The Well: A 10-week Postpartum Series (Babies Welcome)

Postpartum is a threshold season of deep transformation. As we transition into matrescence we are thrown into an ocean of new experiences that feel overwhelming. Your body, relationships, identity, and daily rhythms are all shifting. There can be so much love and tenderness alongside exhaustion, overwhelm and uncertainty. There can be moments when you wonder where you fit into it all.

While there are plenty of yoga classes and mental health resources available, community is often a missing piece. This group brings together elements of both ancient somatic wisdom and contemporary therapeutic elements, offering a space where emotional support and embodied practices can coexist. We'll make room for honest conversations about motherhood, while exploring movement and body-based skills you can carry into daily life.

Through a blend of facilitated conversation, somatic practices, yoga, dance, and breathwork, we'll create space for you to slow down, reconnect with yourself and your baby, and feel supported by a community of mothers who get it. There's no expectation to arrive a certain way, have the right words, or participate in every activity. Your baby is also welcome with all their needs, noises, and unpredictability.

Come as you are. Feed your baby, take a break, move, rest, talk, or simply listen. You don't need any prior yoga or dance experience, and you never have to share more than feels comfortable.

Reconnect with yourself. Postpartum can bring you into unfamiliar territory physically, emotionally, and relationally. We'll create space to check in with yourself, notice what you need, and communicate your needs to others.

Deepen your connection with your baby. Explore gentle ways to tune into your baby and strengthen your bond while also learning to recognize and honor your own needs.

Move, breathe, and tune in. Through accessible yoga, dance, breathwork, and somatic skills, we'll explore ways to listen to your body, soothe stress, and discover practices that support you in everyday life.

Find support through community. Share experiences, listen, laugh, ask questions, and discover that you're not alone in the complexities of this season. We'll also create opportunities to connect outside our weekly gatherings and build relationships that can continue long after the series ends.

We can’t do parenthood alone. Connection is the key to thriving in early parenthood, and we hope you let us guide you into more contact with yourself and others!

ABOUT THE WELL:

The Well began in January of 2022 when founders, Jenny Wade, Jen Oato Bennett and Julie Davidson came together to create a unique, in person offering for mothers in Seattle that we couldn't find anywhere else. We combined both our personal experiences as mothers and professional expertise in somatics, therapeutic facilitation, yoga and dance healing to create a potent combination of body and soul work that helped participants connect to their individual life force.

This special space eventually expanded from exclusively a mother's offering into a place for any woman or non-binary person who pours their life force into others to recharge-- artists, healthcare workers, caregivers and leaders. We found community in a circle of vulnerable, raw and alive humans, who sought to bravely to express, connect and refuel.

As facilitators we guide participants into embodiment through somatic practices, yoga, dance, singing/sounding, art expression and authentic relating exercises. We have found a magical recipe and have watched in awe as our participants come alive in this space.

Over the past three years The Well has taken shape in the forms of weekly series, themed workshops, and several retreats.

Email us at [email protected] to get on our mailing list and learn about future offerings!

ABOUT THE FACILITATORS:

This series is led by three women who bring complementary expertise in somatic work, movement facilitation, and mental health counseling, along with their experience as mothers to 7 children, collectively.

Jen Oato Bennett (she/her), SEP, RYT, is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Movement Healing Facilitator. Jen believes moving our bodies in community provides a uniquely important medium for healing, and is passionate about bringing a mixture of playful and intuitive movement to The Well. Her work focuses on supporting individials to understand the language of their nervous system, building capacity, resiliance, and trust for their body. Jen is currently centering spaces for the pregnant and postpartum population. Jen is a mixed-race, cis-gender, queer woman, and a mom of two. She loves travel, finding a body of water to dip her toes into, long conversations with friends, and a good chocolate chip cookie.

Julie Jean Davidson (she/her), MA, LMHC, SEP is a psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner based in Seattle (un-ceded Duwamish Territory). She brings ten years of experience working with individuals, couples and groups—helping people heal trauma, recover their innate sense of goodness, and reclaim connection to their body, sexuality, and identity. Her work centers around connecting to self and community through somatic, nervous system, and trauma-informed modalities. Julie loves caring for folks in the sacred perinatal period, and knows the value of support during this time as she has three young children of her own. She is as a white, cis, queer woman who loves cooking, taking risks, and eating around a table with soulful people.

Jenny Wade (she/her), MA, LMHC + RYT, is a psychotherapist and yoga teacher who specializes in trauma recovery and body image healing. She believes that expression through movement, sound, and visual arts are a superhighway to freedom. Her mission is to teach the world that your body is not an object to critique, but a part of yourself to accept and connect to deeply. Jenny is a white, cis-gender, queer woman. When she's not working she can be found cooking and sharing delicious meals, appreciating good stories both written and spoken, practicing yoga, and enjoying family time with her hilarious husband and two sons.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

The Well aims to be an anti-racist, inclusive space for all bodies. In this space, we acknowledge each member's individual experience unique to their identity. We expect all participants to be respectful and kind toward each other at all times. We practice non-violent language. We encourage any interested participants, including BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ individuals, to reach out for a discussion with one of our leaders about what a supportive and safe environment looks like for your healing.

We acknowledge that we are teaching on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish Tribe. We are grateful for the deep wisdom and magic of this land and the first people who cultivated this sacred place.