Workshops & Events

“While my husband and I have had 5 yoga instructors, Jenn is the only yoga teacher. We love taking yoga with her!” – Susan Hart

Please contact us with any questions about events!

2013 Special Workshops:

Traditional Buffalo Hunt Ceremony for Abundance and Sustainability with Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara Mainguy January 18th-20th 2013
Deep care for the Spine and Spirit: Yoga and Thai Massage Tools for Spinal Health and the Spirit! with Jenn and Corrina
Ceremony, Ritual and Sacred Drama for Healing
SPECIAL Weekend Workshop: CHEROKEE BODYWORK with LEWIS MEHL-MADRONA, Oct 18-20th, 2013

4th annual Buffalo Hunt Ceremony for Sustainability and Abundance with Lewis and Barb!

~ January 18th -20th (Fri-Sun)

Friday: 7-9:30

Saturday: 10am – 6pm

Sunday : 12:30 – 3:30

(times may be subject to a change)

At the Garden Center for Contemporary Dance in Hartford, CT

56 Arbor Street Suite 411

Come Sing, Dance, Drum, Create and Play to awaken the Spirit of the Buffalo! Celebrate Abundance and Community and be inspired to set intentions for the New Year. This is a time to gather in Ceremony in both Meditation and Celebration! All are welcome. (There will be face painting and other fun creations for all ages)

Donations requested, however no one will be turned away. Since this weekend centers around a culmination of Sacred Ceremony there is no set fee. Suggested Donation from $150-250 offset the weekends expenses and help to support the works of the Coyote Institute.

There is no formal pre-registration, however,

we’d love an estimation so please respond to Jenn at this email

if you plan on coming! (also feel free to email me with any questions or call 917-676-5438)

Mark your Calendar Looking Ahead:

April 5-7th

July TBA

October 18-20th

The confirmed July weekend will be sent very soon along with descriptions of each weekend.

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DETAILS

FRIDAY JAN 18th ~

Introduction to the Buffalo Hunt and Mask Construction

NOTE on Friday please wear work cloths / bring a cover up!

NOTE Sage, Cedar, Sweetgrass and Tobacco may be used and burned throughout the weekend.

Ritual Masks will be made with plaster gauze and stories will be told.

Each participant can choose to make a partial or full-life mask using their own face ora plastic face form. Drumming and Chanting will ensue to welcome spirits to the Ceremony.

This evening we will learn about the fall rituals used by the Native Peoples of the Northern Plains to prepare for the Winter Buffalo Hunts.

In its symbolic meaning, the Buffalo refers to that which sustains the people and gives them strength and endurance.

The Buffalo as spirit is the companion to Wi, the Sun, and provides an important source of healing to the people.

We will explore the historical origins of a ceremony which can be re-enacted in modern times to prepare the people for the literal and metaphorical winter, to seek strength and endurance for the winter season to be sustained into the spring.

SATURDAY JAN 19th ~

Finishing/Decorating Masks, Assembling Buffalo Bundles, and

Creating the Ceremony

The Buffalo Hunt Bundle sits at the heart of the ceremony. It contains sacred objects related to the Buffalo thru which the Buffalo Spirit enters. We will explore how to create a group bundle and personal bundles. We will bless the objects residing in the bundles and co-create a ritual for all of us to enact together that puts us in harmony and balance with the natural and supernatural worlds.

SUNDAY JAN 20th ~

Northern Plains Winter Buffalo Ritual

We will individually and collectively define what a “good winter hunt” means for us and this will be followed by a full enactment of our collective ceremony.

We will conclude with a traditional Pipe Ceremony.

These Rituals are part of the Northern Plains Cultures of Native North America, part of the heritage of Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona’s Father.

Bi-Monthly Healing Circles are held at 81 Lexington Street and are free. We invite friends, family, students, clients and those wishing to be healing for one another. Our next circle will be TBA

Deep Care for the Spine and Spirit!

~ a workshop utilizing Yoga and Thai Massage Tools for Spinal Health.

Deep Care for the Spine and Spirit!

~ a workshop utilizing Yoga and Thai Massage

Tools for Spinal Health.

Join Corrina and Jenn for a Luxurious afternoon of Relaxation and Renewal while taking real steps to care deeply for the core of your being – your spine! We will be exploring the 7 movements of the spine, though simple Yoga tools you can take home with you and through simple Thai Techniques.

Expect to feel amazing!

There will be angelic music, Deep breathing, and you will walk away with cozy feeling of well-being, community, and a new spark for acting in self compassion. This workshop will likely be the first of a series – details to follow.

Sunday February 24th

1PM – 4PM

@ The Garden Center for Contemporary Dance

56 Arbor Street, Hartford. Forth floor, Suite 411

(The large building in front of Real Art Ways)

What to bring,

*your yoga mat

*a towel and/or firm pillow

*an item that holds meaning at the core of your being for our altar.

*a journal

*a friend or two!

(note: this is not a ‘partner’ workshop where you are required to bring a friend)

Investment:

$40

For more information and to register

call Jenn at 917-676-5438 / sukhasala@gmail.com /www.sukhasala.com

or Corrina at 805-637-1972 / corrinar@gmail.com

SPECIAL Weekend Workshop:
Ceremony, Ritual and Sacred Drama for Healing with LEWIS MEHL-MADRONA & BARBARA MAINGUY assisted by Jenn Cormier

Friday July 26th – Sunday 28th, 2013 @ The Garden Center for Contemporary Dance in Hartford, CT. 56 Arbor St. Suite 411

In this unique Coyote workshop, we will experience and create ceremony, ritual and sacred drama, in order to practice opening up that dialogue with the energies of self-healing.

Ceremony, ritual and sacred drama are part of the healing practices of many cultures. Dance, mask, music, theatre, poetry all combine in ceremonial enactments to bring in the forces of health and release the forces of illness. In our daily lives, we build ritual and ceremony to create the physical and spiritual space for a sacred dialogue with the forces of nature. Within that space, we welcome the dawn, greet the twilight, purify, seek vision and invite the participation of the spiritual. These practices are important not only for their cultural meaning, but for their work as healing energy medicine practices. Moving our bodies in space and engaging in the physical practice of sacred drama calls our awareness to our minds as embodied, and deepens and enhances the powerful effect on our self-healing by releasing the mind/body energy blocks that impede our ability to flow in the world.

SPECIAL Weekend Workshop:
CHEROKEE BODYWORK with LEWIS MEHL-MADRONA assisted by Barbara Mainguy and Jenn Cormier

October 18th – Sunday 20th, 2013

A special opportunity to Experience and Heal with Cherokee Bodywork and Native American Practices with Lewis Mehl-Madrona MD, PhD (assisted By Barbara Mainguy and Jennifer Cormier)

Almost all indigenous cultures had direct, hands-on methods of healing, and the Cherokee were no exception. Learn the Cherokee art of healing touch, a form of bodywork that is rarely encountered today.

The workshop includes:

Supervised practice of Cherokee bodywork
Cherokee breathwork techniques, as a means of restoring spirit to all parts of the body
The incorporation of imagery and dialogue into bodywork
The importance of ceremony, ritual, and intent in bodywork
Cherokee use of acupressure, energy meridians, crystals, and energy medicine

As we complete our time together with a prayer ritual, we ask for a blessing on the healing work we have done and the continuing journey that lies before us.

The program:

Thursday August 16th ~ 6:30 – 8:00 pm Introduction / Free Sampler – Meet Lewis!

Friday ~ 1:00 pm – 5:30 pm Cherokee Bodywork – Day One

Friday Evening ~ 6:00 – 8:00 pm Healing Circle w/ Music

Saturday ~ 9:30 am – 5:30 pm Cherokee Bodywork – Day Two (lunch break from 1-2:30)

Sunday ~ 12 Noon – 6:30 pm Cherokee Bodywork – Day Three

Those with a depth of experience in Bodywork and Healing Arts and those seeking healing will benefit from this weekend. Lewis invites massage therapists and bodyworkers as well as those without prior bodywork experience to this program, saying, “Some will want to practice giving more and some receiving more. It’s definitely a more indigenous way of teaching, but it works.” This program can accommodate people with serious illness.

All are welcome and you may to come all or to any portion of this weekend event.

Suggested Donations To the Coyote Institute:

Friday Only: $100
Saturday Only: $150
Sunday Only: $150
All 3 Days: $275

Your generosity is appreciated – no one will be turned away. Please bring your massage table if you have your own.

The workshop will be held at The Garden Center for Contemporary Dance in Hartford (56 Arbor Street, Hartford CT). Look for the RAW: Real Art Ways signs – there is plenty of parking on the sides and back of the building. From the main lobby take the elevator to the 4th floor suite 411. Email Jenn to reserve your space today!

CE CREDITS: The full Three Day Workshop Offers 16 CE hours for Massage Therapists (NCBTMB)

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and trained in family medicine, psychiatry, and clinical psychology. He has been on the faculties of several medical schools, most recently as associate professor of family medicine at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine. He is working with aboriginal communities to develop uniquely aboriginal styles of healing and health care for use in those communities. He is also currently working with Am’rita, Inc., to develop a program for people with schizophrenia that involves healing through community. The author of Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of books on what Native culture has to offer the modern world, he is of Cherokee and Lakota heritage.