The STAIR Method
A Framework for Synthesizing Therapy
Available through
The Academy of Therapy Wisdom
Level 1 Registration Now Available
Level 1 Dates:
5/24/24 - 10am-12pm CST
5/31/24 - 10am-12pm CST
6/7/24 - 10am-12pm CST
6/14/24 - 10am-12pm CST
6/21/24 - 10am-12pm CST
Different from a singular therapy model, the STAIR Method is a brain based integrated method of experiential therapy. The STAIR Method offers a systematic process of synthesis for therapists who use various therapeutic models in their work, and who might be relying on "gut instinct", a sense of client preference or what techniques come to mind first to guide their work moment to moment in the room. Training in this method will help therapists and coaches ground their theories and models of practice in a neurobiologically based and experiential integrative approach.
I believe that the STAIR Method will help therapists optimize the training and expertise they already have and might gain in the future, in order to help clients access their own inner resources with more depth and ease.
So… what is the STAIR Method?
The STAIR Method is an acronym that stands for Self-Trust And Integrated Resilience.
The therapeutic goal the STAIR Method upholds, is to increase clients’ self-trust, natural resiliency, and brain integration capacity. It does so by utilizing a carefully curated toolbox of experiential techniques and strategies. These techniques and strategies emphasize the client’s relationship with the experiences they are having in real time.
Different from cognitive or conversational approaches, experiential therapy brings to the forefront the client’s here and now experiences, expanding client awareness and relationship to their somatic, emotional, and embodied experiences. Clinicians that are trained in the STAIR method, will build skill not only in identifying and assisting their clients in removing blocks to their brains’ natural capacities for healing and growth, they will also build skill in holding awareness of contextual and systemic blocks like oppression, grief, and marginalization.
Therapists and coaches training in the STAIR Method are welcomed and encouraged to bring in their knowledge and expertise in multiple modalities, no matter what they are.
The STAIR Method will help clinicians and coaches to organize multiple tools, interventions, and protocols from a variety of models to create a coherent and overarching conceptualization that is supported by a neurobiologically informed and experientially focused framework.
Whether you’re a therapist or coach wanting to train thoroughly in this method, or you know that trying on smaller pieces of this work is a good fit for you: welcome.
Who is the STAIR Method for?
The STAIR Method is designed to:
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Help therapists and coaches use neurobiology to bring coherence to their work with clients
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Support therapists and coaches in building clarity, intention, and structure around both case conceptualization and moment-to-moment interactions with clients
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Teach therapists and coaches how to build a map for therapeutic work that uses biological awareness and therapeutic model without leaving intuition and client wisdom behind
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Teach therapists and coaches to practice from an experiential toolbox, guiding clients toward awareness of, and relationships with the experiences they are having in real time
The STAIR Method welcomes therapists who have found value in weaving together wisdom from many different teachers, modalities, and theories. Instead of requiring model-fidelity to ensure efficacy or offering steps to simply mirror, the STAIR Method uses principles of functioning and change for therapists to deeply incorporate as a way of thinking. This process of deep synthesis of knowledge guides organization and structure of sessions and treatment planning.
The STAIR Method is designed to leave clinicians feeling confident, effective, creative, and in a state of collaboration with their clients.
What makes the STAIR Method different from other trainings?
STAIR Method Certification Program & Training
The entire STAIR Method training program is a multilevel and experiential training program that will combine didactic classes offered through an online platform, as well as small deliberate practice groups that will be offered in a variety of settings.
The STAIR Method welcomes therapists and coaches who are looking for any level of education and engagement in the STAIR method, whether that is just one training or the full certification program.
Regardless of if you join us for one training or choose to become certified: welcome and we are glad to have you.
Level 1 is now available, only online through The Academy of Therapy Wisdom and is accessible to clinicians worldwide who are looking to expand their integrated experiential framework and toolbox.
Testimonials & Experiences
“Training in STAIR and with Jules has changed my life. It has been a paradigm shift in how I understand and own my job as a therapist, how I relate to myself, how I relate to clients, how I relate to being human, and how I relate to change. I feel more confident, skilled, and capable and have watched my brain change overtime into a landscape of deeper curiosity, compassion, and self-trust as a result of the training. Because of the experiential, neurobiology-backed teachings of STAIR, I find that I can shape the therapeutic space into one that's truly intentional, collaborative, creative, anti-oppressive, and grounded in clients' hopes for themselves. If therapists get any training at all in the field, I fiercely believe it should be this one!”
— Bokyung Kim, LCSW, NYC
“As a Black Practitioner from the Global South, I have been blessed by this model. I can sit with the principles of this work in truly liberatory practice, as this work does not seek to wed clients to any outcome or modality. It accommodates their self-trust, which is the essence of emancipatory practice with marginalized people.”
— Anonymous
“Learning from Jules and practicing her STAIR method with my clients has transformed my work. I am a far more effective coach and a far better human in general because of my work with her. What I love best about STAIR is that it works with so many modalities and perspectives. I'm a coach, but everything I've learned applies directly to the work I do. STAIR is an organizing system for your carework toolbox - it helps you to know more clearly what the next right thing to do with a client is, moment-to-moment, in a session, while also holding the broader arc of the client's goals are for working with you. Jules' method has also helped me understand more deeply WHY, neurobiologically, what I'm doing works, and how to use what I already know even more powerfully. I can't recommend Jules' work strongly enough.”
— Libby Sinback, relationship coach, podcast host of Making Polyamory Work, Atlanta, GA
“The STAIR method training with Juliane Taylor Shore has truly revolutionized my therapy practice. It is a brilliant, neurobiologically- informed integrative approach that has given me a broader framework for all the different treatment modalities I already utilize. I now have effective tools to help clients develop self-witnessing skills, emotional regulation and increase self-trust, all while fostering a therapy environment conducive to lasting brain change and healing. Equally importantly, this method has had a profound impact on me personally; helping me to become way more compassionate, self-aware and connected, both in and out of the therapy room. Thank you Jules for this incredible offering; I only wish I had learned it sooner. This is the therapy of the future. At a time when there are dozens of different trauma treatments, our field is in desperate need of a way to integrate them and at the same time tie in the latest neuroscience. The STAIR method achieves this beautifully, offeerapy of the future. At a time when there are dozens of ring respectful practices steeped in equal parts compassion and brain science, honoring each clients’ inner wisdom and innate capacity to heal. Juliane Taylor Shore models an effective, clear and power/with approach that will transform both your own life and your clients lives too. I cannot recommend this training enough!!”
— Terri Delaney, LICSW, SEP in private practice, Minneapolis, MN
“I was privileged to begin learning from Jules as a graduate student, so when she invited us to STAIR training, I assumed I already knew most of what she had to share. I was completely wrong. STAIR is something brand new in the busy and often contradictory world of trauma-informed therapy. This framework teaches you how to hold each client with deep acceptance without losing sight of your treatment plan. The more I understand the process underlying why therapies work, the less pressure I feel to fit a client into a modality and the more freedom I feel to craft the therapy to fit the client. It is a relief to let go of unhelpful beliefs about how therapy should look and exciting that I don’t feel like I’m throwing spaghetti at the wall just to see what sticks anymore. This work is inspiring, enlivening, and life-changing and I am so excited more people get the chance to experience it.”
— Rebecca Pancoast, LPC, Austin Texas
“STAIR is not another model to learn and master. Jules calls it a “framework” because she figured out a way to assist therapists to put to better use all of the skills we already have (plus more). Maybe, for me, that’s what made this information easier to grasp quickly, understand, and put into practice immediately: I was not overwhelmed from the beginning with my thoughts of “How am I going to learn all of this? How do I even start to put this into practice? How do I shift what I’m currently learning to do ‘this’ instead?” This framework helps me conceptualize and organize my skills like nothing else ever has. There is something about the way Jules talks and presents the information that just sticks in my brain. Her hand-outs are the only ones I find myself going back to, over and over. Maybe I’m the only one who has done the following: kept hand-outs from every seminar I’ve ever attended and never looked at them again; yet unable to throw them away. I find myself referring to Jules’ hand-outs frequently. I remember enough of the information that I want a more thorough “refresher” of her expert words and I will go through all of the hand-outs until I find the specific page I need. This training is the best money I have ever spent on professional growth. As an added benefit, this training has allowed shifts in me as a person, wife, and mother as well.”
— Vickey Easa, LICSW, Norwood MA
“The STAIR Method has been the most meaningful yet practical training that I have participated in as a therapist. There are many trainings I have attended over the years in different modalities of individual trauma therapy and couples counseling. After all of those workshops and trainings, I would leave thinking, I will try this new technique with a few of my new clients. The STAIR training was completely different. It was the feeling that now I had a grounded and embodied way to approach all of my clients. It was a completely new understanding of the relationship between a treatment plan, the therapist stance, and the client's trust and awareness of themselves. The STAIR training was a game changer for me as a therapist. I highly recommend it to all therapists and couples counselors, regardless of what modalities you have trained in previously. ”
— Kelly Edwards, LMFT, LPC, Austin Texas
“Juliane Shore (Jules) and the STAIR therapy model has transformed how I do therapy. I am not only a better clinician, I am a better human. The Stair metaphor starts on the step of power with energy, of building self trust through compassion and of-coarseness, and contracting with the client to be partners in their therapy experience. Then helping the client and the clinician watch their own mind using the BASIC tracking of body sensations, thoughts, images, and affect. Additionally, using parts mapping to differentiate what is happening internally to be experienced on paper is a marvelous process to witness for both parties. The STAIR method and Jules offer an exquisite opportunity to deepen one’s understanding of how neurobiology is integrated with therapy in a way that deepens the work for the clinician and therefore offers a richer experience for the client (the clinician too). The STAIR method is a perfect complement for integrating other therapy models as well. I heartily recommend Jules and her STAIR model to everyone interested in becoming more brain savvy, who wants to work with their clients and who wants to be the best version of themselves too.”
— Donna Tallon MA, LPC, CDWF
“Jules has given me a new landscape for my counseling work that makes sense and is based in the latest neurobiology. During this training, I kept thinking, this needs to be the masters program that all therapists go through to set them up with the principles of brain change and what it truly means to be an agent to that change. In this method, you will experience the integration of parts work, mindfulness, power dynamics, neuroscience, memory reconsolidation and grief work. I was sort of integrating these concepts on my own, but in a way I couldn’t articulate and wasn’t consistent. Jules has brilliantly crafted a way to work with the best pieces of multiple models and deliver therapy with intention, precision and art. This is what I was longing for and I can’t imagine turning away from this way of seeing things. This is not a new skills set, this is a transformation from the inside out.”
— Kat Elrod, LPC
“For years I struggled with trying to figure out why simply using basic skills and my theory was not enough for sustainable change. Once I begin the STAIR program I had a solid basis for understanding how our brains work and what creates change in the brain. And none of it was what I learned in therapy school! This program has completely changed how I conceptualize cases and how I work with my clients in session.
The results have been profound, deep and amazing.”
— Dee M, LPC, Denver
As a therapist in practice for over 20 years, I'm fortunate to have trained in many experiential and relational trauma modalities. That said, the neurobiological framework offered by The STAIR Method has been the link to help me weave together, organize and integrate these varied modalities. It offers a clear and coherent framework to conceptualize treatment planning that cultivates healing brain states (both the wider therapeutic arc and creatively in the moment). And it helps us to do so in deep respect and collaboration with the people we serve; trusting the wisdom of their protective systems. Central to the method is the neurobiologically based understanding that we need enough safety and enough stress, simultaneously, to promote deep transformation and unstick hard learnings. Each step of The STAIR Method helps us to organize and synthesize a coherent way of conceptualizing our work that centers how brains heal inside relationships. The STAIR Method doesn't just teach concepts, it also moves practitioners to embody the concepts, applying them towards ourselves while we work with our people, helping us to get unstuck and trust ourselves more, meeting ourselves with compassion and okayness, inside the trickiest of our hard moments as practitioners. It's also helped me to trust myself more in all aspects of my life, relationships, and clinical work. I hope that you will check it out!
— Rebecca Wong, LCSW, SEP NY, MA & CO
The STAIR Method is an effective and transformative framework and Juliane Taylor Shore is a brilliant, clear, and respectful teacher. I have had the fortune of learning many modalities for support in healing trauma. STAIR method is different as it goes beyond only tools and delves into the way change happens in our brains and lives. This model is highly effective, clear, as well as deeply respectful and compassionate. My clients and myself have definitely benefited from this approach and ongoing learning. I highly recommend this training and Jules!
— Lotty Ackerman Mayer, LCSW-S, SEP
“I have been working with Jules and learning how to integrate the STAIR method into my work for several years and it is has been a life-changing process. Not only has it transformed my work but I have grown so much personally. STAIR incorporates an understanding of neurobiology to guide your unique toolbox of skills and modalities and has helped me to focus my work and better assess what interventions to use when. STAIR has also helped me learn how to treat myself in the chair with compassion while doing this tough work. Jules is an amazing, compassionate and skilled teacher who embodies what she teaches in a way I have not experienced in any other trainer. I cannot recommend this training or teacher more.”
— Brittany Carswell, Psychologist, Tampa, Fl
“Jules has been my #1 teacher for years in the therapy world because she is constantly learning and incorporating the latest neuroscience into the way she works with clients. She is brilliant and her work and trainings inform nearly everything I do as a therapist. That said, the STAIR model in particular has given me a framework to guide and inform the way I work with clients. I have found that this experiential approach helps my clients to make more progress as we are specifically contracting for what we will be working on and toward. It has helped me be more focused in my work while also helping clients be with the reality of their lives. I feel like I can be more direct while also holding the client with complete acceptance wherever they are. Her work has helped me become more self-aware and compassionate toward myself while in the therapy chair while also teaching my client to do the same. I highly recommend Jules and the STAIR model.”
— Jennifer Alley, LPC-S, Austin, TX
"At the heart of the STAIR method is the invitation to continually and gently turn towards ourselves-therapists in the chair - and greet whatever arises in us with the same kind of compassion and care that we are looking to meet our clients with. That in turn is what allows us to truly be with them in the ways in which they are needing to deepen their relationship with themselves.
This has also been for me so far one of the best antidotes to burn-out. I cannot recommend this training enough as it will translate into working effectively with clients across pretty much any modality. Thank you, Jules, for putting your gifts out into the world."
— Marie-Michele A. LMFT, California and Texas
I have offered trainings for therapists since 2009 in a variety of contexts, and have deeply studied, not only, what works with clients, but also what kind of training a therapist truly benefits from. I absolutely believe that effective therapist trainings will help clinicians move from idea > to skill > to practice > to a way of being in the room. The STAIR Method emerged as a result of these ponderings, thoughts, questions, and observations.
I love working with clinicians and want to give you ways to feel great about your work, enjoy what you do, and have both greater success and efficiency with your clients. I very much look forward to supporting you on your path of growth and development as both therapists and as people.
Thank you so much for considering the STAIR Method and I hope to connect with you soon.