Steady Self School
The inward life and the life of a community are not separate projects.
Steady Self School is an educational and creative practice founded by Julia Dyer in Santa Barbara.
Its current work moves in two connected directions: community initiatives for people and organizations in helping and public-service roles, and developing professional education for practitioners who teach or use contemplative practices.
The Awakening of Deep Stillness at Santa Barbara Yoga Center.
The work of the school
Both parts begin with the same question: what conditions help people remain in relationship with themselves and one another while life asks something real of them?
For organizations and local communities
Community initiatives
Gatherings shaped around the people, the setting, and what the community is already carrying.
Steady Self School creates contemplative and creative gatherings for helping professionals, public-service teams, organizations, volunteers, and local groups. A gathering may include meditation, gentle movement, creative practice, tea, and carefully facilitated reflection.
Most organizational gatherings are paid partnerships. Reduced community rates, sponsorship, and a small number of fully subsidized gatherings—primarily for first responders and frontline public-service teams—help preserve access without making the work structurally unsustainable.
See the process, formats, and pricing
For practitioners and people in helping roles
Education for practitioners
For people who want to teach and hold contemplative practices carefully—and keep learning while they do.
Steady Self School is developing live professional education for yoga and meditation teachers, educators, wellness practitioners, and people in helping roles for whom contemplative practice is relevant to their vocation or, when it is within their scope, to the people they serve.
The curriculum will give serious attention to historical context, sequence, preparation, pacing, integration, and the judgment required to know when a practice is not the right next move. Julia’s ongoing study in the Sri Vidya tradition of classical Tantra and graduate formation in Counseling Psychology inform this work.
The professional education program is in development. No certification or continuing-education approval is being represented at this stage. Details will be shared when the curriculum and credentialing are ready.
Follow the education as it develops
An image of what can change when we remain willing to be a student.
“The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.”
— C. G. Jung, Psychological Types, CW 6, para. 93
Creative practice
Another way of listening
Creative practice moves through both parts of the school as a way of entering into relationship with what has not yet found language.
An experience may be present before words are available for it. Color, shape, movement, writing, and the movement of the hand can make something intense or complicated easier to see. The work does not depend on artistic skill. It begins with attention and a willingness to notice what appears.
“The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.”
— C. G. Jung, Psychological Types, CW 6, para. 93
“You can tell the love and authenticity she puts into her instruction. Highly recommend Steady Self School if you’re looking for something more than just a typical workout.”— Taylor Wolfe, Google review
The school publishes what it is learning.
Writing, audio, interviews, and creative work are part of the school itself. They are places to think in public, stay close to uncertainty, and let an idea mature before asking it to become a program.
Scope
Julia is a graduate student in Counseling Psychology and is not a licensed therapist. Steady Self School offers contemplative education and practice. It does not provide psychotherapy, medical care, crisis support, or clinical supervision.
If you are seeking mental-health treatment or urgent support, please contact a qualified provider or local emergency resource.
A letter from the school.
Once a month, a note from Julia: something she is studying, a question to practice with, a new piece of writing, or what is taking shape at the school.