Experience transformative group sessions with Brandon Rennels and Steph Stern, focusing on real-time relational dynamics to foster genuine connections. Start with a free drop-in session and consider our comprehensive 4-month Relational IFS Group for deeper growth.​

Many personal growth groups focus on talking about your life or your challenges. This can be really beneficial. Relational IFS Groups are different though. They create an immersive space to explore how you relate to others—revealing insights about connection, vulnerability, and trust.

In Relational IFS Groups, we focus on what is coming up for each person in the present moment and in relationship to others in the group. This includes being honest and direct about your experience of other people. You express how you are feeling toward others in the group, both your positive responses and the moments of disconnection.

Attend a Free Relational IFS Drop-In Session

We love this work because it's a powerful sandbox to explore our edges around vulnerability, assertiveness, and belonging. If you’re curious to try it out, we’re offering two upcoming drop-in dates:

• Friday May 16 @ 9am-11am PT | 12pm-2pm EST | 5pm-7pm UK

• Tuesday May 27 @ 9am-11am PT | 12pm-2pm EST | 5pm-7pm UK

If you want to explore your relational patterns, deepen your sense of connection while staying authentic to yourself - these offerings are for you. What to Expect:

• Identify your go-to relational moves

• Practice vulnerability in a supportive environment

• Learn foundational 'here and now' communication techniques

• Explore your edge of vulnerability and be seen by others

Ongoing (4-month) Relational IFS Group

Over the course of four months you will get to deeply know your relational patterns and the ways they support (or hinder) your sense of connection with others. You’ll also discover ways to communicate with others how you truly feel from a place of courage and compassion. When things get sticky, a facilitator will be there to guide and support the process.

• Start Date: July 18, 2025

• Schedule: 8 sessions (2 hours each) over 4 months.

• Timing: Twice a month on Fridays @ 9am-11am PT | 12pm-2pm EST | 5pm-7pm UK

• Investment: $1,200 – $1,500 (Sliding scale; scholarships available)

• Capacity: Limited to 8 participants

• Presence: This is not one of those online groups you can multitask while attending : ) If you’re interested to attend, please ensure you can show up ready to engage for each session. We understand you may need to miss a session or two, which is okay.

Over 8 sessions, we’ll cover:

• IFS basics and tools for in-the-moment awareness

• Levels of connection in a group

• Skills for vulnerability, revealing and caring

• Conflict ownership and productive disagreement

• Giving and receiving open-handed feedback

Who is this for?

You might relate to one or more of these patterns:

• Authentic connection with others difficult at times

• You tend to withhold or shy away from deeper connection

• Conflict is uncomfortable, you tend to avoid it or seek harmony

• You struggle with people-pleasing

• You feel more reactive or judgmental than you’d like with people you care about 

Or maybe you’re looking for a space to try out new skills and 'get it wrong' sometimes.

Meet your Facilitators

We are Brandon & Steph – we first met as colleagues at the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (fun fact: we started on the exact same day in 2015!) Since then we’ve co-facilitated many programs together and most recently have been trained by the Interactive Group Institute. 

Brandon Rennels is a dedicated father, mindfulness facilitator, and an experienced group leader. He has led Teacher Training for a global mindfulness & emotional intelligence organization, personally mentoring hundreds of aspiring teachers over the years. As an ordained student of the late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, Brandon learned early on that embodying compassionate curious presence brings out the best in oneself and others. Relational IFS group work has been foundational to his own healing journey through anxiety and depression, and he considers it an honor to hold this space for others. 

Steph Stern is a facilitator, transformational coach and Certified Internal Family Systems practitioner. She works with clients individually, facilitates group workshops, and also supports organizations to bring emotional intelligence and candid feedback to their work culture. Overcoming long-held patterns of conflict-avoidance, Steph has learned to see tension as a path to deeper truth and connection. She appreciates the Relational IFS Group format to be a sandbox for this form of relational skill building. She loves supporting people to cultivate self-compassion and tune to their inner compass, and has a special fondness for inner critics.