The Center For Relational Ecology

08/24/2026

Returning from Body As Earth Song Retreat,
I am filled with gratitude for the deep beauty of our time together. Softness and depth.
Gentleness and courage.
Intimacy with the Deep Green Land, Changing Sky Woman, Bumblebee, Barnswallow, Raven, and Dragonfly
a soft feathered nest
together sensing and listening and playing together
singing and dancing
Rooting in our relations with all beings,
movement to tend our nervous systems, together
create actual safety together
again and again - because safety needs to be made again and again with one another
somatic inquiry, sensory bathing with the rippling green Land so well loved and stewarded through time, at this watering hole in the valley in the forest

dance, art, poetry, song, writing, and ceremony.

Deep rivers running through me,
I feel so
well hydrated
from this watershed of love and healing
from the deep lingering hugging, holding, laughing, relaxing, joy evoking, and resting together

My gratitude is overflowing and rippling out with all those I meet
I am lit by the warmth of the golden sun, stars in the night sky, lightening in the storm, and your companionship, my dear fellow voyagers.

Body As Earth Song will begin again June 10-15, 2027
Stowel Lake Farm, Salt Spring Island
registration will emerge at www.bodyaswisehealer.com

07/27/2026

The School of Play is a gathering ground
Relational Ecology is my jam, & Creative Improvisational Group Facilitation Training and Embodied Leadership for Turbulent Times is soul food!!
Rooted in Liberatory Ecological Feminist Praxis for Magic
A circle of truly lovely humans are beginning together Sept 19 for a bold and curious step into mystery. Join us? More here: https://www.bodysongs.dance/the-school-of-play

07/04/2026

Breath and movement together are sustenance and freedom

06/24/2026

Dear ones, there is still space for you, register at https://www.bodyaswisehealer.com/residential-retreat

06/04/2026

The times we are living through are so very intense. As a psychotherapist for over 26 years, accompanying folks with their inner experiences of the world it is clear from my vantage point that we humans are travelling through times of serious collective traumatic stress from amplified violence and cruelty. If you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, grieving, turbulent: you are not alone. It's normal to feel impacts from all this immensity.

What do you offer yourself, what do you reach for, as support in these times?

Orienting towards and away with mindful immersive attention is a valuable practice in these times.

For example, to balance the intensity of the work I do in the world, I bring my attention away from social media, away from the news, and give myself lots of time outside looking at the beauty of the light landing on plants being tussled by the wind. I give my body lots of movement - bike riding in a whimsical way, in the wind; dancing Body Songs Soul Motion - creative improvisational movement in community; rolling on the floor in the mornings, rolling through all my joints. I put my hands into the sand at the beach, or the earth in my garden, or around clay and form a mug. I bring my attention to simple relational encounters with life, throughout my day, and notice the beauty, the softness, the loving.

We must balance the searing cruelty of the amplified violence with orienting towards life affirming kind gentle loving elements of life.

I bring my attention towards all the many ways I can offer loving and support to the suffering in my sphere. And, to do this work, I must fill my own cup with nourishment. I find nourishment in the simple, humble, visceral, tactile elements of living.

Orienting with mindful attention, to immerse ourselves in aspects of life that communicate safety and kindness, is a wise technique that I teach to my clients, and also to other therapists learning Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for trauma recovery. You can make use of this wise technique also, in your daily life.

Bring your attention away from the news, away from social media, and towards the simple, the small, the tactile, the soft, the kind, the pleasurable. Notice the sensory details of that humble experience. And, notice the effect of that practice - what changes in your breathing? What changes in your body's relationship with gravity? What changes in the inner tempo of your thinking and the world of your emotions?

Slowing down into this moment with a small soft something.

06/02/2026

"After the retreat I felt more relaxed and present than I have felt before. I was holding so tight for so long."
"My creative expressive since the retreat has been deepening because I feel so much more confident in my own voice"
"I found a sense of safety in the group which was new to me"
"I was depleted from grief and burnout...I came away feeling more connected to myself, having made trusting connections with other participants, and refreshed in my personal presence practices"
(voices from past Body As Earth Song participants)

Body As Earth Song is Relational Ecology
movement, somatics, art, song, writing, relations with Earth & Sky, and one another; a group field of listening and cocreating; intimacies and solitudes; community; rest and play.

uncrumple, release tension, root down
a cauldron of creativity for vitality
the fertile ecotone between you and I
spaciousness and precision
listening together with Earth & Sky
conjuring playful currents of creative adaptation
embodied Soul nourishment
a Feast at Harvest Time

Feeling discombobulated or depleted? grieving or tense? Come nourish the heart of your life force in this retreat on Salt Spring Island, at Stowel Lake Farm. Beauty Magic in August (18-23).

https://www.bodyaswisehealer.com/residential-retreat
Early Bird Rate until June 5, 2026.

Dance art and writing for vitality, voice, and vision, a salt spring island retreat body songs creative play in community

06/01/2026

when we slow down,
when we exhale,
tune in with the tremendous
colour magic and tactile texture
of small living beauty,
our own places of tension
soften some.
linger and lengthen
this luscious living breath.
savour this ephemeral
luminous light filled springtime.
yes.

05/29/2026

Body As Earth Song, early bird rates till June 5th... care for frazzled nervous systems - Vitality, Voice, and Vision...
Register: https://www.bodyaswisehealer.com/residential-retreat

05/28/2026

Dear ones, a little beauty magic to remember for when you may need to hear it:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18cUiLvehV/

05/05/2026

Spring! So much vibrant green unfolding in my garden, in the forest...all these birds' singing of songs... Dear ones, how is your flow in this springtime as the world tilts - crises continue to rise and fear continues to vibrate deeply in the collective?

I've been turning my attention to what is in my hands, what is in my reach, what is in my orbit. Tending my relations with my full heart, and turning attention also to practical tangible details of life, to organize, clean, and create in this sphere where my energy is able to make ripples in a good way.

Sustenance comes in many forms, spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally. It is wise, and it is fruitful, to deepen into the pathways for sustaining your own being and from there to ripple into your own sphere of influence. This is the ground that is generative, what is in your own reach to tend.

What are you tending, loves? What sustains you in this time? How are you rooting into your own life and your own relations?