RETURN

Come back to the wisdom of your body, deepen your intuition, and learn to read the language of your unique bodily experience.

We all have a connection with our bodies and the wisdom they hold. We’re born with it! But this connection sometimes gets severed along the way from trauma, the stress of living under oppressive systems, or a break in the chain of inherited knowledge around the benefits of somatic (body-based) practices.

This self-paced virtual course is designed for people looking to reclaim their connection with their bodies in a way that’s unique to them through somatic awareness.

This course is for you if you:

• Want to begin to reclaim your relationship with your body

• Would like to learn about the nervous system and nervous system responses

• Like the idea of grounding but standard meditation just isn’t cutting it

• Like to learn in a variety of ways

• Are curious about learning to expand your awareness- both internally and externally.

• Are tired of ppl yelling “love your body!” or “yoga is the answer!” or whatever the thing is at you. These suggestions aren’t accessible to everyone.

• Are a survivor or are dealing chronic pain.

• Are tired of the spiritual bypassing in embodiment and wellness spaces

• Would like to learn how to hold more than one emotion at a time 

• Are interested in exploration vs a goal 

After having run this class for the last three years with four different cohorts, it feels the time has come to make this course self-paced. Classes are psychoeducational and experiential with room for embodied writing and reflecting. In this space, choice and self-consent is encouraged and being able to pace your learning to a rhythm that suits you supports this. Class lectures are typically about an hour long and each module offers a class, practice(s), and self-reflection. Bonus classes and practices will be added intermittently.

Doors open in 2024

For context, embodiment is an intentional practice of rooting into the body to better understand it’s cues. Emotional awareness, another phrase for mindfulness, is a practice of slowing down to tap into your inner world and your emotional and somatic experiences. A practice of embodiment and emotional awareness is, in large part, what we are engaging in when we practice somatic awareness.

A definition I like for “somatics” is “the living body in it’s wholeness”. When we practice somatics, we are paying attention to the cues of our body in relation to the environment it’s in and the context it lives in. This includes our physical body, our emotional body, spiritual body, ancestral body and so on. Which inevitability means we each come at this work from different socio-economic intersections. This work and practice is political and cultural and gives us tools to navigate this web we’re all a part of.

When we practice somatics, we are creating conditions in order to pay deeper attention to this web we’re all connected to and through. We work towards expanding our capacity for the “hard to be with” emotions as well as practicing the cultivation of joy. We do this so we can show up for ourselves in a deeper way. And when we do that, we can show up in our interpersonal relationships more fully. That, in turn, radiates out to the communities we’re a part of. We start to learn what it looks like to hold more nuance, complexity, and compassion.

It’s my belief that this is part of how we slowly start to shift our culture. We start with ourselves and it ripples outward and touches the people we’re in relationship with. This is the web!

Throughout our six weeks together, I aim to meet you where you are as a facilitator. Everything we cover is an exploration with the understanding that YOU know your body best. Because different things work for different people, each week provides practice exercises with modifications if you need them. You get to decide what works and what doesn’t.

Course Outline

Week One: Opening + Landing

We’ll begin with a general introduction to “somatics” and it’s history and I’ll share the lineages I practice within and have learned from. We’ll learn a fundamental centering practice and have some time for embodied writing and sharing.

In the class portal, you will find a daily meditation and the writing prompt we’ll have explored in class together.

Week Two: Finding your Ground + Resourcing

In our second week together, we’ll begin to explore the many ways there are to ground down and find our root. Understanding our resourcing and intentionally using them as an anchor is another fundamental piece of this work.

Our class portal will have a couple of short videos and meditations on Grounding practices for those of you who want to supplement your learning.

Week Three: Nervous System Awareness

During Week Three, we will move into some basic nervous system education. We’ll be exploring nervous system responses (including flight, fight, freeze, and fawn) alongside practicing using our resources. This will be the “headiest” of the weeks. Remember, we don’t have to discard the mind or the intellect- we bridge it with the rest of our experience.

* I blend both the Window of Tolerance theory alongside Polyvagal Theory when I teach this class.

Week Four: Unlocking the Senses

In Week Four, we play with our senses and explore various sense-based exercises (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch). We expand our definition of what connection and pleasure can look like.

We also make room for the knowledge that not all of the senses are available to all of us and that we experience them differently.

The Class Portal will also contain practices on finding our sense of “yes”, “no”, and “maybe”.

Week Five: Emotions + The Body

In Week Five, we dive into emotions. We’ll cover blocks and barriers to our emotions, explore how to name our feelings and our feelings about our feelings.

We explore the sensations of your emotions and learn how to locate them inside of the body.

Included in this week is a Bodymapping Art Practice where you can create your own unique BodyMap on canvas, woodblock, butcher paper- whatever feels resonate for you.

Week Six: Integration

In our last week together we integrate everything we’ve learned. We discuss various integration techniques and explore what aspects of a somatic practice you would like to grow.

Our Group Practice is an Integrative Closing Circle, allowing us to recognize all that we’ve done in this space together.

These modules are self-paced and entirely available upon purchase.

You will have access to the material for as long as it’s on the internet, including platform changes and updates.

After taking this course, participants will begin to:

• understand their nervous system through a somatic lens

• listen to their body in a way that is nonjudgmental and more compassionate

• be able to hold more than one feeling at a time

• reclaim their connection with their bodies

• integrate their minds and thoughts with their bodies and emotions

• understand how to move through and with big emotions, nervous system responses, stress, and old beliefs about themselves and their bodies

• use a somatic framework that is in service to collective liberation

Pricing + Registration Details

The fee for this course is $312. Participants can choose to pay in full or through a payment plan (you will be automatically charged). This price point includes:

• six hour long lessons

• lifetime access to course materials (as long as it exists on the internet)

• supplemental practices in video and audio form

• semi-regular updates to course material and practices

• first access to future courses and memberships

An early-bird discount will be offered to those on the waitlist before the launch of the self-study edition of RETURN. Past participants of the live version as well as those who purchase the self-paced edition will get a discount on some of my other courses as well as first access to small groups.

After signing up, you will receive a welcome packet from me detailing the course further, explaining how to navigate it, and letting you know what you’ll need in order to get the most out of this course.

Course will be hosted through this website and you’ll receive access to all course materials upon signing up.

* Due to the digital nature of this course, all purchases are non-refundable. If you’d like help discerning whether or not this course is for you, reach out! I won’t try and sell you- I want participants to feel like this is the right fit for them.

Email me with any questions!