School’s Out… And In

The summer session at SBCC’s School of Extended Learning – known fondly as Adult Ed in days of yore – is already underway, with a number of classes geared toward raising the spirit, awareness, or body-mind intelligence – both in person and online – with weekly or one-day options. The good news is that it’s not too late to enroll in many of the classes that have started. The even better news?  Several of these summer classes have yet to begin. 

Longtime SEL instructor Rodger Sorrow, a veteran of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) who also hosts a weekend long NVC convention each year, is once again leading his Nature and Self-Healing classes, including separate sections for beginner and intermediate hikers. Participants go for generally short and gentle walks on local beaches or through nature preserves – to explore self-discovery and practice self-healing techniques led by Sorrow. Students also receive nutrition and stress management techniques. 

Sorrow is also teaching his Essence of Compassionate Communication course, which guides participants in listening and speaking more effectively by applying the NVC process founded by the late Dr. Marshall Rosenberg. Dr. Rosenberg led workshops himself for Adult Ed decades ago. Students learn how to reduce conflict while creating connections, how to improve relationships with clients, family and friends, as well as how to defuse difficult situations. 

Michelle Checketts has been teaching her Body-Mind Medicine series since 2020. The current class focuses on Brain Longevity and includes material on how the body-mind complex can maintain healthy balance, or be responsible for disease. Students learn that living with physical or emotional stressors increases our risk of depression, anxiety, and common physical ailments. Topics include the psychosomatics of everyday life, including the relationship between stressors, regulatory peptides (hormones, prostaglandins, and neurotransmitters). Checketts also covers how medical evidence has found various means of restoring emotional balance, including psychotherapy, herbs, nutrition, yoga, homeopathy, and prayer, and teaches techniques to reduce stress. 

Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the Workplace, which is slotted under the Professional Development section, is a one-day deep dive into using EI as a vital tool for being an effective and high-performing employee, supervisor, and leader – but you can surely apply the skills and practices in every aspect of life. Participants in the August 6 workshop taught by Erin Gorrell will explore the EI competencies of self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationship management. Students will learn how to apply the tools and techniques for mastering each domain and how to create strategies using the EI framework to optimize one’s professional performance and working relationships.

Dr. David Cumes has a one-day class in late June and another one in early August, and these can both be taken either online or in-person. Architecture of the Soul, on June 28, examines how we guard the soul by seeking light or submitting to darkness. Students will discover how the negative and positive variables inhibit or enhance transformation, including belief vs. faith, understanding vs. wisdom, denial vs. truth, and doubt vs. trust. 

On August 2, Cumes’ class Becoming: The Ultimate Triad on the Tree of Life covers similar territory, with an eye to mastering our path to spiritual transformation, leading to spiritual truth and our own divinity. 

Now is also the time to consider classes for next season, as SBCC’s Fall 2025 School of Extended Learning registration starts July 8. 

Visit www.sbcc.edu/extendedlearning for details and registration

Soulful Solstice

Elsewhere, for those who prefer marking Summer Solstice in nature rather than in a boisterous downtown parade and festival, Alexis Slutzky leads her last Land Listening & Earth Circle until autumn – from 2-6 pm on Saturday, June 21. Participants offer listening and attunement to the land as a gift, and receive the stories, experiences, and relational gifts in reciprocity. The event, held in a circle of community, starts with a group gathering in order to center together with attunement, context setting, orientation, embodiment and song, before heading off into individual encounters – with the elements, non-human beings, and the living world – to listen to the land. The event closes with a council circle to share and listen to the stories that arise – a gathering of collective wisdom for these times. 

Today’s event, held as always in a park setting in Chumash territory only 10 minutes from downtown, also includes a special ritual for the summer solstice.  

Visit www.alexisslutzky.com/land-listening-earth-circle for details and registration