This course develops the interpersonal and embodied leadership capacities essential for veterans who wish to support others through peer engagement, group facilitation, and community presence. Students explore foundational principles of relational leadership, including trauma-informed communication, authentic relating, nervous system attunement, and clear relational boundaries.
Through a transpersonal and relational lens, the course addresses the profound realities of death and dying within the veteran community, including suicide, survivor’s guilt, grief, and the loss of identity that can accompany transition from service. Students analyze how these experiences shape meaning-making and belonging in both individual and collective contexts.
A three day in-person immersion provides experiential learning in relational presence, co-regulation, ritual, and community-based practices for collective grieving and integration. Through structured dialogue, story witnessing, and somatic exercises, students learn to hold difficult conversations with empathy, grounded awareness, and integrity. Emphasis is placed on peer leadership that extends beyond the veteran community. Students develop the capacity to support loved ones, families, and broader communities touched by trauma, loss, or transition, and they practice offering non-clinical peer support that honors agency, boundaries, and the well-being of all participants.