The Skillful Silence Cohort is a year-long program organized around a clear, intentional arc of practice. Each month centers on a specific theme that builds on the ones before it, allowing skills, understanding, and integration to develop steadily over time.

The curriculum has been thoughtfully designed in advance and is supported by guided practices, teaching videos, and written materials.

The Skillful Silence Cohort is offered in a virtual format to support accessibility and consistency.

Live components—including one monthly group call and one monthly individual session—are held virtually and scheduled in advance. These live sessions provide space for guided practice, reflection, and personalized support within the structure of the program.

Each month also includes curated curriculum materials, such as teaching videos and written resources, which are provided ahead of time for asynchronous study. This allows participants to engage with the material at a steady, self-paced rhythm and arrive at live sessions oriented to the theme.

The Skillful Silence Cohort is organized around a sequence of monthly themes that guide the focus of practice across the year. These themes are intentionally ordered and build on one another, allowing skills and understanding to develop in a steady, integrated way rather than as isolated topics.

Over the course of the year, the cohort works with themes such as:

• Establishing physical and nervous system ease as the foundation for practice

• Training attention and developing mental steadiness

• Applying silence within daily routines and ordinary responsibilities

• Learning to stay present with emotion without escalation or suppression

• Understanding grief, release, and letting go as natural processes

• Cultivating self-compassion as a stabilizing inner resource

• Bringing presence and silence into relationships

• Exploring sense of self with more flexibility and less reactivity

• Integrating silence into an active, engaged life

• Strengthening belonging, participation, and continuity beyond the program

Each theme serves as a guiding lens for the month, shaping how participants approach practice, reflection, and integration in daily life.

Themes are explored through a combination of guided instruction, structured materials, and lived application. While each month has a distinct focus, foundational practices are continually revisited and deepened so the work remains cohesive rather than compartmentalized.

Over the course of the year, themes include areas such as nervous system ease, attention and presence, emotional containment, grief and release, self-compassion, relational presence, sense of self, and integration into daily life. Together, they form a comprehensive arc of practice that supports lasting, realistic change.

The Skillful Silence Cohort is facilitated by a Licensed Professional Counselor and is therapeutic in its orientation, but it is not offered as state-regulated psychotherapy.

Clinical therapy is often designed to address acute symptoms, crisis stabilization, or time-limited treatment goals within specific legal and geographic boundaries. This cohort is designed to serve a different—though complementary—purpose. It offers structured education, guided practice, and continuity over time to support steadiness, self-understanding, and integration.

Participants may choose to engage in the cohort alongside individual therapy, using it as a way to deepen skills, reinforce insight, and maintain ongoing practice beyond the limits of short-term or acute clinical care. The program is not designed for crisis intervention or intensive symptom management, and participants are encouraged to seek or maintain appropriate clinical support when needed.

Meditation is an important part of the cohort, but it is not the only focus.

The program emphasizes applying silence in practical, embodied ways—how you relate to your body, your thoughts, your emotions, your relationships, and your responsibilities. Practices are designed to be realistic and sustainable within modern life, rather than separate from it.

Yes. Each month includes a set of curated materials designed to support understanding and practice. This may include teaching videos, guided practices, and written reflections or worksheets that reinforce the monthly theme.

Materials are intended to be supportive rather than overwhelming, and to encourage steady engagement over time.

Skillful silence is not a quick intervention or a short-term technique.

A year-long structure allows time for:

• skills to take root

• nervous system patterns to shift gradually

• insight to integrate into daily life

• practice to become more natural and self-directed

The pacing is intentional and designed to support lasting change rather than intensity.

No prior experience with mindfulness or meditation is required.

The curriculum begins with foundational practices and builds progressively. Participants are guided step-by-step, with an emphasis on learning through experience rather than performance or mastery.

The Skillful Silence Cohort is open to adults who are interested in developing a more skillful, grounded way of relating to themselves, their relationships, and the demands of daily life. The work is practical and lived—it extends beyond internal experience into how we listen, act, respond, and participate in the world.

Because the program is offered as an educational, mindfulness-based mentorship rather than state-regulated psychotherapy, individuals both within South Carolina and elsewhere are welcome to apply.

For this first cohort, participation will be limited to eight individuals. This is not about exclusivity, but about preserving the quality of attention, depth of practice, and relational steadiness that this work requires.

An application is used to ensure the cohort is a good fit—for both participants and the structure of the program. The intention is to create a thoughtful, supportive group container rather than a high-volume offering.