Platonic Touch Pods with Agata - The Human Mycelium Project

Platonic Touch Pods with Agata - Human Mycelium Project 

A guided wellbeing practice of human interconnectedness through mindful, therapeutic touch, with consent and boundaries, in a safe, trauma-informed environment. 

This workshop is based on a mindful practice of radical presence - finding and deepening of the loving presence with oneself and others. 

It will be run as small groups so that everyone gets the same amount of attention.

Fully clothed, platonic, and boundaried. 
Explore what feels right for you and the others, through gentle enquiry and authentic communication. 

No experience is needed, and a commitment to protecting the safe space for all is essential. 
Willingness to explore and a capacity for self-regulation is also important to us all.

Agreements will be made together at the start of the session.

More about me and the reasons I have created The Human Mycelium Project:

My love story with nurturing touch started with being born into a tactile family: woken up for school with a little back massage, and a profusion of cuddles, love and hugs as daily life. I liked to massage people’s faces whenever the opportunity presented itself, so unsurprisingly I trained as a Facial Reflexologist and massage therapist, then added clinical hypnotherapy, NLP master practitioner, Hatha and Yoga Nidra, and Pranayama breathing techniques to my portfolio.

Along the teenage years I lost my footing; my undiagnosed ADHD combusted at puberty, with disastrous consequences. In recovery since 1988, so decades of learning authenticity via radical honesty, getting to know myself and letting myself be known, learning vulnerability, and living in service to a higher good for all. I now see my lived experience of recovery from multiple addictions as an ongoing process and a rich resource. 

My addictions featured entrenched habits of self-loathing, low self-esteem, a delinquent ego and body dysmorphia. At 35, after a tough divorce, I concluded I was unlovable. I knew the solutions in cognitive, even spiritual ways, but was stuck inside a dysregulated nervous system, in burnout, craving the sense of being held in safety.

Finally, I found the Human Awareness Institute (HAI). My hyper-stressed body-mind was ready for safe, nourishing touch; and a deeper-than-skin, somatic journey to reclaim myself from within. And I re-discovered play, spending the next five years at progressive workshops through the 5 levels, each an immersive residential with community days and reunions. It changed my life.

This video introduction to HAI workshops shows interviews with the teachers I had the privilege to learn from, and gives a flavour of what inspires me. More information and testimonials are here. I have done so many workshops, residentials and modalities over the decades that I cannot credit them all, I wish I could!

A few years ago, after a compound effect of various losses, I attended a workshop run by Treasure of Embrace Connection. It re-awakened my commitment to platonic touch as a resource to be shared. I have been Treasure’s helper at the Cuddle Corner at ecstatic dance events ever since, and a crew member with Osara and the ACE Collective. Top-ups of cuddles at movie nights at DE-E’s Space have also been nourishing and fun!

As a serial and serious tree hugger, I have called my work “human mycelium” because I imagine each of us as a tree in the forest of humankind: interconnected in visible and invisible ways, interdependent, magnificent, together yet needing our own space and sunshine to thrive and grow into our full potential. I design my workshops to incorporate nature and its energy, and to include practices of taking responsibility for our own energy, so we become more intentional.

The Human Mycelium Project is my offering to all those who need a somatic breakthrough, or a top-up on their healing journey. This is my calling, my gift to share.