chosen on your part. Would you describe it and explain how the environment is important for the young girls you teach.
KO: Yes, A lot of it stems from the fact that I didn’t want to teach this in school. I wanted this to be a very different experience, a very different learning environment than they’re accustomed to.
So in the creation of the club house, the goal for me was to have it be a place that kiddos would want to have a sleepover in. That was playful, that was fun, that was bright, that was accessible, that was positive.
When they open the door, they would…their breath would be taken away. And so, it took me years to create it. And every once in a while, I redo it a little bit, but for the most part, it is part of my teaching tool, because it’s an environment that is unlike any learning environment they’ve been in before. And I wanted to disrupt kind of the learning environment.
Emmy: For instance, we sit on the floor. What other things happen that don’t happen in school, we get to color and draw, eat!
KO: We eat, we eat, we drink, we hang out, we color. We have blankets if we need them. It’s a cozy experience. And very unlike school. No clipboards, no desks. If they feel like they want to lay down for a second, they can do that.
I have props that I use throughout the clubhouse that I pull down for various programs to help get an idea across to them.
So, it does, it really does feel like a clubhouse.
Emmy: For sure, yes.
KO: Except the door knob does give it away, it looks like “Alice in Wonderland”.
Oooh, stepping through something different here.
Emmy: You assert that puberty is normal and happens to everyone; body changes don’t have to be confusing or scary; and emotions can be a source of strength and power. These are sort of guiding principles to your classes. How do you craft your curriculum to support this? What happens in a Body Basics class?
KO: Well, again, I developed the programs based off of what I was seeing: the developmental needs of changing kiddos were presenting.
So, each year, there a focus that is directed from the place where I see the kids going towards. So, one year, it might be body changes. Another year it might be some body changes but more emotional changes.
One year is just getting ready to LOOK at the idea of puberty, in 4th grade, what is it and what are the messages we’ve gotten: what have you been told a teenager is like. What do you want your teenage experience to be like? So, I really came from the children developmentally and was looking at what I saw they needed next.
And I also listened to parents. And heard what it is that their challenges and struggles were with their kiddos.
I really came to understand that our society has done a huge disservice around the myths and taboos that have been created around what adolescence and puberty is.
And it’s something to be afraid of, it’s something to avoid, something to use authority over and that’s not what it is! And I started doing research in understanding the history of adolescence to come to find that it’s very recent that it was actually seen as a generation. Not until the ‘50’s, the 1950’s. Prior to that, adolescents were considered adult children until they were adults. So, we’re just coming to understand more about what this time of life is.
But meanwhile, we have set up a lot of myths around it and it is so unfortunate that our youth have to step through those myths in their becoming and anticipate what it is they’ve heard.
I’m changing that experience. Not just for the children, but a whole other component of my program, is parent education and helping parents to understand truly what this adolescent experience is.
And to debunk myths like, “Oh, it’s hormones!” and to teach them how to relate to their adolescents and to help support them through this big time of change.
Emmy: Yes, because we grew up with those myths, and we had to step through that as well and our understanding of it.
KO: And a lot of parents parent from their own adolescent experiences.
Emmy: Yes.
KO: Which can be good and (chuckles) sometimes not so good.
And fear based. And so, I didn’t understand the importance of the parent education piece until about oh, probably eight years or so into my business and then it just hit me.
I was thinking I had to go younger and younger to help educate the children about this experience, but then I realized it’s the parents, the parents really need help because they didn’t have the modeling that they want to present, most of them, to their kids.
And they were really parenting from their adolescent selves.
Emmy: Yes, at the very least, I think, for many of us, we say, well whatever I do, I don’t want what I had.
But, we don’t know what else to do.
KO: Yes, exactly. And having some support too because this was a time of life where actually the youth were handed over to other family members in tribal societies and uncles and aunts and grandparents took over that age.
Parenting was over at that point, that’s not how it works in our society now.
And so as connected as we think we are with technology and such, we’re actually quite isolated in our parenting communities. Not all people, but for the most part, we are doing it all as parents.
We are parenting, homeschooling or working or raising kids, all of it. And there’s very little support for parents and guidance for them.
Emmy: How did you get into this field, why is important to you personally?
KO: In the beginning I didn’t know what I was doing, I had no idea. If you had asked me I would be doing this 20 years ago, I probably would have laughed.
No, I’m a teacher, that’s just what I do. But what I didn’t realize was this experience of working with mothers and their kiddos was healing a part of myself
and experience I didn’t get.
My mom died when I was ten, and I was raised by my dad and nannies. But I had no relationship, mother relationship until I was late in my teens.
And I guess, in a soul way, this is a way of healing that loss for me. I get to witness over and over and over again, most mother/daughter relationships. It feeds and reinforces a part of my life that I didn’t get from that perspective. The other place that informed me was the raising of my three youth as well.
Emmy: Yes, you’re the mother of three girls.
KO: Right.
Emmy: How has that informed you?
KO: In huge ways, actually. I am currently the mother of two girls and one non-binary youth that goes by they/them/theirs. My kiddos were probably my biggest teachers. So, while I was watching the youth go through my programs, I was also having the actual authentic experience of parenting my own kiddos.
So, they informed me in lots of ways. I had no siblings when I was growing up. I had no modeling around mothering and so I was really finding my way, and once again, I primarily followed my kids based off of what it was that they needed. They were my guides and now they are my best friends.
Emmy: Wow, Karen, that’s beautiful, and that’s essentially what you do in the classroom.
KO: It’s true!
Emmy: Children are our teachers.
KO: Yes they are if we let them.
Emmy: If we get out of the way.
KO: Get out of the way and be quiet. It’s one of the big coaching messages I give to my parents. Pause. Be quiet. Observe. Hold on. Watch. Hang back. Don’t react.
Emmy: Why is that, why do we always feel like we have to step and say something! (laughs)
KO: (laughs) I’ve been listening to youth now for over twenty years and I ask them directly, “What works? What doesn’t work with your parents?” and they tell me. And then after every class, if I get information that I think is valuable for the parents, I share it with them.
I send emails after every class and say, “you know what, a lot of the kiddos are really struggling with privacy; they’re having a hard time finding privacy.
And this is an essential developmental piece for this age. I am encouraging you to sit down with your youth and ask them, “How is it that I can create more privacy for you?
Emmy: Just to clarify, these classes are for grades 4th through 8th grade, is that right?
KO: Yes, that’s correct. There’s typically six of them and they’re spread out to either twice a week or once a week, and they’re about an hour and a half.
And there are home activities to be done with the parents for most of the programs as well in communicating and interviewing and asking questions, and that kind of thing.
Emmy: Let’s talk about the retreats that you’ve offered in the past. I know you are no longer doing the retreats, but you have offered one day mother/daughter retreats for girls around 4th grade.
And then a weekend retreat centering on girls who have just completed 5th grade and their mothers, and I have participated in these retreats with my daughter, and I am very fortunate to have been able to do that and they were just marvelous and they’re so many aspects to it. First of all, the girls were just so into it! And I think for many of us mothers we were looking at each other saying, “How does Karen know what this age group wants? How does she know this?” (laughs)
I don’t think the girls said, “I don’t want to do this retreat!” They were ALL into it!
And then embedded in these retreats was so wonderful, so much circle work and ritual and I think some of it was ancient ritual and it was beautiful. Would you like to talk about the importance of these retreats, and especially at that age?
KO: That age, that magical time at the end of elementary school before the beginning of middle school is a precious time: it’s before a lot of change does start to activate.
Parents are still very high (laughs) on the list before friends tend to step in and replace that, that high position. So, it’s a precious time and one of the things that make it so magical is this idea of stepping out of busy life and just collapsing into each other for three days in a very well-orchestrated held environment to let mothers and daughters lean into each other.
The mothers love it, the girls love it; it’s just like this little magical moment where you are lifted out of your life and transported into connection and crafting. And the joy of just sitting down to a meal that’s been prepared for you.
Being able to take a bubble bath together, to go on a little hike together. To spend evenings playing and singing. It’s like 3 days of mini mother/daughter camp, and the goal, for me, though none of the participants know it, is when they leave, that there’s a deeper connection that has taken place whether it’s through an activity that was created or a ritual that was experienced or just sleeping together in the same bed for two nights that has created a shift in their relationship that has more connection to it. That is really what my ultimate goal is for each one of those retreats.
Emmy: Yes, you’re taken away from the day to day; away from maybe the father if there is one or the siblings. Like you just said, the pause, the pause happens. And I remember rituals such a mother/daughter hand washing ritual was so beautiful and a moment where we groomed each other, we brushed our hair, we placed flowers in our hair, we decorated our faces together, so beautiful, and another ritual where we all sat in a circle and gave the names of our lineage on our mothers’ side. How powerful that was to say the names and to have these girls say the names. Many different rituals.
Can you speak to the power of ritual?
KO: Well, for this age, it’s tricky because and for middle school as well. For children, the word ‘ritual’ again, can bring a lot of myth and discomfort and
Embarrassment, and so I found it was essential to embed ritual into our activities and bring it at certain times when there had been certain layers of sighs and relaxation and letting go of life and realizing that we’re all doing this together, nobody is standing out and people could relax into doing things that they don’t normally do and it isn’t labeled as such, and it feels really good and we don’t really know why but it’s just this heart opening experience.
And the children can’t really put their finger on it. The mothers know but they also kind of can’t put their fingers on it because it’s not something that they’ve experienced such as adorning each other, such as massaging each other’s feet.
Simple things that if we did them outside of the context of this magical experience, would be quickly judged as potentially ‘woo-woo’ or weird. But when you are transported into an environment where everybody is doing it, and the expectation is to just relax into it, there’s no judgement, and therefore people allow it, and that’s when the magic happens, that’s when the heart and the soul opening happens.
When everybody is doing it together. Very powerful.
Emmy: What about the craft work? You had us working a lot with our hands and sharing these projects with the girls. What about the importance of that?
KO: Well, I have 35 tubs of crafts (laughs) in my garage. It’s very important. On so many levels, again, everything is perfectly orchestrated. Every activity is done for a reason and placed at a specific time.
Over the years I’ve watched the unfolding and the opening of people doing different activities to get them to places where they are more vulnerable and crafting is one of the first places I take people. Everyone panics a little bit, some of the moms, because it’s like, “I have to sew what? I have to stitch what?” and I say, “No, here’s a glue gun!” I mean I have literally, I have everything I will have people sew for you if that’s what you want because
The feeling of success and creation being along-side that vulnerable moment, as well as some projects are done where there..
The bowl for instance, where they create this papier-mache bowl where mothers and daughters are working together and there can be some things I call bumps that can take place where somebody has an idea and another person has a different idea.
And we learned how to work through the bumps. All perfectly planned so we can deepen the mother/daughter relationship.
Emmy: I’m not a crafts person at all. I was one of those people who go, “WHAT!?” But I have to say it was really fun. It was really lovely. And the things that I co-created with my daughter, were actually very lovely! They weren’t ugly, horrible things. I was really proud of them.
KO: I don’t know if you remember the supply table, but we had 4 supply tables all beautifully laid out, color coordinated with everything that you could possibly think of, and it was a mouth-watering experience and that’s what I wanted to create.
Emmy: Yes, it was very impressive. So impeccably organized every last detail of it And as you said, just to have someone say, “Time to each lunch!” and all you have to do is walk in.
KO: Huge, right?
Emmy: And there’s no dishes to do.
KO: And you walk away and go back to crafting! Unbelievable, right?
Emmy: Unbelievable.
KO: Unbelievable.
Emmy: It was wonderful.
We talked a little bit about some of the issues of puberty are universal, things that our generation went through, same as what our girls are going through. But this generation, some of the issues are different for girls today such as the
influence of technology, gender identity, etc Can you speak to some of those issues that affect girls today?
KO: (oh, sigh) Yeah, I can remember the year the i-phone came out, I was teaching and I got to watch the effect of it: very powerful, very powerful experience. All the things that you mentioned are challenges that are very specific to our youth in
2020/2021 and going forward and with all of it, it’s changed. As the adults who are guiding our youth and for the youth as well, how is that we can be with this change in a healthy and balanced way rather than resist it.
Particularly social media and technology, very scary experience for a lot of parents and for some youth as well. Learning how to manage that, learning how to
be a social being with those kinds of tools, and learning to understand one’s self and one’s sexuality, and watching our youth go through that experience, watching them learn and struggle with how to balance technology. These are some of the big challenges that parents and youth are facing at this time.
And again, community is the most important thing, and creating a place for parents and for youth to come to be able to process and question and listen to others in supportive ways is what it is that we need to do around these more challenging topics that are up for our youth and not feel like we have to figure out the answers ourselves.
So, leaning into our community, leaning into programs like Body Basics, that can help with parent education and youth education to meet these challenges which is just life and there’s going to be more and we don’t know what it’s going to be, but if we can stick together and find the mentors in our community to help guide us, that is what I believe we are being asked to do.
Emmy: What are some of the programs you offer to parents? Can you describe them?
KO: Right, so, currently the most popular program I have is Parent Coaching which is one on one coaching. I’m not a therapist. But I am a parent. I have walked through parenting with 3 youth now; I’ve been listening to parents; I’ve been listening to youth for over two decades.
So, I have a wealth of experience and information around parenting and so, one on one walk and talks. Zoom calls, phone calls, hour long, some once a week, some whenever needed. That is probably one of the more popular aspects of my program right now is this parent coaching experience. If at any point I feel we are needing more than coaching and therapy is called for in some way, I have a long list of therapists that I recommend for parents. I have very strong boundaries around that.
Other parent education that is happening is the schools contact me and ask me to do parent evenings. And there may be a focus, or there may not; sometimes it’s just a Q&A, where parents come and they have questions and I answer them.
Again, giving the sense of community and hearing what other families are doing, what other suggestions parents are having around handling issues such as technology in their home or chores and boundaries, the things that normally show up around parenting adolescents and youth. So, having that collective experience of parent evenings is another way that I’m being asked to show up for parents.
So, those are primarily the two things I’m doing right now.
Emmy: What is Teen Village?
KO: Well, as with all my other programs, when I had been teaching the 5th grade program for a couple of years, somebody said, “Okay, what else do you have?” and I said, “Well, I don’t have anything else,,,,okay, I’ll make something!” and so that’s how every program was created. And then when the 8th grade program was done and a couple of moms said, “So, what’s next?” and I said, “I don’t know what’s next!”
“Well, make something!” Some of these were my friends.
So then I came up with Teen Village.
Teen Village is for middle school and high school students where it is a small group of mostly girls that meet on a regular basis like once a month throughout the whole school year, the same group of kiddos.
And it’s an opportunity to basically circle, but I don’t use that word because it’s a trigger word for youth where they circle up and talk about their life and what’s going on with them with a mentor. It’s an opportunity for them to connect with each other, to offer suggestions to each other, to feel some support and consistent guidance that is different than therapy, but it is a therapeutic environment.
The hope is that youth will guide youth with the gentle guidance of a mentor.
And they love it. They love talking and connecting. The friendships that are developed in Teen Village…
I ran a Teen Village for 4 years: 9th grade through high school. We ended up going on retreats. We’d go to the ocean for 2 nights and 3 days, and we go up into the mountains. These kiddos now are off in college, and when winter break comes, they get back together again, which is very powerful.
So, it’s a support system that is again, something that is really missing in our society.
Emmy: But you shared that some of these girls may not necessarily even be friends in their social group… I remember some example that you gave, one of the girls was talking about a problem that she was having at school and the other girls said,
“Don’t worry. We have your back.”
KO: “We have your back.” It isn’t really about friendship. It’s about feeling supportive and connected. One girl was really struggling with her relationship with food. Another girl said, “Hey, ya know, how about if I sit with you at lunch. Let’s just do that for a couple of weeks and see if that kind of lowers your anxiety a little bit so that you can eat a little bit more.
Emmy: Wow.
KO: That’s huge. Pure mentoring like that is very powerful.
Emmy: Yes, it is. Again, it’s not a classroom, and it’s not a typical circle. They’re allowed to lie on the floor, they have cushions, they can eat, they can color, they can doodle. It’s all of that, right?
KO: Yes, it is. It’s very much an extension as the Clubhouse, but it’s upped a little bit.
Different colored clipboards and lots more pillows. But, it’s the same kind of environment and the beauty of this, as with all the other programs, the youth come to trust that environment. They come to trust that space. They know they’re safe, they know they can open up and so they allow themselves to extend in ways that they might not normally extend.
So, a youth coming into my program for the first time in 4th or 5th grade is going to have a much deeper experience when she comes to 7th and 8th grade. She walks into the door, she’s ready to go, she knows what to expect. It’s very consistent.
The curriculum is designed to developmentally meet where they are. And allow for play, allow for joy, allow for vulnerability and tears. All of it. All of it is accepted and again, carefully orchestrated, so when they walk out the door, they’re like, “I don’t know what just happened, but I feel great!”
That is success for me!
Emmy: Do you have plans to expand this program or keep it going for the next generation of educators?
KO: Yes, I get phone calls, “Hey, can you come up to Portland to teach a program or Bend?” That is exciting to me, but that’s not sustainable.
So, what I’ve done and in the process of is actually creating a teacher training program. And you don’t have to be an educator to go through this program. There is an extensive application form for it so that we know it’s a good fit for everybody as we are working with youth.
But, it is a training program that at the end, with my coaching, will hopefully allow other women to bring this into their communities because it is needed in other places. It’s been in Southern Oregon for over two decades now.
I’m a house hold name in my community which I’m very proud of, and that now needs to go other places.
Emmy: Is this coaching program/training program on line?
KO: Yes, it’s going to be virtual. There will be weekly meetings, with assignments and activities that’ll take place in between. There’ll be assessments and evaluations by me as well. There’ll be support in not only how to teach the curriculum, but
how to set up your own classroom, how to work with parents, what to expect. How to set up your business. This initial training, the mothership training as I call it, is for the main program which was my business for many years, which is the 5th grade program.
And after a certain number of sessions of that being taught by someone who has been trained, they will then be able to come back and get trained in other grade levels so they could eventually offer programs 4th grade through 8th grade as well.
Emmy: So anyone in the United States can take these…
KO: Yes! And outside of the United States.
Emmy: That is wonderful! Do you have a projected date?
KO: Oooh! I’d love to try and think I’d be ready by fall, but it is definitely going to be happening within 2021, 2022.
Emmy: That’s great, and would people be able to find this on your website eventually?
KO: Eventually they will, for right now, if they were interested, the best thing to do is to email me so I can add their name to a growing list. On my website right now, this part is not reflected, the training program is not reflected because it’s not ready yet. So they would have to email me.
Emmy: Great. And we’ll have that information at the end of the podcast so people can access that. Do you have any plans for the retreats, bringing someone in else to lead the retreats or anything?
KO: Yes, the retreats are an enormous amount of work as you can imagine. You yourself as a participant don’t notice that. But it’s an enormous undertaking. So, my hope is to create very much a similar kind of training program specifically for the retreat because I do believe that it is a powerful tool, and it is something that someone who teaches or is wanting to bring these programs could also bring a retreat to their community as well. So, my hope is that there will be a training for that as well in the future.
Emmy: Wonderful. That was really the highlight of those retreats were so special.
KO: And on my website there is video, a three-minute videos a snapshot of what that retreat looks like. So, if people want to look at that, they can look at it. It’s pretty special.
Emmy: Do you offer programs for boys?
KO: I do! However, I don’t teach it because I believe that we need to come from a place of authenticity. I don’t have that anatomy. So I have a man who has been teaching the program for over 15 years to Middle School boys.
It is curriculum that I created specifically. He teaches it, again: six classes, an hour and half each around the developmental changes, both physical and emotional to expect from folks of that gender.
I’m also in the process of looking for another person that I can train to teach that program as there are changes afoot with the person who is teaching it now.
The boys are a little older; developmentally, they are in a different place. So, they don’t start in 5th grade, they start in 6th grade and they need another year of maturation and development before we feel that they are ready to take the program.
So there is a 6th and 7th grade program, and there is an 8th or an 8th and 9th grade program blended as well.
Emmy: So, if people are interested, they could also contact you if you are able to find a new teacher and get this going?
KO: Yes! Absolutely.
Emmy: Is that program online by chance?
KO: It is not, it is not on my website. But it’s something I’d like to develop further. But before I do that, I’d do need to find another teacher who would like to passionately take this on with my guidance.
Emmy: Wonderful. Karen, thank you so much for meeting with me today.
KO: Oh, it was a joy, Emmy, thank you. I really appreciate it.
This is sacred-truths with Emmy Graham, music by Manpreet Kaur @manpreetkaurmusic.
My guest today was Karen O’Dougherty.
For more information on Karen, please visit her website: www.bodybasicsandbeyond.com or email her directly at: karen@bodybasicsandbeyond.com
Please visit our website at www.sacred-truths.com
Thank you for listening.