Embodied Relating + Contact Napping / Half Day Workshop - Bristol

Embodied Relating

“Surprisingly simple and deeply profound.”

“Chris held the space with grace and ease, the pace was perfect.”

“I felt my heart and chest progressively expanding over the course of the workshop.”

Drawing on principles from contact improvisation and other movement practices, this workshop creates a safe and supportive space for you to bring awareness to your relational patterns and experiment with different ways of being in your body.

Through a series of gentle breathing and movement exercises, both solo and in pairs, you’ll be invited and guided to explore and play with new ways of connecting with yourself and others. All exercises are simple, accessible and require no prior experience with movement practices. 

Together we’ll be embodying and playing with core relational dynamics like leaning, attaching, connecting, trusting, leading and following. Exercises are interwoven with windows of time for self-attunement, reflection, verbal sharing and witnessing as appropriate. 

We will also be exploring the practice of ‘Contact Napping’ in which we dive deeply into a group embodied practice of belonging and security. You can read more about that practice here.

Based on the success of previous 3hr workshops the duration of this workshop is longer (6hrs). This means we'll have time to drop further into our bodies and into the collective space.  Here's a rough schedule:

3.30 - 6.30pm : Embodied Relating

6.30 - 7pm: Break

7 - 8.30pm: Contact Napping

8.30-9.30pm: Eating together and closing circle

Benefits of the workshop

• Discover your relational patterns and tune into your inner emotional landscape
• Explore and experience new ways of being in your body in connection with others
• Feel more relaxed, present, trusting, in flow and at ease in your body
• Expand your capacity for natural movement, dance and embodied confidence

What you can expect

• Working alone with your breath and body to tune into yourself
• Gentle paired movement exercises focused on leaning, leading and following
• Witnessing how others receive and respond to your ways of moving and meeting
• Self-reflection and sharing in pairs about patterns and feelings that you notice
• Being held in a supportive non-judgemental space and learning as a group

Who this is for

This workshop is for anybody who’s curious to develop self-awareness about their relational patterns, explore different ways of being in a safe and supportive environment, and feels comfortable engaging in some gentle movement exercises. 

This workshop is intentionally designed to be inclusive and welcoming to all regardless of relationship status, sexual orientation, gender, race or financial standing. Within the workshop introduction there is an orientation to expressing boundaries and honoring personal space.

About embodied relating

Embodied relating is a relational intelligence and development practice that works gently with the body to uncover and transform relational patterns, leading to a greater sense of trust and flow. The form of embodied relating that you’ll experience in this workshop is being cultivated and refined by facilitator Chris Hardy through a series of carefully held group gatherings and enquiries.

Informed by concepts from somatic researchers such as Bessel van der Kolk (author of The Body Keeps The Score), and drawing on principles from contact improvisation and other movement modalities, embodied relating involves slowing down and working with the relational essence of simple movement practices. 

In embodied relating workshops held by Chris, gentle movement exercises and self-reflection are used to bring awareness to core relational dynamics that live inside the body, and a safe space is created to explore and play with different ways of being in connection with others.

About your facilitator

Chris Hardy is a certified coach, yoga instructor and experienced movement practitioner. 

You can follow his blog on Substack (this is the best way to keep up to date with his work. Or you can find him on Instagram.

Chris has been working in the personal development sector for nearly 15 years and has trained with some of the world’s leading experts in the field including Jennifer Garvey Berger (adult development theory), Nita Little (contact improvisation), Anthony Johnston (voice work) and Esther Perel (relational intelligence). 

Chris’s passion lies in helping people to move through life with more ease and grace. He’s a regular dancer in Bristol’s contact improvisation scene. 

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