Deep Strength: Sacral Seas

Image description: a multicolored opalescent abstract background with a piece of art over it. The piece of art is rose gold background with a pelvic bone drawn on it, inside the pelvic bone are hands with long dark nails reaching towards each other. On top of piece of art is maroon all capital lettering that says “DEEP STRENGTH” and below the art is the same font saying, “sacral seas). Bottom right is the ACM logo which is a purple triangle with rainbow outline that has vertical white letters spelling ACM in the center.

Sunday August 14th, 2022 from 12:00PM to 4:00PM PST via Zoom

Deep Strength: Sacral Seas is a trauma-informed and Access-Centered Pilates, Polyvagal Somatic, and Earth-Based Magic workshop focusing on the sacrum and pelvic floor. This area of our bodies is sacred and a symbol of life in many current, ancient, and Indigenous spiritual practices. The sacrum is also the base of the spine, supporting the flow of spinal fluid back-and-forth from the cranium, this fluid is luminescent and the similar chemical makeup as seawater. Hence, this workshop will connect this sacred part of our bodies to the element of water, particularly the oceans.

Many of us have trauma in this area, leaving our pelvic floor either too tight or under-toned. Not only can this cause physical discomfort and possibly long-term problems; it can also affect our ability to heal said trauma. Just as our bodies utilize both efferent (from the brain to the body) and afferent (from the body to the brain) nerves, healing our lifeforce requires simultaneously supporting our brains and our bodies (which are connected always). We will be invited to heal trauma and our bodies by stabilizing and softening our pelvis, we will also be invited to heal our bodyminds via Spirit and our inner landscapes. When we talk about healing, we are not talking about curing disability or mental illness. This is a conversation for those of us who have physical pain and symptoms and want to shift these because that is what we want. Everything will be invitational, we will be invited to heal if that is what we want.

We all have different bodies and frames so there is no one size fits all model—this is why I created and use the “Access-Centered Framework”, which is trauma-informed, intersectional (I work to dismantle oppression and hierarchies at all times), consent-based, and will never expect you to “adapt” to the exercises we offer—I will change the exercise to meet your needs. While I will be offering suggestions to keep your practice as safe as possible, everything I offer is invitational as I believe that you know your bodymind best. I will offer you space to advocate for your needs, and encourage you and invite you to take up that space. This workshop will be radically gender inclusive and will not use binary language for our gender or sexes.

WORKSHOP OFFERINGS

  • Guided meditations to connect to our sacrum’s and spines and also to connect them with the elements
  • Pilates techniques and tools for stabilizing the pelvis (we will be invited to practice together)
  • Craniosacral techniques for softening the pelvis and stimulating the ventral vagus nerve
  • Deeper understanding of the purpose of our pelvis (catered to your body)
  • Education around how trauma can affect our stability and ways to support our bodyminds
  • Somatic techniques for healing trauma and reducing pain
  • Magical Ritual for healing this sacred space

ACCESS INFO:

  • Class will be recorded
  • Closed Captioning Provided
  • Access needs that can be met day of can be included in the Registration form
  • Breaks
  • Can be off camera when needed
  • Allowed unmute or type if need to communicate
  • Always can pass
  • Everything invitational
  • Ideally this will have ASL *and* we don’t have the budget for it—if folks who have access can contribute generously and community members need this, we can do our best. If you are HOV, Deaf/deaf, would like to join, and need ASL, please contact us as soon as possible.
  • Gender inclusive and safe for intersex, trans, and non-binary folks as well as cis men and women of all genders.
  • I have over 20 years of anti-racist activism and education and do my best to offer an anti-racist space as an anti-racist white accomplice.
  • Will already center access for
    • low vision, blind/Blind
    • wheelchair users
    • folks who need to sit, stand, and/or lie down
    • neurodivergence
    • musculoskeletal disorders
    • neurological disorders
    • developmental disabilities
    • mental illness
    • chronic pain
    • spoonies
    • hypermobile and EDS folks
    • limited mobility
    • inability to use limbs
    • asthma
    • PTSD

REGISTRATION

Registration Form

You will get the Zoom Link after registering, it may take a few days. If you do not receive a link by Friday, 08/12/22 please email me.

PAYMENT

Sliding Scale $150 – $400+ (these rates are well below market rate for similar offerings) with Partial and Full Scholarship Options. You must either pay me or contact me via email before the class begins in order to be considered fully registered.

  • I highly encourage people (especially white folks) who have financial access to pay as much as they can (perhaps more than $480) to help fund folks who do not have access.
  • The only way that this model works successfully is when people give what they authentically can, remembering that we are all conditioned in a model of scarcity and that it is often uncomfortable to give in this framework. For people who cannot afford the sliding scale: I am offering scholarships to low income sick folks. Priority for Black and Indigenous, as an act of reparations, if wanted Please remember that Springlove is very low income and this is their life’s work.
  • Please contact Springlove via email (accesscenteredmovement@gmail.com) to request a scholarship BRIEFLY explaining your situation.

Please submit your payments electronically via Venmo or PayPal.

***IMPORTANT!!!*** You must choose “pay friends” so that I don’t pay a fee to Venmo or Paypal, if you are not comfortable with this please contact me for another payment option as I am not willing to pay them.


***PAYMENT INFORMATION IS ON THE REGISTRATION FORM, LINK ABOVE ^^ ***


Please email Springlove at accesscenteredmovement@gmail.com if you need to pay another way. No refunds as this will be recorded.

About the Teacher:

Springlove (antiracist white Jewish, disabled/chronically ill/crazy/autistic, very low-income, intersex queer femme) is a psychic medium, diviner, and priestess that began practicing movement, magic, and meditation over 20 years ago to manage their chronic pain and complex PTSD. They found, however, that most offerings were not accessible for their needs. With the support of Disability Justice activists, they created Access-Centered Movement and the AC Framework in 2016: a trauma-informed and intersectional framework that attempts to dismantle hierarchies of bodies and minds in movement spaces. Springlove is a registered Yoga teacher and personal trainer, and uses their vast knowledge of yoga therapy, dance, Pilates, Feldenkrais, Somatics, Vipassana meditation, Earth-Based Magic, and their lived experience as a sick and disabled queer survivor to offer support for those suffering from trauma and physical/emotional pain. Aware that the ancestors of some of the spiritual traditions they practice are not their own, they are committed to decolonizing their practice under the leadership of Indigenous elders. They currently reside with their cat, Hawthorn, in the Pacific Northwest in Chinook Territory. They offer monthly rent to the Chinook Tribe to pay for the land they occupy as a settler.