Touching in: A somatic exploration of touch and the subconscious

Join us the day after Election Day in a guided community container to give and receive nourishing, platonic touch, and bring curiosity and compassion to the parts of us that still carry old stories around touch.

Do you want more touch in your life but struggle to ask for it?

Touch is a vital part of being human. “Touch has a language all its own, one that transcends words and connects hearts.” - Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands. Unfortunately, most of us do not have enough access to safe, platonic touch.

There is a lot of personal and cultural baggage that gets in the way of our access to touch. For some of us, touch has been tainted due to direct experiences of unwanted touch or unwanted sexual energy connected to touch. Even if we haven’t had those experiences ourselves, the possibility of touch leading to harm fuels a collective anxiety around touch that can make asking for platonic touch intimidating or inaccessible.

Education around and healthy modeling of platonic touch was notably absent in most of our upbringings. Because of this, as we approach the possibility of inviting touch, we may be met with different inner voices holding fears, insecurities, and protective responses that keep us from breaking the touch barrier.

This offering is a healing space to re-encounter the nourishment of touch through a slow, trauma-informed process where you can practice asking for and receiving the touch you want. In this offering, we will get to know the different parts of ourselves that may complicate our relationship to touch.

Drawing on Internal Family Systems, a psychological modality that explores our sub-personalities (the voices inside of us), as well as Somatic practices and The Wheel of Consent, we will have opportunities to encounter our protections and move towards corrective touch experiences.

All bodies welcome <3

Flow of the event:

• Grounding and Somatic Sensing
• Container Setting and Introductions
• Easing into Intimacy through Group + Dyad Connection Exercises
• Introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS) Framework
• In depth Partner Work (corrective touch experiences) using IFS
• Group Harvest and After-Care

This is the second iteration of Touching In - after receiving a lot of positive feedback on our first offering, we have decided to host it again! There will be new exercises for returning attendees, as well as a foundational framework to support those who are attending for the first time.

Shares from past participants:

“I attended the Touching In Workshop to address my profound need for human contact after years of isolation and sensory deprivation. Facilitated with exceptional care by Sam and Lux, the workshop helped me dissolve barriers, reshape my perspectives, and reconnect deeply with my community through self-touch, eye gazing, and exploring the subtle energies of touch”
- April Bartlett, past participant of Touching In

“Touch has traditionally been a bit tricky for me with a childhood history of touch not going so well, but Sam and Lux did a great job of helping us ride the line of challenging old patterns while making room for new more healthy patterns. I felt respected and challenged. Looking forward to the next one!”
⁃ Krista, past participant of Touching In

Pricing:

We are offering 3 ticketing tiers to support people with different financial resources in having access to this space.
Scholarship spots available ($0-15) for those in need - email samkennedy.counseling@gmail.com to inquire.

$25 Welcome
For folks with tight finances at the moment - we welcome you to join for $25

$50 Reciprocity
The standard price for this offering that covers an equal exchange for the space and facilitation.

$75 Supporter
For folks who can pay more - thank you for supporting us to offer lower cost tickets to those who need it.

About the Facilitators:

Lux Gypsum

Lux Gypsum is a community organizer, relational healer, and cultural visionary who believes that revolution happens at the level of relationship. With over 9 years of facilitation experience and dozens of trainings under their belt, Lux has cultivated a strong capacity to hold potent group containers for interpersonal skill-building and cultural transformation. Some of Lux’s politicized identities are white (Northern European ancestry), AFAB, non-binary, and queer. Lux carries their privileged identities with a responsibility and a commitment to uprooting supremacy culture in themselves and in the world.

Lux has a strong background in Consent Education, with training through the Wheel of Consent and years of experience facilitating Consent Workshops in cooperative houses, at festivals, and online. They see Consent Education as both a crucial part of creating a community culture of respect and as a way to deepen collective care by communicating our desires for support and connection.

Lux has received training in Internal Family Systems (Parts Work) and is also currently training in Somatic Experiencing, a well known body-based modality for resolving trauma.In addition to holding regular community workshops and events, Lux serves the community as a Conflict Mediator, Relationship Coach, and Community Consultant, supporting individuals, couples, and groups to alchemize conflict and tension into connection and clarity. You can follow Lux's work and offerings on Instagram @healing.rising and by signing up for their newsletter at www.healingrising.com.

Sam Kennedy

Sam Kennedy is a licensed mental health counselor who deeply values play and experimentation. Trained originally in Existential and Phenomenological psychotherapy, his journey has led him increasingly towards the world of somatics and experiential modalities (including Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, EMDR and Play therapy). He has worked in community mental health with kids and families for several years before starting his own private practice working with adults.

Beyond psychology, the exploration of the body has led Sam toward dance, especially ecstatic dance and contact improv. He has trained with contact improv teachers around the world, and finds this practice to offer a chance for deep attunement to self and other. He also loves to weave psychology and dance together – recently he facilitated a two month group container investigating Attachment Styles through dance and embodiment practices.

Sam is also committed to interpersonal skill-building and community living – he focuses a lot of his time helping support the relational field of an eco-village that he helped start and where he currently lives. You can reach out to Sam to learn more about his projects and future offerings through e-mail at: samkennedy.counseling@gmail.com

QUESTIONS?

Email samkennedy.counseling@gmail.com or lux@healingrising.com