Moving Encounters - An experiential workshop exploring embodied relational awareness for therapists and practitioners

A one-day experiential workshop for therapists and practitioners - exploring how body, attention, and relation shape the way we work.

This is a guided and contained space for working with attention, sensation, movement, and relation as they arise in real time. The emphasis is on direct experience rather than interpretation, performance, or technique. The day is structured, but not prescriptive, allowing space for both individual exploration and relational processes with others.

The atmosphere of the day - The workshop provides a structured experiential setting for exploring how awareness is organised in the body and in relation.

At times the work will be internally focused and quiet. At other times it will involve movement in relation to others, with clear frameworks supporting consent, choice, and pacing throughout. Throughout the day, the intention is to stay close to what is actually happening in experience, moment by moment.

Approaches informing the work  - This workshop draws on principles from:

Body-Mind CenteringⓇ — somatic and developmental awareness of the body
Authentic Movement — witnessed movement and reflective awareness
Contact Improvisation — weight, responsiveness, and relational movement

These are not taught as techniques, but used as reference points within structured experiential inquiry.

What will be explored - Across the day, the work will include:

attention to sensation, impulse, and movement
how awareness shifts between self and other
relational contact and distance
witnessing and being witnessed
patterns of responsiveness in interaction
how experience registers in the body

Participation is always invitational, and there is space to observe or pause at any time.

Who this is for - Participants often find that working in this way opens new dimensions of attunement and presence that directly enrich their clinical or facilitation work. The workshop is open to therapists, counsellors, psychotherapists, and practitioners working in relational or embodied contexts. It is designed for those interested in exploring embodied awareness as part of their reflective practice, particularly those curious about how bodily experience shapes presence, attention, and relational responsiveness.

No previous movement or dance experience is required.

What this is not - This is not:

a dance or performance workshop
a training in any therapeutic modality
a group therapy or personal process group
a space for psychological interpretation or treatment

It is an experiential workshop for embodied inquiry and relational exploration.

Reflection and integration -There will be structured opportunities to reflect verbally on experience during the day. Reflection is offered as a way of noticing and articulating experience, rather than interpreting or analysing it. Participants are encouraged to consider how the work may relate to their own professional practice.

Access Needs -the venue is on a ground floor with accessible toilets. If you have specific access needs please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

About the facilitator - This workshop is facilitated by Mark Rietema, a UKCP-registered Psychotherapist, and Somatic Movement Therapist (BMCA) with a background spanning clinical practice, somatic education, and movement facilitation.

Alongside a clinical practice that has included extensive work within NHS mental health services, Mark teaches and facilitates in a range of professional and academic contexts, including Embody-Move UK, Institut Prozessarbeit Deutschland, and King's College London, where he contributed to research on arts and wellbeing in higher education. He teaches Body-Mind Centering within official BMCⓇ trainings in the UK, Spain, and Italy.

Mark also teaches Contact Improvisation nationally and internationally, and is part of the organising team of the London Contact Festival and CI@Goldsmiths. This direct grounding in CI practice informs the relational and movement dimensions of the workshop.

A background in community arts (MA, Goldsmiths) and experience facilitating internationally - including in the USA, Palestine, and Germany - continues to shape an approach that is both rigorous and attentive to the lived complexity of group work. His training in Process Work (Mindell)  informs the way the group field and emerging process are held throughout the day.

Mark will be supported throughout the day by Sole de la Hoz, a Contact Improvisation teacher and trainee psychotherapist in Process Oriented Psychology, with a professional background in dance.

Practical details Date: Sun 18th Oct Time: 12pm-6pm

Location: Haggerston, London (details provided upon booking) Cost: £90-140 sliding scale, Early Bird £80 (until 24th Sept)

Cancellation policy - full refund until 20th Sept, 50% refund until 4th Oct, after that contact us to see if we can offer a transfer for a future workshop.

BMC® and Body-Mind Centering® are registered service marks of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen used with permission