Turning to the Body: Embodied Boundaries
How often do you find yourself saying yes when you mean no?
Staying silent when you need to speak?
Or asking for something in a way that feels more reactive than grounded?
Perhaps you are feeling the pressure of being near family during the holidays in this political moment?
Our boundaries—and our ability to make requests—shape our relationships, our work, and our capacity to care for ourselves and others. They offer us the ability to recognize and meet our physical, emotional, and energetic needs. Yet so many of us were taught to override these needs to find safety or connection, which can pull us out of alignment with our values. This workshop is an invitation to practice something different.
We'll work with somatic practices that help you develop centered boundaries—the ability to feel for how yes, no, and maybe show up in your body, and then express them with clarity and care. We'll explore how to return to a grounded, present state when stressors pull you off-center, and how to make requests that are clear, choiceful, and values-aligned.
We approach this work as both personal and collective. Through somatic practice, we not only support our own healing—we develop skills to move our relationships, our communities, and the larger world toward what we care about.
What we'll practice together:
Cultivating an embodied practice for identifying and honoring your boundaries
Making requests grounded in what you need and care about
Feeling for your own needs and longings, while staying in connection with others
Returning to a connected, present state under pressure
Cultivating resilience as an ongoing practice
What to expect:
In this workshop, we’ll learn through the body using individual, partner and group practices. The practices are simple and also require repetition to become accessible under pressure. This workshop will offer you a chance to try on these practices and invite you to be curious how you might integrate some in your day-to-day life.
This is an intro workshop designed for both people new to somatics and those who've been practicing for a while. Somatic practices are meant to be revisited again and again, inviting new depth and understanding with each repetition.
Where: Friends Meeting House, 206 S Oak St, Traverse City, MI 49686
When: Sunday, Nov 22nd from 2:00-4:00pm
Facilitators: Tess Waechter Smith + Lucy Waechter Webb
Cost: low cost $40 | true cost $60 | sustainer cost $80
Deadline to register: Nov 20th , 2026
Please register at whatever level is accessible for you. No one turned away from lack of funds.
Limited to 20 people.
How do I decide what to pay? : Please register at whatever level is accessible for you. You might use this tool to help you discern.
Cancellation / Refund Policy: We will offer a full refund up to 10 days before the workshop. If you cancel within 10 days of the workshop we will offer 50% of your registration fee up to (90% if there’s a waitlist).
Tagged: consent, relationships, somatics, embodied, embodied practice, body, bodies, somatic practice, intro to somatics, introductory, workshop