Love Your Nervous System Training - Fall Community Retreat

Name: Love Your Nervous System Training - Fall Community Retreat
Start: 2025-10-12T09:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-12T16:00:00-04:00
Location: Indigo Grace, Waters Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, United States

Schedule

Sun Oct 12 2025 at 09:00 am to 04:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Indigo Grace, Waters Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, United States | Ann Arbor, MI

Full Day Retreat and Training 9 am to 3 pm with optional 3-4 pm community nature walk or your own meditation on the 22-acre retreat land afterward to integrate the day.
Learn to be powerfully present and connected to your Sacred Self and all that is--amidst life's stresses. All our nervous system states can be a portal to our awakening if we can offer ourselves compassion and have the tools to work with them. Learn a host of simple, powerful techniques to balance your nervous system in a fun, engaging, retreat atmosphere.
During the training retreat, we will learn to more skillfully respond to flight, fight, and freeze (and fawn) nervous system states based on Polyvagal Theory with influences from deep ecology, Internal Family Systems, Focusing, as well as Tantric Yogic and Buddhist teachings. The retreat will offer teachings on Polyvagal Theory and how different approaches are needed for our different nervous system states.
The bulk of the training will be experiential with an opportunity for you to reflect on which practices you like best and when you might want to use them.
Exercises during the retreat range from toning and humming to somatics and self-soothing, to nature engagement and partnered sharing and activities, to yoga, breathwork, and meditation, and much more. All activities are voluntary, trauma-informed, and you can pick and choose how you participate. There will always be alternate options for you to choose how your time is spent. It's your retreat and part of the training will be to practice and claim your full bodied yes and no with the practices.
The training will offer a time to practice in community, inquire deeper, and take home evidence-based techniques for yourself and to share with your clients or others in your life. There are several techniques that are only 1-5 minutes and can easily be shared with clients as well as longer flows that can take one to deeper stillness. The training comes with an extensive set of short videos, handouts, inspirational resources, and articles for you to use for yourself and/or clients long after the retreat. Enjoy learning in the company of like-minded others.
A catered vegetarian lunch will be provided and snacks through the day. We will have the opportunity to practice mindful savoring our our delicious food during half our meal and then open time up for community connecting for those who wish. If the weather is conducive, we will have the opportunity to enjoy the 22 acres of trails and the farm animals.
Retreat Facilitator: Holly Makimaa, CPS, CTSS, RYT200 Holly brings over 25 years of combined experience leading retreats, trainings, and workshops. She helps us remember the love we are beyond all nervous system states. Her approach draws on practices such as yoga, qigong, nature attunement, and meditation as well as journaling, community ritual, and creative expression. She teaches Nervous System Care and Trauma-informed Journaling and Mindfulness for EMU's School of Social Work Continuing Education Program. Holly works as an individual and organizational spiritual coach and trainer for nervous system care integration.
Guest Teachers:
TatiAnah Thurnberg, LMSW, will be leading us in a nervous system exploration using vocalization to up and down regulate our nervous systems using toning, humming, singing, creative movement in partnership with each other and alone. You are in for a treat! No experience necessary. I am not a singer and love TatiAnah's accessible approach to vocalizing.
Jennifer Lenders, C-IAYT professional yoga therapist 800hr, will be sharing her vast depth of practice and knowledge with us to lead us in exploring Breath and yoga practices to begin to calm the waves of the mind in prepartation for meditation/mindfulness. We will be learning to identify with the stillness always here amidst the waves. You will love Jennifer's open-hearted approach and accessibility.
The retreat team members bring a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, and neurodivergent-aware lens to all they offer and a wealth of personal experience finding joy and calm in life's challenges.

To register for the retreat and training, apply here: https://forms.gle/GVMfhYi68rqk1nrc8