“The Loving Course” (TLC), an experiential self-growth program, allows students to discover and break through subconscious beliefs that interfere with creating desired results in their lives. Co-founder Greg Liber humorously describes TLC as “a combination of 30 hours of group therapy, a Polish wedding, and a three-hour bar fight between very sensitive people.” Over the course of a weekend workshop, TLC teaches that experiences during early years shape our ideas as we grow into adults. In turn, these ideas about our parents, our peers and our self form the cornerstones of our belief system. TLC offers participants the opportunity to become aware of and counteract the decisions made during childhood that have negative implications. For example, if a child experienced a specific problem with a parent, s/he may have problems relating to authority figures as an adult.

Greg Liber co-founded TLC with Lee London in 1997. Greg, a chemical dependency counselor in Rocky River, Ohio, was inspired to create the program after having participated in a workshop called Understanding Yourself and Others (UYO) in Kansas City, Missouri. The UYO workshop transformed his life and radically shifted the way he viewed himself. Greg explained, “I was a victim. The course helped me realize this pattern and thus began my persistent quest to let go of being a victim.” Inspired by his transformation, Jan later participated in the UYO workshop, and the husband and wife team continued on to take the UYO teacher training. With the permission of the UYO founder, Bill Ridler, Greg and Lee integrated UYO's theory and purpose with their own ideas, and The Loving Course was born.

According to Greg, one goal of TLC is to dislodge anything blocking the flow of love. Another goal is to learn to feel worthy of the love that we receive, and to see the value of the love that we give. In order for us to do this, we need to embrace our light side as well as our dark side, the parts of ourselves that we are often afraid to face. The ultimate goal of the program is self-love. During the course of the workshop, a team of volunteer assistants provides the essential element of unconditional love. They offer comfort and support, creating an atmosphere that allows students to feel safe to let the love in. Greg explained, “It takes a lot of people to do that because many of the students feel resistant and scared.”

Although TLC complements traditional psychotherapy, it differs in some significant ways. “Traditional psychotherapy is more cerebral,” explained Greg. “In The Loving Course, one comes from the heart more than the head. It's one thing to feel empowered in an individual psychotherapy session, but it's a totally different experience to act that out in a room full of people where we may become inhibited.”

Jan added, “TLC is a microcosm of our lives. There will be people in the course room who are similar to people in our everyday life; people who have the ability to push your buttons like others do in the real world. This can help students learn how to interact with these people in a different way over the course of the weekend so they can relate to people in their lives in a more loving, real and honest way.”

The Loving Course is offered at Unity of Greater Cleveland in Shaker Heights, Ohio four times a year. The next one is scheduled to take place February 6 – 8, 2004. For more information, please call Greg Liber at (216) 513-8226 or go to www.thelovingcourse.com.