A Holistic Picture

Do you feel deeply safe in your body and in intimate connection with others? Do you sometimes feel anxiety, fear of rejection, shame or uncertainty about whether you are truly welcome just as you are, with the body you have, the shadows you hide, the desires you feel? Can you be naked and relaxed and let your body talk – emotionally, physically, sensually – with others?

When we feel safe in connection with ourselves and others, we have the opportunity to thrive, to discover, reveal and enjoy who we are. When we don’t feel safe, intimacy stirs up endless problems.

And this impacts not only our relationships. Psychological research has shown that feeling safe and secure in connection with others is one of the strongest indicators of wellbeing, health, fulfilling relationships and resilience in life.

In Module One, we focus on developing this much-needed foundation. We start with the understanding that suffering comes when we feel isolated, when we hold back parts of our longing and our desires – and it is connection that heals. We slowly explore how to share who we are, what we really want, and what is actually happening in our experience – whatever that might be. We build a sense of community with each other when our sharing is received and mirrored by others in ways that allows us to feel truly seen, known, heard and accepted. When we build this kind of space together, radical healing becomes possible. In fact, it becomes irresistible!

Your authentic sexual stories can be given voice – and heard with loving compassion. Distrust can shift to curiosity. The ways you hold back with others are invited to relax and evolve. Sexual competition can relax into true brotherhood and sisterhood. The emotional nutrients you missed growing up can be absorbed now, in community. Wherever you’ve contracted in fear, you’re now welcome to expand in love and playfulness.

Together we transition from feeling all alone and overwhelmed, to experiencing a new way of being, becoming a communitarian, a way in which “we’re all in this together”. My pain is your pain, and your transformation is my transformation. We function like mirrors for one another. This allows us to acknowledge both the pain of the past and the way into a new reality. We rewire our relationship to our triggered feelings – from shame, worthlessness and isolation, to connection, self acceptance, erotic innocence and play. As we pair the old with the new possibilities, we realize that what we avoid and tried to control is the very food for the connection we all starve for. Now as we step through the rough states of mind, together, we come home to where we are nourished and fed by all parts that finally come back into one whole. Now, our “angst becomes our liberation,” as we open our eyes to the possibility that we are everything; that we can hold both the victim and perpetrator, vulnerable and powerful, fearless and scared.

All of this allows us to truly become naked with each other, and from here, a new, transformational experience of intimacy can arise. In deep safety, penetrative honesty, fierce love and vibrant vulnerability, there is the invitation to explore our longings in a space that is cleared of the regular projections and demands that characterise most relating. We meet in erotic innocence.

This is the foundation for a bold new life of self-love and genuine connection.

To support us in this healing, we work directly with the heart and body. We use breath, sound, touch and movement practices that help us drop in with each other to a space of real, authentic connection. We discharge emotional and physical blockages to the free flow of our energy. Maps and models are shared that help us understand the dynamics of secure and insecure attachment and sensed safety from a psychological and interpersonal neurobiological perspective. In Module 1, we bond as a community. This is the foundation stone for the rest of the training.