Receive the work from inside the circle

We take time to arrive together. Christian introduces the four directions of Heart iQ through embodied practice, so you can begin to feel where you are open and where receiving or expressing feels more difficult.

From a thimble towards an ocean

Christian uses the image of a thimble becoming a bucket, and eventually an ocean, to describe a growing capacity to receive. We explore that capacity vertically, in our connection with source and our own embodied humanity, and relationally, in how we give and receive love with one another.

A shared foundation for the circle

We establish the culture of the group together. We explore the agreements that support safety and how we honour one another’s relationships. Everyone needs to be part of this beginning, so we can land and agree together before opening more deeply.

You are introduced to the Heart iQ check-in: sharing truthfully what is happening for you in the present moment. This gives us a way to meet one another as we are, and a foundation for the circle work that follows.

The early practices give us a way to notice what is happening within us while staying in connection with someone else. These layers build on one another within a guided exploration that responds to the group.

1. 01

   Somatic tracking

   We begin with sensations in the body, what you notice through your five senses and the impulses that arise. You practise recognising what is here before moving into an explanation of it.

2. 02

   Present moment tracking

   You share your lived experience as it happens in connection. Alongside sensation, this can include emotions, different parts of yourself, thoughts, stories and beliefs, judgments, the past colouring the present, and nervous-system survival responses. There is room to notice what is happening without needing to make it different.

3. 03

   Integrated tracking

   You bring a topic from your life, perhaps your health, purpose, children or marriage, and stay aware of how it feels to share it now. The story of your life and your present-moment experience can be in the same conversation.

Watch the practice take shape, then try it together

Volunteers explore the practices with Christian in front of the group. You see the mistakes as well as the adjustments that emerge through live coaching. The whole room learns as the demonstration unfolds, before practising in dyads, or pairs.

We explore fight, flight, freeze and fawn, noticing how these survival responses can show up in the body and between people. Embodied practice helps you recognise your own yes, no or pause, including what happens as you receive touch. Your participation and any touch remain your choice, with consent at the centre.

For facilitators, this is a chance to notice your own responses while becoming more attentive to another person’s boundaries. You experience the practices yourself and observe how Christian adjusts his facilitation to what is happening in the moment.

You bring tracking into the group through personal space-taking. The focus is on your own experience, with the circle supporting you. You explore how it feels to be received by others, noticing your body and the nervous-system responses that arise as you share. Christian guides the exploration with direct invitations, staying responsive to what is happening between people.

Make room for what you usually hold back

The theme of unleashing, or becoming uncontained, invites you to explore parts of yourself and a life force you may have learned to hold back. You can discover what you want to express while staying in relationship with the circle and its shared agreements.

Meet resistance with the support of the circle

In the surrender-resistance practice, you explore how you resist and what happens when that resistance is met. Within the group’s agreements, you can consciously test the support around you and notice whether there is room to relax. You choose how you participate. Surrender is explored through your own experience, without requiring you to override a boundary.

Give the experience time to settle

Tribal regulation explores how nervous systems can relax together in a group. We also make time for questions and a debrief, so the mind can catch up with what you have experienced. You can reflect on what happened and what you are beginning to understand about yourself in connection with others.

In relational circle work, the attention opens from one person’s experience to what emerges when two people meet, supported by the wider group.

Follow a meeting point

We begin by taking in the eyes of others in the circle. You may notice your gaze settle with someone and feel an impulse to meet them on the mat. With both people choosing to take part, you explore what your bodies communicate and where that connection wants to move. We call these meeting points: encounters through which something of the wider group’s experience can become visible.

Couples in the room may be invited to explore their relational patterns and intimacy dynamics with Christian. The group witnesses the coaching and learns alongside them. This is an invitation, with no guarantee that every couple will have a session in the circle.

Find your way from rupture towards repair

We explore difficult conversations, including how to share a withhold: something you have held back about a moment or behaviour that hurt you. Christian demonstrates a full protocol, then you practise it with a partner.

We distinguish a specific event that calls for repair from a recurring relationship dynamic shaped by survival strategies and attachment patterns. You explore when a repair conversation can help, and when repeated processing leaves the same pattern in place. Sometimes the work is to accept what is present and find a different way of relating to it, while staying connected to your boundaries.

Let the body join the conversation

Meeting points open across the whole room, with several mats and people practising at the same time. You can explore with your partner or another willing participant. This continues the rupture-and-repair work through nonverbal expression: showing the hurt, giving feeling a shape and letting the body communicate what words have not reached. The group’s agreements and each person’s consent guide the practice.

A playful workshop explores the emotional, sexual and erotic charge between two people. With your partner or a willing practice partner, you slow down and explore witnessing and moving, leading and surrendering. You learn to tune into your body and move together without words, noticing what brings more aliveness and polarity into the connection. As throughout the retreat, you choose how to participate and can pause or simply witness.

The Heart iQ Journey

We explore guided presence through breath and body, grounding into what you can feel. Christian invites an exploration of connection with consciousness, ancestors and guides. These are personal spiritual ways of relating to the experience, which you can meet in your own way. You may notice a sense of expansive energy or a more open heart as you stay connected to your body.

Stay present through the Qi Generator

The Qi Generator invites you to explore maintaining that presence during a healthy physical challenge. You choose a level of participation that respects your body, with room to adapt, pause or observe. The practice is to notice how you meet the challenge while remaining attentive to your limits.

Ask for what you need and desire

We practise making direct requests, giving voice to needs and desires rather than waiting for someone else to guess. A celebratory desire circle invites you to ask clearly for what you would love to receive from the tribe. Each request leaves room for the other person’s choice and consent, as well as your own.

Music, movement and inner leadership

Music and embodied movement open a space for connection and inner leadership. The practice has a structure, with a highly emergent process inside it. You can follow your own impulses, draw on what you have practised and explore what still feels incomplete, while staying in relationship with the group’s agreements. There is no expectation that everything will be resolved before you leave.

Close together in tribe

We close with group, or tribal, regulation, giving the experience room to settle together before we part. What you discover during these days can become something you continue exploring in your own life.