The Intimacy Training
Module 1 - Module 2 - Module 3 - Module 4
Bonding as a
community
28 September to 4 October 2026
Our journey begins with safety. Not the kind we can explain or decide to have, but the kind that is felt in every cell when the body begins to settle into the reality that there is no actual danger here.
For many of us, intimacy comes with both longing and fear. We may long to be close to people while some part of the body is already preparing for disappointment, rejection or loss. Or we may smile and try to please while our stomach tightens.
In the first module, we begin to notice what is actually happening, with curiosity rather than judgment. We explore what safety, trust and belonging feel like in our own bodies, with this group that is just beginning to form.
The work is slow enough for us to feel at our own pace: to notice when we want to move closer, when we need space, when a yes is real and when a no has been covered by politeness. The group begins to become a trusted community through these small moments of honesty.
Developing a somatic sense of safety: not merely knowing that we are safe, but feeling it in the body.
Reclaiming the body as an intelligent instrument, an inner barometer that often knows before the mind does.
Learning to sense and trust the intuitive yes and no to connection.
Reconnecting with our needs, edges and desires for closeness and distance.
What we focus on
Moving from spinning thoughts of judgment, blame and self-criticism toward an embodied compassion that can hold both welcome and unwelcome experience.
Practising embodied relational awareness as intimacy deepens with ourselves and with others.
Beginning to explore our relationship with masculine and feminine energies.
Using voice, breath and sound to reconnect with the body and begin letting ourselves be heard in our personal, relational and sexual histories.
Someone may say, “I want to be close, but I am scared.” Someone else may say, “I can feel that I am trying to be the one attuned to everyone else in the room.” A boundary may be spoken, and instead of losing connection, something in the relationship becomes clearer and more trustworthy.
These are small experiences, but the body notices them. The shoulders may drop and the jaw may soften. We may discover that we can receive attention without having to perform for it, or that our no does not make us difficult.
The emotional nutrients many of us missed earlier in life can begin to be felt here, in ordinary human ways: being listened to without being fixed, being able to ask for what we need, being met when we are uncertain, being allowed to take space and being welcome when we do not know what to say.
As we bond as a community, we become more able to stay in contact with ourselves while closeness unfolds. What we once experienced as a problem in ourselves can begin to reveal itself as a doorway: into more honesty, more connection and a more compassionate relationship with the parts of us that learned to hide.
The deeper picture
Most of us learned early that connection required some kind of adaptation: to be easy and useful; not to need too much, be too angry or be too loud. We learned to hide the parts that might make people turn away.
Over time, these adaptations can become so familiar that we no longer notice them. We call them personality. We say, “I’m independent,” “I’m bad at asking for help,” or “I’m someone who needs a lot of space.” But sometimes there is something more tender underneath. Maybe a body that learned not to reach because reaching once felt pointless, or a person who became good at taking care of everyone else because being cared for felt uncertain or someone who learned to entertain while feeling alone.
When we isolate in shame, these patterns become stronger. We keep the difficult parts private and try to manage them on our own. We may understand a great deal about attachment, trauma or the nervous system, while still feeling unable to let another person see what happens when closeness becomes real.
This module begins to create another possibility.
“I’m falling in love with my body, and with her language. She speaks wisdom, clarity and truth. She says: less is more. Sensitivity is incredibly powerful.”
Malin, participant