Embodied Desert Retreat for Creative Women and Nonbinary Folks
 

 

Dates:  May 2, 2024 – May 5, 2024

 Take part in a transformational experience…. 

 Reconnecting mind and body….  Embodiment….  Returning to the body….  Experience what that feels like….

 You are at a crossroads… 

 

You’ve gone to school, done some work on yourself and perhaps have had some therapy. 
There are things you feel you know now, but it still doesn’t relieve the anxiety, that knowledge still doesn’t help you make the best choices for yourself. 
The truth is you’re not really sure what the best choices are.
Come to the desert this spring and find out.

What is a mind-body experience? How does it help me?   
 

Many cultures believe that the mind and body are not separate. 

Returning to that connection between how our bodies and thoughts affect one another, and being as present as possible with both thoughts and sensations is invaluable in noticing and shifting patterns in real time.

 

Come experience this for a long weekend in the high desert. 

Lead a richer, more vibrant life. 

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You are worth it.

 

Cultural, societal and familial constraints have caused deep soul wounds in all of us. 
It has embedded in us a sense of lack and scarcity. 
Let this 4-day retreat in the company of folks just like you, begin to heal those wounds,
and give you the sense of expanse and liberation you’ve been yearning for.

Join us

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“This was an incredibly eye-opening and transformative experience. I learned so much about myself and my peers. Being silent for the first 24 hours was important to allow ourselves to unplug from the pressures and noise of the outside world.”

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“The workshops encouraged me to engage my imagination, turn inward, and let go and be.”

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“I learned a lot of tools to calm my nervous system that I have taken away with me and continued in my everyday life. It was important to me that this retreat focused on the artist in all of us. I learned to slow down, and that that is okay. The enjoyment of existing actually encourages creativity. I felt like I rediscovered my love of my art there.”

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“Beautiful location, delicious food, wonderful company, challenging and exciting programming and an exceptional opportunity.”

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“This retreat brought up so many powerful realizations for me. It has given me so many things to continue to excavate and work on. It helped me realize how I am speaking in relation to both myself and other people and applying what I learned at this retreat is really helping me embody who I want to be. I really liked that different healers were incorporated so you got to experience lots of different styles and approaches.”

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“My experience at the retreat was really gentle and expansive. So much space was held for processing individually and together. The first 24 hours in silence really set a president for internal discovery and reflection. All the programming was extremely supportive and helpful. Thank you so much!”

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Lauren Lovett

I’m Lauren and I’ll be your host for this retreat experience. 

I am an Artist, an actor, writer, lover and parttime desert witch. 

I’ve been teaching and coaching Artists for over twenty-five years, working with folks on everything from acting, dialects and vocal release, intimacy coordination, EQ and consent-based culture to reconnecting with the body and weathering the storms of creative life.

I am certified in Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Hypnosis, Jungian Studies and Health Coaching. I am a Juilliard Drama School graduate (Group 23) and have extensive study in Voice and Speech (Rodenburg, Fitzmaurice, Linklater, Knight-Thompson).

I’ve enlisted five wonderful colleagues of mine to treat you to the magic of their own expertise.

This will be an important soul boot camp for all who attend.

More about Lauren

The EMBODIED  RETREAT will include…

Yoga stretch

Meditation
Ritual and inner-life time

Lessons on Subtle Body Energy Movement, Vocal Release, Nourishing the body and Speaking Your Truth

 

PRE-SALE SPECIAL DISCOUNT IF YOU APPLY BEFORE DECEMBER 31, 2022.

 

Applications Open Fall 2023
 

MENTOR TEACHERS

Jenny Walters

I earned my degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and went on to complete training in psychodynamic (relational) and psychoanalytic (working with the unconscious) approaches. This depth approach values the imaginal, myth and symbol as we explore psyche and seek to understand it more. I specialize in working with Highly Sensitive People (a neurodivergent trait found in about 20% of the population) and creative folks as well as the adult children of narcissists and emotionally immature parents and those recovering from narcissistic abuse and the trauma that occurs in these relationships. I’m also trained in EMDR, a trauma therapy that helps reprocess our past so we can live fully in the present without fear. I founded a group therapy practice in Los Angeles called Highland Park Holistic Psychotherapy where I focus on training other HSP clinicians in a depth approach to psychotherapy.

I came to this career in the healing arts from my own path of necessary healing. As a child, into my late teens, I struggled with anxiety and an intense sensitivity to what was going on around me, with no understanding of what I was feeling. By my late 20’s, I was suicidally depressed. Later, I would learn this is a common trajectory for many Highly Sensitive People. I always wondered, “What’s wrong with me?” a common question for HSP’s.

In college and grad school, I started to explore this isolating and frightening experience by way of art making. I loved taking big feelings and articulating them visually to better understand them. But after earning my MFA, the pursuit of a career in art wasn’t something I enjoyed at all. The only part I really cared about was making my internal experience external. So I decided to pursue a career in the healing arts and in doing so, connected with my soul’s calling.

When I work with my clients I help them make sense of their internal experiences so they can find understanding, grow a compassionate relationship with their Self and access their own insights, voice and power.

More about Jenny

Offering by Jenny:

 

Jenny will lead participants in guided visualizations to locate parts inside that are asking to be heard – often trying to get our attention in ways we don’t recognize. In this invitation to connect with your parts, sensations in your body may begin to become embodied in your mind – as images, colors, people, memories and emotions. From there we will invite a dialogue to work toward understanding. This kind of turning toward often brings relief, even when connecting with pain and discomfort. Jenny will provide tools for working with the parts that resist this kind of turning toward and even resist compassion for Self.

 

 

 

 

Jackie Ivy
 

Jackie is trained as a designer, curator, artist as well as coach and operational manager. Over her career, Jackie has worked for major commercial brands such as Nike, iHeart Media, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, World Cafe Live, Soho House, and rag & bone, focused on the design aesthetic and build-out of physical spaces and the teams that create them. She loves growing new talent and coaching individuals as well as organizations, helping everyone grow deeper understandings of themselves. Previous to her commercial work, Jackie focused on museum and curatorial studies, primarily at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation as well as the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy. Most recently she has focused her career on creative coaching and painting through her own endeavor called Guesthouse Studios.  In her work—as well as her life—Jackie integrates mindfulness, creative practices and embodied social justice work. Jackie identifies as a white-bodied cis-gender woman, and welcomes any pronouns. She currently lives in Ojai, CA and is the mama to two teenage daughters.

 

 
 
Offering by Jackie:
 

Jackie serves as the keeper of Sacred Hospitality during our retreat.  She offers mindfulness practices at various times, from our morning meditation to tea circles to discussions around how we can integrate creative embodiment into all aspects of our lives.   You will frequently find her in the kitchen, holding down various details of our time together, always working to find a balance between Artist and Teacher.  Don’t be fooled if you don’t see her frequently…..her work can show up in the smallest of details or in the most unexpected times.  Her goal—for all of us—is to keep our inner awareness alive and attuned to a state and space where healing is possible.  That a new found relationship with ones Self, and with another, is always possible.  That love of ones Self, and another, is not only possible, but crucial for the future of our species and our planet. It is only from this type of space that new possibilities can emerge…..new realities that one could have never imagined. 

 

 

 

Natalie Griffith Robichaux
 

Natalie Griffith Robichaux’s areas of exploration include acting, healing through somatic therapies, development of the imagination through body work, intimacy choreography, painting, art therapy, teaching and the creation of original theater work. She enjoys synthesizing all of her areas of study and practice to coach others to live rich and vibrant lives, free from blocks and trauma trapped in the body. Natalie is currently training as a certified coach in the Body Wisdom Academy’s Subtle Body Method (TM). She holds a BFA in Theater Performance from the University of Evansville and an M.F.A in Acting from the University of California, San Diego. She is certified in the Michael Chekhov acting technique as well as a level II Reiki practitioner. She has performed in theaters across the country including Lincoln Center Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Indiana Repertory, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and the La Jolla Playhouse. Her study at the Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles under Pam Dunne and with MICHA (Michael Chekhov Association) in the psycho-physical approach to acting has deeply influenced her work as an artist, instructor and healer. A recent example of original performance work is her solo piece Bicycle Face performed at the International Michael Chekhov Festival which explores the social construct of the feminine as a pathological condition. She has enjoyed academic appointments at Penn State University and UCSD in their undergraduate and graduate theater programs as well as led workshops in many studios across the country. Natalie’s experiences as a coach, actor, director, artist, educator, and mother fill her passion for championing the imagination and creative spirit in others. 

 

 Offering by Natalie:

Through the framework of movement imagination and the four elements of Earth, Water, Wind and Fire we can more deeply explore our inner and outer states of being. This workshop offers practices for desired transformation, and liberation from stories we tell ourselves that no longer serve us. If imagination is the gateway to all progress, then movement imagination is the ‘how to” of manifesting this growth.

 

 

 

New Movement Mentor

 
Introducing CHARISMA WHITEFEATHER

 

Charisma Whitefeather is a Kundalini Yoga teacher, who has traveled into the darkness and made it back, not unscathed, but healed in the process. Even though it looked like she had it all together, with a successful magazine career in Manhattan and a cute apartment in Park Slope, she struggled with depression, anxiety and a lack of meaning for her life. Then, after moving to Los Angeles, she hit rock bottom and lived through her very own dark night of the soul. That experience led her to the thought: there has to be more to life than pure misery. And with that she went on an inner and outer journey of self-discovery and self-healing that led her all the way to the foothills of the Himalayas. And on her search for relief from her mental anguish and self-abandonment, she found Kundalini Yoga and her life began to bloom and unfold in ways she never could’ve dreamed of. She had finally discovered her authentic voice, found her calling and she has been anxiety and depression-free ever since. In her classes she uses powerful asana and liberating mantras to support others as they break through their limiting beliefs and tap into their own unique powers – you’ll often hear her saying, “Life is too f*cking short to be miserable” or “You’ve gotta sit with your sh*t”. She also believes that real inner healing comes from uncovering and living your authentic truth. When she isn’t on her yoga mat, you can find Charisma surfing at County Line, hiking in Griffith Park or dancing wildly to 80s music in her cozy little home with her partner Rob.

 
 

 

Our Sound Healer

 

In honor of the mysterious ways in which the body heals, we welcome back our favorite sound healer, Tina DiGeorge of DG Sound Healing. 

 
Tina DiGeorge

Ever since I was a child I gravitated toward anything that made sound.  I would pick up any musical instrument within reach and play it to my heart’s content, no matter how well I played at the time.  I’ve been a musician ever since.  Along with being a sound healing practitioner, I’m also a songwriter, play in a band and score films.  

My love of sound and fascination with its various possibilities to heal, lead me to my study of tuning fork and sound therapy.  Through this modality, I use tuning forks on and off the body accessing the same points as acupuncture but using the specific frequencies of the tuning forks to do so instead of needles.  The human body is approximately 70% water; our bones and marrow contain nearly 25% water. Sound travels four times faster in water than in air, thus the human body becomes a natural resonator for sound.  This is part of what makes this type of work so powerful.  I also use singing bowls and binaural beats.  All of these elements play important roles in my sessions and support the body’s natural frequencies, stimulate and balance the physical and subtle energy field, promote wellness and deep inner harmony.

The Possibilities

The Desert Oak  Room (main house)

Beautiful, large room with King size bed and the only en-suite bathroom, shower and claw foot tub, double sink, direct access to outside.



Price if solo: $2467                             if shared: $1974

 
 
The Fig or Olive Room (main house)


Lovely large  room and shared hallway bathroom. Spoil yourself or share with a friend.

If solo: $2187                       If shared (one queen bed, one rollway): $ 1824


 
 

Pomegranate Room (pool house)



Single room with cozy full sized bed and shared bathroom, lovely expansive view and access to desert land

 


$1977 solo

 
 

Ocotillo or Agave Room (pool house)



Shared room with two single beds and shared bathroom, lovely expansive view and access to desert land


$1824 each

 
 
Transformational Programming only


Rent an AirBnB off-site and join us for programming and lunches and dinners

 

$1482

Travel // Arrival // Departure
 
Getting to the Retreat – when, where, how etc.

 

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be sent the exact address of the retreat venue which is in Yucca Valley, CA — less than 15 minutes west of Joshua Tree, about 40 mins from the Palm Springs Airport, and about 2 hours and 20 mins from Los Angeles (depending on traffic and jumping off point).

 

Arrival time on Thursday November 10th will be between 1p and 3p.

Departure time will be 12p Sunday November 13th.

please email Lauren: lauren@embodiedartist.com for photos of the rooms
If you have any questions please email Lauren: lauren@embodiedartist.com