Part Two

In part two, you return home and work within your chosen track aided by Gail or David’s coaching and a master class.

Part Three

After completing your empowerment project, you reconvene for a final
41/2-day training to debrief your experience, learn from the groups’ best practices and develop your marketing plan. Finally, you participate in David and Gail’s acclaimed personal development training program, the Empowerment Workshop. You will benefit personally and professionally as you observe the empowerment tools skillfully applied.

Certification

After successfully completing the three-part certification program, you will receive a certificate recognizing your accomplishment as an Empowerment Practitioner in the track in which you have specialized.

2. Empowerment Methodology – a strategy for transformation

You learn to help people increase self-knowledge so they can discover what’s important to them; translate this knowledge into a workable vision; identify and transform the limiting beliefs that inevitably arise when creating something new; and work with the subtle skills of directed thought necessary to manifest their vision.

3. Empowerment Coaching – the how-to of personal growth

You learn the five-part empowerment coaching model: intuition, core growth issues, transformational strategy, interventions and personal growth facilitation. The goal of this coaching model is to enable a person to create a new possibility – the “growing edge.” You then learn how to help them manifest this new growth in their life.

4. Empowerment Architecture – transformational design

You learn how to design a transformational experience that accelerates learning and personal growth.

5. Marketing Empowerment – enrolling people in transformation

You learn how to communicate the benefits of transformation to your constituency – individuals, organizations or a sector of society. You also develop a marketing plan and enrollment skills.

6. Empowerment Support Systems – sustaining growth over time

You learn and apply the principles of self-support, buddy systems, and affinity groups.

7. Empowerment Workshop – a personal growth training model

You personally experience the Empowerment Workshop processes and techniques and are provided with the training templates. You also receive instruction in how to apply them to your training or coaching.

In 1981 David Gershon and Gail Straub founded Empowerment Training Programs to explore the question: how do you empower people to grow and realize their full potential? They wanted to shift the focus of personal development from healing the past and fixing problems to focusing on what we want for our lives, our organizations and our communities – and how to achieve it. Enabling people to envision their dreams and bring them to fruition was the heart of the approach they called “empowerment.” The term “empowerment” was new in the vernacular of transformation, as was their approach. This transformational innovation soon began attracting attention.

People came to learn for themselves, their organizations or their communities. They came from around the world. They were a diverse group which included Fortune 500 managers, organizational change consultants, business school professors, coaches, educators, health-care professionals, therapists, non-profit and government executives, community development consultants, social and environmental change advocates, leadership trainers and those wishing to develop a career in personal development training.

Over the years, what evolved was an extraordinary learning community – a global empowerment laboratory. David and Gail then wrote their best selling book, Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life As You Want It, popularizing their research on empowerment. The writing process brought further refinement to their model and the book’s success attracted yet more people to their trainings. Along the way, Gail and David became master practitioners of personal growth facilitation.

David and Gail continued to evolve their empowerment work by adapting the model and methodology to other initiatives. Included amongst these was a global transformative event created at the height of the Cold War, the First Earth Run. In partnership with the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and ABC Television, they organized the historic passing of a torch of peace around the world. This simple and profound act of global unity offered at a moment of great fear engaged the participation of 25 million people in 62 countries, the world’s political leadership and, through the media, an estimated 20% of the population on the planet. It was an extraordinary confirmation of the efficacy of the empowerment tools.

Building on this growing body of knowledge and experience in large-system transformation, David applied his empowerment expertise to organizations and communities. His clients included large organizations and cities wishing to create behavior change amongst their constituencies. The versatility of the empowerment tools enabled them to address issues ranging from organizational behavior change and talent development to livable neighborhoods and sustainable communities. Based on this behavior change research, David has written a number of books and articles.

Gail applied the empowerment methodology to developing an advanced training program that integrated spiritual growth with social and ecological responsibility. This training has become a model for engaged spirituality balancing inner development with outer service. Based on this training, she wrote the critically acclaimed The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring for Self, Connecting With Society and Circle of Compassion: Meditations for Caring for Self and the World.

And the results from this research and application … a robust and rigorously tested transformational model was built that stood the test of time. While they were now recognized as the foremost authorities on empowerment and their work had grown widely, David and Gail realized there was a next level. It was to create an in-depth program for the mastery of empowerment. In 2001, the Empowerment Institute Certification Program was established. Since then it has attracted a remarkable community of individuals from around the world dedicated to achieving excellence in the practice of empowerment.

“The Empowerment Institute is the most powerful, results-oriented training program I have ever encountered. I have integrated the empowerment architecture into everything I do, from development of community leadership in my work to relationships with my colleagues, family and friends. It’s now like breathing.”

Jeff Nugent, President and CEO, Development Training Institute

“The Empowerment Institute provided me with powerful tools to introduce and facilitate transformation with the people and governmental organizations with which I work. These versatile tools have also transformed the way I lead meetings, build teams and interact with colleagues.”

Montserrat Meiro-Lorenzo, Senior Health Specialist, World Bank

“The Institute provided me with the skills, knowledge, time and space to create a vision for my classroom and my teaching and to bring it into reality. My classroom is a different place to be. Thank you!”

Debra Breger, 6th Grade Science Teacher

“I just love the empowerment life coaching program. The way you have designed it enables real transformation. I am amazed by the immediate results it achieves in people’s lives. I am building my clientele fast. I got 13 new clients and earned back my investment three times over within several months. Of course, it is through my own enthusiasm and belief in the excellence of this program that I created these results.”

Isis Saris, Life Coach and Organizational Consultant

“Even though I was already a coach, the Empowerment Institute was a wonderful addition to my practice. It propelled me forward in mastery and has enabled me to propel my clients forward to even greater levels of growth.”

Pat O’Connor, Life Coach

“This certification is a must for all social change agents. It is a true cutting-edge technology in community empowerment that really works. Thank you, David and Gail, for your work. The communities I serve are better for it.”

Netrisa Dockery, Community Organizer

“The Empowerment Institute provides a priceless road map for societal transformation. It is refreshing to find a body of work that really delivers. I have been blown away by the effectiveness of this model!”

Rha Goddess, Artist, Activist & Founder of The Next Wave of Women & Power

Feedback on David Gershon and Gail Straub's Empowerment Work

“In my role heading the Organizational and Individual Development function globally for Honeywell, I have either taken or evaluated most training programs aimed at individual or organizational change. The empowerment work of David Gershon and Gail Straub, however, was profoundly different. I was deeply impressed by the elegance of the methodology they have honed over two decades including their training design and delivery. I continue to rely on the empowerment model as a foundation for my work.”

Elaine Millam, President, Workwise Coaching and Consulting

“The Empowerment Workshop profoundly affected my life. It gave me a foundation of self-trust that I needed to create my business. I have no idea how I would have believed I could do this without the reinforcement of the empowerment model.”

Christiane Northrup, MD, Author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

“David Gershon proved he is truly a visionary in moving individuals to higher levels of performance, specifically within our complex organizational system.
He helped my team through an intense, personalized learning experience using his unique transformational learning approach. David and the highly effective set of tools of his Empowerment Institute helped produce significant, measurable and sustainable behavior change within our team. He built our consulting skills and worked with us to leverage our collective talent and create business results. Through David's work, this team now has daily practices focusing on their vision. We are empowered!”

Bob Franco, Vice President Human Resources,
American Express Company

“David Gershon is one of the heaviest hitting and most highly respected management consultants in the nation. He goes beyond inspiration to transformation. He helps clients achieve the results they want.”

Ed Sheehy, Manager, Entergy Corporation

“...Gail Straub speaks with a voice of total authenticity, great compassion, and a seasoned understanding of all the challenges, joys, and dangers that one is likely to encounter along the path of service. Her [work] can change your life and expand your vision for what you are here for.”

John Welwood, Author of Love and Awakening, Journey of the Heart

“Gail Straub is always fostering the quiet light of hope…She has lived the questions she explores… disclosing so many of the secret bridges between the inner hemisphere of the soul and the outer world of action. Gail’s touch is sure as she grounds both worlds....”

John O'Donahue, Author of Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Part One

Tuition:

Program is $3,500 and includes program registration and materials for both trainings as well as support and coaching during the Empowerment Project. Room and board at The Delamater Conference Center: $1,710 Single Room and Double Room $1,420. This includes lodging for seven nights (January and June sessions) as well as all meals during the two training sessions. A minimum of half payment for tuition and room and board is due upon registration. Full payment is due on or before December 1st, 2010. Checks and credit cards are accepted. Please make checks payable to Empowerment Training Programs.

Some scholarships are available on a first come first serve basis.