Embodied Relating Chicago

ABOUT

“Embodiment is the combined experience of sensations, emotions, and movement impulses, an ever-changing, dynamic relationship between self, other, and environment.” ~ Dr. Arrielle Schwartz

Are you desiring a safe space to see and be seen, to hold and be held? To show up authentically with a colourful range of human beings? To cultivate skills that will greatly improve your interpersonal relationships?

Embodied Relating is an afternoon of conscious connection skills. We will sharpen our capacity to verbally and physically communicate with deeper awareness of our bodily sensations, allowing us to weave richer, more truthful, more loving connections with one another.

You are invited to Chicago's Yoga Tree Studio for a very special one-off workshop this September. Come explore your curiosity, vulnerability and boundaries through a journey of deep, meaningful, playful communication and contact games.

Activities will interweave Authentic Relating, Movement Meditation and Conscious Touch, inspiring a profound sense of well-being, a remarkable connection to your body and an experiential toolkit that you can use right away to make every part of your life even better.

The connection skills you will practice include:

? Listening to your body and the subtleties of sensation

? Expressing yourself more authentically, through words, movement and touch

? Empathising deeply with another’s human experience

? Tuning into what your body really desires and empowering yourself to make requests

? Setting boundaries that honour yourself, and gracefully receiving the boundaries of another

? Welcoming and befriending the full spectrum of your emotional reality, including the uncomfortable parts

I look forward to welcoming you into a beautiful container that is sure to inspire you to step further into the kind of life you truly want.

WHO is this event for?

Essentially, this event is for you if you’re a curious, open, emotional human being and want to learn to better work with these superpowers to both enhance your interpersonal relationships and enrich your self love within. This event is also for you if you’ve been recently feeling blocked, anxious, lacking purpose or direction, and need to reground and remind yourself what's truly important and who you truly are.

My experience includes working with Highly Sensitive People (HSPs); neurodiverse people; people suffering from anxiety and depression; people going through major life shifts; and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

If you have any questions about whether the event would suit you, pop me a message and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours.

WHAT will actually happen?

Activities will explore relating, movement and physical contact, with and without words and vision, through the nourishing practices of Authentic Relating, Movement Meditation and Conscious Touch.

Authentic Relating is an interpersonal meditation. It is the practice of listening and speaking in deeper awareness of our present moment sensations, curiosities and boundaries, allowing us to weave richer, more truthful and loving human-to-human connections.

Movement Meditation is free-form journey of authentic bodily flow. It invites you to surrender to what is arising in your body when deeply in connection with music, inducing a natural state of ecstasy.

Conscious Touch is the practice of bringing full attention and presence into relating physically to another person. In deeper awareness of our desires and boundaries, we will explore the many layers and dimensions of non-sexual touch.

Together, we will create a rich container to explore the many layers of our human experience, to invite loving, consensual touch, and arrive more deeply into present moment embodied awareness.

WHERE will it be?

The event will take place at Yoga Tree, 5248 N Clark St Suite 100, Chicago, IL 60640.

The SPACE HOLDER

I'm Laurie (he/him), a queer British-Kiwi based in Wellington, NZ. My passion is creating spaces that cultivate healthy, thriving human-to-human relationships, helping people take off their masks, feel their sensations and celebrate their aliveness on Earth. Since 2019, I have organised and facilitated hundreds of Authentic Relating, Dating and Embodiment workshops in Oceania and Europe.

My training includes The Embody Lab, Authentic Life Course, and Connection Institute. I have facilitated at internationally acclaimed festivals such as Stretch, and organisations such as ART International.

My workshops have sparked thousands of nourishing connections, turning many strangers into life-long friends. I look forward to holding space for you!

For more information, check out itoiauthenticrelating.com.

Laurie has previously offered numerous sell-out Embodied Relating workshops in Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Edinburgh, Boulder, San Francisco, Portland & Wellington. Now, for the first time ever, it's coming to Chicago! Here's what others have said:

“This was a game changer for me. I'm blown away on a daily basis as to how easy communicating and relating has been since doing Laurie's incredible workshop" - Andy

"Laurie's approach to mix Authentic Relating with conscious touch and movement is very interesting. Theses complementary practices made me feel more whole and deeply connected with others. Laurie is also incredibly kind and I felt safe, warm and welcomed from the start" - Benjamin

“Laurie is a highly engaging, warm, caring, skilful, playful and professional facilitator. I look forward to attending more of his workshops in the future. As an executive coach for tech leaders I'm looking forward to experimenting and applying some of the techniques I learnt in his workshop in my 1-1 sessions with my clients. Thank you so much Laurie!” - Maria

“The exercises in Embodied Relating allowed me to center myself in heartspace - free to be held by others in love and in my own experience while also able to hold them in their experience. As such, it’s a perfect space for co-regulating. The experience was so nurturing I forgot to eat dinner - and I wasn’t even hungry!” - Justin

"I live with complex PTSD and anxiety so in the past I have really struggled to open up to people and build meaningful connections. Discovering these workshops has been a life changer and both my therapist and I are thrilled with how my confidence has blossomed in recent months. Laurie's time and generosity really means the world to me" - Sarah

HOW MUCH will I invest?

$35 for earlybird ticket (available until the August 17th)

€45 for regular ticket

Spaces are limited so book early before it fills up!

Practicalities:

Where: Yoga Tree, 5248 N Clark St Suite 100, Chicago, IL 60640.

When: Thursday September 7th, 2 - 5pm.

Dresscode: Comfortable clothing that's easy to move in. Please bring a blindfold as some activities may be blindfolded.

Intoxicants: This is a drug & alcohol free event. There will be plenty of tea available.

Refund policy: Full refund if cancelled three weeks or more before event. 50% refund if cancelled up to one week before event. No refund if cancelled less than one week before event.

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