Couples Workshops
DESIRE is a series of workshops for couples launched by Shakti Tantra in 2013. They are run by Sue Newsome and Martin Hellawell and they have been born out of the success of Shakti Tantra’s Women’s and Mixed programmes and Sue and Martin’s own experience of exploring tantra, sexuality and relationship.
“To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.”
– Frederico Garcia Lorca, Blood Wedding and Yemma.
Martin and Sue have been in a committed relationship for eighteen years. They both believe that relationship can provide a foundation of love and respect that gives us the chance to witness and be witnessed in our highest potential. They have experienced many different aspects of relationship and intimacy and continue to explore the value of choosing to be together.
You can attend any one or all of the DESIRE workshops and you can complete them in any order. The workshops are designed so that you can engage with the structures to whatever level you feel comfortable and everyone is supported to get the most from the experience. Each workshop has a particular theme and is open to newcomers and couples who have experience of this type of work with Shakti Tantra or other similar organisations.
Upcoming Couples Workshops…
Shakti Tantra’s couples work combines principles and exercises from contemporary relationship theory with beautiful rituals and practices of sacred sexuality from Tantra, Native American and Taoist teachings. We feel truly honoured and privileged to be able to offer this work and our intent is to support you to acquire tools, ideas and understandings that will make a positive difference to your everyday lives. First and foremost, we create a strong container for the work to allow you both to take risks, be vulnerable, step out of your familiar behaviours and patterns and choose a different way. We will listen, support, inspire, challenge and encourage but we will not judge. Our feedback and reflections will be a combination of all we have learnt from our own studies and trainings and also from our very real experience of being in a committed relationship.
We will offer input from both a female and male perspective and explore how we can celebrate our differences rather than them being a potential battleground. As part of each workshop, we will share our own struggles and successes, invite you to experience more of yourselves and of each other and importantly, be creative and have FUN.
Who is DESIRE for?
The DESIRE workshops are for couples of any age, any shape and who are at any stage of their relationship. We welcome people of all sexual preferences, couples who are exploring different relationship models and we do our best to accommodate people with physical disability. The DESIRE workshops offer a great opportunity to anyone who has done a workshop from our Women’s or Mixed programmes to share the Shakti Tantra experience with their beloved. You will be working within your couple throughout the workshops.
Reasons couples choose DESIRE?
- To re-ignite the spark of their relationship, especially after or during childbirth, children leaving home, menopause, illness or significant life events.
- Yearning to experience more or deeper intimacy.
- Curiosity to find out if there is ‘more’ to sex.
- To explore the connection between spirituality and sexuality.
- Receive support with relationship or sexual difficulties.
- Personal learning and growth.
- A weekend away from everyday routines with both facilitated time and time to relax
- They have experienced a Shakti Tantra workshop and want more!
What might you gain from participating in DESIRE workshops?
- Opportunity to learn new skills and techniques for intimacy, specifically in the areas of communication, touch, pleasure and sex.
- Be inspired by & inspire other couples.
- A chance to make your relationship a priority, to make it supreme, to celebrate and explore it.
- Space and time to enjoy being intimate together.
- Acknowledgement and appreciation of each others qualities and brilliance.
DESIRE WORKSHOPS
DESIRE for Pleasure
Pleasure is our birthright yet we can easily allow the activity and challenges of our relationship to inhibit or stifle this fundamental desire. Pleasure gives satisfaction and joy but we often limit the time and effort we dedicate to fully exploring and experiencing our potential for pleasure with our beloved. During this residential workshop, Sue and Martin will create a safe space for you to identify what limits your pleasure and to explore the different forms of your pleasure. You will have the opportunity to define your pleasure without concerns about performance and to expand and heighten your enjoyment.
We welcome all couples who are looking to enhance and deepen their relationship, who want to improve their knowledge of the subtleties of male and female sexual pleasure, learn communication tools to support them asking for their pleasure and techniques for giving and receiving pleasure. Our approach weaves together tantric and shamanic teachings and practices with our own experiences of relationship.
DESIRE for Power
We will be continuing the threads of the DESIRE workshops in providing you opportunities to connect, to truly see & hear each other and to discover new delights in your togetherness. The specific theme for the DESIRE for Power workshop is looking at the dance of power in our relationships and we will spend some of the weekend exploring how we can be heartfelt and assertive in our power and expand it into the erotic.
DESIRE for Play
In this workshop we will offer a model that helps you break out of the patterns and routines that are so easy to fall into around sex and intimacy. It can be fear of rejection or judgement, shame, laziness or self consciousness that inhibits us from exploring the possibilities of pleasure within our couple. We will provide the opportunity for you to be creative, risqué, sacred, playful, lustful and downright naughty. There will be many ideas for you to take away, to assist you in keeping the flames of curiosity, excitement and desire alive in your relationship.
Upcoming Events
Awakening to Sacred Union: Level 1 Mixed Programme
Jan 25 2019 @ 6:00 pm - Jan 27 2019 @ 2:00 pm
Women of Substance: Level 4 Women’s Programme
Jan 31 2019 @ 6:00 pm - Feb 3 2019 @ 6:00 pm
Invitation: Level 1 Womens Programme
Feb 8 2019 @ 6:00 pm - Feb 10 2019 @ 2:00 pm
Standing in the Fire: Level 4 Mixed Programme
Feb 21 2019 @ 6:00 pm - Feb 24 2019 @ 2:00 pmWomens Programme 2019-2020
Apr 4 2019 - May 18 2020
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