Non-Binary Healing Practice - Deepening Somatic Touch & Intuitive Healing workshop for practitioners
2nd Annual! Join Sage Hayes and local organizer Anne Walzak in healing community and practice the weekend of October 24-26, 2025 in Ottawa, Canada.
As requested by last years participants, this year’s Ottawa workshop will do a deeper dive into touch work and strengthening intuition.
A non-binary approach to healing emerges from the notion that at its roots, healing is never quite linear. There are incredible theories and modalities which offer us tools and techniques, but without the cultivation of embodied conscisouness which is capable of a non-binary orientation to self, time, client, world, how can we co-create conditions with each other which are fundamentally transformative?
We’ll explore a non-binary approach to healing while deepening our understanding and practice of somatic touch and intuition. This type of practice takes patience, courage and the willingness to open states of listening to and beyond our ‘practitioner mind’. It asks us to tolerate ‘not-knowing’.
Our role is to become extraordinary listeners, to become attuned to non-linear and non-binary realms of somatic communication and to accompany these movements from the deep with skill and care. Strengthening our intuition can open more creative choice points that sometimes can get to heart of the matter more deeply.
In this experiential workshop we will open our capacity as somatic practitioners to work with emergent somatic material arising in our sessions. We’ll explore a variety of ways of intuitive listening, touch work and more.
The workshop process will aspire to model all the concepts and practices being taught.
Points of exploration for this workshop:
Exploring a non-binary approach to healing
Learning to listen for and co-create a continuity of consent between practitioner and client
Exploring touch work and receiving coaching and support to deepen your practice of it
Strengthening intuition through technique and practice
This workshop is for healing practitioners of all types including therapists, body workers and movement teachers.
About Sage Hayes:
Since 1999, Sage Hayes (she/he/they) has been building capacity and sight towards emergent somatic practice since beginning their work facilitating anti-oppression work in schools, churches and communities. Sage began studying healing arts in 2000 including somatic experiencing, biodynamic craniosacral therapy, therapeutic touch, developmental trauma work, family and systemic constellations and embodied anti-oppression work of all sorts. Sage was a lead assistant with the Somatic Experiencing Institute for many years and mentors somatic students from all types of modalities.
Sage hails from Peaks Island off the coast of Maine and enjoys a vibrant local life while having the great honor to travel facilitating and teaching with somatic students around the world. Most recently Sage has been offering embodied movement classes and somatic mentoring support with individuals and groups. Locally, Sage is a member practitioner at The Good Medicine Collective in Portland, Maine.
Sage is thrilled and honored to be returning to Ottawa to connect with local somatics practitioners.
Click here for more info about Sage’s background.
Location:
Willow Wellness, 5944 Perth St, Ottawa, ON K0A 2Z0, Canada. Willow Wellness has an onsite cafe where lunch can be purchased.
Schedule:
Friday Oct 24,, 530-730pm: Potluck dinner gathering at Anne Walzak’s in Hintonburg, Ottawa
Saturday Oct 25th, 10-5pm at Willow Wellness
Sunday Oct 26th, 9:30am-4pm at Willow Wellness
In the spirit of access, cost for workshop is offered at a sliding scale:
$450 CAD, register here.
$350 CAD, register here.
$275 CAD, register here.
Or to save your spot, you can make a $175 CAD deposit here. Payment in full due by October 20th, 2025 you can make payment via paypal, venmo or will receive an invoice for your total due.
To discover where your price access point is on the sliding scale, please take the time to refer to this amazing resource by Alexis Cunningfolk, The Sliding Scale: A Tool of Economic Justice..
Payment plans available, contact sage@embodiedliberation.com. If you need other financial assistance, please contact sage@embodiedliberation.com.
If you are traveling from outside Ottawa, on-site sleeping arrangements are possible at Willow Wellness,3 bedroom options with shared living space and private backyard. Contact Chris at Willow, chrisclapp17@gmail.com.