Sept. 10, 2023
Self-Defense and Somatics for Social Justice. This is the start of a monthly series in Empowerment Self-Defense, Bystander Intervention and De-Escalation and related topics. Register here: https://bit.ly/self-defense-and-somatics
Dates TBD:
Touching in to the Body's Innate Resiliency: Working with the Body in 3 Dimensions.(Details to follow.)
Touch-Based Practices for Self-Regulation and Healing, on-line format. (Details to follow.)
Sex Positive Self-Defense and Sexual Negotiation for Survivors and Allies, on-line format. (Details to follow.)
Somatic Experiencing® offers supportive, hands-on techniques and dialogue to help build sensory awareness and reduce trauma symptoms. Slow down and learn track your own stress responses. Tune in to the body’s innate wisdom. Harness the power of attention and intention. Foster self-trust and build resiliency. Increase your capacity to regulate difficult emotions and gain greater confidence and freedom in your life. (traumahealing.org)
Trauma-Informed Bodywork helps a person experience a greater sense of connection. It provides opportunities to build sensory awareness through direct experience. Sessions are collaborative, guided by the needs and interests of the client/s. Trauma-informed bodywork does not have to incude any hands-on work at all. Sessions might include discussion and exploration about resistance or aversion to touch. Breathing, gentle movement, energy work, or self-touch may be used to reduce muscle tension, pain, anxiety or other symptoms. Work can be done off the body or hands-on, fully clothed in a massage chair or on a table, or directly on the skin. This type of work helps re-establish physical boundaries and provides a context to explore preferences around things like proximity, pressure and pacing. Working slowly and intentionally gives a person time and space to figure out what therapeutic approaches feel best. In the case of trauma or injury, some areas of the body might be hypersensitive to touch, while other parts might feel numb or disconnected. Giving voice to conflicting impulses in the body creates a sense of dynamic choice and promotes a sense of agency, which makes it easier move through stuck places. The ability to better navigate sensory and emotional triggers increases the capacity for excitement, pleasure, relaxation and comfort. Sessions are designed for individuals, couples or groups. (Reduced rates available based on financial need.)
Chakra Therapy is an integrative approach that uses knowledge of the chakra system to help bring the body into greater balance. It is based on the innovative work of Anodea Judith, author of Wheels of Life and Eastern Body, Western Mind. Chakra Therapy combines somatic interventions, hands-on exercises, yoga, bioenergetics, guided imagery and ritual arts. Connect to the stability of ground, the ease and pleasure of flow, the power of will and self-determination, the joy of connection, and the strength of your voice and vision. (sacredcenters.com)
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) is a subtle and profound hands-on therapy that that taps into the body's innate healing abilities. Deep healing happens when we work with this core intelligence to facilitate whole-body changes from within. Craniosacral Therapy helps to reorient the body towards health and safety. This creates change on many levels, from a decrease in pain and tension to a shift in mental, emotional and behavioral patterns. Ultimately, it's about rediscovering a deeper relationship with life itself.
Healing Touch™ balances and restores the energy field, or biofield, that surrounds the body. It supports your natural ability to heal. Hands are held or moved above the body or rested on the body with light, gentle touch. Benefits of Healing Touch™ include relaxation, pain reduction, decreased fatigue and improved mood. Clinical research supports the use of Healing Touch™ to reduce stress, alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression, boost immunity, enhance surgical recovery and relieve migraine headaches. (healingbeyondborders.org)
Bodyworkcan provide a felt sense of comfort, support and validation in times of transition. Therapeutic touch, movement and dialogue can increase a sense of connection to your body’s innate wisdom and help mediate some of the physical and emotional stresses associated with gender transition. If pursuing hormonal or medical interventions, sessions might include techniques to find balance in the midst of hormonal changes, to improve body image, to prepare for and heal from surgery, to manage pain, to recover range of motion and to reduce scarring. (Reduced rates available based on financial need.)
Massage for Older Adults - Older adults, including medically complex clients, benefit greatly from nurturing touch. Common benefits of massage include: improved circulation and lymph flow, faster healing, and increased flexibility and pain relief. Massage and nurturing touch reduces anxiety and depression, while fostering a sense of comfort and social connection. This can decrease feelings of loneliness or isolation. Another positive “side effect” of massage is better sleep. Massage is specially tailored to the individual needs and circumstances of older adults, and the positive impacts on health are far-reaching. Outcalls are available. (Certified by the Day-Break Geriatric Massage Institute)
Massage Made Simple - Most of us have people in our lives we want to support, whether it's partners, kids or friends. Touch is the most direct and immediate way to do that. Nurturing touch relieves stress and tension and promotes physical and emotional connection. Everyone can benefit from the comforts of touch but sometimes, it feels hard to know what to do or how to ask for what we want. People often report asking a partner, friend or family member for a shoulder massage but get frustrated when it is either too hard or too light. The person giving massage might find that it is hard on their body or causes pain or fatigue. As a result, people give up and stop asking or stop offering. However, You can learn massage techniques that are easy to use and practice communication skils that make it easier to ask. When you know what to do and how to do it, it's easier to give. When you know how to notice and talk about what feels good to you, it's easier to receive. No special equipment is needed to make massage comfortable for both giver and receiver. Easy to learn, basic techniques can be done sitting in a chair or lying down. Massage becomes a mutually satisfying experience that builds the capacity for pleasure and intimacy. (Workshops for pairs or groups)
Empowerment Self-Defense as Self Care/Community Care – Some of the most insidious forms of violence to which we are subjected are internalized messages - critical inner voices of blame, shame and self-doubt, often conditioned by past traumas or ongoing experiences of oppression. Empowerment Self Defense includes skills for physical protection and emotional regulation that increase environmental awareness, assertiveness and self-confidence. Interactive pair work and role-plays teach verbal, physical and energetic boundary setting along with tools to manage conflict and improve communication. A conscious exploration of fight-flight-freeze response in the body allows us to move out of survival mode to mobilize internal resources and pro-actively respond to threat. As we are better able act on our own behalf and on behalf of our communities, we can impact collective health and safety in positive ways. We can transform cycles of abuse, neglect and denial from the inside out. (CAE-trained Self-Defense instructor since 1991, lifetime member of the NWMAF – National Women’s Martial Arts Federation - nwmaf.org)
Skills for Sexual Negotiation and Consent – Unerstand and contextualize gender-based violence and raciaized violence within its social-historical context and create frameworks for healing within community. Discuss ways to create more safety, comfort, and courage while building capacity to tolerate discomfort and conflict. Talk about how to recognize and manage signs of fear and anxiety, and share skills and experiences to help identify and respond to personal triggers and stressors. Develop greater awareness and respect for physical, verbal and emotional boundaries, and practice ways to negotiate touch and intimacy. Learn to say “No” to the things you don’t want and “Yes” to the things you do. A trauma-informed, sex-positive approach helps build internal resources while learning how to elicit outside support. (CAE-Certified Self-Defense Instructor, for individuals, couples or groups)
Harm Reduction/Playing Safe – Oriented especially for youth, these workshops work to build positive self-image, confidence, cooperation and respect, through teaching tools for boundary-setting, negotiation and conflict resolution. Format can be adapted for any age, whether it involves dealing with peer pressure and bullying among younger ages or safety and prevention for teens. (Offered in after-school programs and youth support groups.)
Health and Wellness Coaching for individuals and groups combine techniques from any of the areas mentioned, such as massage, yoga, meditation, breath work, and energy-balancing. Techniques can be practiced alone or with others to enhance well-being in daily life. Informed by Intrinsic Coaching®, and Sacred Centers Coaching, individualized programs such as these help clients connect to personal motivations in order to create meaningful change in their peronal lives and in the workplace. (Certified Intrinsic Coach, Personal Training with a specialty in Holistic Fitness)
Muscles can become chronically contracted due to injury, trauma, physical or emotional stress. As a result, the body compensates in a variety of ways. Sometimes parts of our body and mind go unconscious and we get stuck in old patterns. When we slow down and bring attention and to areas of tension, disconnection and pain, it is possible to release out of contraction and relax into support. We can begin to find places of ease move in new ways. Conscious, compassionate movement helps to awaken parts of the body that are numb and soothe the parts that are overly-reactive. This descreases somatic symptoms including anxiety, depression and pain. When a sense of flow is restored, the body can heal more easily. Sessions include a blend of somatic education, therapeutic yoga, and classic asana. We will explore how breath, movement and sound can be used to calm, energize or balance. Individualized sessions or small group sessions are designed to be accessible for every BODY as you are guided and supported to find postures and movements that work for you. (Trained in Active Isolated Stretching (AIS), Chakra Yoga/Chakra Therapy (Sacred Centers), SomaYoga (200 hr. Yoga North- Duluth and Y12SR)