COURSE 8 OF 12 · SPRING SEASON
Exploring “The
Sovereign” Archetype to
Escape the Validation
Trap in Love
Exploring “The
Sovereign” Archetype to
Escape the Validation
Trap in Love
Exploring “The
Sovereign” Archetype to
Escape the Validation
Trap in Love
Using attachment theory, archetypal reflection, and
experiential interventions to reclaim personal power in relationships.
When a partner’s mood or reassurance decides how a client feels about themselves, that’s the validation trap. This course uses the Sovereign archetype, expressive arts, and guided imagery to help clients reclaim personal power, explore anger as a boundary signal, and lead from within.
3.0 CE Contact Hours
(NYS) LCAT + LMHC
Self-Study
About this course
This continuing education course explores “The Sovereign” archetype as an experiential, attachment-informed framework for helping clients recognize and escape the validation trap in love. Participants will examine how early attachment experiences, conditional approval, relational double binds, and insecure partner dynamics can lead
clients to outsource self-worth, suppress needs, over-function, seek permission, or organize their identity around another person’s response.
Clinicians will learn how to help clients reclaim personal power, differentiate healthy validation from externalized self-trust, explore anger as a boundary signal, and develop a more compassionate inner leadership system rooted in emotional safety, self-belonging, and relational agency.
How this course follows the SEED Framework
Across three lectures and an experiential art activities, this course moves through every step of the SEED Framework, so you experience the process yourself before you guide clients through it.
S – Soulful Inquiry
Begins with one question: Do I trust myself enough to honor what I feel, or am I still waiting for someone else to tell me it is okay? A validation trap self-assessment surfaces the unspoken rules, core beliefs, and relationship expectations behind approval-seeking.
E – Exploration
Defines personal power as the ability to influence one’s own life from the inside out, and explores how attachment experiences shape a client’s relationship to power, shame, and anger. Anger is reframed as a signal of dignity and a boundary alarm rather than something to fear.
E – Expression
Flowers and Weeds turns old beliefs into weeds and new secure truths into flowers, supported by The Garden of Worthiness visualization. The Fire of My Power then uses fire as a metaphor to explore the past, present, and future of personal power.
D – Deep Receiving
Clients crown the Sovereign Self, asking what archetypal gifts their inner leader needs, then receive The Crown of the Sovereign Self meditation, calling a symbolic crown of light down through the body to embody inner authority. What kind of inner leader am I becoming?
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
OBJECTIVE 1
Identify at least three ways early attachment experiences and conditional approval may
contribute to the validation trap.
OBJECTIVE 2
Describe the clinical function of the Sovereign archetype in supporting clients with secure
relational functioning.
OBJECTIVE 3
Apply at least two experiential interventions to help clients externalize validation-seeking
patterns and strengthen inner authority.
This is for you...
This is for practitioners who…
✓ Work with clients navigating anxious attachment, people-pleasing, over-functioning, self-doubt, relational anxiety, or approval-seeking in love.
✓ Want a clinically grounded way to integrate archetypal,
expressive arts, somatic, and attachment-informed
interventions.ds, or difficulty identifying what they feel.
✓ Support clients who struggle to identify needs, trust their emotions, set boundaries, or remain connected to themselves in relationships.
✓ Want to help clients explore anger, personal power, and self-advocacy without reinforcing reactivity, control, shame, or emotional shutdown.
✓ Are interested in helping clients move from external validation toward self-trust, secure communication, and compassionate inner leadership.
This will help your clients…
✓ Recognize when they are relying on another person’s
approval, availability, mood, or reassurance to confirm their worth.
✓ Understand how early attachment wounds and relational double binds can shape approval-seeking, self-silencing, and emotional over-responsibility.
✓ Reclaim personal power without becoming controlling,
defended, harsh, or disconnected from the heart.
✓ Use anger as information about boundaries, dignity, unmet needs, and self-protection rather than as a source of shame or harm.
✓ Strengthen inner authority by relating to activated parts with compassion, clarity, and grounded self-leadership.
Tools to use in practice
A self-assessment, based on the lesson topics
Guided visualization and expressive arts exercise
A story-based scripted EFT Tapping Practice
Downloadable guidebook and lesson summaries
TESTIMONIALS
What practitioners are saying...
"Invigorates my practice."
"As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over a decade of experience, finding continuing education that not only meets my licensure requirements but also invigorates my practice is rare. The courses offered by Briana’s continuing education school have been so helpful. Her psycho-spiritual approach deeply resonates with my work, and I've been able to integrate the concepts into therapy with profound results."
- Lena M. LMHC
"A rich tapestry of insight."
"As an art therapist, I'm always seeking ways to deepen my skill set and offer more to my clients. The workshops and seminars at Briana's school are exceptional; each course is a rich tapestry of insight, practical skill-building, and transformative knowledge."
-Michelle C. LCAT
"Fills a gap in the field."
"Holding licenses in both clinical social work and art therapy, I find Briana's continuing education offerings to be unparalleled in their depth and relevance. Her unique blend of traditional psychotherapy with spiritual and creative modalities fills a gap in our field."
- Patricia M. LCSW, LCAT
ENROLLMENT
Choose Your Plan
SINGLE COURSE
$97
Exploring “The
Sovereign” Archetype to
Escape the Validation
Trap in Love
3 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
BEST VALUE
THE spring SEASON
$194
Courses 1, 2 & 3 · buy two, get one free
9 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
About your instructor
My name is Briana MacWilliam, and I’m a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC), educator, and the founder of Soul-Centered Security®.
I didn’t come to this work because my own relationships were easy. Divorce, grief, and heartbreak brought me face to face with the same attachment patterns I was helping my clients understand. What helped was building a deeper relationship with my body, emotions, creativity, and spirituality.
Over the last 20 years, I’ve served more than 6,000 clients and students across inpatient psychiatry, community mental health, higher education, and private practice. My work weaves together attachment theory, creative arts therapy, embodied practice, and spiritual growth.
I also have additional training in trauma-informed somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), hypnotherapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. And I am the author of Secure in the Spark: A Spiritual Path to Heal Attachment Wounds, available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
My courses for practitioners share the tools and creative processes that supported my own growth, and the healing of the people I’ve had the privilege of serving.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to take the 12-part courses in order? No. Each course stands alone and is designed to be entered at any point. That said, we recommend starting with Course 1 if you're new.
How will I receive my certificate? After completing your course work, there will be a learning evaluation, instructor evaluation, and webform to complete. After submitting your webform, your certificate will automatically be emailed to you.
How long will I have access to the course? Your purchase includes lifetime access, including to any updates we might make in the future. If a course is retired in the future, we will email you the digital files to download to your own device.
Which boards approve these courses? Briana MacWilliam, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists (#CAT-0014) and licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0224). The ATCB has also accepted our courses in the past, because of our state approval, however, we recommend contacting the ATCB directly if you have a concern.
What if I have further questions? You can contact us at [email protected].
Start where your clients are stuck.
PROVIDER INFORMATION
Briana MacWilliam, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists; #CAT-0014, and is also an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors; #MHC-0224.
PLEASE NOTE:
While some subject areas overlap in education, a course that includes art therapy directives does not qualify a counselor to practice art therapy, and similarly an art therapist is not qualified to practice as a counselor, without proper licensing.
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