Radical Aliveness: an 8-week Somatic Exploration

​This circle will be 8 weeks long and meet on consecutive Wednesdays in April and May for 2 hours in Kensington, Brooklyn.

​"Re-situating our sense of Self in the community, and re-connecting to the ‘soul of things’ recognizes that healing does not happen in isolation or with one paid professional - it is a collective effort since it is the world around us that we belong to and that we need to feel part of to live full lives."

​- Eco-psychologist, James Hillman

​How it works:

​Over 8 weeks, an intimate group of 10 participants will engage in a transformative group process facilitated by somatic therapist, meditation and communication teacher, Shea Riester, LMSW & SEP.

​​Using tools from Somatic Experiencing, Nonviolent Communication, Buddhist psychology and the Wheel of Consent, we will go on an adventure to cultivate more of the following into our lives:

• ​Connection, togetherness

• ​Feeling deeply known and seen

• ​Relational healing in community

• ​The courage to meet our growing edges, shadows, & delusions and thus expand our window of tolerance

• ​A sense of feeling fully alive

• ​Fun, play, wildness

• ​Contribute to each others’ growth and healing

• ​Building toward a field of unconditional love and trust

​🌀 Small Circle Sessions - Our Circles will be capped at 10 people and the same group will remain together for 8 weeks. These sessions will be 2 hours long in the comfort of a zen-like living room. Tea and light snacks will be provided.

​🪷 Therapist-Guided Exploration -Shea Riester, LMSW, SEP somatic therapist, mindfulness & communication teacher from Brooklyn, NY. (More about your facilitator, Shea, below)

​🗓️ Dates of our meetings - Wednesdays: April 16, 23rd, 30th, May 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and June 4th

​The Process:

​What will this look like? Part of the fun of this experiment is the picture cannot be fully painted or predicted until we are together. Our hope is it will feel like a cross between the present-moment aliveness of an authentic relating circle, the care and intention of a trauma-sensitive therapy group, the sacredness of a sangha, and the growth-oriented loving fierceness of a martial arts dojo.

​You are welcome to attend with a partner or friend, anyone you want to deepen your relationship with. The learning from this space can be multiplied if you attend with a dear person that you will practice and integrate these relational tools with. Of course, doing this work with people we don't know will also have its specific magic.

​Every circle will begin with a short “drop-in” meditation and a check-in, and close with a check-out. The “work” of the circle will change week to week, becoming more and more attuned to the living group:

​ Month 1: 

• ​Building trust through deeply knowing each other

  • ​Dyad and triad relational mindfulness practices

  • ​“Sweet Seats”: 30-minutes for each participant to receive the undivided curious, loving attention of the group through questions, reflections and appreciations.

• ​Learning shared frameworks:

  • ​Nonviolent Communication (NVC)

  • ​Authentic Relating (aka Circling)

  • ​Nervous system / trauma neurobiology from Somatic Experiencing (SE)

  • ​Buddhist psychology

  • ​The Wheel of Consent

​ Month 2

• ​Group work!

  • ​Once sufficient trust has been built, our “agenda” will be responsive to the needs and desires alive of the group, rather than prepared in advance, as we bring previously learned tools into live practice together.

  • ​We will work with all levels of our human experience: the body, emotions, expression, movement, sensations, thoughts, beliefs, spirit, culture and systems

  • ​We will move toward democratization of the space, with each person getting to say what they want, to have their “yeses” and “nos”

​Your Facilitator - Shea Riester, LMSW, SEP

​Shea is a somatic therapist, mindfulness and communication teacher from Brooklyn, NY.

​Their core training is in Somatic Experiencing trauma healing, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and 15 years of Buddhist mindfulness practice. Ordained in the Order of Interbeing of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2018, they are currently part of the Community Dharma Leader cohort through Spirit Rock. Shea is also a restorative justice practitioner and conflict mediator with the New York Peace Institute. They teach meditation on Inward Bound retreats and co-founded the Contemplative Semester, a three-month Insight meditation program for young adults. Additionally, they co-lead a weekly Insight meditation group at their home in Brooklyn, NY.

​Note: "I identify as white, male, bu-jew, queer, able-bodied. I know that a facilitator with my identities may not be a fit for everybody."

​The Value:

​Therapy within community, instead of one on one, can offer the possibility of exponential healing and transformation. By assembling in groups we are able to offer dedicated time with a highly engaged therapist for much less than normal.

​8 weeks at our lower income level is $470, which comes out to $30/hr. Each session will be 2 hours long and you will have group time and individual focus during the group sessions if you choose to.

​​If you are able to support us at the suggested level, you are ensuring that our therapist is being paid well and that future attendees will get to receive this experience at a cost that is affordable to them.

​​Once you sign up, you'll have a phone call with Shea to chat about your goals for the group and have a chance to ask him any questions.

​​What are OlioCircles?

​​Olio Circles are being born as an emergent space for us to democratize therapy and support each other by the simple (yet difficult) acts of speaking honestly and listening compassionately.

​​Led by a therapist, and supported by a dedicated group of 10-12 people, these Circles can be thought of as a compliment to your existing therapy, or as a new approach to healing done in a group setting rather than one-on-one.

​​Group processing and peer support has been a focus of non-western approaches to healing for thousands of years, and at Olio we are committed to creating spaces where you can find purpose and belonging to usher in a new vision of society.

​Some words of inspiration that we align with:

​“We face an unheavenly host of challenges as a species. But the constancy of attempts to "look inward" obscures a more scandalous idea: that the self is not "inside" per se, but between. I sense, like my dear colleague Professor Wendy Hollway, that "psychology is the policeman of capitalism." I think that the therapeutic rituals of care that now dominate the globe are materially implicated in the preservation of a kind of war against the world around us. "We are good at looking inward," James Hillman might have said, "but not very good at looking around."

​- Bayo Akomalafe

​"Transforming our reality is a task that belongs to all of us. To act on our reality, we must first critically understand it, and that understanding requires dialogue."

​-Paulo Freire

​“Wounds need to be expanded into air, lifted up on ideas our ancestors knew, so that the wound ascends through the roof of our parents’ house and we suddenly see how our wound (seemingly so private) fits into a great and universal story.”

​- Robert Bly

​It is becoming more obvious that many of our so-called mental illnesses are at the core a result of environmental factors and could more aptly be described as Social Illness. 

​- Patricia Kim