The use and abuse of power, and the longing to feel empowered—especially the power to be fully oneself in connection with others—are central themes in our cultural moment, the therapeutic endeavor, and many timeless fairy tales and folktales.

In the classic film, The Wizard of Oz, we see the disorganizing force of the tornado, the Witch’s vengeful pursuit of Dorothy, the illusion of the all-knowing Wizard, and the quiet, enduring truth symbolized by the ruby slippers. Following the yellow brick road offers a powerful map of how power is lost, projected, distorted—and ultimately reclaimed.

In this first of three experiential webinars, we will explore Dorothy’s time in Kansas, before she journeys over the rainbow as a living metaphor for our own wounding and pain. Together, we will trace the inevitable adaptation to circumstances, the tendency to rely on external authority, and the discovery of relational power and, ultimately, reveal the bridge back to inner alignment and the restoration of the vital, authentic core. Participants will be invited to recognize the ways they have given power away, the strategies they’ve used to survive, and the deeper truth waiting beneath those adaptations. Participants will walk together through Dorothy’s Kansas — examining the bleak landscape and the orphaning experiences that shape it — through the tornado’s disruption of familiar life, and into Munchkin Land, where emotional shelter and new possibility unfold. Grounded in Imago theory throughout, this session is designed as personal growth work for practitioners first, deepening the therapeutic presence they bring to their own clients. 

In this second of three webinars, Dr. Nedra Fetterman continues to use The Wizard of Oz as a living map for Imago theory and more deeply explores how losses and crises are inevitable and often necessary to call us back toward coherence. Dorothy, for example, has come to know who she is through the eyes of others. All of us absorb messages about who we are, who we should

be, and who we are allowed to become. At some point, often in the face of a challenge, a deeper question emerges: If I am not my wounds, not my defenses, who am I?

The focus thus turns to the moment Glinda meets Dorothy and asks not “What happened to you?” but “Who are you?” Using two visual models — the Layers of the Self and the Whole Self Projection Map — participants explore how the self divides in order to adapt, and how disowned parts of the self are projected onto others as dark and golden shadows. Martin Buber’s I-It framework further illuminates what happens when we turn ourselves or others into objects

rather than encounter one another as whole human beings. Grounded throughout in Imago theory, the session offers guided practices for reclaiming disowned parts of the self, integrating love and power, and dialoguing with our own shadow material. It closes with an image of the whole self not as a perfect or individual soloist, but as a symphony in which every part belongs, every voice necessary to life’s natural flow. 

The Yellow Brick Road doesn’t end in Oz. It ends with Dorothy waking up in relationship with her friends and family on the farm in Kansas. In this closing webinar of the three-part series, Dr. Nedra Fetterman brings Dorothy’s companions full circle. Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, and Toto return not as separate travelers, but as differentiated, interconnected functions of the

Self—thinking, feeling, acting, and sensing.

Each is essential to our experience of wholeness, and each carries a history of messages received during the socialization process. Using the imagery of the Round Table and the symphony orchestra, this session offers clinicians a structured way to help clients—and themselves—restore relationship among these functions, deliver healing messages where limiting ones were once received, and return to a renewed sense of an embodied, integrated

Self.

Healing, this webinar proposes, is not becoming someone new—it is remembering who we have always been. Participants leave with both a clinical framework and a felt experience of what it means to see through the eyes of love.

Day 1:

1. Identify and describe the four functions of the Self—Thinking, Feeling, Acting, and Sensing—and describe how adaptive processes can restrict access to these functions and how core capacities may be reclaimed.

2. Describe how developmental crisis or disruption can initiate a healing process and apply this framework to a clinical or personal example.

3. Facilitate structured experiential practices that help clients identify adaptive patterns and recognize and strengthen internal resources that support greater integration and relational functioning.

Day 2:  

1. Identify adaptive patterns and describe how denied or disowned aspects of the Self may emerge as “dark” and “golden” shadow and be projected onto others in relational contexts.

2. Explain Martin Buber’s I-It and I-Thou frameworks and the polarity of love and power, and describe how Imago Dialogue can support movement from an I-It to an I-Thou relationship with self and others.

3. Demonstrate structured Imago Dialogue practices designed to help clients identify and reclaim disowned qualities, integrate shadow material, and strengthen connection with an integrated sense of Self and Other.

Day 3:

1. Identify and describe the four functions of the Self—represented by Scarecrow/Thinking, Tin Man/Feeling, Lion/Acting, and Toto/Sensing—and explain how each contributes to an integrated, embodied Self and may become constricted or repressed through conditioning and adaptation.

2. Apply the Round Table framework in clinical practice to help clients engage in internal dialogue among the four functions, mediated by the observing or witnessing Self.

3. Demonstrate a structured dialogue technique for delivering healing messages to a constricted or wounded function of the Self through varied relational energies—including nurturant, playful, powerful, wondrous, and mischievous—to support integration and regulation.