Past Events › Online Event

Welcome to The Holding Space.

A space where we can gather together and BE exactly as we are

A space where the full spectrum of your human experience is invited

Calm, anxious, open, closed,

ALL is welcome here.

It's in this gentle embrace that everything can start to unravel. It's in this open space that we can begin to unwind the strategies that no longer serve us. This is the space that early mis-attunement failed to foster, the space where love blooms and new life can emerge. This is the space where all that quivers and shakes can come to rest, and where all that contorts can untwist into greater alignment.

Through gentle exploration and somatic awareness you can cultivate a new way of being with your most challenging patterns. No longer a victim of the push and pull of inner disturbance, you can step forward with greater confidence, knowing that whatever comes your way, you embody the resilience and the capacity to meet and integrate it.

You can expect a deeply held space where you’ll be invited to slow down, tune in, and track your present-moment experience. As you awaken and refine a more subtle way of Being and Being With, you can slowly but surely become the space – the container and the field – where healing takes place.

Bio:
The first leg of Georgia Simone’s path exposed her to the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, which provided her with the foundation she needed to disidentify from pain and suffering. However, despite a growing freedom, a significant bypass took place, as her orientation towards transcendence reinforced her deep disconnection from Life. Upon seeing this, her focus became addressing the unresolved trauma that had woven its way into every fibre of her being.

During this period, Georgia was influenced by Inner Relationship Focusing, a presence based approach that works with the Felt Sense and the split-off parts of self. She also trained as a NARM informed practitioner, which addresses developmental trauma from a psychotherapeutic perspective. Her approach is now a seamless blend of mystical insight and psychological understanding.

After many years of wading through this marshland of conditioning, she shares her discoveries with others. She believes that the spiritual path is as much about arriving here fully – as an embodied human being – as it is about dissolving into the infinite source that makes this life possible. How can we die to the absolute, while deeply embracing our relative human experience? This Living Inquiry is her Life’s prayer.

www.georgiasimone.com

Suggested donation: $15 to $25
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.

REGISTER

The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter

Online Monthly Group Meetings

Although our true nature is not affected by all that we experience, our human body and mind are impacted by experiences that result in emotional wounding and trauma. Any experience, especially early in life, that is outside our window of tolerance, can overwhelm our nervous system and create chronic stress patterns in the body/mind. These stuck patterns can affect our spiritual awakening process by making it more difficult to relax, trust, be in the moment, and allow everything to be as it is—all of which are necessary for awakening and embodiment.

This ongoing monthly group will offer deep support for body-mind-spirit embodied awakening and healing so you can rest more deeply in the great peace, love and unity that resides in all of us.

We will do somatic practices for balancing the nervous system and building more capacity for regulating stress and emotions. Being more regulated is very important to both healing our human wounding and our spiritual awakening. We will also use the Flash Technique to release the charge on traumatic memories and loosen the grip of the negative beliefs that they create.

It is encouraged to attend the live session so you can receive the support of the group as well as Lynn Marie’s therapeutic support if needed. You are also welcome to register and attend by listening to the recording.

Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT is a nondual psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and author. She offers knowledge and wisdom gained from over 30 years of experience both as a therapist and with nondual spiritual teachings. She is the author of Awakened Relating:
A Guide to Embodying Undivided Love in Intimate Relationships and The Awakening West: Evidence of a Spreading Enlightenment.

www.lynnmarielumiere.com

Suggested donation for each meeting: $15 to $35
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.

REGISTER

The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter

Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and emailed to participants.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend the whole live session.

Curious about embodying awakened consciousness in everyday life? Then let’s explore our relationships. Because when we can show up with others unveiled and free, we find no end to the intimacy that is possible.

In this mini-retreat, we’ll identify the patterns we play out that create a sense of separation—from ourselves, others, and all of life. These are fear-based programmed ways of being that include people-pleasing, withdrawal, inflating or deflating ourselves in comparison to others, holding grudges, and defensiveness. Together, we’ll untangle the distorted assumptions we hold about the world and learn to meet our tender emotions with loving acceptance.

Untying the knots that lie at the core of our relationship struggles brings freshness, ease, and space for new and authentic ways of being. We realize our shared humanness, which brings compassion for ourselves and others, melting into the one boundless heart beyond our personal selves.

We learn about relationships from our first connections with our caregivers early on in life. Fear of rejection, hurt from feeling unseen, mistrust, the need to please—these are signs of unexamined contractions that are waiting for liberation.

Do you feel separate in your relationships? With guided inner reflection, a journaling exercise, small group experiences, and Q&A, we’ll practice creating safe space for authentic connection. You’ll leave with new insights, ways to experiment in daily life, and tools for being in your relationships as a pathway for awakening. I look forward to being with you!

Please feel free to contact Gail with any questions about the program at gail@gailbrenner.com.
For technical questions please reach out to web@opencirclecenter.org.

“I am now experiencing longer moments of pure awareness and joy. No longer a slave to external circumstances and inner chatter. Loving life the way it is.” ~Susan R.

“What you’re pointing to is so difficult to talk about in words, but you describe it so brilliantly and give such practical, actionable steps to follow that I truly, deeply get it. I just cannot express to you how transformative your approach has been for me.” ~Sandra Joseph, Broadway star and author of Unmasking What Matters

Gail Brenner, Ph.D. is your guide on this journey. She is a clinical psychologist and lover of truth with a fire that burns brightly. She brings to this work years of experience with individuals and groups and is known for creating the sense of safety and trust needed for this deeper exploration.

www.gailbrenner.com

Sliding Scale: $25 to $45
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.

REGISTER

April 15, 16 & 17
10:00 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Time
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and
emailed to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.

Years ago Ram Dass asked his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, "What is the most direct path? His answer was: “Feed people. Love people and feed people."

Please join Pamela and fellow sages on retreat to transmit Stillness, Peace and Balance for Humanity. As a sangha we amplify and transmit Love and Clarity, soothing chaos, confusion and unkindness. The original nourishment of Stillness is peace and all-inclusive, all-pervading friendship.

All proceeds from this gathering will be donated to WCK.org that has already fed over a million meals to refugees and families in the Ukraine and at the borders.

Pamela evokes through dialogue, inquiry and her very presence the qualities of unconditional love and radical acceptance. She is celebrated for her ability to open the heart and create a space in which long-cherished struggles and notions about one’s identity relax. Featured in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom, Pamela is at her best in heart-felt dialogue, so please bring your questions!

More about Pamela: www.pamelasatsang.com

Sliding Scale: $60 to $90
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.

REGISTER

When we’ve had an opening, it can throw our old way of being out the window and bring on changes that can be challenging to navigate. Join Jeannie and friends to explore some common aspects of post-awakening, their gifts and their challenges.

Jeannie’s gift for inviting people to join her in resting and rooted presence evokes a deep meeting with oneself and reality. Within that, Jeannie’s humor and iconoclasm serve to bring people into an understanding that is beyond the intellectual. Through silent and guided meditation, spontaneous talks and exchange with participants, Jeannie will host a space of clarity and warmth where the richness of relating can be explored safely and your innermost questions met fully.

Jeannie Zandi is the director of Living as Love, a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeding a culture of the Heart on the planet, inspiring, teaching and supporting people to live from their essence as Love. A year before the birth of her daughter, Jeannie was plunged into a dark night of the soul that culminated in a radical shift of consciousness. She is known for her fearless clarity, tender mercy toward humanness, and a juicy, poetic and often humorous style that draws from Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Christian mysticism and the ongoing revelation of fully engaged living.

www.jeanniezandi.com

Suggested donation: $15 to $25
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.

REGISTER

The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter

April 29, 30 & May 1
9:30 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Time
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and
emailed to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.

Are you tired of the endless oscillation between cosmic wonder and existential anxiety, between deep presence and painful disconnection, between meditative union and yelling at your loved one? Do you long for coherence? Do you long for a freedom that reaches into every corner of your life, into every relationship and every activity?

Likewise, have you been impacted by recent world events? Do you feel despair when you tune into collective issues or hopelessness about the way things are going? Do you want to stay informed but fear getting triggered? Do you long to contribute but don't know how to proceed?

In this 3 day immersion we'll begin by grounding into our Essential Nature, the place where all insight emerges, where all clarity dawns, and from where our deepest heart's longing can be nurtured into form. Then, we'll explore what's standing in the way of who we truly are and what we know is possible - both personally and collectively. This requires an intricate understanding of the karmic patterning - the unresolved trauma - that filters our experience and distorts our behaviours. Finally, we'll join in our shared presence to seed a new potential and infuse the field with our loving intent.

Awakened Healing is a presence based, body oriented, and relationally centered approach to addressing unresolved experience. Through gentle exploration and somatic awareness you can cultivate a new way of being with your most challenging patterns. No longer a victim of the push and pull of inner disturbance, you can step forward with greater confidence, knowing that whatever comes your way, you embody the resilience and the capacity to meet and integrate it.

You can expect a deeply held space where you’ll be invited to slow down, tune in, and track your present-moment experience. As you awaken and refine a more subtle way of Being and Being With, you can slowly but surely become the space – the container and the field – where healing takes place.

Day 1: The Ground of True Healing - your greatest resource 
You'll discover:

• How to find inner peace and freedom, even before your issues start to shift
• What keeps your process stuck and how to pull the plug on "endless healing"
• How to cultivate an inner landscape where change emerges naturally
• How to relate to inner disturbance in a way where it actually gets to move and shift

Day 2: Meeting Personal Trauma - mapping out the psyche
You'll discover:

• A Living Map for navigating unresolved trauma with more ease, insight, depth and grace
• How to tolerate strong emotions without losing yourself in overwhelm or shut down
• The difference between core emotions and protective emotions and why it’s so important to know the difference
• Why shame is the glue that holds trauma together and how to step outside of it

Day 3: Meeting Collective Unrest - extending your reach
You'll discover:

• How to meet collective trauma without losing your centre
• How to align with your unique contribution and be a part of the solution
• How to impact the field with your deepest care and compassion
• A Living Practice to awaken and amplify the spiritual heart - the true source of lasting change

Bio
The first leg of Georgia Simone’s path exposed her to the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, which provided her with the foundation she needed to disidentify from pain and suffering. However, despite a growing freedom, a significant bypass took place, as her orientation towards transcendence reinforced her deep disconnection from Life. Upon seeing this, her focus became addressing the unresolved trauma that had woven its way into every fibre of her being.

During this period, Georgia was influenced by Inner Relationship Focusing, a presence based approach that works with the Felt Sense and the split-off parts of self. She also trained as a NARM informed practitioner, which addresses developmental trauma from a psychotherapeutic perspective. Her approach is now a seamless blend of mystical insight and psychological understanding.

After many years of wading through this marshland of conditioning, she shares her discoveries with others. She believes that the spiritual path is as much about arriving here fully – as an embodied human being – as it is about dissolving into the infinite source that makes this life possible. How can we die to the absolute, while deeply embracing our relative human experience? This Living Inquiry is her Life’s prayer.

More about Georgia: www.georgiasimone.com

Sliding Scale: $70 to $120
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.

REGISTER

Join us for a silent group meditation. Do your own practice quietly in the company of others. Let’s be present, together. .... more details
Mon.: 8:00am – 8:30am (PT) and Wed.: 9:00am – 9:30am (PT)
Ongoing drop-in group – attend as often as you like.
Weekly, with rare exceptions. Verify dates on Full Calendar.

REGISTER

May 7, 14 & 22
10:00 am – 1:30 pm, PDT, with 1/2 hr break Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and
emailed to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
non dual understanding in challenging times

WHAT YOU WILL FIND

• 9 hours of live teaching
• streaming available
• experiential session and live Q&A

TOPIC
In a world ever more split in divisions, we see more and more the other as the enemy to fight.
The opportunity to awaken in the face of this global scenario is huge, when we understand that
Life is mirroring us all the places where we still hold on to divisions.

We can learn from this situation and use them for our own spiritual growth, bringing light in our life and all around us.

1) Distancing from the story, perceiving Reality - MAY 7th
10:00 am - 12:00 noon PDT main session
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm PDT perception exercises

2) The true meaning of turning other cheek - MAY 14th
10:00 am - 12:00 noon PDT main session
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm PDT perception exercises

3) Learning from darkness, being truth - MAY 22nd
10:00 am - 12:00 noon PDT main session
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm PDT perception exercises

BIO
Spiritual guide and author, Shakti is a meditation teacher recognized throughout the world as one of the most authentic and profound voices of contemporary spirituality. Combining the vision of Advaita and non-dual Tantra with a contemporary approach, Shakti offers with humanity, compassion and great clarity an inner technology to dissolve that contraction of suffering that accompanies our lives and access a space of peace and unconditional love towards life.

www.shakticaterinamaggi.com

Sliding Scale: $180 to $250
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.

REGISTER