Solidarity Somatics & Embodied Boundaries: Preparing for What Comes Next

We are living in a time of deep transformation, where the central question is: How do we hold power? Do we dominate, or do we build something rooted in collaboration, care, and liberation?

For white-bodied folks, this means relearning how to move in ways that build trust, reciprocity, and real solidarity. It’s not just about theory—it’s about practice. In this retreat space, we will make mistakes, hold each other in compassionate rigor, and explore how to align our words, actions, and embodied boundaries with the world we’re trying to create.

This is physical and relational change work. Come as you are. In this retreat, we will listen to the wisdom of our bodies, find our right-sized place in the collective struggle, and cultivate joyful, liberatory practice together. Because the future isn’t something we wait for—it’s something we practice into being.

In this 2 half-day retreat we will use somatics and theatre of the oppressed to explore the following questions:

• Where in my life do I feel stuck, frozen, or long for change? 

• What safety moves does my body make when under pressure? How can I befriend those parts that have protected me, while making room to choose new moves? 

• Where has my need for safety, dignity, or belonging created unconscious patterning that wants to shift?

• How do I set healthy boundaries that support the alignment of my actions and values?

• What unconscious patterns of white supremacy has my body learned?

This course for white bodied people will integrate embodiment and mindfulness practices, anti-racist liberatory ideology, and draw upon ancestral lineage healing to support holistic wellbeing. This retreat is a 2 half-day transformation process. 

Participants should plan to attend one weekend session:

Saturday June 14 & Sunday June 15 from 10-2pm

OR

Saturday June 28 & Sunday June 29 10-2pm

What you will gain from course participation

• Greater alignment with your anti-racist values. 

• Awareness of unconscious biases the body holds and tools for subverting them.

• Greater choice when responding to stress.

• Increased awareness of the ways white dominant norms manifest and tools for de-centering them.

• Greater alignment between your values and actions.

• Connection to a community of like-hearted white folks.

Facilitator

Marissa Metelica is a cultural strategist, artist, and healer. An expert facilitator and mediator, she uses embodied practices from the lineages of Theatre of the Oppressed and politized somatics to support individuals and groups to align with their vision, values, and collective longings. She has learned alongside and at the feet of Black and Indigenous women healers as a collaborator in racial healing serving mission-driven nonprofits for many years. She specializes in supporting groups through generative conflict and organizational transformation. 

Cost

The cost for participation in this six week course is a sliding scale $275-$400 per person, payable in one or two installments.

A justice tithe will go to Seeding Sovereignty, “a multi-lens collective that works to radicalize and disrupt colonized spaces through land, body, and food sovereignty work, community building, and cultural preservation. By investing in Indigenous folks and communities of the global majority, we cross the threshold of liberation together.”

 https://seedingsovereignty.org/ 

Sliding scale info

At Cost fee: $325 - is the sustaining cost of the workshop

A little less fee: $275 - this is for folks who would like to participate but need some sponsorship

A little more fee: $400 - This pays for the cost of the workshop, plus supports the participation of another.

You may be at the “At cost” or “a Little more” participation levels if some or all of the following are true for you: 

• You own property

• You are relatively debt-free

• You have intergenerational wealth

• You can afford occasional vacations

• There is more than one contributing income earner in your household

You may want to participate at a little less than at cost level if you…

• Rent or co-habitate with others to share/stretch resources

• You have debt

• You live on a fixed income