THE PATCHWORK FATHER
Explore below for more information and options
Fatherhood is a transformative experience. It reshapes our identities, our relationships, and how we understand ourselves in the world. It highlights our greatest strengths and challenges our most painful growing edges.
It is an enormous experience. The need to show up, perform, and meet expectations can leave us feeling stuck, stressed, and strained. At times, we may feel like we’re playing a role instead of being ourselves.
The Patchwork Father centers the lived experience of fathers. It invites us to engage with the totality of our lives, which are truly multifaceted. We exist within four essential aspects—what I call the Patchwork—and each requires our attention as we grow into this expansive life.
You can choose to engage with one aspect of the Patchwork, selecting what resonates with you today. Or you can explore all four areas to embrace a broader, more holistic view of fatherhood—and of personhood.
When we show up fully as ourselves, we create the kind of child-rearing experience our kids deserve. It allows us to be ourselves and gives our children the freedom to be themselves too.
Welcome to The Patchwork Father.
ABOUT THE PATCHWORK FATHER COURSE
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Emphasizing father well-being as a vital component of family well-being.
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Contextualizing personal development and internal change throughout the fatherhood journey.
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Offering actionable practices and reflective prompts to support continued growth within each topic area.
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The course is organized into four sections, each composed of modules that explore different facets of the fatherhood experience.
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Includes over two hours of short, digestible video content in each section—more than nine hours in total across the complete course.
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Engage with the section that resonates most with your life right now, or move through all four at your own pace—you decide what fits your life.
THE PATCHWORK FATHER
COURSE SECTION OPTIONS
Embodied Fatherhood
The body is our starting point and grounds us in the world. We sustain ourselves as fathers when we work with our physiology, tend to our emotions, and support our overall wellness. This is the most action-oriented module, because the body responds to activity.
Psychological Fatherhood
How we think about things shapes how we perceive them—including fatherhood. This experience challenges old thought patterns and opens us to new ways of viewing life. Sometimes the work involves consciously engaging with our thoughts, while other times, it means exploring the thinking styles we’ve been predisposed to use.
Relational Fatherhood
At its core, fatherhood is a relational experience. We exist as fathers because of the people we are connected to—our partners, children, friends, family, and communities. We show up more intentionally when we can reflect on these relational shifts, take time to connect with others, and make repairs when ruptures occur.
Mythic-Archetypal Fatherhood
The experience of fatherhood opens us to a larger view of life. We go through profound transformations that are both universal and deeply personal. Exploring the depth of meaning of fatherhood—and connecting to its legacy—can expand our perspective on what it means to be truly alive.
The Patchwork Father Complete
Access to all four sections to promote a cohesive framing of the Patchwork in fatherhood.
✺ Reasonable questions ✺
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There is a lot of parenting information out there and much of it is really helpful. This course is different. Rather than focusing on performing as fathers, it centers on how we tend to ourselves so that we can tend to our families. Fatherhood is one aspect of our larger journey as individuals.
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This course is grounded in over 20 years of my clinical and academic work with men— many of whom have been fathers. I am also a father and have personally applied all of these concepts in my life— so I am working on my own self too.
Rather than offering prescriptions, however, I want to support you in developing your own intentional way of showing up as a father.
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Human creation is important and I want to be transparent about how I have used AI as a tool to help me out.
First, I lectured on each topic and used AI to help condense those lectures into structured outlines.
Second, AI assisted with some of the grammar edits— just to make sure I was clear.
Finally, I used AI to generate the four simple visual images that accompany the Patchwork framework.
All the ideas, topics, structure, reflections, and activities are based on things I have pulled together from my experience as a professional and father.
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It depends on what “better” is all about.
Each section focuses on an aspect of our experiences. Embodied address taking care of our body and emotions; psychological addresses cognitive structures and concepts that shape our perceptions; relational explores how we show up in connection with others; and mythic-archetypal points to the enormity of this timeless personal transformation.
Deepening our sense of self and expanding into fatherhood is the ideal result— whether that’s “better” is up to each person.
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This course does not cover the nuts and bolts of childcare. There are many excellent resources that address things like feeding, sleeping, and the logistics of parenting. This course focuses on something different— it focuses on you.
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You will receive immediate access to the course upon registration and payment. If you experience any difficulties, please contact me directly at travis@schermercounseling.com.