FRIDAY 27-29

Keynote – Lorie Eve Dechar Keynote: A Return to Wholeness

A healing journey, like any real journey, is an odyssey - a departure from the familiar, an adventure into unknown territory, and a return home with new discoveries and treasures. Like any journey, a healing journey opens us to new landscapes, new language, new forms of relationship, nourishment and creativity. However, unlike an ordinary voyage that takes us to new places in the outer world, a healing journey takes us to the world within. The treasure we bring home is the greatest one of all -one that cannot be lost, stolen, or tarnished - the treasure of our own true nature, of our wholeness.

In her keynote address, Lorie Eve Dechar, M.Ac., will introduce a vision of healing as an odyssey, an adventure that leads us away and then back to ourselves. Rather than simply getting back to normal, however, we return to our lives in more creative, vital, and meaningful ways. Basing her talk on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Taoist and European alchemy, archetypal psychology, and contemporary studies in the evolution of consciousness, as well as her book Five Spirits, Lorie will introduce participants to concepts that will enhance their experience of the weekend, kindle the mind and imagination, and open us to a new approach to healing as a return to wholeness.

SATURDAY 27-29

Attunement – Andrew Shier

The process of Attunement, which is an energetic healing art, calls to rememberance the place where health, in it's truest sense remains in tact, perfect and whole. To access this place, the seven endocrine glands are worked with and balanced. All attunement work is accomplished by balancing the field which surrounds the body.

• Explore that part of our anatomy that is invisible, the field that connects Spirit to form.
• Learn how to share a radiant current of energy with others through hands-on experience.
• Understand the significance of the endocrine system, the energies associated with each gland, and their influence on our health and well being.
• Develop a confidence of "being in this world but not of it."

Movement Alchemy – Justine Lynch L.Ac., M.Ac. and Tom McCauley L.Ac., M.Ac.

This workshop offers a unique experience, one of embodying the Five Elements through movement and sound. Using process oriented exercises, guided meditations, Qi Gong and improvisational exploration we will rediscover our inherent dynamic potential. Culminating in an alchemical ritual, this workshop will be both informative and experiential. We will take the premise that all of us are dancers and musicians and allow these latent forces to heal at the level of Body, Mind and Spirit. The paradigm of Five Element Theory will inform and guide our return to the whole.

Contemporary Shamanism: The quest for healing in the 21st Century – Armand De Grenier

"Physicists explore levels of matter;
mystics explore levels of mind.
What they have in common
is that both levels lie beyond
ordinary sense perception."
-Fritjof Capra

Shamans for millennia have purposefully explored the non-ordinary realms of "matter-heart-mind" (lower, middle and upper worlds) and have returned to teach this radiant knowing with the specific intention of sharing the healing potential inherent as consciousness with individuals and communities.

The workshop will introduce the participants to this naturalpower" which has characteristics of transcendence and transformation. Armand has been referred to as a "psychonaut" who has walked the talk. He is known as the "grandfather of contemporary shamanism "in the Canadian Maritimes.

Calling on more than four decades of spiritual exploration and clinical practice he will provide the ground from which to experience this "non-ordinary" magnificence. Using the forms of "core shamanism" as manifested by anthropologist Michael Harner (with whom Armand studied in the early '80s) and combining the insight methods of Tibetan Buddhism, Ecuadorian Secoya and Turtle Island teachings, Clinical Hypnosis Research, Integral Practices and the latest in brain entrainment, participants will have the opportunity to visit and return from that "place" which has been described as kosmic, trans-duality, that "somewhere between the sound and the silence where creation and evolution takes place as the I AM" !

Participants are invited to bring drums, rattles, totems, a head band and a blanket to lie on while we journey … and …
a curious mind and open heart … in spirit!

12 Channel Openings – Karla Vandenbergh

The twelve channel openings are physical postures that open each meridian pathway. The postures work beautifully for self-care as well as patient treatment. As a self-care tool, the openings are a wonderful way of discovering and listening to the body. As a treatment modality, performing the openings prepares a patient for acupuncture, massage, or any other meridian or elemental healing art.

Personal Rituals – Raven Koch

How does the conscious mind signal change to the deeper, non-verbal parts of the self? This communication happens throughout the language of ritual, which includes the use of movement, sound, color, repetition, and other elements in a manner consistent with the message you want to send into your own micro-cosmic universe. Performing personal rituals can have a profound effect on the inner life, and mysterious, surprising effects on the outer world, the phenomenon of which we could call magic!

This workshop seeks to empower it's participants with tools (elements of ritual) to create movement in their lives, ideally away from fear, fragmentation, and illness, and closer to health, radiance, and wholeness.

Dancing Through Life – Maggie Bokor

Step into your own beauty and share a dance of self expression and fun with the Nia Technique. Learn new ways to embrace your body, feed your soul and invite your imagination to soar with this grounded barefoot movement. Discover your body's way to dance through your days, naturally restore your center and celebrate the moment at hand. Nia is gentle on the joints and suited for everyone.

SUNDAY 27-29

Where Duck and Rabbit Meet: Moving Beyond the Dualistic Impasse Healing and Transformation in Intimate Relationships – Benjamin Fox and Lorie Eve Dechar

In 1899, American psychologist Joseph Jastrow discovered the famous reversible figure, the Rabbit/Duck. Depending on whether you view this image from the right or from the left, the animal you see will be either furred or feathered. This figure has been used by psychologists over the past 100 years to demonstrate that human perception is the product not only of our eyes but of our minds and emotions. In other words, what we see is almost never the whole picture!

Intimate relationships are where the Rabbit/Duck syndrome is most likely to show up in our lives. Out of the blue, we find ourselves looking across a vast chasm at a person we thought we knew and loved, discovering that we don't see eye to eye at all. Before we know what's what, we are entrenched in an impasse of opposing viewpoints. The common response is dualistic – You/Me – Man/Woman - Mars/Venus - Right/Wrong – which leaves both rabbit and duck in a double bind (can't be together/can't be apart), locked in an ever-escalating battle between squeaks and quacks with little space for anything new to come to life. This dualistic way of dealing with conflict is stressful, unhealthy and inherently destructive to Eros and connection.

In this experiential workshop, Benjamin Fox and Lorie Dechar will introduce participants to some alternative perspectives on the Rabbit/Duck syndrome and offer tools that can help us change the meeting ground of opposites from a war zone to a creative field where new possibilities can come to life. Using theories, methods and practices drawn from European and Taoist alchemy, Jungian psychology, systems theory and gender studies, we will explore ways to use impasses and breakdowns in relationships as doorways to healing, transformation and new forms of wholeness. This is a hands on workshop so be prepared to cry, laugh, talk, touch and get real! The workshop is open to everyone and the tools we will explore can be used any time two or more people need to find a way to look at the world differently.

Intuition, A Path to Wholeness - Valerie Libby

You have an amazing wealth of information essentially at your fingertips that is meant only for you. This vital information is held within your energetic field specifically so that you can gain
access to it, act on it, and, as a result, live a more joyful and abundant life. Your intuition is your inner compass. It is divine guidance, your highest wisdom, and it is yours for the asking. It can guide you on how to release the thoughts and behavioral patterns that cause you any feelings of discomfort. It also increases your awareness of yourself and your capacity to improve your life.

In this workshop we will explore: how to recognize the many ways in which your intuition is attempting to speak to you; discuss specific ways to tune into it more clearly; learn how to interpret the information that may be coming to you; and how to stop blocking it from free-flowing into your consciousness. Because our intuition is always attempting to guide us back to optimal wellness, it is critical that we learn how to best use, develop and honor this amazing ability.

Closing Panel: Returning Home: Integrating Lessons Learned
– Wendy Pollock, Nancy Frederick, Benjamin Fox, Lorie Eve Dechar …__
Participants and presenters will gather together to discuss the integration process as we return home with new techniques, ideas, and tools to bring more health and wholeness to our lives.

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