FIRST TIME IN LOS ANGELES – MAY 29-31, 2026 – SPACE IS LIMITED
TIAMAT
Transformation through Play
A THREE-DAY INTENSIVE – ANTEDOTE LAB, WESTWOOD
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DATES |
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INVESTMENT |
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May 29-31, 2026 |
Los Angeles, CA USA |
$650 USD |
Some experiences create a
before and after.
This is one of them.
There are workshops. And then there are experiences that truly give you the chance to reorganize how you see yourself, your work, and the people around you — that create a genuine fork in the road. TIAMAT is the latter. It has done this for performers, clinicians, seekers, and skeptics across four continents. Now, for the first time, it is coming to Los Angeles.
This is not a weekend of concepts and takeaways. It is a full-body encounter with a framework built at the intersection of cognitive science, philosophy, contemplative practice, and embodied performance — designed specifically to transfer. What shifts in the room follows you home.
“The meaning crisis is not a metaphor.
It is a measurable cognitive and cultural reality.”
We are in a moment of profound disconnection — from purpose, from one another, from a sense that our lives cohere. Most offerings gesture at this problem. TIAMAT does something about it. It gives you a living, rigorous, embodied practice for navigating the world differently — and access to a community of people taking that seriously alongside you.
Awaken to Meaning is proud to bring this to Los Angeles for the first time, in partnership with Antedote Labs. This is a rare opportunity, and seats are intentionally limited.
Strong Alignment of Purpose and Process
We recognize Antedote as exemplary in establishing a new paradigm for treatment of young men and families in recovery. Reflecting a strong alignment of purpose and process, their leadership is pursuing the ATM Certification Program to expand capabilities beyond demonstrated proficiency. We see this initiative as underscoring their dedication to excellence in service of a vital mission they execute with distinction.
Young Men Are in Crisis
The young men who come to Antedote are not just dealing with clinical symptoms. They are navigating a world that has given them almost no tools for building identity, purpose, or meaningful connection, especially those on the autism spectrum, who experience disconnection with extraordinary intensity.
ATM’s framework names this precisely. The meaning crisis is not a metaphor. It is a measurable cognitive and cultural reality – and it hits young men particularly hard.
What is TIAMAT?
TIAMAT – “The Integrative Approach & Methodology for Active Transformation” – is a training ground utilizing a broad range of practices, influenced by many other modalities and domains (Actor Training, Authentic Relating, Philosophy and 4E Cognitive Science). We hold the position that there is an interdependent relationship between our mind and our body, and between ourselves and our world. What our workshops do is ask you to engage with the world in a different way.
We’ve designed TIAMAT for transfer. In other words, we’ve designed it so that the altered relationship between yourself and the world within the practices, carries on and grows beyond the practices.
Transformation through Play is the foundational three-day training that gives you the basic building blocks for reading your own experience—simple moves to notice, track, and regulate so you can act with more agency day to day.
We work as an ecology of practices—practicing dialogue, imagination, mindfulness, embodiment—because no single method does everything, and a mix can balance the shortcomings of one with the strengths of another.
Transformation through Play works as a powerful stand-alone experience, and as a Tier 1 entry point into the broader TIAMAT program, for those who want to go deeper.
INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATION
Built in dialogue with John Vervaeke
Ethan Hsieh developed TIAMAT in direct collaboration with Taylor Barratt from Awaken to Meaning and Dr. John Vervaeke – Professor of Psychology & Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto said to be one of the most important public intellectuals working at the intersection of philosophy, cognitive science and the question of how we find meaning. His 50-part YouTube series Awakening from the Meaning Crisis has been watched by nearly a million people.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Two audiences. One experience.
Whether you come as a practitioner or as someone who knows something is missing, TIAMAT meets you there.
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CLINICIANS, COACHES & THERAPISTS |
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+ Sharpen your felt sense of transference and countertransference in real-time |
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+ Develop a more robust lens for where clients get stuck – somatically and relationally |
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+ Expand capacity to track body, affect and relational field simultaneously |
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+ Deepen self-awareness as your primary clinical instrument |
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+ Gain a shared language you can bring directly into practice |
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SEEKERS, BUILDERS & THE CURIOUS |
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+ A framework that bridges cognitive science, philosophy, and lived practice |
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+ Real agency over how you think, feel, and act – through skill, not willpower |
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+ Entry into a fellowship taking the meaning crisis seriously |
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+ A language for your inner life that holds under pressure |
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+ Transformation that doesn’t fade by Monday morning |
What to Expect in Transformation through Play
- We train ways to be, rather than ‘words you can say.’ We teach that active listening involves the whole person, and is not just a matter of saying “I hear you.”
- What if how you feel and how “they” feel didn’t have to be in competition?
- We crowdsource for possibilities. We build in group and dialogical sense-making to ensure that you’re neither stuck alone and confused, nor being told what to think by an authority figure.
- Find out how sharing your and hearing others’ experience clarifies what’s happening for you and allows for something new.
- We challenge what ‘safety’ means, by asking you to take the lead. You can decide what is too much and when you want to stop, and we will ask about what’s happening for you.
- What if safety was something you could develop the skills to make?
- We move at the speed of the group. This is neither therapy nor self-help, we are always growing individually and collectively at the same time.
- Expect to be challenged in a myriad of ways. Familiar to meditation? We’ll challenge you to play. Familiar to movement improvisation? We’ll challenge you to talk about it. We practice relationality in diverse ways that take into account the individual, other people, and the world.
Transformation through Play is:
- Psychoeducation on steroids: you’ll learn our proposal for a shared language for making sense of (and intervening in) how you think, act, and value.
- Learn by doing: Just enough theory to allow us to play and explore in the exercises.
Transformation through Play is not:
- Just conceptual ideas. Instead, we’ll challenge through experience and experience through challenge.
- Low-stakes therapy. Instead, you might realize something about yourself, but we’re not making that happen. It just might.
- Self-empowerment. Instead, we’ll propose a philosophically and scientifically robust way of looking at the world, and you decide if it makes sense to you. We’re offering a way of being in the world, backed by rigorous philosophical argumentation and cutting edge 4E cognitive science.
- THE answer. It is an evolving proposal, shaping itself in relationship to the participants who enter it.
A GLOBAL PRACTICE
TIAMAT has travelled. Now it visits a new place.
Before Los Angeles, TIAMAT has been delivered across four continents – to performers, clinicians, researchers, educators, and people who simply knew something was missing. Each cohort has shaped the practice. This is the first time in Los Angeles, hosted at Antedote Lab – a facility purpose-built for exactly this kind of integrated, embodied work.
TAIWAN | JAPAN | INDONESIA | FRANCE | NETHERLANDS | CZECHIA | UNITED KINGDOM | SINGAPORE | CANADA
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
YOUR GUIDES
Taylor Barratt
As Director of Practice and Education with Awaken to Meaning, Taylor brings over 13 years of experience in facilitation, design, and training. He, along with John Vervaeke has been a robust voice of guidance in the design and pedagogical execution of TIAMAT. He’s a certified Integral Facilitator and has co-designed the Socratic Search Space, Socratic Imaginal Self-Reflection as well as the pedagogical structures for Dialectic-into Dialogos.
Ethan Hsieh
Ethan Hsieh is working in the intersection between actor-training and 4E cognitive science. With an MA in Professional Practice: Theatre and Drama Facilitation from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Ethan has designed and delivered transformational community-building programs, retreats and workshops in Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, France, Czechia and Singapore.
OUR WORKSPACE @ ANTEDOTE LAB
SCHEDULE & LOCATION
This is a Non-Residential intensive meaning you are responsible for your own lodging and meals.
- Location: Antedote Lab, 2285 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles CA
- Dates:
- Friday, May 29th – 6pm to 10pm
- Saturday, May 30th – 10am to 8pm
- Sunday, May 31st – 10am to 5pm
- 2-hr Integration Call online via Zoom – Sunday, June 14th @ 8am PDT / 11am EDT
- Fee: $650 USD
RESERVE YOUR PLACE BELOW
Refund Policy: Full Refund minus any payment processor fee (~3.5%) is available through to April 3rd, 2026. After which there are no-refunds, however registrants may transfer their registration to another approved participant for a $100 admin fee (contact us). Of course, in the unlikely event of a cancellation of the program itself, you would receive a full refund.