Leadership from the authentic self

The next CFLT session is being planned for Spring 2026— More details coming soon!  Registration opens in March 2025.

For more information, including email updates on dates, registration, and discernment circles, contact us here.

What is Conscious Feminine Leadership Training? 

Conscious Feminine Leadership Training (CFLT) combines learning for community building, group facilitation, and personal growth. Using writing as a primary tool in the learning process, CFLT asks participants to explore the question: How can I lead from my authentic self?  

Conscious Feminine Leadership Training explores archetypally Feminine ways of knowing and leading (such as intuition, listening, and nurturing), to balance the leadership qualities of the archetypal Masculine (such as reason, competition, and action) more valued in Western culture.  This empowers participants to consciously integrate both ways of being in the world, as a person and a leader.  The program is facilitated using the practices of Conscious Feminine Leadership to create a rich, supportive, and courageous community experience; participants learn by observing, feeling, and doing, as well as by thinking, writing, and conversation.

CFLT is a program of Women Writing for (a) Change, Bloomington, Indiana. The program was initially created by Mary Pierce Brosmer in 2004, and continues to evolve.  Beth Lodge-Rigal developed the form used in Bloomington in 2012, and provided training and ongoing mentoring to Mary Beth O’Brien, Laura Lasuertmer, and Denise Breeden-Ost in the creation of this 2026 program. 

Who should apply?

• People of all racial, ethnic, and class identities, and any sexual orientation; 
• Women and nonbinary people;
• Adults of all ages (18+).   

Joining CFLT is a commitment to one’s own personal growth and deepening understanding of leadership, and to the collaborative learning of the whole group.  All participants are invited to bring their unique lived experience to the program, in the service of their own and the community’s learning. 

Participants include:

• People who seek to learn Conscious Feminine wisdom and practices and bring these to their personal lives and relationships.
• People who want to incorporate Conscious Feminine leadership practices into educational, social service, business, and other settings.  (Past participants have included teachers, government officials, clergy, physicians, parents, bodyworkers, therapists, artists, activists, nurses, social workers, nonprofit and business executives, and entrepreneurs.)
• People who are interested in facilitating WWf(a)C writing circles and programs.  (Completion of CFLT is a requirement to be a lead facilitator in most WWf(a)C programs.)
• People who have participated in earlier CFLT programs and want to incorporate new understandings, deepen their training, and renew their commitment. 

Program Structure and Schedule:

• CFLT is an in-person program. 
• Opening Retreat, 3 Days: We begin with a residential retreat at Waycross Camp and Conference Center in Brown County, Indiana. 
• Class Sessions, 13 Thursday Evenings: Then we meet for thirteen weekly three-hour sessions, at the New Wings building in Bloomington, Indiana.  
• Mentoring: Additional support from a small group and a CFLT-graduate mentor.  
• Closing Retreat, 3 days: The semester culminates in a final retreat at Waycross. 
• Practicum: Participants complete a practicum before the end of 2026.

What CFLT Offers to Participants:

• Learning within a safe, courageous, and confidential community of creative, consciousness-seeking peers
• Skillful facilitation by experienced leaders
• Respect for the life experience, diverse identities, and unique contributions of each participant
• Writing as a foundational practice for individual reflection, communal connection, learning, and healing
• Intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical ways of learning—including writing, reading, small and large group work, meditation, ritual, movement, conversation
• Attention to relationships within the group, and learning about conflict in ourselves and our communities
• Training in facilitation, centered on writing circles as communities of connection, courage, and transformational learning
• Exploration of Conscious Feminine traditions, with expanded awareness of intersectionality and the balancing of Feminine and Masculine elements of the self

Facilitators:

Denise Breeden-Ost, Laura Lasuertmer, and Mary Beth O’Brien have been trained as CFLT Facilitators by Beth Lodge-Rigal; see their staff bios here. Guest teachers may include CFLT graduates and others with experience and insight in particular areas.

Cost: 

CFLT tuition details will be available soon.  Tuition includes retreat room and board, program and materials, and mentoring support, for 2 retreats, 13-week course, and practicum.  Payment plans and tuition assistance are available.

Find out more

Attendance at one or more discernment circles (at no cost) is required before submitting your application.  A discernment circle is a 2-hour writing circle, where you can experience the style and process used in CFLT, hear more about the program, and ask questions.

For more information, including email updates on dates, registration, and discernment circles, contact us here.