International certification · Dallas editionDecember 5–8, 2026Small group · All inclusive
Stop explaining change. Learn to spark it.
Four days on a ranch an hour from Dallas for leaders and coaches who are done having the same conversation on repeat. Ten leadership competencies —five toward you, five toward your people— learned through the body, not through slides. Plus an international credential to lead them yourself.
LocationLone Oak RanchGainesville, TX · 1 hr from DFW
FormatRetreat-certification48 hrs · all inclusive
InvestmentUSD 3,850Reserve with USD 500
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26 years training teams and executives
Before we taught it, we did it. At top-tier companies.
These dynamics weren't born at a retreat: they were born in executive boardrooms, in pharmaceutical plants, and in sales teams with real targets. What you see in these videos is exactly what you'll learn to lead yourself.
Companies that have trusted this methodology
PfizerIKEAPepsiSanofiISDINSEATGAESSTADAEADA Business School
If you lead a team, this sounds familiar
You said it clearly. Everyone nodded. And nothing changed.
It's not that they don't listen. They listen, they nod, they even get moved. But understanding something and changing it are two different things. And meanwhile, time keeps passing.
Monday's meeting
"You closed with everyone on board. Two weeks later they're right where they started."
You explain it again, with more data and more patience. And again. Your people execute without buying in, and you start to wonder whether the problem is you.
The conflict you avoid
"There's a conversation you've been putting off for months."
You know who, and you know about what. What you don't have is a method to step into it without it blowing up, and come out with the team more united, not more broken.
The check-up you never give yourself
"You service the car, check the numbers, see the doctor even when nothing hurts. And how you lead?"
You've spent years making decisions and holding others up without anyone ever checking how you're deciding and holding. From the inside, you can't see it.
If you facilitate processes
The workshop went well. They got emotional, they thanked you, someone cried. And two weeks later no one has changed a thing. Every month you stay the same, the market fills up with more coaches saying the same thing. What sets you apart isn't knowing more: it's sparking an experience the body can't argue with, and knowing how to read what happens in the system when that experience ends.
What is it?
A retreat that certifies. A certification that feels like a retreat.
You don't come to listen. You come to walk on hot coals, to break a board with your hand, to sit in the empty chair and speak as the voice of your team. First you live it as a participant. Then you learn to lead it: with your leadership team, with your clients, or with a room of a hundred people.
31Editions since 2017
6Countries
+5,000Professionals trained
1:34
The model · Leadership toward yourself and toward others
Ten competencies. First in you, then in your people.
Becoming a good leader starts with leading yourself. The five inner competencies are learned through high-impact dynamics: experiences the body can't argue with. The five outer ones are the SIR® Model (Integral Relationship System), the systemic leadership framework created by Rafa Rodríguez, learned through the tools of systemic team coaching. Tap each competency to see what it is and what you take away.
Toward yourselfToward others · SIR®
Leadership toward yourself
Through high-impact dynamics: firewalking, glasswalking, arrow breaking, steel bar, board breaking, ice bath.
Deciding and holding others up with your nervous system calm, not from reaction. If you can't regulate yourself when your body wants to run, you can't hold anyone up. You learn to recognize your alarm signal and bring it down in seconds, in front of the coals and in front of your leadership team.What you take away · A breathing-and-focus protocol for before a hard decision, an uncomfortable conversation, or stepping onto a stage.
Every change has an edge: the line between who you already are and who you're about to become. You recognize it by the nervous laugh, the change of subject, the "we'll get to it." You physically prove the limit was in your head, and you learn to cross without waiting to feel ready.What you take away · The edge model to identify the minimum viable change your people will actually cross, instead of freezing.
Full attention on what matters when everything around you demands attention. On the glass, any distraction shows; on your calendar too, it just takes longer to hurt. You learn to choose where you place your attention and hold it under noise.What you take away · The focus practice applied to daily work: what to watch, what to let go, and how to come back when you drift.
Some things no one can do alone, no matter how hard they try. Asking for help, trusting, and depending without feeling it as weakness is the competency that's hardest for those who lead. You live it in the body and learn to show vulnerability without losing rank.What you take away · Knowing when to speak first (to model vulnerability) and when to speak last (so you don't shut down other voices).
Deciding from your mission, not from urgency. You connect with your personal and professional purpose and raise the bar on what you allow yourself and what you allow around you. You leave with clarity on what you'll do differently starting December 9.What you take away · Your standard written down, your mission in one sentence, and the plan for your first application, worked out in mentoring with Rafa.
Leadership toward others · SIR® Model
Through the tools of systemic team coaching: the system chair, the alliance, the Grounds Work, the toxins grid, and the appreciative loop.
Seeing, hearing, and sensing what no one says out loud. When you stop looking at "who's right" and start looking at "what's happening between us," information appears that you couldn't see before. Only 36% of U.S. employees are engaged at work (Gallup): disengagement isn't fixed with incentives, it's read and worked.What you take away · The system chair ready for your next leadership meeting, forty phrases to read the room without interpreting, and a two-minute constellation.
Great teams don't happen by accident: they're designed. An explicit agreement on what environment we want to create and what we'll do when there's disagreement prevents 80% of the problems that later cost months. And the 2% of truth: when someone tells you something you don't want to hear, asking yourself what 2% of it might be true.What you take away · The group alliance protocol (team and leader) for your next meeting, and the 2%-of-truth question.
Instead of telling the team what to do, you show it what it's doing. A team that sees itself corrects itself; one that doesn't, repeats. Ford lost $17 billion in 2006 and Alan Mulally turned it around with the same leadership team: he didn't change the people, he changed what was between them.What you take away · The questions to mirror without judging, the Grounds Work protocol (breaks silos in an afternoon), and the values wheel.
From "who did what to whom" to "what's trying to happen." Four behaviors predict the breakdown of a relationship with over 90% accuracy: blaming, defensiveness, stonewalling, and contempt (Gottman). On a team they do exactly the same thing. They have an antidote, and it's learnable.What you take away · The toxins grid with its antidotes, your team's conflict-protocol template, and a method for the meeting you've been avoiding for months.
Getting people to speak up before it's too late. Psychological safety is the #1 predictor of a team's performance (Google, Project Aristotle), above talent or experience. The ratio that makes a team flourish is five acknowledgments for every criticism; most organizations run it the other way around.What you take away · The appreciative-loop script, the original-myth questions, and twelve ways to open and close a meeting so every voice is in the room.
The tools no one else has
What the body learns can't be argued with
Six high-impact experiences you'll live and learn to lead with the full safety protocol. They all end in the same place: the physical proof that the limit was in your head.
Firewalking
You walk barefoot over coals at 1,100°F. And you learn the method behind it so you can lead it yourself, with your team or with a room of a hundred people.
Glasswalking
Broken glass underfoot. Any distraction shows. It's the dynamic that best translates focus into daily work.
Arrow Breaking
An arrow pointed at your throat that only breaks if you move forward. The most vulnerable part of the body doing something the mind calls impossible.
Steel Bar
A steel bar that only bends between two people. It's the dynamic that teaches fastest what it means to depend on another.
Board Breaking
You break a board with your hand. No one believes they can until they do. A last-second thought changes what your body is capable of.
Ice Bath
Ice immersion with guided breathing and brain-wave measurement. One of the most measurable dynamics in the program.
The dynamics you'll use every week
You don't just learn to cross the fire
More than twenty dynamics across team building, team coaching, group energy, breathing, and visualization. They're the tool for spotting a team's areas for improvement and, from there, applying the systemic dynamics that work on them. The catalog isn't closed: each edition folds in what worked at the last one.
Team-building dynamics
How you build a coordinated, results-driven team, not a group of people who happen to be in the same room. And how, through them, you spot where communication, trust, or focus is failing before you intervene. Usable the very next Monday, with your team or your client's.
Team-coaching exercises
For handling conflicts that are out in the open and the ones no one names. They build self-awareness and change the quality of the relationship between people.
Trust builders
Trust isn't requested in a meeting: it's built through shared experiences. Here you learn to design them.
Group-energy dynamics
How to read the energy of a room and change it at will. It's the difference between leading a group and the group leading you.
Breathing and visualization
Regulation tools for you and for others. Useful before a hard decision, an uncomfortable conversation, or stepping onto a stage.
How they combine
Team building→Systemic dynamics→High impact
First the team-building dynamic reveals the area for improvement; then the systemic dynamic works on it; and the high-impact tool anchors the change in the body. You leave knowing which one to use at each moment.
The retreat · Lone Oak Ranch, Texas
A secluded ranch, not a convention hotel
No noise, no meetings, and no temptation to slip away and handle something. You arrive the afternoon of December 4 and don't think about logistics again until the 9th. Your only job is to be present.
Small group
Limited spots per edition. The level of the conversations depends on who's in the room, which is why not everyone gets in.
No one from your company
No one here is from your industry or your city. What happens at the ranch stays at the ranch: four days to say out loud what you haven't been able to tell anyone in a long time.
Fully immersive
Four days with nothing pulling you away. What moves in these dynamics needs your full presence, not half of it.
An hour from DFW
65 miles north of Dallas, direct access by road. Direct flights from across the U.S. and Latin America.
Lone Oak Ranch & Retreat · 8484 S. FM 372, Gainesville, TX 76240 · loneoakretreat.com
What it's like
Four very intense days and a day after
Day1
Letting go of dead weight
With the group, you create the alliance that will hold the four days together, you understand what forces move people, and you work on vulnerability: yours and that of the people you lead. Closes with Board Breaking.
Day2
The magic
Firewalking from the inside: method, safety, and what happens in the mind before, during, and after. The edge model and the process for extraordinary results. Glasswalking, the toxins grid, and mirroring.
Day3
The connection
You connect with your inner fire and with the unconscious conflicts that shape how you decide, how you lead, and how you support others. Ice Bath and the appreciative loop.
Day4
Raising the standard
You raise your standard, connect with your mission, and leave with clarity on what you'll do differently starting December 9. And you lead your first firewalk.
The day after+
Your plan
Personalized mentoring with Rafa Rodríguez on your project: your first leadership meeting, your keynote, or your team's year kickoff. And you come back as staff to any edition in the world, at no cost.
In their own words
More than 5,000 people have crossed the fire. These are their words.
Executives, business owners, coaches, doctors, and speakers who came with the same question you have. None of them read a script: we filmed them right after, with whatever each one wanted to say.
"It far exceeds expectations, and from the very first day with Rafa the investment has already paid for itself many times over. 100% recommended."
Pere BalsaGoogle review · 6 months ago★★★★★
"By far the best certification I've taken. Highly professional work in the design, planning, and execution. Worth well beyond the enrollment cost."
José Luis TorresGoogle review · 3 weeks ago★★★★★
"The best investment of my life. You'll leave with new tools to grow your business and with a real boost to your personal development."
Carlo ColomboGoogle review · 6 months ago★★★★★
"I was looking for new tools to work with my clients and I took away infinitely more than I had in mind. Expectations exceeded by far."
Agustín HerreraGoogle review · 6 months ago★★★★★
"A space for every trainer, coach, or facilitator who wants to raise the bar on all their events and services. It prepared me to deliver better experiences to my clients."
Patricia HernándezGoogle review · 1 year ago★★★★★
"I've had the chance to train and certify in different human-development spaces, and I can say Firewalk American Institute is my #1."
Loyda AguilarGoogle review · 1 month ago
See all reviews (loaded from Google)
Track record · 31 editions in 6 countries · since 2017
Every photo is a cohort that already did it.
Swipe to browse all editions · click any photo to see it full size.
If your company pays · If you pay
What your organization takes away. What your practice takes away.
If you lead
An external team-building event costs more than this certification
An executive comes back with ten measurable competencies and a method to develop them in their team without an outside vendor. Here you learn to facilitate it in-house, as often as needed, with the full safety protocol and mentoring to design the first application inside the company.
< 10%
of teams see themselves as high-performing (Team Coaching International). If 90% of any other resource performed that poorly, wouldn't we put the spotlight on it immediately?
You recoup the investment by facilitating a single event
With one firewalk or high-impact dynamic for a company or group, you cover the cost of the full certification. You leave with an offer that can't be confused with anyone else's in your market: dynamics no competitor can offer, plus a systemic team method that holds them together.
1 event
An international credential recognized in six countries, five years of Gold Coach membership with the Global Coaching Federation, a network of facilitators to call for your next event, and lifetime staff access to keep practicing.
45 minutes with Rafa, no sign-up and no obligation.
If you'd rather see how we think before talking to us, this masterclass is the best way to do it. It's the same one our students watch before coming.
Who trains you
Rafa RodríguezMaster Firewalking Instructor · CEO of Firewalk American Institute · Creator of the SIR® Model · Psychologist
One of the few Masters in the world who represent Tolly Burkan's methodology in the Spanish-speaking world. Psychologist, master's in Human Resources from EADA Business School, former HR director, and for twelve years founding partner of Morison Recursos Humanos. More than 26 years training in companies —leadership, teams, change management, and keynotes— for over 10,000 people across 10 countries, at companies like Pfizer, IKEA, Pepsi, Sanofi, and ISDIN.
Master in NLP with John Grinder, Organizational Coach (IESE), Ontological Coach (EEC), and Relationship Systems Coach ORSC (ICT). MBA instructor at the University of Girona and external trainer at EADA Business School. Out of leading people and coaching systems came the SIR® Model, which he has used to train executives and teams since 2022.
After four years with Tolly Burkan's team, he reached the rank of Master Firewalking Instructor. He founded Firewalk American Institute and The Flame Campus in 2019.
"The quality of your life is directly proportional to the amount of uncertainty you're able to manage day to day."
0:30
Endorsed by the creator of firewalking
Tolly Burkan, at his home in California, on Rafa.
"It's an honor to have Rafa in my home. He came from Spain to receive the information I've been sharing with him for years and take it back. Thank you for taking my work and bringing it to so many people in so many countries: not just in Spain, but also in South America."
Tolly Burkan · Founder of the firewalking movement (1977) and creator of the method taught in this certification · Recorded in 2019
The Tolly Burkan methodology is the only one with four decades of practice and documented safety standards. Very few instructors in the world hold this direct recognition from its creator.
Author
"Invincible: The Art of Loving Problems" and "Being a Boss Is Human"
Two books born from the same conviction that holds this certification together: that leading starts with leading yourself, and that problems —your own and your team's— are the material leadership is built from, not something to avoid.
The team
The best team in the world, for the best certification in the world.
Rafa doesn't travel alone. For each edition, a team of certified facilitators crosses the ocean and half a continent to be with you: they prepare the fire, care for every dynamic, and support each participant, one by one. Without them, this certification would be impossible. With them, it's what it is.
🇪🇸Spain
🇲🇽Mexico
🇨🇴Colombia
🇪🇨Ecuador
Antonio JoséChristian Prado & Paty LozanoJorge Luis MonterrozaJennifer MorenoEstrella & Juan Carlos
The question everyone asks
Is it safe?
Yes, within a protocol. And learning it is a core part of your certification: you leave knowing how to protect your people the same way we protect you here. You decide every step: we never push anyone.
An honest note
The risk isn't zero. What is zero is the improvisation.
Proven protocol
Decades of the Tolly Burkan method with thousands of people of all ages and physical conditions. Wood and charcoal that are poor conductors of heat, measured contact times, and an identical procedure at every edition.
Certified instructors
Every dynamic is led by a Master Firewalking Instructor with staff certified at previous editions. You're never alone in front of the coals.
First aid
Trained personnel present during all physical dynamics, with an action protocol agreed on before starting.
Briefing and preparation
No one crosses without prior mental and physical preparation. Some decide not to cross on day one and do on day three. The certification doesn't depend on that; it depends on you learning to lead it.
Your certification includes
Everything you take home from Dallas, all inclusive
Five nights and four days at Lone Oak Ranch, all inclusive: certification, lodging, and all meals. Arrival the afternoon of December 4, departure on the 9th after breakfast.
Ten leadership competencies —five toward you, five toward others— and more than 25 dynamics with the protocol to lead them yourself.
International Firewalk American Institute credential, recognized in six countries, plus Gold Coach membership with the Global Coaching Federation for five years.
Personalized mentoring with Rafa Rodríguez on your specific project: your first application inside the company or your first commercial offer.
Lifetime staff access: come back as part of the team to any edition in the world, with no certification cost.
International facilitator network across six countries: psychologists, doctors, business owners, speakers, and consultants.
Endorsements and backing
Tolly Burkan MethodologyGlobal firewalk pioneer · Firewalk Guide Training
Gold Coach · 5 years
ARC-accredited program
Facilitator networkActive in six countries · lifetime staff
Investment · All inclusive
USD 3,850per person
Certification, five nights of lodging, and all meals. You only cover travel.
If you ultimately can't attend for a personal reason, your reservation isn't lost: it's held for the next edition. And if the cancellation is caused by Firewalk American Institute, we refund the full amount.
Klarna.Prefer to pay in installments?
You can finance the certification through Klarna. When you click the button, Klarna reviews your application in seconds and, if approved, shows you the installments and terms available to you. The financed price is the same: USD 3,850.
See my options with Klarna
Financing, number of installments, and terms subject to Klarna's approval. Checking commits you to nothing.
Coming with your team?
The more of you there are, the less each one pays
A single team, a group of colleagues, clients, or friends.
USD 3,850per person
Base pricegroup discount
If you leadIt's the fastest way for what's learned to reach the company: with three people who've lived it, Monday's meeting is no longer the same.
If you facilitateYou come back with co-facilitators you've already crossed the fire with, and turn your own clients into your first group.
Yes. The Dallas edition is designed for anyone who already has people to bring together: a team, a leadership committee, an organization. You leave with ten leadership competencies and a method to develop them in your team without relying on outside vendors. And, if you want, with the credential to lead the dynamics yourself.
Do I have to cross the fire to get certified?
No. No one is pushed: some decide not to cross on day one and do on day three. The certification doesn't depend on that; it depends on you learning to lead it safely.
What language is it taught in?
Entirely in Spanish, without translation. You take the tools and materials home in Spanish, ready to use with your people.
Is it in person or online?
In person, as a four-day all-inclusive retreat. High-impact transformation is lived in the body, not on a screen.
What exactly does the price include?
Certification, five nights at Lone Oak Ranch, all meals, the international credential, Gold Coach membership with the Global Coaching Federation for five years, follow-up mentoring with Rafa Rodríguez, and access to the facilitator network. You only cover travel.
What happens if I reserve and ultimately can't attend?
If you cancel for a personal reason, the USD 500 reservation isn't lost: it's held for the next edition you can make. If the cancellation is caused by Firewalk American Institute, we refund the full amount.
Can I pay in installments or have my company pay?
Yes to both. You can check your financing options with Klarna (same price, USD 3,850; installments and terms subject to their approval), and we have a justification letter drafted for HR or leadership with the details and expected return. Request it via WhatsApp and we'll send it today.
How do I get to the ranch?
Lone Oak Ranch & Retreat is in Gainesville, Texas, 65 miles north of Dallas and just over an hour from DFW International Airport. Once you confirm your spot, we send you the arrival guide.
What happens when I request information?
We reach out with dates, spots, and investment and, if you'd like, we schedule a 20-minute call to see if it's a fit for you. No obligation.
"Living beings were made to grow. Change isn't theoretical, it's real. Nothing will ever be the same again."
