February 3-March 31, 2026 (skip Feb 17) LIVE Online, Tuesdays 4-5:30pm, ET)

For Teens and Young Adults, ages 16-24

This course explores extreme states—those moments when our psychological and spiritual experiences intensify and may leave us feeling ungrounded and disoriented. You'll gain both understanding of what is happening and practical skills for navigating these experiences, whether you're exploring your own journey, learning to support loved ones, or deepening your knowledge. Together we'll reframe inner challenges through an empowering lens of healing and growth, building insight, resilience, and community connection along the way.

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Your Take Home

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Distinguish between mental health emergencies and spiritual awakening experiences in yourself and others.

  • Apply practical tools and strategies for self-management, including when to seek professional help

  • Support others experiencing extreme states with empathy, appropriate boundaries, and helpful responses

  • Understand the framework of spiritual awakenings and the crises in that process that can occur.

  • Examine foundational assumptions about consciousness and reality.

  • Develop and refine personal practices for managing intense anxiety, and overwhelming emotions.

  • Enhance your sense of purpose and spiritual identity

  • Build a supportive community that reduces stigma, fosters connection, and provides mutual understanding

  • Identify, access and share resources that support healing, growth, and well-being.

Preview of Course Curriculum

Examples of Week One and Two. (This is an 8 week course.)

  • 1

    Our Unique Historical Moment

    • Introduction to Extreme States

    • Distinguish psychological imbalance from spiritual awakening

    • Common triggers and misconceptions

    • Video case studies
  • 2

    Foundational Assumptions - What We Believe About Reality & Consciousness

    • The cultural transition from materialism to consciousness awareness

    • Effects at individual and family/community levels

    • The role of psychedelic explorations

    • Validating the intensity of this period

Instructor(s)

Senior Instructor

Emma Bragdon is the Founder and Executive Director of Integrative Mental Health University, IMHU.org. She earned her PhD in Transpersonal Psychology in 1987 and was licensed in California as a Marriage, Family, Child Therapist in 1988. As a pioneer who has helped define the field of spiritual emergency, Emma has published 7 books and co-produced 2 documentary films. Within IMHU Emma has trained over 110 Spiritual Emergence Coaches• who are available to support individuals disoriented or in distress as they open spiritually. She also leads a small group of healthcare providers to Brazil once a year to learn about the Spiritist paradigm of mental healthcare from Spiritist practitioners. Emma maintains a private practice, consulting internationally via zoom. See imhu.org/store for more info. on books/films. See EmmaBragdon.com for personal consultations.

Senior Instructor

Janis Whitlock is a developmental psychologist and emerita research faculty at Cornell University, where she founded the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery and co-founded the International Society for the Study of Self-Injury. With decades of experience in youth mental health research and clinical intervention development, she has pioneered evidence-based approaches to understanding and supporting young people navigating psychological distress. Beyond her academic work, Janis has deep roots in consciousness exploration and spiritual practice, which she brings to her teaching and to her spiritual coaching work through training and support services offered through My Soul Song. This unique combination of rigorous scientific training and consciousness-centered practice allows her to bridge clinical understanding with transformative, empowering frameworks for navigating extreme states. Her approach honors both the vulnerability and the potential for growth that these experiences hold.

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