Upcoming Events
Couples Connection at the Grange + Childcare
Join me, Dr. Jessica Tartaro, on Sunday afternoon September 24th from 3-5pm for the chance to connect as a couple and feed your relationship through simple, playful communication games. Plus, for parents with children, affordable childcare is available! Read on!
Getting Real Together Part 2 of 3: A Live Intimacy Laboratory
On September 21st, we gather for the second of the three salons in the final Intimacy Salon season of the year - and YOU are invited! If you enjoy online learning and have wanted to dip a toe in the waters of making connection a practice, I hope you will join us on Wednesday, September 21st. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Togetherness & Touch: A Couples Communication & Massage Workshop with Dr. Jessica Tartaro and James Van Wert
Join Jessica & James for a nourishing and playful celebration of partnership on Saturday, October 8th from 1-5pm. The first half will focus on communication tools for growing feelings of compassion, desire, playfulness and trust, led by Jessica. The second half will include a hands-on introduction to non-sexual partner massage for greater relaxation and body connection, led by James. All couples welcome!
Past Events
Togetherness & Touch: A Couples Communication & Massage Workshop with Dr. Jessica Tartaro and James Van Wert
Join Jessica & James for a nourishing and playful celebration of partnership on Saturday, October 8th from 1-5pm. The first half will focus on communication tools for growing feelings of compassion, desire, playfulness and trust, led by Jessica. The second half will include a hands-on introduction to non-sexual partner massage for greater relaxation and body connection, led by James. All couples welcome!
SpeakUP Fall Series: Deepening Our Connections
After a successful summer series - and based on feedback from nearly 30 community participants - I will be offering a twice a month, in person, Fall SpeakUP series starting September 1st and running through November 17th. I hope you will join us!
Getting Real Together Part 1 of 3: A Live Intimacy Laboratory
In Season 3 of the 2022 Intimacy Salons, we will be focusing on applying the tools and skills we have been learning all year in our relationships with one another. Rather than a slide show being the focus, this season, your own heart and relational process will be the teacher.
SpeakUP In Person: Coming Back to Connection
Many of you have been asking for it, and finally, it's happening. SpeakUP in person is coming back. Starting June 2nd, I will be leading a monthly, summer SpeakUP connection event IN PERSON every first Thursday in June, July & August at a beautiful, private residence on Old Eaglemount on the Olympic Peninsula. Email me your RSVP to receive the address.
2022 Intimacy Salons with Dr. Jessica Tartaro
A once a month night of adult discussion, candid sharing, meaningful connection and live intimacy coaching for anyone looking for real talk about what makes relationships thrive beginning February 16th, 2022, and going through January 18th, 2023.
SpeakUP Outdoor Summer Series: Connecting Across Difference
Join me for a six-session, outdoor summer series where we will cultivate, practice and embody the skills necessary to connect over difference. Starting June 9th, we will meet outdoors every other Wednesday during June, July and August in a spacious, 3-acre private residence in Chimacum, WA. Final gathering will be August 18th. I have the feeling that together, we can cultivate and refine the basic tools to support mending where our community has been torn the previous year. I hope you will register and join this journey!
SpeakUP About Listening Not Projecting: An Online Event
Projecting is all about our perception. It refers to the process of seeing through the lens of the fears and anxieties hidden in our minds. When we can listen with presence, we can pierce through our projections so that we are not relating to fragments of our past but to real, live and unique people in our present. Listening without projecting is essential for connecting and reconnecting with community, and especially when we are relating to people different from us. I hope you will join us for the final online SpeakUP of the season on Wednesday May 26th to practice listening not projecting!
SpeakUP About Igniting Curiosity: An In Person Connection Event
Most adults misplace our curiosity along the way of growing up. We stop giving ourselves permission to probe into life as we may have once done as children. In this time in the world of uncertainty, pain, confusion and fear, bringing curiosity to our relationships is a game changer. It can shift disconnection into connection. Fear into safety. Enemy into friend. Join us May 5th from 5-6:30pm at Chetzemoka Park in Port Townsend to ignite your curiosity in community together!
SpeakUP About Reconnecting: An Online Event
The theme for our April 21st, online event will be "Reconnection". Together we will ask the questions, "What has this past year been like for me? What have I lost? What have I gained?" Reconnection is not as simple as it might seem. Reconnecting well invites us to tune into all that has transpired in order to expand again sustainably. I hope to see you April 21st to reconnect mindfully and heartfully!
SpeakUP About ReConnecting: An In-Person Evening of Connection Games
Reconnection is not as simple as it might seem. When we go so long without social contact, our relational system by necessity, changes, to adapt to the solitude. Reconnecting well invites us to tune into our current relational bodies in order to move at a pace that will help us expand again sustainably. Join us from 5-6:30pm on Wednesday April 14th at Chetzemoka Park in Port Townsend to reconnect well together.
SpeakUP About Saying I’m Sorry: An Evening of Connection
Next SpeakUP on Wednesday, March 24th at 6:30pm PST will be on saying, "I'm sorry". We will all mess up, hurt people we love and say things we didn't mean. It's how we clean it up that will determine the depth and integrity of our relationships. Delivering a heartfelt apology asks a great amount of presence and willingness to feel how intimately we are each connected and how much we impact one another. Join us next SpeakUP to practice together!
SpeakUP About What Feeds Us: An Evening of Connection
Next SpeakUP on Wednesday March 10th will be on what feeds us! Following up with our previous themes of boundaries and consent and saying and celebrating "no", we will focus our next games night on saying "yes"! So what feeds you? How do you take care of yourself? Make new friends? Relax? What makes you laugh? Please bring your journal or paper and a pen to this event.
SpeakUP About Consent: An Evening of Connection
On Wednesday February 24th from 6:30-8:30pm PST, we will explore what the elements of consent include. This night will be a fundraiser for central Texas communities of color hardest hit by the winter storms. Together, we will slow down and play games to help sensitize our relating muscles to what authentic consent in adult relating can feel like. It's a deeply healing practice. I hope to see you there to raise funds for Texas communities in need!
SpeakUP About Boundaries In Community: Part 2
Join us Wednesday, February 10th from 6:30-8:30pm PST to explore what it means to collaborate as community committed to creating new norms around boundaries together. By request, we are continuing this theme from last time because you said, "Yes we need to talk about this more!" Bring your questions, challenges, and quandaries about boundaries to practice setting and receiving boundaries in care-filled, skillful, authentic and healing ways. All are welcome!
SpeakUP About Boundaries in Community: An Evening of Connection
This SpeakUP on Wednesday January 27th from 6:30-8:30pm PST, we are going to focus on the role that we as authentic community members play in helping each individual assert their limits and boundaries. Instead of reacting to a boundary by pulling away, we can offer, "Thank you for taking care of yourself" and other affirmations for the boundary that can change everything. Join us to practice this vital skill! No one turned away for lack of funds.
SpeakUP About Embodying Change: First SpeakUP of 2021
It's one thing to point out what isn't working in the world. It's another thing to become or embody the change we wish to see, as Ghandi famously called for. At our next SpeakUP on Wednesday January 13th 6:30-8:30pm PST, we will explore the small and big ways we can close the gap between sitting in the sidelines of a world in need and making direct differences in the way we make choices in our day-to-day lives. All are welcome!
SpeakUP Connection Games in December
Next games night is Wednesday December 30th at 6:30pm PST! At "SpeakUP About Telling Stories", participants will be invited to share stories on journeys, on darkness and light, on fear and courage, on personal victories, on hope and on whatever wants to be told in the moment. All are welcome! No one turned away for lack of funds.
Virtual Intimacy Retreat: Rejuvenating Connection in 4 days – January 14-17th, 2021
Join a vibrant, virtual community as we nourish ourselves to take on 2021. I will be teaching a workshop Sunday January 17th titled, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Pussy". All about surrender in our sexual and intimate connections. See you there!