The Intimacy Training

Module 1 - Module 2 - Module 3 - Module 4

From Trauma to Personal Power

Module 2: 30 November to 6 December 2026

Once the first layer of trust has begun to grow, we turn towards what has been carried underneath the surface.

This module is about the parts of us that learned to protect themselves when attachment relationships became too uncertain, too volatile or too painful. The parts that freeze, collapse, disappear, fight, please or control.

We do not approach these responses as something broken that needs to be fixed. They are intelligent strategies that once helped us survive. But they can also keep us from the closeness, freedom and aliveness we want now.

Together, we begin to notice what happens when we are triggered, exposed or vulnerable. We learn to stay closer to the body in those moments, and to discover that there may be more choice than the nervous system first believes.

  • Discovering who we are in our wholeness, not only in the parts that feel presentable or easy to love.

  • Inviting relational trauma into the community to be witnessed, held and met with care.

  • Reconnecting with the parts of us that have not felt safe to embody: the frozen, fragmented, dissociated or collapsed parts.

  • Uncovering protective patterns that have been shaping our relationships, emotions and behaviour.

  • Learning to recognize activation in the nervous system and move toward connection rather than automatically away from it.

  • Rebuilding an internally secure sense of self, clearer boundaries and greater relational resilience.

  • Discovering that vulnerability can be a source of power, not the opposite of it.

  • Reclaiming the energy that has been locked in protection and making it available for connection, creativity and life.

  • Meeting the contradictions in ourselves: the strong and the tender, the destroyer and the creator, the one who has been hurt and the one who has hurt others.

What we focus on

“I realize I am not alone after this week. One of my biggest fears was that I wasn’t able to cry. I could easily get in contact with my anger and my laughter, but my crying, I really have a hard time. And there were two times I actually cried. That was a huge release for me.”

- Henrik, participant

The deeper picture

Talking about what happened and understanding our patterns can matter. But for something deeper to shift, we also need to become vulnerable again, beyond the story, and let the body enter an experience it could not have had alone. This is why the container matters and why safety within the group has to be felt before we go further.

We begin with what is here now: the breath that has stopped, the urge to look away, the heat in the face, the numbness in the legs, the part that says “I’m fine” while something deeper is asking not to be left alone with this.

When these experiences can be met in the present, something starts to change. The frozen parts of us may begin to thaw and the energy that has been tied up in surviving starts to move. And as the body no longer has to use all its strength to defend against what has already happened, more energy can become available for life here and now.

This is where empowerment begins to return, as the ability to stay with ourselves, feel our own ground and trust our inner compass. 

The bonds of the group remain, but we also begin to stand more firmly on our own two feet. This is the balance we are practising: I am my own solid person, and I can still let myself be close to you.

In the first module, we began building a container of presence, attunement and embodied intimacy. We learned to listen to our bodies, share from direct experience and begin to trust the community. Now we use that trust to turn towards what we cannot fully face alone.

Some experiences do not simply pass when they are over, they remain in the body as unfinished protection.

A certain tone of voice can make the chest close. Someone’s disappointment can feel much bigger than the moment itself. A person may want to speak but suddenly lose their words. Someone else may feel rage rising before they understand why. These reactions are often fast and the response automatic.

Fight. Flight. Freeze. Collapse.

For many of us, these responses developed in relationship. We learned them when something important was at stake: love, belonging, safety, being wanted, being allowed to need. And because they were shaped in relationship, they often need new relational experiences in order to soften.