Workshops
The workshops below are scheduled annually. To sign up to be notified when the next event is happening, please email: 2theheartofthematter@gmail.com and I will keep you posted.
Women in Transition: A 6 Week Deep Dive for Support, Healing, and Inspiration ~
"Resilience, creativity, selfawareness, acceptance, purpose" and "courage" are just some of the words that might come to mind when we consider what one needs to cultivate in order to move through big life transitions, another is "community."
This program is for women who desire support and companionship as they navigate the journey of leaving behind what is no more, embracing the present moment and all that is emerging. Whether one is graduating, changing careers, leaving a long term relationship, entering or leaving motherhood as a primary part of life, identifying with another gender or sexual orientation, moving into a new living situation, or a loved one has just passed away, etc. transition can be very difficult - sometimes brutal - and also pregnant with possibility!
This 6 week program will provide a safe group experience for women to be supported and to offer support to others, deepening self awareness and exploring what comes next.
Combining knowledge and skills acquired from my psychosynthesis life coach training, focusing, drum journey work, my yoga and meditation practice, my work with Ommara, art and play therapy, and from my life as it continues to unfold, I will offer presence of mind and heart, guidance and support, helping to co-create a beautifully safe healing space with and for women who are experiencing challenging transitions in their lives.
Cost: $120 - $180*
Honoring Our Journeys Workshops
Focus: Relationship
Using Dummerston artist Phil Hamm’s exquisite sculptures, made primarily from wax, participants identify the gestures that speak to the various stages in each individual person’s healing journey as it relates to a meaningful relationship in one’s life. Relationships can be present or past, resolved or unresolved, easy and joyous, deeply nurturing, trying, or tragic, with family members, lovers, colleagues, friends, or foe, living on this plain or on another.
“This workshop was subtle and powerful. Through the simple act of choosing a candle (sculpture) to represent myself before, now and in the future, I gained a powerful image from which to speak aloud truths about myself and my situation that I may not have recognized explicitly before. There is something about an image that holds within itself the essential issue and the ability to extrapolate that is powerful. Sharing in a small group setting is intimate and affirming - to be heard, to be seen - and Jessy is such a compassionate and wise facilitator.”
Solange, Washington, DC
“Walking through Phil Ham’s studio, gazing at his beautiful sculptures, was like looking into my own soul. The gestures that move through them express such profound human experience, they seemed to beckon, to meet, embrace, affirm all that lives within with beauty and grace.”
Natasha, Dummerston, Vt
$80 – $60*
Focus: Healing from Sexual Trauma
These special afternoons offer spacious containers for the power of each person’s healing journey around sexual trauma to be fully recognized and honored. Using Dummerston artist Phil Hamm’s exquisite sculptures, made primarily from wax, participants identify the gestures that speak to the various stages in each individual person’s healing journey. Sources of trauma can be buried or remembered, physical or non-physical.
Mending the Web:
A Heartwarming Opportunity for Connection
If we imagine our lives interwoven with those in our community like a beautiful spider web or a tapestry, this web has and continues to endure many challenges. Covid has certainly been a big one! This weekend workshop will be an in person event. We will meet *outside so that everyone can feel safe being together. The group will meet both on Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 to 1:00. Through creative introspection, playful activities, and lots of compassionate listening we will identify personal strengths and insights as well as needs emerging out of these challenging times.
$100 – $60*
Mending Our Mother Daughter Relationships
The relationships that we have with our daughters and our mothers are some of the most powerful relationships in our lives, this workshop is intended to help women find value and meaning and renewed beauty in these precious but often difficult life jewels.
This is a 10 week workshop that meets once a week. Together women, young and old, coming with their mothers, daughters, friends or alone have a rich opportunity to deepen self awareness and heal old wounds through greater understanding and compassion. Learning from and supporting eachother offers workshop participants an oportunity to develope trust in and practical communication skills with oneanother, this alone is healing!
*Scholarships available for senior citizens on fixed incomes, full time, and working students. All are welcome regardless of ability to pay.