A series of three 3 hour sessions exploring what it means to be white
1. a first step - building a container - what is my whiteness? (27 June)
2. the role of history - global, local and my history, my story (4 July)
3. compassionate engagement - becoming an ally for people of colour (11 July)
Have you ever stopped to think about what it means to be white?
It is difficult it is to talk about our whiteness. Even naming it has an impact. For many of us we hear it as an accusation. Just notice how your nervous system feels as you are reading this, maybe you notice a constriction, a wave of nausea or a heat in your body, maybe you go cold?
And yet until we talk about it we leave people of colour alone to fight a system of oppression created by white people.
I love this community of ours and I realise I want us to support each other to wake up around this. I have unconsciousness about my own skin colour, I move away from what feels uncomfortable and avoid, divert to somewhere more appealing, less confrontational. BUT...I know that the places where I grow are in THAT moment of discomfort, the moment I can feel and experience how deeply unwelcome something feels in my body. This is where I can become aware, and through awareness I see I have a choice!
Then I notice the places where I go quiet and don’t say anything because of fear, shame, guilt, you name it...and by doing this I become complicit in oppressing people of colour. Yes, it is challenging to see my whiteness, it is challenging to feel my trauma caused by white supremacy and even more so to understand how until I wake up, that I continue to be a part of the problem.
I have realised I hunger for a place within my own tribe to explore and learn about where I feel unconscious or where there is a possibility of growth and development to being more humane towards myself, those close to me and those I see as the 'other'.
This is an invitation to join me over 3 sessions of 3 hours each to explore where we will work in words, in movement (trauma is healed in the body!) and on paper.
I was considering waiting till we can do this in person, and then realised that there is no better time than now, that people of colour don't have a choice of when they will experience racism, it happens to them all the time. I have no idea how to get this right, but I know and trust that in messing up, making mistakes and holding myself with love, this work is possible. Don't leave me alone with this. I need you as much as we need each other to dance THIS Wave!
I will co-host this workshop with Caroline Baillie, a long-term friend who has traveled the path of anti-racism with me for many years. She is also a fellow Process Worker.
Dates: Saturday mornings - 27 June; 4 July; 11 July
Venue: On Zoom
Cost: £30 per session To book and pay, please email me for BACS details if you don't already have these. You can also pay with Paypal to move2bestill@gmail.com.
Do one or all (we recommend doing all, this is strong work)
Time: 10am - 1pm
Here is a piece to listen to as an inspiration.
We advise each person taking responsibility for their own sense of well-being - this is not a comfortable subject, we will be holding the awareness, practicalities and facilitation and you will each be responsible for following your own needs and sense of well-being. Exploring this issue is likely to feel unsafe at times.
_______________________________________________________
Sarena Wolfaard – is a process oriented psychotherapist and uses tools from this modality to work with the body in movement and interoception (inner feelings and sensations). She is a 5Rhythms and Open Floor teacher and trained in Therapy in Motion.
Caroline Baillie – I am also a process oriented psychotherapist and work with individuals and couples in Gloucestershire. I am committed to working on my own racism and moving towards allyship.
1. a first step - building a container - what is my whiteness? (27 June)
2. the role of history - global, local and my history, my story (4 July)
3. compassionate engagement - becoming an ally for people of colour (11 July)
Have you ever stopped to think about what it means to be white?
It is difficult it is to talk about our whiteness. Even naming it has an impact. For many of us we hear it as an accusation. Just notice how your nervous system feels as you are reading this, maybe you notice a constriction, a wave of nausea or a heat in your body, maybe you go cold?
And yet until we talk about it we leave people of colour alone to fight a system of oppression created by white people.
I love this community of ours and I realise I want us to support each other to wake up around this. I have unconsciousness about my own skin colour, I move away from what feels uncomfortable and avoid, divert to somewhere more appealing, less confrontational. BUT...I know that the places where I grow are in THAT moment of discomfort, the moment I can feel and experience how deeply unwelcome something feels in my body. This is where I can become aware, and through awareness I see I have a choice!
Then I notice the places where I go quiet and don’t say anything because of fear, shame, guilt, you name it...and by doing this I become complicit in oppressing people of colour. Yes, it is challenging to see my whiteness, it is challenging to feel my trauma caused by white supremacy and even more so to understand how until I wake up, that I continue to be a part of the problem.
I have realised I hunger for a place within my own tribe to explore and learn about where I feel unconscious or where there is a possibility of growth and development to being more humane towards myself, those close to me and those I see as the 'other'.
This is an invitation to join me over 3 sessions of 3 hours each to explore where we will work in words, in movement (trauma is healed in the body!) and on paper.
I was considering waiting till we can do this in person, and then realised that there is no better time than now, that people of colour don't have a choice of when they will experience racism, it happens to them all the time. I have no idea how to get this right, but I know and trust that in messing up, making mistakes and holding myself with love, this work is possible. Don't leave me alone with this. I need you as much as we need each other to dance THIS Wave!
I will co-host this workshop with Caroline Baillie, a long-term friend who has traveled the path of anti-racism with me for many years. She is also a fellow Process Worker.
Dates: Saturday mornings - 27 June; 4 July; 11 July
Venue: On Zoom
Cost: £30 per session To book and pay, please email me for BACS details if you don't already have these. You can also pay with Paypal to move2bestill@gmail.com.
Do one or all (we recommend doing all, this is strong work)
Time: 10am - 1pm
Here is a piece to listen to as an inspiration.
We advise each person taking responsibility for their own sense of well-being - this is not a comfortable subject, we will be holding the awareness, practicalities and facilitation and you will each be responsible for following your own needs and sense of well-being. Exploring this issue is likely to feel unsafe at times.
_______________________________________________________
Sarena Wolfaard – is a process oriented psychotherapist and uses tools from this modality to work with the body in movement and interoception (inner feelings and sensations). She is a 5Rhythms and Open Floor teacher and trained in Therapy in Motion.
Caroline Baillie – I am also a process oriented psychotherapist and work with individuals and couples in Gloucestershire. I am committed to working on my own racism and moving towards allyship.
All is Full of Love - 9-11 July 2021
All is Full of Love
5Rhythms Heartbeat with Alex Mackay
Edinburgh July 9 -11, 2021
Deepening our dance practice through the Heartbeat maps, we will find the shapes of the essential feelings as they move through us in the moment, and transform leftover fragments of old emotion into aliveness.
We prepare the field – the emptiness in which love thrives. The power of loving means allowing a full expression of feelings in ourselves and each other, being with any feelings; fear, anger, sorrow or joy, and increasing our capacity to be true and kind to ourselves as we respond to the mystery of another.
As human beings, we are built to know what others are feeling – there is a part of the nervous system that does this but we may have trained ourselves to shut it down. It is an instinctive animal part of us worthy of our curiosity and respect. In All is Full of Love we will be seeking the conditions when we can act from instinct, inhabit intimacy, and work directly from divine intelligence. We will practice the embodiment of the heart, valuing all the times when we can say yes to love.
Venue: Edinburgh Academy, 42 Henderson Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5BL
Cost: £210 Early bird deadline if paid in full by 1 June 2021: £195
Times: Friday 6:30-9:30pm, Saturday 11am-6pm and Sunday 11am – 5pm
To book: sarena@movetobestill.com
About Alex:
Alex has been teaching 5Rhythms Waves for over 2 decades, and trained with Gabrielle Roth to teach Heartbeat in 2006/7. She is currently one of only 2 teachers in the world to offer the archetypal workshop 'God, Sex and the Body'.
She is known for light and depth in her teaching, using few well-chosen words and opening a sense of wonder. She is energetic, embodied and creative and loves to dance with the group. This will be her first workshop in Edinburgh.
“I want to say I always love your invitation to dance just as you are - what it does for me is take away pressure to even dance the rhythms as they are meant to be danced which is such a relief when things aren’t going like you think they should!! this means that your workshop is always fun for me from start to finish.”
Mira, Minorca
“I really liked how direct, insightful, straight and tender yet decisive and straight forward you were. I found that calming and invigorating.
As well I loved your music - you had beautiful songs. Punky, fun, exhilarating, lifting songs as well as deeply touching, sphere transforming, grounding and nurturing songs. To me it was one of my most wonderful and intimate experiences I had in my life. I felt so much bliss, joy, admiration for myself and everybody else. I felt so at home and secure and content.”
Britta, Canada (5-day Heartbeat)
Paint, Pattern and Passion
a drawn to dance workshop
With Jenny Smith and Sarena Wolfaard
21 and 22 November 2020
“The stories of my body lie buried in my bones
waiting for the pull of muscle and sinew
and the tickle of a deep, deep breath
to float them to the surface of my skin.” (Rae Johnson)
Join us in the dance of creativity. The invitation is to move with paint and paint with movement in the spirit of playfulness, reflection and enquiry. Our canvas is the body as we step into deeper layers. Re-kindle the fire of your passion and re-discover your playful nature with the body as inspiration and medium. No previous art or movement experience necessary, but if you do have experience of either it will add to your palette.
From previous participants:
"prepare to push boundaries and tip into a freer more creative explorative self." Janis
"This is a fun filled unique experience that is full on and takes you to your edges in the most fantastic way!" Carol Angel
Jenny Smith has been a professional artist for 25 years, with experience of teaching and exhibiting in a wide variety of contexts. She is a qualified Holistic Practitioner and has been dancing 5Rhythms for several years. Jenny has a deep, intuitive and playful approach to holding space. Convinced everybody has creativity, she delights in facilitating it’s emergence. www.drawnto.org.uk jenny@drawnto.org.uk 07713901730
Sarena Wolfaard has been facilitating 5Rhythms for over 16 years and is a qualified Open Floor teacher. She is a Publisher and a Process Worker, a body-based therapy focusing on expanding awareness. She teaches from a personal experience in the present moment, allowing space for what is emerging in the dance, encouraging freedom and the unexpected into the dance. www.movetobestill.com sarena@movetobestill.com 07941883040
Venue: Restoration Yard, Wellbeing Lab, Dalkeith Country Park, Edinburgh, EH22 1ST
Is this right venue for paint – mess wise? Not sure, on reflection… let’s discuss on Fri
Cost: £140 Refreshments & Art Materials Included.
£120 early bird fee, if paid in full by 1 Oct 2020.
£60 non-refundable deposit will secure your place.
Time: Sat: 10.30am – 6pm Sun 11am – 5pm
To book: sarena@movetobestill.com or jenny@drawnto.org.uk
a drawn to dance workshop
With Jenny Smith and Sarena Wolfaard
21 and 22 November 2020
“The stories of my body lie buried in my bones
waiting for the pull of muscle and sinew
and the tickle of a deep, deep breath
to float them to the surface of my skin.” (Rae Johnson)
Join us in the dance of creativity. The invitation is to move with paint and paint with movement in the spirit of playfulness, reflection and enquiry. Our canvas is the body as we step into deeper layers. Re-kindle the fire of your passion and re-discover your playful nature with the body as inspiration and medium. No previous art or movement experience necessary, but if you do have experience of either it will add to your palette.
From previous participants:
"prepare to push boundaries and tip into a freer more creative explorative self." Janis
"This is a fun filled unique experience that is full on and takes you to your edges in the most fantastic way!" Carol Angel
Jenny Smith has been a professional artist for 25 years, with experience of teaching and exhibiting in a wide variety of contexts. She is a qualified Holistic Practitioner and has been dancing 5Rhythms for several years. Jenny has a deep, intuitive and playful approach to holding space. Convinced everybody has creativity, she delights in facilitating it’s emergence. www.drawnto.org.uk jenny@drawnto.org.uk 07713901730
Sarena Wolfaard has been facilitating 5Rhythms for over 16 years and is a qualified Open Floor teacher. She is a Publisher and a Process Worker, a body-based therapy focusing on expanding awareness. She teaches from a personal experience in the present moment, allowing space for what is emerging in the dance, encouraging freedom and the unexpected into the dance. www.movetobestill.com sarena@movetobestill.com 07941883040
Venue: Restoration Yard, Wellbeing Lab, Dalkeith Country Park, Edinburgh, EH22 1ST
Is this right venue for paint – mess wise? Not sure, on reflection… let’s discuss on Fri
Cost: £140 Refreshments & Art Materials Included.
£120 early bird fee, if paid in full by 1 Oct 2020.
£60 non-refundable deposit will secure your place.
Time: Sat: 10.30am – 6pm Sun 11am – 5pm
To book: sarena@movetobestill.com or jenny@drawnto.org.uk
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The hall at The Restoration Yard we where we dance and draw.