About The Gathering

Our Gathering of Good People is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit corporation that is devoted to supporting your personal growth and emotional healing through Growth psychology. We are dedicated to helping everyone and anyone who needs to grow, be happy, and find success, by providing rich content, and online personal growth groups.  The Gathering of Good People is a tax-exempt entity under the Internal Revenue Service of the United States.

 

 

Learn more about our beliefs, our tools, and our process.

 

Growth Psychology- our beliefs

Consider a NEW way of seeing yourself:

1. You are NOT broken- Traditional psychotherapy focuses on psychopathology and mental illness. You may be fear, sadness, or loneliness, however, we don’t believe you sick. You may struggle with your moods and emotions, but you are not your problems, you are not a problem. You are not an inanimate object, like a car, you are a living creature, like a tree. When a car is not working it is because something is broken. When a tree is dying or is unhealthy it is because its needs are not met; the tree is not broken. Often it needs water and nutrient to bring it back to health.
2. You need to grow to be happy- We all feel unhappy at times. And you may be struggling with feelings of fear, sadness, and/or loneliness, but that's because you have human needs that have not been met from an earlier time in your life. These unmet needs prevent you from being able to grow into your higher needs and higher stages of life. There are 7 basic human needs that connect to 7 stages of life. To find your happiness you need to grow through past stages and into your highest stages. 
3. Happiness rest in your connecting to your true self or highest self- There is no happiness in your ego. Your ego is trapped in base needs, like safety, desires, and belonging. But these most basic needs will not make you happy. Happiness comes as you see you are more than your ego. Your highest self is found when you are simply mindful and present; when you are conscious. Your highest self is happy and whole (unbroken & unbreakable) right now. You are your true self, not your ego. Your ego is what experiences emotional pain. Your ego is your problem. But your highest self is pure and untouched by all the trauma and pain of life. Personal growth, through Growth psychology,  is your path to your higher self. The seven stages of life move you through your basic human need, well beyond the ego to into your highest self.

3 Elements to Personal Growth- our tools

There are three essential elements to any kind of growth or change.  These essential tools to change focus on the three basic elements that make you who you are. 

You are, first, what you think about (your thoughts). Second, you are what you do every day, you are what you practice (your habits). And third, the company you keep (the community around you) shapes who you are. At the Gathering, you will find all three of these elements. 

1. Good thoughts
2. Good habits
3. Good community

Our video and audio libraries will help you learn and grow, by providing positive ideas & information, to help change your thoughts; the first element to growth. Our content also provides assignments to help you practice new activities and behaviors. Which is the second element you will need for change. And the online personal growth groups and our forums provide the third element to growth, by connecting you to others who will support you in our journey.  

 

Personal Growth Groups- our process

So you may ask how we can help create change and growth in your life? It is through our personal growth groups.  There is a ton of good content online, thousands of YouTube channels, and podcasts. Does any of this content really produce a change in your life? NO.

We grow better together. If you want to create change in your life, you will need to become a part of a community of change.  AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) is a wonderful example of a gathering that changes people’s lives.  What AA has taught us is that we grow better together. You can’t simply read a book on recovery and think that’s going to make all the difference.  You can’t listen to podcasts all day and think somehow you are going to wake up tomorrow a new person. 

In addition to community, AA has a process, the 12 steps, to overcoming addiction. At the Gathering, we also have a process but it's not based on addiction or being broken, but on personal growth.

Growth happens as we move through different stages and needs in our life. Growth psychology suggests that you have 7 basic human needs, that are emphasized during 7 stages of life. Understanding your seven human needs and your seven stages of life are what we call the SEVENS.

 

The SEVENS- The 7 basic human needs, and the 7 stages of life.

Growth involves moving forward in your psychological, relational, and even spiritual needs.

First three are emotional needs-

1. Safety
2. Desires
3. Being Loved

Next two are relational needs-

4. Loving other
5. Loving self

Last two are spiritual needs-

6. See beyond self
7. Serving beyond self

The Gathering of Good People hope to connect with all people at their place of need, and then through our offering, of community, thoughts, and habits, help everyone to grow to their highest self.

Psychology begins your journey by helping you heal the problems created by your ego. But to find happiness you must move beyond ego and this requires a new psychology. To be truly happy you have to move through your seven human needs and connect to your highest self.

You can’t make this journey alone, you need others. Join a personal growth group today and find personal growth and emotional healing.