Welcome! Logistics details and more are below. This is my second time offering this group and this time around I'm going to prioritize people who can make all the sessions, and then otherwise fill the group on a rolling basis. I'll send out acceptance/next step emails by June 30 at the latest. I welcome people with all kinds of relationship with somatics and embodiment practice. Feel free to email me with questions at annaostowsomatics@gmail.com.

When: 5 Thursdays, 6pm-8pm*, July 14, 21, 28, August 4, August 11.

*Please note, these sessions are two hours long. I promoted the group as 1.5 hours in a couple places.

Where: A backyard behind a home on Munroe St, Northampton. The yard is grassy but the grass is kept short and is wheelchair accessible, with use of a driveway beside the backyard for those with shorter mobility ranges. My sincere apologies that there is no wheelchair accessible bathroom on site.

Cost: $200-$80 for all 5 of the two-hour sessions. Please reach out to discuss payment plans and other payment options.

Why this group: For the purposes of this group, intimacy is defined as closeness, deep presence, or deep connectedness. Intimacy of all kinds can be a site of healing and joy, and is a skill like any other that we can practice and get better at. Most of us are not taught the building blocks for experiencing and choosing intimacy from a centered place. Intimacy and connection are sites of deep wounding for many of us. The dominant culture teaches us about connection, relationships, desire, and intimacy within a limited, cishetero eurocentric ableist capitalist framework. Somatics can help us develop awareness of what we are already embodying so that we can be more in choice. It can also help us build new skills in service of boundaries, knowing what we want, asking for what we want, and more.

A note on covid safety: We'll be outside all the time for this group and masking is optional.

Intended outcomes:
-Get to know your patterns around intimacy, connection, and closeness
-Learn practices that support boundaries
-Ability to make requests and move toward intimacy
-Build a supportive community of practice

What to expect: Sessions are practice-oriented - standing and moving practice, with time for discussion and reflection. All movement can be done seated, standing, or lying down. Readings are shared that deepen the context of the somatics methodology. Participants are asked to commit to attending all five sessions and to taking on a daily practice. Having everyone at every session supports the group's practice momentum, and every session builds on the next. That being said, summer often people are less able to attend five sessions in a row, and if that's the case please note that on the signup form here. On rainy days we will meet online via zoom. This video from generative somatics is a good window into what somatics can "look like" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3eR-6OAc24&t=3739s.

Who is this for?: Everyone! This group is an opportunity for beginners to learn new practices, and for more experienced students to deepen into those practices and the relevancy of those practices in their lives.

This course is led by Anna Ostow, nature loving human, somatic educator and coach, and ongoing explorer of intimacy. She relishes the opportunity to practice with others in-person and likes to read sci-fi, swim and train aikido for fun. Her formal education in somatics includes the Strozzi Institute and teachers in the generative somatics lineage including Brooke Stepp and Amanda Ream. She counts Robert Horton, Janet Carter, Meredith Broome, J. Tyson Casey, and the entire UNtraining community as her teachers. You can learn more at annaostowsomatics.com.