Open to your Psyche and somatic landscape. Dreamshadow Group offers a weekend workshop of holotropic breathwork, as developed by Stan Grof and Christina Grof. (Breath-assisted inner journeying in 3hr sessions). During this special Earthdance weekend, dance meditation, process philosophy, and a collective sound circle will be included to support your breathwork experience.
Holotropic breathwork is a substance-free, mind-opening (psychedelic) experience. The basic components of this practice are intensified breathing, evocative music, optional focused bodywork, expressive drawing and group process. During holotropic breathwork, one’s awareness can expand and deepen to include a vast scope of feelings and cathartic emotional release, along with experiences that might include biographical events, birth-related (perinatal) sequences, past-life phenomena and other transpersonal encounters. Particular attention is paid to creating a safe and supported space for individual and community healing and evolution.
What happens in a holotropic breathwork session:
Holotropic breathwork is done in a group setting with trained facilitators creating a space for deep work. This workshop will include two breathwork sessions: participants will pair up, and each member of the pair will “breathe” in one session and then “sit” or hold space for their partner in the other session. The breather lies on a comfortable mat with eyes closed to limit distractions and focus attention within. Deep, continuous, rapid breathing and evocative music are used to to amplify and support the inner process.
During the session, breathing may naturally return to a typical pace at times. Breathwork participants often spontaneously respond to or express their inner experience through movement or sound or enter into periods of physical stillness, internal imagery or meditation. It’s all ok, each experience is unique. The music, played at a fairly loud volume, becomes a container for everyone’s expression.
The role of the sitter is to witness and hold space for their partner, the breather. Sitters often report that the experience of witnessing is as deeply moving, in its own way, as the breathwork experience itself. For the breather, the experience of being seen can support their focus and trust in the process.
The group and each individual are supported in moving through their process by the facilitators, who sometimes offer the option of focused bodywork/somatic work. The bodywork is a cooperative effort between the facilitator and the breather. It can help stuck emotional and physical patterns emerge more fully into attention and move them toward a cathartic release. And if strong feelings of absence surface in a session, bodywork can be helpful for addressing a need for connection, through physical contact ranging from handholding to a full body hug, with the breather’s permission. Most of the bodywork is offered near the end of a session, so as not to interrupt or divert a person’s inner experience.
Group process is an important feature of holotropic breathwork. The facilitators pay particular attention to supporting each individual, and helping group members bond and support one another. Within the workshop a conscious community is created through group sharing of individual and collective experience. Emotional and physical safety develops as a collaborative effort between all participants and facilitators. Primarily this involves staying with and honoring each person’s experience, and the relational experiences of the group. Working this way in a group recalls some of the energies of our tribal lineages, rituals and collective spiritual wisdom.
Schedule:
Friday 06/07/24: Arrival 5-7pm, Workshop 7pm-9:30pm
Saturday 06/08/24: 9:30am – 9pm
Sunday 06/09/24: 9am – 4:30pm
HOST BIOS
Teresa Smith
Teresa Smith is a certified facilitator of Dreamshadow® Transpersonal Breathwork, Grof® Breathwork and Sufi Dancemeditation™. Her facilitation of breathwork draws on years of personal experience and healing in this modality, and a background in dance, bodywork and consciousness studies. Teresa is a part of the Dreamshadow senior facilitator team and staff. In other worlds, she has a 37-year connection to and love of Earthdance.
As a dancer/choreographer she continues teaching and practicing authentic movement, contact improvisation and release technique. She also enjoys hiking, parenting, and participating in planetary healing and queer (and allied) community. Teresa directs Earthbody Events; performance, artwork, video and participatory events connected to our interior, relational and ecological nature. She is a graduate of Bennington College (dance/anthropology) and the European Dance Development Center. “I hope to bring to all my endeavors a warm appreciation of each person’s essence and a delight in awakening the creative spirit.” Earthbodyevents.com
Jace Langone, PsyD
Jace Langone, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over a decade of experience in pastoral counseling, specializing in spiritually-integrated adult psychotherapy. Jace is a certified Dreamshadow® Transpersonal Breathwork facilitator. He serves as the Executive Director of Dreamshadow Group and is coordinator of Dreamshadow’s Supporting Exceptional Experience Network. He is also certified in Grof® Breathwork through Grof Legacy Training. Jace has completed the MDMA Therapy Training Program through the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, several courses through the Spiritual Competency Academy, and a number of Advanced Workshops through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.
He participated as a Discussion Facilitator at the inaugural Philosophy of Psychedelics conference through the University of Exeter (United Kingdom), presented at the 50th Anniversary Association for Transpersonal Psychology International Conference, and served as a respondent at the New England Center for Existential Therapy. Jace holds certification in Process Thought and Practice through the Cobb Institute. He graduated with his doctorate from William James College (formerly, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology) with a foundation in Humanistic Psychology, and earned an MEd in Special Education from the University of Massachusetts-Boston and a BA in Biology from Brandeis University.
Dreamshadow® Group, Inc., is 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit dedicated to Holotropic Breathwork, Process Philosophy and Community, www.dreamshadow.com. This workshop qualifies for credit toward the Dreamshadow® Transpersonal Breathwork facilitator training program and the Grof GLT-USA Grof® Breathwork Facilitator Program.
***Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork is an Independent Event. Earthdance assumes no responsibilities for the activities of the Dreamshadow Transpersonal Breathwork as a renter of its facilities.***
