The Sensual Body
An Open Floor residential retreat
Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd August 2026
Slí na Bandé, Co. Wicklow, Ireland
*early price open until July 22nd
A weekend retreat to nourish and rejuvenate the sensual body through moving meditation, dance, rest and stillness in the sanctuary of Slí na Bandé in the Wicklow hills.
It is through our senses that we engage with life. Our ability to sense and feel through the vessel of our human bodies offers us doorways into presence and connection to our environment, not only for physical survival and decision making, but also for the experience of pleasure, delight and joy.
More info on the Retreat
The Sacred Opening
An Open Floor residential retreat
Sept 3rd - 6th 2026
De Dieken, The Netherlands
All of us enter this world through the gateway of the female body, carried and birthed by the innate intelligence and life giving force of the womb. For thousands of years the grace and wisdom of the womb centre has been denied and suppressed. Modern culture moves many of us out of right relationship with our physical bodies, with our sensuality and with our sexuality as a sacred, natural and healing force.
This residential weekend of movement, somatic dance and meditation for women and womb-bodied people is an opportunity for us to gather, move, rest and sit in circle together. Supported by the embodiment practices of Open Floor movement and the restorative wisdom of Womb Presence
practices, we will journey with compassion and curiosity through the potent landscape of our primal source of life force energy, awakening and enlivening our places of power, passion and wisdom.
Dates: 3rd - 6th September 2026
Venue: De Dieken, Holten, The Netherlands
Booking : [email protected] or
0031 612602244 / www.embodieddance.nl
More info on the Retreat
Shame; doorway to Divinity
An Open Floor weekend workshop
Friday 25th - Sunday 27th September 2026
Irishtown Gospel Hall, Ringsend, Dublin 4
This weekend will be assisted by Martin Timpe, a professional Supervisor and Coach trained in Gestalt Therapy and Group Dynamics, and freedomDANCE teacher from Germany.
Shame is known as the ‘hidden’ emotion, difficult to recognise and even more difficult to stay present with. It often sits at the root of much of our suffering, feeding our internal critical voices and challenging us around feeling free, happy and sovereign. Most of us have grown up through cultures and systems that use shame to control the natural movement of our life force energy, to suppress our voices and dilute our free expression. We easily become dysregulated when shame shows up, we avoid life, run away from ourselves, blame others and/or disappear into addictions and behaviours that don’t serve us.
On the other side of the visceral experience of shame is the beauty of our divine nature, the shining radiant self that is who we truly are, waiting to be more fully embodied and express itself freely in this world. Connecting to this place is the underlying focus of our weekend exploration that is designed to be educational, enjoyable, soulful and kind.
Over the weekend we will draw on a blend of Open Floor movement practice, emotional intelligence skills and education around the patterning of shame and body armouring. We will explore somatic practices that help us to recognise what is happening in our systems and regulate ourselves with compassion when required.
Open Floor is an embodiment practice, an intuitive and free form movement pathway to the essential self. It offers practical ways to anchor awareness and resource our daily lives through connection with our body wisdom.
Our bodies are designed to be fluid and free, our somatic intelligence knows how to allow the physical energy of our emotions to cycle through to completion. Who we really are has nothing to do with an emotion, a thought or a temporary physical experience. When we can recognise shame and its accompanying fight/flight/freeze states in our system, we can make compassionate choices to change our state and align with our essential self.
When layers of stuck emotional energy that are so common with shame are freed up and allowed to dissolve, we may open to the embodied experience of lightness, spaciousness and clarity around our direction and purpose.
Over two decades of working therapeutically with shame, both personally and with others, has taught me that if we can simplify and understand this complex emotion, embrace it and regulate ourselves or co-regulate our systems with others, then we can transform this painful experience and receive a profound key to our liberation.
During this weekend we will
* Learn to differentiate between healthy shame and toxic shame
* Practice emotional intelligence skills
* Learn how shame shows up somatically in our systems and how to release it
* Learn to recognise shame based patterns in the body/mind and develop simple practices to allow them dissolve and create a better experience
* Cultivate attitudes of compassion, patience and kindness as antidote for challenging states and feelings
* Offer what is no longer serving us to the alchemy of our moving bodies, the power of our conscious breath and clear intention
* Enjoy the beauty and the senate experience of pleasure, vitality and clarity that arises when we connect with our original self
* Heal in community and encourage our authentic creative expression in this world.
I am delighted to welcome Martin Timpe to assist on this workshop.
Workshop times:
Friday 7pm - 8.30pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm
Workshop fee: €280
Your place on the workshop is secured once payment either in full or in instalments is made.
This weekend workshop is open to all genders and everybody is welcome.
There are two bursary places available for this workshop, please get in touch if you would like to avail of them.