Retreat Information:

Fully embodying ourselves is being fully alive. It is the freedom to breath deeper, to move with grace and to express ourselves. It is to be grounded in the practical reality of life and open to the blessings of our sacred soul. Being grounded, without being connected to the sacred, is to live purposelessly and life has no beauty and joy. Seeking spirituality without being deeply rooted in the body is like being a rootless tree.

This retreat combines 2 weekend workshops, and in between the weekends the ability to participate in our community. 

Retreat Structure

TRE & Inner Dance Workshop, 9-10 June

The trauma and stress we experience usually ends up stored in our bodies as unresolved energy. If left alone this unresolved energy can inhibit our bodies natural ability to heal and transform itself, leaving us ungrounded and not in the present moment.

In this two-day retreat, we will explore two modalities—Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) and Inner Dance—to help participants discharge this energy in order to experience more calmness and presence.

TRE – Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises is a technique that has been used worldwide to support and help people dealing with tension, stress, and trauma.

Inner dance is a modality developed by a Philipino man called Pi Vilarazza. We use music and sounds to stimulate different brain waves and states of consciousness.

Body Awareness Week, 11-14 June

Join our community for a body awareness week. During the week, retreat participants will be able to enrich their experience with:

• Yoga twice a day, except Wednesdays and Sat-Sun

• Group mediation practices twice a day, except Wednesdays and Sat-Sun

• Monday afternoon therapeutic workshop on body awareness

• Group TRE sessions

• Dance Mandala

• Mens and women circles

• Support Groups‣ 1-to-1 meditation coaching

• Counselling (additional charge)

• All community members are expected to work 2 hours a day supporting the foundation but also using the opportunity to practice being in our body.

Healing Developmental Trauma Workshop, 15-17 June

Developmental trauma, which stems from ongoing exposure to early neglect, violence, and abuse, impairs our capacity to connect with ourselves and others. The lack of fulfillment of our basic needs during key developmental stages creates what we call adaptive styles. Most of us go around unconscious of those strategies, trying over and over to solve our problems but never really making it.

The key is to start healing our developmental traumas. Participants will gain a greater understanding of how early traumas have impacted them. as well as an increased awareness of their unhealthy and unconscious adaptive styles.

Retreat Instructors

Fernando Aguiar

Fernando Aguiar is a Brazilian experienced Core Energetics Body Therapist and TRE Level 2 provider with a Master degree in Clinical Psychology. He has been working with groups and individuals for the past 10 years. He did his Inner Dance training in Philippines with Pi, the founder of the modality, in 2015. And finished his TRE training in 2010 with David Berceli. He is passionate about supporting people in their life-changing and transformation process; his gift is to help people deeply connect with their soul and life force. Fernando is an international workshop facilitator, having offered workshops in Brazil, Australia, Israel, Thailand, Nepal, India, and Mexico. Fernando will be facilitating both weekend workshops.

More about Fernando: essentialpsychology.org and embodythewsidom.com

Letícia Cardoso Orlandi Silveira

Letícia Cardoso Orlandi Silveira holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Brasília - UnB. She works in the clinical area focusing on adults, providing individual, conjugal or family psychotherapy. She is a partner and owner of the Rokai Institute - Integrated Therapy Center, which offers Psychology, Hypnotherapy and Physical Therapy services. She is trained as a level 1 instructor in TRE - Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises, by CENTRAR - Centro de Terapias Integradas, and is an expert in Sports Psychology at Faculdade Estácio de Sá - São Paulo. In addition, she is a dancer, choreographer and teacher of Ballroom Dance, specializing in samba de gafieira. Today, she uses dance as a therapeutic resource to achieve self-knowledge and improvement of interpersonal relationships.

Retreat Program

TRE & INNER DANCE

Day 1: (Saturday) 9.30am – 12.00 noon

-The nature of neurogenic movements

-The psoas muscle

-Is shaking a bad or good sign?

-TRE practice

-The nervous system and its responses

-The shaking response in animals

-TRE practice

Noon – Lunch

2pm – 5pm

-Introduction to Inner Dance

-Inner Dance practice

Evening – dinner, downtime, journaling, self-care, noble silence

Day 2: (Sunday) 9.30am – 12.00 noon

-Traumas and the body

-Post-trauma growth and connection with our essential gifts

-Inner Dance practice

Noon – Lunch

2pm – 5pm

-Opening up to our full potential

-TRE and Inner Dance connection

Evening – dinner, downtime, journaling, self-care, noble silence.

BODY AWARENESS WEEK

6:30AM – Morning activity (yoga, meditation) (M*)

7:30am – Silent breakfast

8:30am – Morning community meeting (M*) 

9:30-11:30am – Community work OR free time (M*) (one session of community work each day is mandatory)

12:30pm – Lunch

2-4pm – Community work or free time

4:30pm – Afternoon activity (intro to mindfulness, yoga or meditation)

5pm Steam bath (2 times per week)

6:30pm – Dinner

7:30pm – Evening activity (film, support group, group TRE, Dance Mandala)

9:30pm – Noble silence until 8:30am next morning

HEALING DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA

Day 1: (Friday) 2pm – 5:30pm

-The body in therapy

-Becoming more alive

-Embodied practice and grounding

Evening – downtime, journaling, self-care, noble silence

Day 2: (Saturday)

6:30AM – Morning activity (yoga or meditation)

7:30 – Breakfast

9am – Noon

-Embodied practice and grounding

-Introduction to developmental trauma and the 5 basic core needs

-Introduction to the adaptive styles

Noon – 2pm Lunch

2pm – 5pm

-Continuing with the adaptive styles

-Identify your main adaptive styles and how they impact your life today.

Evening – downtime, journaling, self-care, noble silence

Day 3: (Sunday)

8am – Breakfast

9am – Noon

-Working with anger and power as valuable tools to self-growth and trauma healing

-Connecting with our deeper resources: the wisdom within

Noon – 2pm – Lunch

2pm – 5pm

-Key practices to support the healing of each style.

*the program might be modified to adapt to the group needs and what unfolds during the retreat.