Vivation Teacher Training
October 25 – November 7, 2026 | Gullnäsgården, Scandinavia
First European Training in Over a Decade
Learn the only breathwork method with a codified, step-by-step system for guiding clients to permanent emotional freedom: pleasurably, rapidly, and with a skill they keep for life.
A seaside island retreat just over the Norwegian border · Fly into Oslo · Group transfer included
The first European Vivation Teacher Training in more than ten years.
Many of you have been asking for this for years. Here it is.
Through a special relationship with the retreat center, we're able to offer this at our lowest tuition in many years: €2,800. That covers the full training, all your meals on the island, and your group transfer from Oslo.
Lodging on the island is the one extra, and it's genuinely affordable. You choose your room at checkout and pay one simple total, with nothing separate to book.
One quiet island. Fourteen nights. If becoming a Vivation teacher has been waiting in you, this is the opening.
Why Become a Vivation Teacher?
Most breathwork teachers can give clients a powerful session. But when it's over, then what?
Without a structured path, you're improvising session to session, hoping each one adds up to something lasting. Your clients feel better for a day, maybe a week. Then the old patterns return, because the root was never resolved. And you have no system for taking them deeper.
Vivation changes that equation completely.
The Seven Basic Lessons give you what no other breathwork training does: a codified, step-by-step system to walk your clients from emotional pain to genuine mastery, in days, not years. Each lesson builds on the last. Your clients know exactly where they are, where they're going, and why it's working. And the method itself is physically pleasurable and produces resolution, not just release, at the sensation level.
Here's what that means in practice:
Your clients don't just feel better. They learn to resolve what's driving the pain, permanently, and they learn to do it on their own. That's not a side effect. That's the design. Vivation's explicit goal is to make your clients so capable that they never need another session. They become autonomous, and they become your most powerful referral engine, because they tell everyone who made that possible.
And the method is radically forgiving. There is no way to do it wrong. Distraction isn't failure; it's material. The moment your client notices they drifted, they're already back. That safety architecture means you can guide anyone, anxious beginners, skeptics, people who've been burned by other modalities, with confidence.
That's what makes Vivation teachers untouchable in the market: you're not selling sessions. You're teaching a skill. You have a proven roadmap. And the results speak for themselves, because they're permanent.
What You'll Be Able to Do
A clear offer your clients actually commit to
You won't be cobbling together techniques or hoping each session lands. You'll have a clear, structured offer your clients can understand and say yes to: a complete path from first session to mastery, with their progress visible at every step. That's the kind of clarity that makes people commit.
Confidence built on depth, not just certification
This method has been refined since 1979: nearly five decades of real-world development. That depth means you can address a wide range of client needs with genuine assurance, because the method has already encountered and solved for them. You're not learning something new and untested. You're carrying forward a lineage.
Clients who stay, refer, and grow
Because the Seven Basic Lessons are a complete path, not a single session, your clients experience real momentum. They feel it working. They come back for deeper work. And when they reach autonomy, they send everyone they know. The business model rewards depth, not volume.
A career that compounds over time
The need for emotional resilience and genuine well-being grows in any economy. As a Vivation Professional, you're offering something people need more, not less, when life gets hard: a skill that works in real conditions. And you're backed by the Vivation Professional Association and a heritage brand that has been producing results since 1979: a network of experienced practitioners offering guidance, peer support, and ongoing development. You're not launching alone.
In Their Words
Voices from across the Vivation community.
Jim Leonard
Creator of Vivation
“Paul Hughes is the most gifted Vivation Professional I’ve ever taught. From early on I saw in him that rare blend of heart, intellect, insight, and compassion that would make him a luminary in the world of Vivation. I rest easy knowing the future of Vivation is in his hands.”
Jo Oliver
Vivation Teacher
“The training was mindblowing, packed with transformational experiences and connecting conversations. Paul is a dedicated and passionate teacher with a tremendous wealth of knowledge to share. Truly amazing, though, is the journey thereafter: the follow-up support has been like no other course I’ve attended, both from Paul and from fellow ‘Vivers.’ Vivation is a fun yet profound life skill, and the magic continues to unfold.”
Keely O’Connor
CEO & Founder, Prosperitas Agency
“Vivation took my life in a completely new direction. For a modality this powerful, the thought of teaching it might overwhelm you, but the structure, education, and ongoing guidance from Paul have been nothing short of phenomenal. His teaching style is potent yet relaxed. The professional support has been extraordinary: 1:1 calls, group coaching, accountability, and my fellow Vive pros have become real supports. It is a true gift to use this tool, and an even greater gift to share it.”
Mike Maher's Journey Through the Vivation Teacher Training
An In-Depth Interview with Paul Hughes on the Teacher Training Experience
Taught by the lineage. Supported by its finest.
Paul Hughes
Lineage Holder & Director, Vivation International
Teaching Vivation since 2001 and carrying the method's complete transmission from its creator, Jim Leonard. Paul leads every stage of the training, from the Breakthrough Experience through your certification.
Dr. Torunn Lien, MD
Instructor, Vivation International · Norway
Medical doctor and Vivation Instructor, co-facilitating the training and bringing clinical depth to the teaching room.
Robbin van der Crussen
Instructor, Vivation International · Norway
Vivation Instructor and co-facilitator, supporting your sessions and your development throughout the retreat.
“Two of the finest Vivation teachers I have ever taught, and two I am privileged to work with.”
Paul Hughes, on his co-facilitators
Your Training Path
Overview
The Vivation Teacher Training is designed to build real confidence and capability, not just conceptual understanding. You'll learn the method deeply through your own experience, then learn to teach it with the same precision. Our approach develops both personal mastery and professional excellence, so you're not just certified, you're genuinely ready.
Module 1: Vivation Foundations
Prerequisite Reading and Study Materials
To ensure a comprehensive understanding of Vivation principles and practices, you'll complete a curated reading list before attending the in-person training.
- Essential Readings: Vivation: The Skill of Happiness and Vivation: The Science of Enjoying All Your Life
- Additional Resources: Selected books on ethics and self-improvement, plus in-depth articles on Vivation theory and practice
Module 2: The Vivation Breakthrough Experience (Days 1–4)
This is where the method becomes yours.
In four intensive days, you'll learn Vivation as a complete, embodied skill. Not by reading about it, but by living it. You'll move through all Seven Basic Lessons, experience the full range of Vivation formats, and build the foundation of personal mastery that makes you credible as a teacher.
What's included:
- The complete Seven Basic Lessons — Vivation's proven, step-by-step path from emotional resistance to genuine freedom and autonomy
- Eyes-Closed Sessions — deep guided sessions building skill and confidence
- Cold Water Vivation — the Nordic way: sauna warmth and the clear, cold Skagerrak sea, integrating intensity with pleasure and relaxation
- Eyegaze Sessions & Mirror Gaze — advanced relational and self-contact practices
- Vivation-with-Music and Vivation-in-Tandem
- Vivation-in-Action — learning to use the skill in real life, not just on the mat
- Values and Purpose Process and Vivation & Creativity
By the end of Module 2, you'll have a direct, personal experience of what Vivation can do. You'll feel in your body why this is worth sharing.
Module 3: Teacher Clinical Training (Days 6–13)
After one day of rest and integration, you begin the real work of becoming a teacher.
Module 3 is eight days of intensive clinical training: learning to guide others through the Seven Basic Lessons with precision, safety, and the warm authority that defines great Vivation teaching.
What you'll learn and practice:
- How to teach the Seven Basic Lessons — session by session, with direct feedback from Paul Hughes
- Reading your client's process in real time — learning to see what's happening in the body and adjust your guidance accordingly
- Holding space with confidence — how to be present, supportive, and precise without over-directing
- Hands-on practice with fellow trainees — you'll guide and be guided, refining your skill through real sessions and constructive feedback
- Advanced session formats — how to offer and lead cold water, eyegaze, and Vivation-in-Action sessions with clients
- Ethics, boundaries, and professional standards — the integrity framework that protects you and your clients
- Business development and marketing — practical strategies for building a sustainable Vivation practice
Modules 2 and 3 together form a single 13-day immersive retreat: 4 days of breakthrough experience, 1 day off, 8 days of clinical training. You arrive as a student. You leave ready to teach, carrying a skill, a system, and a depth of confidence that only comes from having done the real work yourself.
Module 4: Mentorship & Certification
After the retreat, a three-month program of guided support brings you to full certification.
Program Structure:
- Three group mentoring sessions with Paul Hughes — one-hour calls providing direct guidance, Q&A, and support as you begin practicing and teaching
- Monthly development milestones to keep you on track and building momentum
Month 1: Foundation Building
- Daily Practice — a minimum of 60 minutes of daily Vivation practice to deepen your embodied mastery and build the authentic foundation for teaching
- Theory Deep Dive — guided study of Vivation's core principles, preparing for the oral examination
Month 2: Skill Enhancement
- Advancing Your Practice — focus on rapid integration and precision, developing the ability to guide clients through increasingly nuanced emotional terrain
- Professional Development — refine your teaching delivery, practice the Seven Basic Lessons with real clients, and develop your client acquisition strategy
Month 3: Mastery and Certification
- Private Oral Examination — a one-on-one exam with Paul Hughes demonstrating your understanding of Vivation theory, principles, and practice
- Teaching Demonstration — submit proof that you have successfully taught the complete Seven Basic Lessons to at least one person. This is the final milestone: you've done the real work
- Business Launch — finalize your practice strategy and transition into active teaching
Upon Certification
You join the Association of Vivation Professionals: listed, backed, and supported by a lineage that has been producing results since 1979. You're not just certified. You're part of something real.
Gullnäsgården
Tjärnö Island · Bohuslän Coast, Sweden · Just over the Norwegian border
October 25 – November 7, 2026
14 nights · A retreat farm by the sea since 1963 · Sauna and sea at your doorstep
An island of granite and pine on Sweden's west coast,
where the quiet is deep enough for real work.
Your training takes place at Gullnäsgården, a retreat farm that has stood by the sea on Tjärnö since 1963. The island sits in the northern Bohuslän archipelago beside Kosterhavet, Sweden's first marine national park, just south of the Norwegian border. You fly into Oslo, and your group transfer to the island is included.
The place itself is simple, soulful, and close to the water: two dedicated practice halls, rooms for a small cohort, a wood-fired sauna, rowing boats and bicycles, and shoreline paths in every direction. It is hosted by Anna and Gunaketu, who have guided retreats here for fifteen years and will be caring for the practical life of ours.
This venue was chosen for a reason. Cold Water Vivation is one of the method's most clarifying formats, and the Nordic rhythm of sauna and sea is its perfect vessel. Autumn on the Skagerrak brings low golden light, still water, and air that sharpens everything. You'll learn Cold Water Vivation during the Breakthrough Experience and practice guiding it during the Clinical Training, with the sauna and the sea a short walk from the halls.
Meals are vegetarian, generous, and made together: the retreat runs as a small temporary village, and the kitchen is part of the community. On your rest day, the historic seaside spa town of Strömstad is twenty minutes away, and the archipelago invites slow walks, rowing, and long exhales.
Explore Gullnäsgården →Your Investment
One payment covers your complete training, meals, mentorship, certification, and membership. Accommodation is booked separately after registration.
3-month mentorship program · Full professional certification
AVP membership · All teaching resources & materials
Airport transportation · 24-hour hot springs access
After you register, you'll be taken to a page to choose your lodging for 13 nights at Joyful Journey Hot Springs (May 9–22).
Flexible financing available. 6 and 12-month payment plans through Afterpay — choose your plan at checkout.
About Your Teacher
Paul Hughes is the world's most experienced Vivation instructor, having guided more than 20,000 people since 2001. As Director of Vivation International and the method's official lineage holder, he carries the complete transmission of Vivation directly from its creator, Jim Leonard, and trains and certifies the next generation of Vivation professionals worldwide.
Paul creates a training environment that is both rigorous and deeply safe, where you can be challenged, make mistakes, and grow without judgment. His teaching is precise yet relaxed, demanding yet deeply supportive. The kind of space where real skill actually gets built.
“Paul Hughes is the most gifted Vivation Professional I’ve ever taught. I rest easy knowing the future of Vivation is in his hands.”
Jim Leonard, Creator of Vivation
Your Next Step
If you've read this far, something here is speaking to you. That's worth listening to.
Becoming a Vivation teacher is not a small decision, and it shouldn't be. It asks for your time, your honesty, and your willingness to be changed by the work before you ever guide anyone else through it.
Here is the part most people have backwards: you don't have to arrive ready. The training is what makes you ready. The method is proven, the system is complete, and the lineage stands behind you from your first breath to your certification and long after it.
If this isn't your moment, that is completely okay. No one belongs in this room who had to be talked into it.
But if something in you has quietly already decided, the only thing left is to begin.
Scroll up to choose your room and register. Or if you'd rather talk it through with me first, let's have a real conversation.
No pressure. No sales pitch. Just clarity.
