About STAGES International
STAGES International was founded by Terri O’Fallon PhD and Kim Barta MA in February 2016 to offer training and resources informed by the STAGES Model of human development.
Vision
We seek to create a sustainable culture for humanity by helping our clients evolve their consciousness in a way that ripples forward to everyone they touch.
Mission
We offer programs and services to individuals and organizations based on a unique developmental model. Our offerings provide a methodology and a process that allows individuals and organizations to see the current situation more clearly and then creatively map out how to solve problems, actualize potential, and create the conditions for healthy future development and more positive impact in the world.
Values
In all of our work we seek to embody the highest expression of the values embedded in our vision for the future. Core values include:
- Love, care and compassion
- Integrity
- Developmental rights: Everyone has the right to be at whatever level they are at
- Earlier levels of development are not “inferior” to higher levels
- Methodological rigor
- Adaptability and agility
- Impact: Our programs will have evolutionary impact far beyond the direct participants
- Nurturance: Creating the conditions favorable to emergence and trusting the process. NOT trying to engineer outcomes.
- Lead into the positive, the cutting edge, and new growth for us, individually and collectively
About Terri & Kim
Terri O’Fallon, PhD is an Integral scholar whose research spans 40 years, including eleven research studies conducted in various colleges, public schools, and private research venues. Her most recent theory, and the culmination of a lifetime of work, is the STAGES model of human development. From this model a new theory is evolving around the interpenetration of states and stages. STAGES integrates several developmental models and is informed by Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory and Terri’s own research, to form a robust and predictive map that is being used by numerous scholars, practitioners, and leaders throughout the world.
Terri’s theory and research interests are founded in a passionate practice of auspicious curiosity, learning, and marinating in life. Teaching has been a theme throughout Terri’s life. Beginning as a preschool and first-grade teacher, she has taught every grade, including special education and the gifted. She has held the role of elementary school principal and public school-district superintendent and taught in seven colleges and universities, with over fifty years experience in teaching from pre-kindergarten through post-doctorate studies.
Her interest in life span development naturally arose from her experience in the field of education. She has a PhD in Integral Studies with a concentration in Learning and Change in Human Systems, and masters degrees in Spiritual Direction and Special Education. These embodied experiences inform her primary theory, research, and teaching theme: growing up is waking up throughout the lifespan.
Ordinariness has been the trajectory of Terri’s life. She is the eldest of seven siblings, parent of two adult children, and grandparent of two granddaughters. Steeped in philosophy, research, teaching, and a myriad of spiritual practices, her path continues to bring her solidly home to the practical living, breathing appreciation of the simple things in life.
We wake up every morning. We grow up, quite naturally. We live through joys and sorrows, and face our family, friends, and neighbors every day. We grow old and watch our life approach its end as we apprehend the birth of our grandchildren. With the gifts of so many experiences, the highs and lows of being, what seems to always remain, is what we were advised to value from birth: listening, gratitude, compassion, love, forgiveness, generosity, light-heartedness—lifelong lessons that never seem to end.
Kim Barta, MA is an internationally-recognized licensed psychotherapist, coach, spiritual guide, and speaker. His work is founded in an experiential practice that works with many different kinds of cultures and challenges, from severe mental illness and trauma to supporting the fullest expression of one’s humanity. Kim’s expertise now includes integrating developmental theory with the day-to-day work of being an active therapist and healer.
Kim graduated with a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Montana in 1984. He pursued a masters in an interdisciplinary program that combined psychology, social work, counseling, and sociology for a broad perspective for healing. He lived with a Native American shaman and did his masters thesis in shamanism and modern psychotherapy.
After developing and implementing a successful training program in the construction industry for people suffering from severe mental illness such as bipolar, schizophrenia, and Axis 2 Disorders, Kim pursued outdoor leadership, becoming an instructor with the international Outward Bound schools. Kim went on to develop a mental health treatment program for children and youth that was adopted by three hospitals in Montana. In 1992, Kim and his wife, Dr. Katie Carter ND, co-founded and continue managing a mind/body healing arts clinic in Polson, Montana, nestled beneath the high Mission Mountains on the shore of Flathead Lake, in the Flathead Indian nation.
Ever seeking better ways of healing in the life of self, other, families and children, Kim has developed several successful new forms of therapy that lead to deep and rapid healing. These therapies have proven themselves effective with a wide range of issues, including: depression, anxiety, PTSD, anger, addiction, chronic pain, physical illnesses and weight loss and personal growth. People utilize his psychology/coaching/spiritual guidance practice, on a global level.
Currently, Kim has joined his sister, Dr. Terri O’Fallon, to present workshops and trainings on STAGES, a new model of human development developed by Dr. O’Fallon. Kim’s long history of working with such a wide variety of clients has made his expertise invaluable. He brings nuance and direct application into the STAGES model, allowing it to be integrated into the dynamic and fluid world of psychotherapy and coaching.