The Buckley Method: Root Work
Boundaries & People-Pleasing
Practitioner Training & Licensed Methodology
FOR PRACTITIONERS WHO ARE TIRED OF CLIENTS WHO UNDERSTAND BOUNDARIES & PEOPLE-PLEASING PERFECTLY… AND STILL CANNOT SUSTAIN CHANGE
Early access: First 5 Seats at $2,500
Founding rate: $3,000
Future cohorts: Expected to Increase Substantially
You have done the trainings.
You've learned communication skills, nervous system frameworks, attachment theory, behavior change, mindset work, values work — and probably enough acronyms to wallpaper a small bathroom.
And still:
Your clients understand boundaries.
They just can't consistently hold them.
Not when someone gets angry.
Not when someone withdraws.
Not when guilt shows up.
Not when loyalty collides with self-respect.
Not when fear, grief, responsibility, family dynamics, or love walk into the room.
And if you've done this work long enough, you've probably had the uncomfortable thought:
"What am I missing?"
Probably not your skill.
And almost certainly not your client's intelligence, motivation, insight, or desire to change.
Because boundaries are not primarily a behavioral problem.
They are not primarily a communication problem.
They are not primarily a confidence problem.
They are an identity problem.
And until we work there — with the psychology to back it up — we are often asking people to perform behaviors their current sense of self cannot reliably sustain.
Most practitioners working with boundaries and people-pleasing are doing so without a framework for understanding what these mechanisms actually are, where they come from, or what it genuinely takes to shift them.
That is not a criticism.
It is a gap.
And it is exactly what Root Work addresses.
Root Work is a four-month practitioner training and licensed methodology built on original doctoral research into boundary development — the first research of its kind examining how boundary development actually unfolds — braided with fifteen years of field-tested practice and systems-level psychology of how people actually change.
This is not another script. Not another worksheet.
Not another certification that teaches techniques without explaining why they work.
Root Work offers practitioners something different:
A framework for understanding what is actually happening underneath people-pleasing, boundary collapse, and the frustrating space between insight and sustainable change.
A different map.
And the psychology to read it.
“I know I talk about Randi Buckley’s work a lot, but I do so because she is one of the teachers from whom I’ve learned the most. Because she’s a brilliant, wise, and deep teacher. And because I know she won’t ever hype herself the way others will hype her; she’s far too nuanced for that.
But the truth is: if you have everstruggled with boundaries — your own, or others’, coaching — she has seen the pattern before, recognizes it, and can teach you how to untangle and reset it.
The truth is: she will do that with precision and mischievous good humour.
The truth is: she’s a genius. And I don’t use that word lightly. An original thinker, through and through, and a thorough one who cites her sources.
I can’t recommend this program highly enough. It shifted all of my relationships for the better, including the one with myself.”
Lauren Bacon, Vancouver/London
HOW ROOT WORK CHANGES YOUR PRACTICE
Root Work changes what practitioners notice.
It changes what they listen for.
It changes what they do next.
Professionally, this often looks like:
• Greater confidence working with clients who feel stuck despite years of personal development work
• A clearer methodology rather than borrowing pieces from twenty different approaches
• More confidence explaining what is happening when clients struggle to sustain change
• Stronger session flow and less feeling like you're reinventing the wheel every week
• Greater ease working with complexity rather than trying to force it into frameworks that never quite fit
• A differentiated approach you can clearly describe in your practice, workshops, leadership work, or client conversations
• A complete curriculum and licensed methodology you can begin integrating immediately
Most importantly:
You stop wondering whether you're missing something.
Because now you have a framework for what you're actually seeing.
And your clients stop trying harder at approaches that were never designed for the problem they actually had.
“As a coach, I have completed more than twelve coaching certifications and worked with many coaches. My work with Randi sits at the very top.
Her work profoundly shaped my own coaching path. She is one of the few people in my imaginary board of directors.
It is a privilege to have a front-row seat to how a master coach teaches, holds space, and creates transformation.”
Jessica Vazquez, Mexico
WHERE THIS COMES FROM
I have spent more than fifteen years teaching this work.
Long before there was research, there was practice.
I knew this work moved people differently.
I just couldn't yet fully explain why.
The research didn't change what I understood about boundaries.
It gave language and structure to what years of practice had already shown me.
It connected the parts.
It filled in the places where I knew something important was happening but didn't yet have language for it.
What emerged was not a completely new way of understanding boundaries.
It was a clearer, more rigorous, and more teachable version of what had been evolving for years.
Root Work is the result:
Original doctoral research.
Fifteen years of field-tested practice.
And the systems thinking that has always lived underneath both.
“Randi understands the heart and soul of boundary work in a way I have never encountered elsewhere.
For those of us whose boundaries were deeply shaped by trauma, family systems, patriarchy, racism, or chronic people-pleasing, this work is not simple. It can feel confusing, painful, and almost impossible to untangle.
Root Work is not a prefab or gimmicky fix.
It is a safe, honest, deeply human process of getting underneath the patterns and working at the roots.
I am still metabolizing what I learned.” — Wishes to Remain Anonymous in Hawaii
THE RESEARCH BEHIND THE METHOD
Root Work is built on original doctoral research examining how boundary development actually unfolds.
Not assumed. Not inferred.
Not simply observed in practice.
Researched, published, tested in real-world application, and refined across years of teaching and practitioner use.
Four theoretical contributions emerged from that research.
Together, they form the psychological foundation underneath Root Work — and give practitioners language for what they are already seeing but may not yet know how to explain.
These frameworks are not simply concepts to understand.
They are working tools.
They change what practitioners notice.
They change what practitioners do.
And they change what becomes possible with clients.
Together, these frameworks create a methodology practitioners can learn, practice, and immediately begin integrating into client work.
WHO ROOT WORK IS FOR
Root Work is designed for practitioners already doing the work.
People with real clients.
Real complexity.
And real moments of quietly wondering:
"Why isn't this sticking?"
This training may be a fit if you are:
• A coach regularly working with boundaries, people-pleasing, relationships, self-worth, identity, leadership, or change
• A therapist, counselor, or social worker looking for structured, coaching-applicable methodology that complements clinical work while addressing what traditional training often leaves untouched
• An organizational coach, consultant, HR professional, leadership practitioner, educator, or clergy member watching these same patterns repeatedly appear in teams, organizations, and communities
• A practitioner who has watched clients understand everything — and still struggle to sustain change
• Someone increasingly convinced there is more happening beneath behavior than most training acknowledges
WHO ROOT WORK IS NOT FOR
Root Work is probably not the right fit if:
• You are looking primarily for business coaching or marketing support
• You want passive learning without practice or application
• You want scripts more than methodology
• You are brand new to working with clients and still building foundational practice skills
Root Work assumes existing practice.
Not because gatekeeping is fun.
Because this work makes more sense when you already have real humans to practice it with while learning.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Root Work teaches psychology and application together.
Every session pairs framework with practice.
Because understanding what is happening without knowing what to do next is frustrating.
And learning techniques without understanding why they work usually doesn't last.
This is not passive learning.
It is learning the methodology while actively applying it.
What makes Root Work different is not simply the curriculum.
It is the combination:
Psychological framework/Practical application
Live feedback/
Real client work.
Methodology you can begin using immediately.
YOUR LICENSE INCLUDES
You are leaving with a complete curriculum.
Not concepts.
Not notes.
A complete, ready-to-use methodology designed for real-world practice.
This is a one-time license for unlimited use in individual client work.
The curriculum and methodology are yours to use within your coaching, therapeutic, consulting, leadership, or client-facing practice.
Your license is perpetual.
No renewals.
No annual fees.
No expiration.
You are not purchasing temporary access.
You are learning a methodology and receiving licensed curriculum designed to support your work for as long as you choose to use it.
The curriculum remains yours to use within practitioner guidelines.
As The Buckley Method evolves, additional opportunities — supervision, advanced training, updates, community, and practitioner support — may be offered separately.
These are never required.
They exist for practitioners who want to go deeper.
How You’ll Learn Root Work
Eighteen sessions across four months.
Every session pairs psychological framework with curriculum application so theory and practice are never separate.
You learn the methodology while actively using it.
The progression is intentional:
Understand what you are seeing.
Learn the framework.
Apply it with clients.
Refine it with feedback.
Integrate it into your practice.
By the end, you are not simply familiar with the methodology.
You have practiced it.
THE FORMAT
Root Work begins
Wednesday, August 26th.
Duration
Four months: August 26 through December
Live Sessions
18 live sessions * 90 minutes each * Primarily Wednesdays
9:30–11:00am Pacific via Zoom
Schedule
Most sessions occur on Wednesdays, with planned integration weeks and a small number of adjusted dates to accommodate holidays, pacing, and real life.
Full schedule provided upon enrollment.
All sessions are recorded and available throughout the training.
Between Sessions
Practice assignments.
Curated readings.
Community discussion.
Peer learning. And real-world application with the clients you already have.
Cohort Size
Maximum 15 practitioners.
Because learning this work in a room of 200 people sounds terrible.
Instructor
Randi Buckley. Every session. No substitutes
ABOUT RANDI
RANDI BY THE NUMBERS
30+ Years
Experiential education, teaching, and facilitation
25+ Years
Coaching, leadership development, and relational work
Thousands
Of coaching conversations and sessions
Nearly 1,000
Students taught boundary work
15+ Years
Teaching and refining this methodology
2 Master's Degrees
Counseling Psychology &
Coaching & Mentoring
Doctoral Candidate
Published Original research into boundary development
I have spent more than twenty-five years working at the intersection of coaching, adult learning, leadership development, experiential education, and relational work.
Over that time, I have coached thousands of sessions, taught boundary work to nearly a thousand people, built programs that lasted for years, and spent decades helping people learn complicated things in ways that actually change how they live and work.
Much of this work was refined through more than a decade teaching Healthy Boundaries for Kind People before evolving into what eventually became Root Work.
I am a doctoral candidate whose original research examines boundary development — research that became the foundation for The Buckley Method and Root Work. My findings have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
Long before there was research, there was practice.
I knew this work moved people differently.
The research helped explain why.
Root Work is where decades of practice, teaching, research, and methodology development come together.
Lovely Words from Lovely Folks
"Randi's skillful and thoughtful approach to boundaries contributed to my clarity.”
DR. JEN MC CABE →
“Working with Randi and learning from her has been life-changing.”
DR. LILI GRAUE, MD →
“Working with Randi has been transformational.”
CLAIRE MAHON →
“When you meet Randi, you will crack wide open.”
ERIKA HINES →
Even more kind words this way…
READ MORE TESTIMONIALS →
INVESTMENT
Root Work opens with five Early Access
seats at $2,500.
Once those seats fill, the Founding Cohort rate of $3,000 applies for the remainder of this cohort.
Future cohorts are expected to increase substantially as the methodology
continues to evolve.
Because this is a small, experiential training with licensed curriculum, all tuition and payments are non-refundable.
★ EARLY ACCESS ★
$2,500
The First 5 seats only
Includes:
• 18 live sessions across four months
• Licensed curriculum and methodology
• Perpetual license for unlimited use in individual client work
• Recorded sessions
• Community access and peer learning
• Two individual supervision sessions with Randi (pay in full only)
Payment Options:
Pay in Full: $2,500
OR
6 monthly payments of $500
FOUNDING COHORT RATE
$3,000
Remaining seats this cohort
Includes everything above plus:
• Two individual supervision sessions with Randi (pay in full only)
Payment Options:
Pay in Full: $3,000
OR
6 monthly payments of $550
Future cohorts are expected to fall within the $5,000–7,000+ range.
Payment available via Stripe, PayPal, and financing options
for qualified applicants.
The supervision sessions included with pay in full are
professional supervisory sessions with Randi.
Not group calls. Not office hours.
They exist to support integration into your real-world work,
at whatever pace serves you.
QUESTIONS
I am a therapist, not a coach. Is this for me?
Often, yes — with one honest clarification.
The methodology is coaching-based rather than clinical, and you will need to adapt it to your clinical context, ethics, and scope.
That said, many therapists find Root Work fills gaps traditional training leaves untouched: identity-level work, developmental framing, and understanding why behavioral interventions sometimes stall despite insight, motivation, and skill.
The frameworks are rigorous enough to sit alongside clinical thinking rather than compete with it and are beginning to inform therapeutic conversations and applications.
And honestly? I love working with, training, and supporting therapists.
Will this count toward my ICF or EMCC renewal?
We have applied for both ICF CCE (Continuing Coach Education) and EMCC CPD accreditation. As accreditation is still in process, this founding cohort should not assume continuing education credit eligibility.
What exactly does the license allow?
You may begin using the exercises, tools, and psychological frameworks with clients as you learn them — no waiting until the end.
Upon successful completion of the program, you receive your licensed curriculum for unlimited use in individual client work, with attribution to The Buckley Method.
You may reference Root Work and The Buckley Method publicly in your professional materials.
You may not teach the methodology to other practitioners or deliver it in group formats without separate agreement.
What if I miss a session?
Life happens.
All sessions are recorded and available throughout the training.
That said, Root Work is designed as an experiential learning process.
What is the time commitment outside of sessions?
Plan for approximately one hour per week for readings and materials review.
Some modules include practice requirements — applying frameworks or tools with real clients before the next session — which may require additional time depending on your caseload.
The outside work is designed to integrate into your existing practice rather than sit on top of it. You will be doing this work with clients you already have.
Is this a tax-deductible expense?
This training may qualify as a professional development expense depending on your role, location, and circumstances.
Please check with your accountant, tax professional, employer, or HR department regarding your specific situation.
What is the refund policy?
All tuition and payments are non-refundable.
If you are uncertain whether Root Work is the right fit, please book a conversation with Randi before enrolling. That conversation exists for precisely this reason.
How is this different from Healthy Boundaries for Kind People certification?
I remain deeply proud of the work we did in Healthy Boundaries for Kind People. That work created many of the questions that eventually became the foundation of Root Work.
If you completed HBfKP certification, parts of this will feel familiar in the best way — and go considerably further.
Root Work builds from much of the same foundational territory because the foundation is solid and worth keeping.
What is different:
• Published theoretical frameworks from doctoral research that did not yet exist when HBfKP was created
• Deeper work specifically exploring people-pleasing psychology and boundary development
• Greater emphasis on the mechanisms that explain why this work moves people when other approaches stall
• A complete, ready-to-use curriculum and licensed methodology
This is not a refresh. It is the evolution.