held: The somatics of belonging
A sensory retreat exploring relationship with
land, lineage + belonging through relational movement
+ politicized somatics
with Marika Heinrichs + Stevie Joy Leigh
June 22nd, 2024
10am to 5pm
Moon Sanctuary
Los Angeles, California
from our very origins, our bodies are living systems oriented toward relationship
Relational movement shows us that our bodies are inherently wired for connection with the earth and with each other. Through exploring the primitive movements of yield, push, reach, grasp, and pull, we will sense into the origins of our journey with belonging. We will feel for interruptions to this cycle due to familial, social/ political, cultural + environmental forces, and where healing and repair are needed.
Systems of domination have relied on severing our embodied sense of connection with each other, the land and more-than-human-world, our lineages, and ancestors.
Through exploring our somatic capacity for yielding into gravity, we will listen for the stories our bodies carry about belonging across generations — both the wounds and wisdom we carry.
How we interact with our physical environment directly relates to our capacity for presence and our availability for connection. This retreat will offer a space to explore and deepen our relationships with the land we are on, as well as the lands and people we come from — through practice, ritual, and community. As we deepen our embodied capacity to feel land and lineage, we also cultivate our capacity to stand for Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in the here and now.
This retreat INcludes:
Integrative Somatic Practices drawing from: BodyMind Centering, generative somatics, Hakomi, and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
Catered Lunch, Snacks, and Tea (vegan and gf options included)
Embodied Skills for living in relationship with the land in a good way
A Spacious Container to build and grow community in beautiful surroundings
Principles + Exercises to develop an embodied sense of belonging with the earth + ancestors
your facilitators:
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I’m a queer somatic therapist, a ritualist, and a cultural worker living in the San Bernardino National Forest in the mountains of Southern California. I live and practice on Yuhaaviatam Territory which means “People of the Pines”; I’m in regular dialogue and inquiry about how to live in right relationship on this land and with it’s people.
My people come from the British Isles, Germany, and Eastern Europe on my matrilineal side and Spain, what is now called Mexico, France, and what is now called California on my patrilineal side. Both of these lines include very early settlers to Turtle Island. My ancestry and lineage was a mystery to me until my early 20s when I began, what I now understand is, a lifelong process of remembrance, reclamation, and repair.
In practice, I’ve been sitting with people for 8 years. First as a birth worker, supporting all outcomes of birth. As a community organizer and ritualist in my, now closed, collective I ran in Los Angeles. As a somatic sex educator and coach. And, most deeply, as a Hakomi practitioner. I draw from all of these experiences, and more, in my 1:1 work with people, my courses, and ritual circles. These spaces are all deeply informed by my ongoing relationship with my ancestors and the inquiry around how to rekindle ancestral ways of knowing and being, in a way that carries an impact on the world we currently live in; and future worlds yet to be created.
If you’d like to learn a more about me, my work can be found at Weaver+Rose Somatics.
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I’m a queer femme bodyworker, writer, and teacher who grew up on Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory in so-called Southern Ontario, Canada. My people come from Britain, Ireland, Ukraine, and Germany.
I’ve been involved in racial and healing justice movement work for over 15 years, and I practice within these communities as a somatic therapist and facilitator.
For much of my life, I struggled to find community, mentorship, and belonging with other white people who are committed to divesting from white supremacy culture. Since childhood, I’ve been drawn to remember and reconnect with my ancestors, often feeling alone with no concept of where or how to begin.
Over my years of study and practice, I have found mentorship and community which has supported me to cultivate a practice of embodied inquiry into my ancestral origins through historical and somatic research. Over time, this work has deepened my capacity for healing and accountability around race-based violence and harm, and has been transformative for my life and work.
You can read more about mY training and background here.
who is this retreat for?
You do not need to have a background in somatics to participate, although some previous experience is helpful. You don’t need an extensive knowledge of your family background or genealogy either.
We will focus on present moment explorations over processing personal histories, and while healing may happen — this is not a therapy space.
Registration is open to people of all backgrounds. Both facilitators are white/ of European descent and hold commitments to uncovering the layered histories of supremacy and colonization through our work.
exchange + registration
The cost for the day-long retreat is $350. A $150 deposit is required, payment plans are available. There are a handful of reduced rate spots available (see application for details).
10% of registration fees will be donated to Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy.
AGenda (subject to change):
10am Arrive
10:30 to 11:15 Introductions and Opening Circle
Tea break
11:30 to 1- Setting our Container
1-2 Catered Lunch by DetroitVesey’s
2-3 Relationship to Land Exploration
Tea break
3:15 to 4:30 Relational Movement Cycle
4:30-5 Closing Circle / Song
location + accessibility:
Moon Sanctuary in Atwater Village, Los Angeles
Lands of the Tongva, Chumash and Kizh peoples
Moon Sanctuary is ground level and wheelchair accessible (there is a step up to the bathroom which can be modified.) The retreat will take place both indoors and outdoors and we will be engaging in standing, seated, and floor practices all of which can be modified with the support of facilitators and assistants.
Masking is required indoors for the safety of our immunocompromised and high risk kin. Masking is optional outdoors. Feel free to reach out with any questions, and please stay home if you are experiencing any COVID-like symptoms.
The land is the place where our moral responsibility to life is enacted, land is home, land is inspirited, and land is sacred. Land and life are mutually sustaining when the worldview is based on responsibility for land rather than on rights to land. Is the land merely a source of belongings or is it also the source of our sense of belonging? We can choose the lens through which we view the world.
—Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Covenant of Reciprocity