Learn the method for your own life, experience a guided session with a Certified Facilitator, or follow the complete pathway to professional certification.

2027 Registrations Are Open

2027 Registrations Are Open

The Institute | Explore FYD | The Science | Training & Certification
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What Is FYD?

Feeding Your Demons® is an accessible five-step process for recognizing and transforming patterns, triggers, and inner obstacles that diminish our well-being.

Developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione, FYD brings ancient wisdom into a practical method for contemporary life. Her bestselling book, Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict, introduced the method to readers around the world and has been published in sixteen languages.

Today, FYD is practiced internationally, with Certified Facilitators across five continents.

The Feeding Your Demons Institute

As interest in FYD has grown, the method has found applications in private practices, prisons, community programs, organizations, leadership settings, and systems-change initiatives.

1. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INSTITUTE

Tara Mandala established the Feeding Your Demons Institute to support the growth of the method and provide a home for FYD education, research, and professional development.

3. Acclaimed Faculty

Our international faculty consists of senior teachers and experienced practitioners from contemplative practice, psychology, facilitation, education, health care, and other professional fields.

2. Vision and Values

The Institute holds the curriculum and standards that allow FYD to be taught and shared with integrity. It trains and certifies qualified facilitators, supports a global professional network, and encourages continued research and responsible development of the method.

4. Depth of Knowledge

The depth and practical experience of the faculty support the continued development of FYD and guide participants through personal practice, advanced study, and professional certification.

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EXPLORE

Experience FYD through an introductory program, individual guidance, in-depth training, or professional certification. Choose the next step that feels right for you.

New to FYD?

A free online workshop or upcoming introductory event is an easy way to begin. Experience a guided practice, discover how the method works, and see where FYD may lead you. No previous FYD or meditation experience is needed.

Work with a Certified Facilitator

Bring a pattern, emotion, challenge, or experience from your own life to an individually guided FYD session. Certified Facilitators offer sessions online and in person, in multiple languages.

Learn the Complete Method

Begin with Level I, an eight-week experiential program that teaches the complete five-step process through video teachings, live webcasts, and personal and partner practice. Level I is open to everyone, with no prerequisites required.

Become a Certified FYD Facilitator

Complete Levels I and II, then continue to the Certification Level and Capstone Retreat to develop the skills needed to guide individuals and couples through the FYD process. Certification can become a stand-alone practice or complement your existing work.

Bring FYD to Your Organization or Community

Connect with an authorized Group Facilitator or Workshop Leader to bring FYD to your workplace, professional organization, institution, or community.

Available in Multiple Languages

Feeding Your Demons® Level I is available in English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian. Lama Tsultrim Allione’s core video teachings include Spanish, German, and French captions, and live Zoom webcasts offer real-time translated captions.

What Does It Mean to “Feed Your Demons”?

In FYD, a “demon” is not an external being. It is something within us that obstructs our freedom or well-being. It may appear as anxiety, anger, fear, addiction, self-criticism, physical illness, or a recurring pattern that keeps us stuck.

The eleventh-century Tibetan teacher Machig Labdrön described a demon simply as “anything that obstructs the achievement of freedom.”

Fighting, suppressing, ignoring, or disowning our demons often gives them more power. Feeding them does not mean indulging destructive thoughts or behaviors. It means turning toward difficult experiences with courage and curiosity to discover what is truly needed.

Through the five-step FYD process, the energy held within a struggle can be transformed into insight, strength, and an inner ally.

Dr. Dan Siegel

“Feeding Your Demons is a gift of wisdom and heart…. Learning this practice was a powerful personal and collective experience, immersing us in the power of acceptance and transformation through this research-backed mind-training practice.”

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
UCLA School of Medicine

Director of the Mindsight Institute and bestselling author of Becoming Aware, Mindsight, and Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human

The Science

Behind Feeding Your Demons®

A 2023 randomized controlled study conducted by researchers affiliated with UC Davis, Stanford University, UC San Francisco, and Tara Mandala followed 61 adults over one month.

Study Findings

Compared with a waitlist group, participants practicing FYD experienced significantly greater reductions in stress and increases in self-compassion.

Additional Findings

Completing more FYD sessions was also associated with reduced depression and intolerance of uncertainty, along with greater life satisfaction.

Elissa Epel, PhD

“Feeding Your Demons offers an easy-to-follow five-step process for working with negative emotions and patterns, one that can be effective and even transformative in the short term…. I believe this practice holds tremendous potential to help reduce suffering.”

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
University of California, San Francisco

Author of The Stress Prescription and coauthor of The Telomere Effect

Upcoming Offerings

Explore our upcoming Feeding Your Demons® retreats, events, and complementary programs.

Curious About Feeding Your Demons®?

Click on the button below and you'll be taken to a form where you'll enter your details and we'll email you a link to a guided process to experience the method firsthand — plus upcoming course dates and guidance on which track is right for you.

Professional

Training and Certification

FYD training offers a progressive pathway for personal practice and professional certification. Level I is open to everyone, with no prerequisites, and optional Buddhist studies are available in both Levels I and II.

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Full Certification

Registration Open | Begins March 2027 | Online

Complete Levels I and II, the Certification Level, and the Capstone Retreat through one cohesive program. Successful completion prepares you to guide individuals and couples as a Certified Feeding Your Demons® Facilitator.

Individual Levels

Explore Level I | Explore Level II

Levels I and II may also be taken individually for personal practice and development. After completing both levels and their required prerequisites, participants apply for the Certification Level and Capstone Retreat.