September 8-15, 2024 — Greece
INNER
WELLSPRING
Land, Sea & Sanctuary
Set on the Greek Island of Lesvos in the Eastern Aegean, the retreat center is nestled in between hills of fig trees and ancient cypress, surrounded by abundant olive yards. In very close proximity to the town of Molyvos, and close to the sea, these lands have something mesmerizing and sacred about them.
Perhaps it is the old history of the devotion to the feminine, or maybe it is the vulcanic hot springs that emerge out of the sea in one of the closest beaches, or perhaps it is the proximity to Turkey and its profound traditions, that creates the uniqueness of this place.
Retreat Center, Temple & Accommodations
The land that will be hosting us is owned by a family who moved here many years ago and decided to create a little sanctuary of three acres, where they could host retreats and create a place of serenity and intimacy.
Onsite is an octagonal spring-fed pool, a beautiful meditation temple, and many different accommodations ranging from single or double occupancy rooms to more spacious apartments.
The retreat center is approximately a fifteen minute walk to the sea.
Food & Nourishment
Our meals are home-cooked and lovingly provided at our retreat center by our chef Tatjana. The food is incredibly nourishing with local ingredients.
Alternatively, the typical Greek village is a fifteen minute walk away, and offers a wide range of traditional food at a very accessible price, with the added perk of integrating yourself into the local culture.
Lastly, if you reserve an apartment, you will have your own kitchen for cooking from the local ingredients in town.
In the village, there are wonderful restaurants and local shops that sell delicious greek products from olives, to feta cheese, sheep’s yogurt, local organic honey, homemade bread, fresh fish, and more.
How to get there
The best way to reach Lesvos Island is a flight from Athens to Mytiline, the capital of Lesvos. Once arrived in Mytiline, a pre-arranged taxi will bring you north to the retreat center, which takes approximately one hour.
Facilitators
K O A K A L I S H
Koa is a healing practitioner, artist, educator and facilitator with fifteen years of extensive training in craniosacral osteopathic medicine, as well as a deep well of learning from indigenous medicine keepers, mystic spiritual leaders, and the initiation of her own healing journeys (including near-death experiences, chronic pain, brain injury and recovery).
She has held her private practice since 2016 and has been teaching internationally since 2021. Humbly guided by the healing forces of nature, she lives and works in devotion to the potency of transformation, trauma integration, and collective liberation.
Koa has been recognized as a natural healer for her unique gifts of tapping into the unseen, working with subtle energies, transmitting divine frequencies, and creating space for true healing to occur. Both her private sessions and group immersions are known to be deeply transformative, restorative, and healing.
E M I L I A C I A N C I
Emilia is an Italian-born facilitator, therapist, doula, herbalist and first and foremost human in profound devotion to life. She has been extensively studying different healing modalities and spiritual traditions from both mystical paths and earth-based medicine people. She works both 1:1 in therapeutic sessions with a background in depth psychology, expressive arts therapy dreamwork, trauma and embodiment work and different touch therapies and in group work through workshops and retreats.
She is in reverence of thresholds and holds spaces for ritual and ceremony that often revolve around the theme of death and rebirth. She is also a birth keeper and doula and holds women and couples in the profound rite of passage of becoming parents. Water has been central to her work as an aquatic bodyworker and water doula and often her sessions involve bathing and cleansing rituals with water. Finally she is a gardener and herbalist and uses the medicine of plants to support others in their healing journeys.
About the Course
In this course we will delve into the guiding principles of craniosacral biodynamics. With presence and wholeness as primary orientations, we will explore inner practices such as embodied felt-sense, tonal match, full body breathing, resting in invisible midline, and residing in neutral. Following the insights of Dr. Sutherland and his successors, we will learn how to listen to primary respiration and the Breath of Life, sensing tides, fulcrums, stillpoints, subtle rhythms, states of consciousness, and more.
This course will invite you to develop and refine your essential skills for grounding and centering in yourself, creating and maintaining safety and trust with your partner, increasing potency in your touch and sensitivity in your awareness. With dynamic stillness as the guide, we cultivate our capacity to support the body’s innate wisdom of healing – in ourselves, in each other, and in the world.
Lightly guided somatic movement sessions will grace our mornings, connecting us deeper into the embodiment of our biosphere.
*This course offers a Certificate of Completion for 28 CEU’s through NCBTMB.
Daily Schedule
Sunday
Arrival Day
2-3pm Retreat Center Check-in
7:30pm Opening Dinner
Monday
8-9am: Breakfast
9-10am: Movement Practice + Stillness Sit
10am-12pm: Opening Water Ritual Land & Sea Explorations
7:30pm: Dinner
Tuesday—Friday
8-9am: Breakfast
9-10am: Movement Practice + Stillness Sit
10am-1pm: Craniosacral Biodynamics
1-4pm: Lunch & Free Time
4-7pm: Craniosacral Biodynamics
7:30pm: Dinner
Saturday
Integration day
Land & Sea Explorations
Closing Circle & Dinner
Sunday
Final Breakfast & Farewells
The Flow
The first days will be dedicated to landing and grounding, to arriving in your body, in your heart, and in your intention. It will be a space to meet and greet the earth and waters and to build a safe container with each other for our deep dive.
We will have time to sit in circle, explore the surroundings, to slow down and to begin to open the deep well of our being.
On day three we will officially begin the craniosacral course curriculum. In this time we will fully dedicate ourselves to craniosacral biodynamics and how to awaken our awareness, sensitivity and touch. Lightly guided somatic movement meditations will fill our mornings. Three-hour lunch breaks give us time to nourish, rest, swim, and explore.
Special events will include tea ceremonies as well as many dips in the sea and pilgrimages to the healing hot springs.
Our final full day will be in dedication to integrating and harvesting all the wisdom received, ritualizing our closure, and preparing ourselves for the journey home.
Inner Wellspring Testimonial
“A gorgeous, restful journey that went so deep and released profoundly in a titrated way.
The teachings were clear, very well considered and I loved the way Koa taught in a ‘flow state’, from presence and intuition, not from mind.
In previous courses, when there is an attempt to do too much, I have often gone into my head and this was so very different, it was like the teaching pace allowed us to remain embodied and present.
This was so skillful and appreciated.
I loved the chance to practice everything we were being taught.
To live it through and through.
So much so that by the last partner sessions, my body dipped into the deepest ‘sleep’ - more than sleep - parasympathetic in a new way - the most profound letting go and metabolising of inertia in system.
This was all because of the care and presence in the field and how much deep exhale was facilitated.
I can feel the reverberation of this echoing almost a week on and across time zones.
Wild animals are coming closer and staying still with me.
Everything feels different. In the best possible way.
It truly is an embodiment opportunity of deep transformation and transmutation - and that’s what I hoped for.
I loved the sharing of stories and metaphor, teachings of the history of cranio, as well as the practical, hands on and technical aspects. Flowed seamlessly. From mystical to anatomical.
Opening and Closing ceremonies were just beautiful.
So much presence in the group held by humble leaders, coming deeply from the heart.
The temple space, the location, food and presence was profound.
So thoughtfully and carefully considered, also totally light and easeful.
Everything was imbued with the spirit of biodynamic craniosacral (sacred) so it felt like a true immersion.”
A Few More Words
This is a creative cauldron for anyone looking to deepen their embodied observation in service to transformation, transmutation and liberation.
This is a restoration and amplification of our inherent connection to the Breath of Life that informs all of nature and the Health that is never lost.
This is an immersion within the well of your being and its watery landscape as well as an intimate experience with the medicine and wisdom of water itself.
This is a time to grow in your skillsets and sensitivity, as well as an opportunity to receive and expand.
This is a container to connect with ancient stories and lands that hold powerful healing traditions and that have maintained a deep connection to its own history, stories, songs and roots.
Pricing
Prices include accommodation, course tuition, rituals, and three home-cooked meals + snacks each day.
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SHARED ROOM
double occupancy (one of two twin beds) + bathroom and shower
Full Rate: €2,750 Early Bird: €2,550
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SHARED APARTMENT
double occupancy (one of two twin beds) + bathroom, shower and private, spacious kitchen
Full Rate: €2,900 ∙ Early Bird: €2,950
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PRIVATE ROOM
one queen bed + private bathroom and shower
Full Rate: €3,150 ∙ Early Bird: €2,950
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PRIVATE APARTMENT
one queen bed + private bathroom, shower, and spacious kitchen
Full Rate: €3,300 ∙ Early Bird: €3,100
Please note all prices are in Euros.
A non-refundable deposit of $500 reserves your space.
Early Bird Rate available until March 1st, 2024.
Scholarship Application
Included ~
All Rituals & Ceremonies
32 hours of Craniosacral Biodynamics
Arrival & Grounding day
Integration & Departure day
Three delicious home-cooked meals a day
24-hour access to spring-fed pool and Temple
Access to the surrounding hot springs and the Aegean Sea
Not Included ~
Flight to Mytilene (Lesvos Island)
Taxi to and from the Retreat Center
Add-on activities such as massage