Primordial Ground of Being

A Continuum Retreat

“I see our ‘bodies’ formed by the liquid of our first cradle. Our early watery environment shapes and gives us its secret. This is our first home, our ‘primordial field.’ The fluid in our cells is our birthplace, our memory of the creative matrix in which all life is summoned.” – Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum

A Four Day Retreat

The mindful movement practice of Continuum naturally takes us into fluid states reminiscent of the embryo. Using the gentle breaths, sounding, and often subtle movement of Continuum, we find our tissues melting, patterns dissolving, thoughts softening. As we return to our essential fluidity, we can experience embryonic creativity, re-form and emerge renewed, refreshed, and ready for what life presents next with enhanced resilience.

This retreat is a special offering from Continuum teachers, Jane Okondo and Cherionna Menzam-Sills, to support those with experience of Continuum to deepen their practice further. The retreat format enables us to deepen further than shorter dives. We can immerse ourselves within our fluid field.

In this retreat, we will review embryological development and how it can be relevant for our health and well-being now. We will specifically explore how the heart, respiratory diaphragm, and other body systems spiral into form, contributing to sensitive presence and grounded being.

We will take the first day and a half to establish our field and our intentions for our extended two-day dive, which will be in silence. The elemental environment of Karuna invites us to extend our exploration into the breathtaking expanse of the Moor as well as to deepen inside the vast territory of our ever moving, breathing tissue bodies. As we slow down, we enter the mysterious teachings and healing the embryo has to offer.

Pre-requisite: To prepare for deepening into silence for an extended period, you must have some familiarity with Continuum and have had the equivalent of at least 3 days of experience with a Continuum teacher.

Cherionna Menzam-Sills

A therapist since 1978, Cherionna worked intensively with founder of Continuum, Emilie Conrad, the final decade of Emilie’s life. Cherionna was authorized in 2007 by Emilie to teach Continuum and has been teaching frequently since then. She is a member of the Continuum Teachers Association and registered with ISMETA as a somatic movement therapist and educator. Her passion for Prenatal and Birth Psychology (PPN) led her to pursue a PhD in this field, where her dissertation addressed prenatal and birth themes in dance and movement. Inspired by her doctoral studies, she has taught embryology through movement since the 1990s and was adjunct faculty for graduate students in Somatic Psychotherapy and PPN, at Naropa University and the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. Trained and experienced as Occupational Therapist, Massage Therapist, Dance/Movement Psychotherapist, Bodymind Psychotherapist, and Prenatal and Birth therapist, her background includes intensive mindfulness meditation practices as well as extensive training with prenatal and birth therapy pioneers, William Emerson and Ray Castellino. Cherionna has been a senior tutor at Karuna and has taught Craniosacral Biodynamics, PPN, and Continuum across North America and Europe, often with her husband, Biodynamics pioneer, the late Franklyn Sills. She is also a published author, with her writings highly influenced by her time with Emilie and Continuum. Cherionna is committed in her life and work to embodied presence.

More on Cherionna and Continuum at www.birthingyourlife.org

Jane Okondo

Jane has been teaching in the field of Somatic Therapy since 1995 and has a private practice offering individual and group sessions in Integrative Bodywork and Movement Therapy, Continuum, the Discipline of Authentic Movement, Somatic Experiencing ® and NeuroAffective Touch ® from her studio in London.

She has a Master’s degree in ‘Dance and Somatic Wellbeing’ from the University of Central Lancaster, is a member of the Continuum Teacher Association, on Faculty with the Circles of Four programme for the Discipline of Authentic Movement and a registered master member of ISMETA and Continuum Teacher Association.

She is co-director and is international faculty for the Integrative and Bodywork and Movement Therapy training programme, IBMT. She is a guest trainer for Somatische Akademie in Berlin, teaching Continuum and CPD workshops on Body and Trauma. Jane is also co-lead assistant for the NeuroAffective Touch trainings in the UK.

Jane’s workshops and retreats in the UK and Europe have a focus on embodied presence and somatic approaches to working with trauma that integrate movement and hands on practices.

More on Jane and her work at www.somaflow.co.uk