Purpose Guides Training | Become a Certified Purpose Guide™
Semester II · 2026-2027 Cohort · Applications Open

Purpose Guides
Training

Train as a certified Purpose Guide™, and learn to midwife the most important journey a person can take - for themselves and for this world.

Semester I Begins 2 September 2026
Semester II Begins 20 January 2027
Format Online · Zoom
This is Semester II

The Purpose Guide Certification - where you learn to deliver the Purpose Octagon Process to clients. Semester I (Purpose Discovery) is the prerequisite, running September-December 2026.

Two Goals of the Training

Guiding you toward full soul-purpose embodiment - and preparing you to be a skilled, certified Purpose Guide™ for others.

After Certification

Join a worldwide community of soul-led practitioners, be listed on the PGI directory, and access Level 2 Advanced Training.

Explore
Is This You?

You Feel Called to
Something More

Train as a certified Purpose Guide™ and learn to guide others home to Soul, to their true purpose, and to their place within the web of life.

You feel...
  • A calling to guide others toward the truth of who they are and what is theirs to offer.
  • That the converging crises of our times are asking something specific of you.
  • A longing to do work that is rooted in depth, in nature, and in service to life.
  • That your own journey of descent, discovery, or transformation is not just personal - but preparation for your deepest work in the world.
You are looking for...
  • A training rooted in multiple wisdom traditions, not a single methodology.
  • A community of people devoted to soul-level work and the Great Turning.
  • A rigorous process that honours both the sacred and the practical realities of doing this work in the world.
  • A path toward offering your gifts as a skilled Purpose Guide, rooted in over twenty years of purpose guiding practice.
Which one are you?

The Passionate Mentor

You have a passion for bringing out the best in people and experience mentoring others - through meditation, yoga, coaching, or similar work. Your current delivery vehicle feels like it's time to evolve.

The Credentialed Professional

You are a coach, counselor, therapist, somatic healer, educator, healthcare practitioner, or clergy person - and sense that purpose guiding is the missing piece in your existing practice.

The Practicing Purpose Guide

You are already guiding clients toward purpose, but know there is still growth ahead. You want to deepen your mastery and access a community of peers and teachers who will stretch you further.

The One Who Was Called

You may not have a coaching credential. But your own journey of descent, loss, or transformation has changed you fundamentally - and you know deep inside that you are meant to guide others through theirs.

What Makes Us Exceptional

Five Reasons to Train
with PGI

PGI offers a comprehensive, multi-tradition framework shaped by over twenty years of purpose guiding practice.

01
Multi-Tradition Depth

Drawing on depth psychology, indigenous nature-based practices, non-dual wisdom, the Work that Reconnects, and more - not a single methodology.

02
Proven Methodology

The proprietary PGI Purpose Octagon Process - twelve approaches to uncovering your client's life purpose across all eight facets of soul-level purpose.

03
Nature as Teacher

The living world is central to this work. Soul speaks through nature, and our practices root you in a deep sense of belonging to the web of life.

04
World-Class Teachers

PGI's faculty includes some of the most respected voices in purpose, soul, and consciousness work alive today.

05
The Practical Path

Training in how to build a practice and offer this work in the world - with support and guidance from people who have done it.

The Foundation

The Three Worlds
of Consciousness

PGI's training draws on one of its most important maps - the three-world model - situating purpose guiding within the full spectrum of human development. Expand each world to explore.

The Upperworld of Spirit
+

Experienced as enlightened awareness. The path of meditation points toward transcendence, unity, and the freedom of awakened awareness - liberation from the separate self sense, opening into the stillness underlying all things.

PathMeditation & contemplative practice
ExperienceTranscendence, Unity
StateEnlightened Awareness
The Middleworld of Ego
+

Developing the capacity to give and receive love, to be open to well-being and happiness. The path of psychotherapy and emotional healing supports us toward wholeness and the mature emotional adulthood from which real service becomes possible.

PathPsychotherapy & emotional healing
ExperienceWell-being, Wholeness
StateMature Emotional Adulthood
The Lowerworld of Soul Our Focus
+

Experienced by embodying your specific life purpose - the very reason Spirit has taken shape as you. This descent into soul reveals your deepest identity: the unique offering that only you can bring, the mythopoetic core of your being.

PathSoul-work / Purpose-work
ExperienceDescent, Individuation
StateSoul-saturated, Purpose-driven
"The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth is not that we are on the way to destroying the world - we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other."
- Joanna Macy
The Training Path

Semester II -
Purpose Guide Training

This is Semester II - where you learn to guide others through the Purpose Octagon Process. Semester I (Discover Your Purpose) is the prerequisite, beginning 2 September 2026.

New to PGI? If you haven't yet completed Semester I - the Discover Your Purpose course - that's your starting point. It begins 2 September 2026 and is a complete standalone offering as well as the foundation for this certification year.
Semester I · Begins 2 Sept 2026 · Prerequisite
Sept - Dec 2026 · Standalone or Step 1
$1,500Early Bird
Full price $1,700

You go through the 12-module Purpose Octagon process yourself - discovering your own life purpose before learning to guide others through it.

  • 12 live 90-minute sessions with PGI faculty
  • Weekly small group meetings
  • Module overview audios by the lead teachers
  • Guided soul-encounter meditations
  • 12 written modules with teachings and practices
  • Online community forum
  • Withdraw after this semester - no penalty
Semester II · Begins 20 Jan 2027
Purpose Guide
Training
Jan - June 2027 · 93 contact hours
$2,900Early Bird
Full price $3,100

Learn to deliver the Purpose Octagon Process to clients. Work with real clients under mentor supervision and earn your Level I Purpose Guide™ accreditation.

  • 12 large group + 12 small group meetings
  • 6 practice partner calls
  • In-depth Guiding Handbook + demo videos
  • 12 client-ready guiding modules
  • Practice with 2-4 real clients
  • Written and verbal feedback on your guiding
  • Accreditation + frameable diploma
Semester III · July - Aug 2027 Optional
Entrepreneurial
Training
6 recorded sessions · Build your practice
$300
 

Turn your guiding skills into a thriving practice. Build a solid business plan and learn to attract the clients you are meant to serve.

  • 4 dedicated entrepreneurial sessions
  • Business plan development with mentors
  • Marketing support & pooled advertising
  • Listing in PGI's "Find a Guide" directory
  • Pathway to Level 2 Advanced Training

Complete Training Investment

Semesters I + II · Become an accredited Level I Purpose Guide™

Add optional Entrepreneurial Semester III for $300 more

Installment plans available · Early bird pricing subject to availability

$4,400
Full price $4,800
Early Bird · Sem I + II
Book a Discovery Call
"

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

- Frederick Buechner
See the Work

Hear from a
PGI Guest Teacher

PGI Guest Teacher Bayo Akomolafe shares his philosophy and background in guiding people home to their soul's purpose.

A Word from Your Guide

A Letter from
Rachael

Rachael Duffy
Rachael Duffy Lead Teacher, PGI

Dear fellow traveller,

If you've found your way here, I imagine there's a growing sense inside of you that something deeper wants to emerge, through you.

I know that feeling. I spent more than two decades as a facilitator and leadership coach, doing meaningful work with change agents around the world. And still, something kept nudging me. There's something more. There's a layer beneath this you haven't touched.

In 2020, that call became a descent. Everything I thought I knew about life, and about who I was within it, was torn apart. It was disorienting and humbling, and it was also the most important passage of my life. When I found the Purpose Guides Institute in the midst of that unravelling, I knew immediately I was in the right place. Held within the PGI container, I saw clearly, for the first time, what was truly mine to bring. And when I began training as a guide, it felt like a homecoming - as though everything from the first arc of my life had been preparation for this deeper one.

This training is rigorous and transformative. It gives guides the language, structure, and spaciousness to meet people at the level of soul and accompany them toward the life they are actually here to live. It's designed for people who believe, like me, that if we are to move through these times of collapse and renewal - and co-create a life-enhancing future so many of us dream is possible - we need emotionally-mature, soul-aligned adults and elders to guide this passage.

If any of this resonates, I would love to speak with you. Book a discovery call and let's explore together whether this path is right for you, at this time in your life. I'm looking forward to meeting you.

Rachael
Purpose Guide · Lead Teacher, Purpose Guides Institute
Your Lead Teachers

Trained by Those Who
Live This Work

The PGI training is led by two experienced purpose guides whose combined depth spans somatic work, depth psychology, meditation, nature-based practice, and over two decades of guiding clients.

Rachael Duffy
Rachael Duffy
Purpose Guide · Facilitator · Nature-Based Soul Guide

Rachael guides with fierce love and with an Earth-based groundedness. She brings twenty-five years of facilitation experience, deep roots in Celtic wisdom and nature-based soul work. She sees the gold beneath the conditioning and the default purpose - the irreplaceable part you play in the unfolding of this world. And she will illuminate it until you can see it for yourself.

Rachael knows this territory from the inside. In 2020 her own life was torn apart, and she spent several years in the underworld before emerging with a clear sense of what was hers to bring. She guides from a place of lived experience, rather than theory.

Michael Denmeade
Michael Denmeade
Purpose Guide · Faculty · Spiritual Mentor

Michael has spent most of his adult life learning and living what he calls the Mitakyasin Way - how to live in Right Relationship and Reciprocity with all life. Mitakuye Oyasin literally means 'All My Relations'.

He was trained to be a fire keeper for sacred ceremony and answers the call when medicine people need him. He is a spiritual mentor, vision quest guide, and invitationalist to other two-legged people on how to live in Right Relationship and Reciprocity with All Life.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked
Questions

About the Training
What is purpose guiding?
Purpose guiding is the art and science of accompanying a client to identify and fully embody their life purpose. It is distinct from life coaching (which covers all areas of life) and psychotherapy (which addresses mental health). Purpose guides attend specifically to one dimension: finding and living one's deepest calling.
What is the difference between Semester I and Semester II?
Semester I - the Discover Your Purpose course - takes you through the 12-module Purpose Octagon process yourself, so you arrive in Semester II having lived it from the inside. Semester II is where you learn to guide others through the same process. Semester I begins 2 September 2026; Semester II begins 20 January 2027.
How is the training structured?
Small group learning environments are where great guides are born. You will join a small group of peers for regular calls, practice sessions, and peer learning alongside the larger cohort. Expect demonstrations, hands-on practice, faculty feedback, and significant personal development woven throughout. As part of the training, you will also work through the full Purpose Octagon Process with four practice clients, under the supervision of PGI faculty.
What is the time commitment?
Expect approximately 12 hours per week including readings, written assignments, large group calls, small group calls, and personal development practices. The training is rigorous and thorough - designed to prepare you to step into the profession with real confidence.
Can I withdraw after Semester I without penalty?
Yes. Semester I is a complete standalone offering. If after completing it you decide that the certification year isn't right for you, you may withdraw with no obligation to continue - and you will have gone through a deep process of your own purpose discovery.
About Career & Income
Can I earn a living as a purpose guide?
Yes - but it takes real work. You will need to become proficient in guiding, develop a sound business plan, and execute it well. PGI supports you through all three steps. Keep your current work until your practice is established. Start-up costs are minimal: a business card, email address, and simple website.
What do purpose guides typically charge?
Many guides offer a 6-month program of around 18 sessions. Rates vary widely depending on experience, audience, and location. Some graduates have built practices charging several thousand dollars per client engagement. The entrepreneurial semester helps you think through your own positioning and pricing.
Does PGI help students get clients?
Yes, in two ways. The optional Entrepreneurial Semester helps you build a solid business plan. And upon certification, you are listed in PGI's "Find a Guide" directory, which PGI actively markets. The listing costs $150/year, with 100% going toward advertising that benefits all certified guides.
Are payment plans available?
Yes, installment plans are available. Reach out directly to discuss what works for your situation. Early-bird pricing is available for a limited time and represents a meaningful saving on the full tuition.
Is there further training after certification?
Yes. Graduates of the Purpose Guide™ training may continue through Level 2. There are also ad-hoc additional learning sessions and online gatherings for alumni.
Begin Your Journey

Ready to Do the Work
You Were Made For?

Start with a free discovery call - a genuine conversation to explore whether this path is yours, at this moment.

[email protected]
Semester I begins 2 September 2026 · Semester II begins 20 January 2027 · Applications now open