Body Tales & Authentic Movement Retreats
All retreats take place in the Santa Cruz Mountains!
Share creative community, re-humanizing and renewal at a Body Tales Retreat!
Lay Down Your City Shields, Re-Vitalize Your Creature Self!
Deepen into intuitive movement, embodied resources, guiding stories, supportive witnessing. Cultivate responsive and respectful Body/Earth presence.
Come heal in the redwoods, soak up the night stars, breathe in the beauty.
We warmly welcome you in!
2020 Retreat Dates
Spring: May 1-3
Summer: July 16-19
Spring Retreat: May 1 @ 12pm – May 3 @ 5pm
Share Body Tales in the lush, beautiful meadow & in the welcoming movement yurt. Cultivate responsive and respectful Body/Earth presence! Session times alternate with down time, wonderful shared meals, and silent hours for rest, reflection and integration. Fully equipped kitchen, shared sleeping yurt or beautiful campsites along the creek. Commune with Redwoods, hot tub, cold plunge, night stars. Share creative community, re-humanizing and renewal!
Includes 3 workshop days and 2 overnights at Salamander Camp, with shared accommodations or creekside campsites. Feel free to inquire about private indoor sleeping spaces that are sometimes available. Participants bring their own breakfasts and lunches and participate in wonderful potluck dinners. All Genders welcome!
Limited to 10 participants, by application.
Sliding scale: $425 – $595
10% off for early enrollment by Mar 21.
ONLINE REGISTRATION AVAILABLE (upon acceptance)
Register and pay online now with a credit card using PayPal. You don't need a Paypal account. |
Information:
Olivia 510-532-1020
Download application in Microsoft Word
Body Tales Intro & Guidelines
Feel free to inquire about our scholarship fund.
"The retreat was a pleasure — calming, expanding and fun. Feeling this sense of community left me joyous and lit up inside."
— Joe Costella, attorney
"I loved bearing witness to the unfolding of our human
stories — feeling all of the hearts, getting to peek into
and honor so many aspects of soul/being. A deeply beautiful
and nourishing retreat: a retreat in the truest sense."
— Padma Gordon, counselor & somatic movement educator
About Our Retreats
Sessions take place in the beautiful movement yurt or outdoors in the exquisite redwood grove or wide-open meadow. We alternate in-depth session times with free time for socializing, hiking beautiful trails, walking the labyrinth, journaling or drawing, restorative soaking in the large outdoor hot tub, sunbathing on the deck, or refreshing dips in the cold plunge! Quiet morning hours allow time for rest, reflection and integration.
We gather for fabulous shared potluck dinners, prepared together in the fully equipped kitchen. You can have a bed in the cozy shared sleeping yurt or pitch a tent in a beautiful creekside campsite. There is a shower room with hot showers, and woodstoves provide ample heat in the yurts.
We have been holding retreats at Salamander Camp for 20 years, and are deeply grateful for the beauty, simplicity and elegance of this unique retreat center. It is located right off highway 17 outside of Los Gatos, just 1 hour from the Bay Area, 10 minutes from San Jose, and 15 minutes from Santa Cruz.
"Burnout brought me to the Body Tales retreat. I was looking for rejuvenation. I found expression, understanding, safety and freedom."
— Mimi Moyer, dance therapist
More Information
Body Tales® and Authentic Movement retreats provide in-depth creative and healing time within a supportive environment. Retreats offer space for slowing down, self-care and replenishment.
Over the years, we have brought more than 500 people together in small groups (ranging in size from 8 to 16 participants) to share these deeply transformative practices. People come to these retreats to claim protected and uncluttered time for nurturing their inner lives and their creative and spiritual paths. They find an environment unique in its profound respect for the individual and for the group.
Body Tales retreats offer participants powerful opportunities to restore and strengthen their core relationship with body, self and world.
Retreats are held in places where nature and beauty run wild and free. Most of our retreats are within an hour's drive of the San Francisco Bay Area. We also lead retreats nationally and internationally in gorgeous rural locations including Esalen Institute and retreat centers in Costa Rica, Hawaii and Mexico.
Retreat sessions are held primarily in beautiful indoor movement spaces — sometimes spilling out onto outdoor decks or secluded meadows. Some sessions may be held outside among trees, grass and sky or in the sand, sun and water. This creative time brings us into powerful and rich relationship with the earth and with primary sources of inspiration and belonging.
Food
For our local retreats at Salamander Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains, participants bring their own food for breakfasts and lunches, and we organize delicious and healthy shared dinners which participants plan and shop for ahead, and then cook together in the beautiful, fully equipped Kitchen Yurt. Dinner prep and eating are warmly shared and full of fresh, often local and organically grown food—and love!
Schedule
During retreats, we settle into a rhythm of Body Tales or Authentic Movement work. We share exquisite meals, and enjoy leisure, exploration and warm camaraderie. This rhythm produces deep somatic work and provides new perspective and energy for our everyday lives.
- Early mornings are free for walking, writing, socializing, quiet contemplation or sleeping in.
- After breakfast, we gather for a 3- to 4-hour session.
- Midday, we have at least 2 hours free for lunch and open personal time. Between sessions, thoughtful and lively conversation can alternate with rest or solitude. People might choose time in the redwoods, hiking, or walking the labyrinth in the meadow. You can soak in the cedar hot tub, take a cold plunge, sun on the large deck, meditate, write, read, or take that essential siesta.
- Late afternoon, we meet again for a second 3- to 4-hour session.
- Evenings begin with simple appetizers, and hot tubbing, or meal prep. Then we share a fabulous dinner together, followed by clean up together and free time for rest, more hot tubbing, star gazing, and perhaps artwork, movement or singing as people desire—and blessed sleep!
