Upcoming Programs
SEAL Advanced Training
A 5-week online embodied workshop series for organizers, cultural workers, practitioners, and experienced students of embodiment to deepen both their practice and impact
November 16 - December 17, 2026 | Online Weekly
This course is designed for you: the organizer looking to deepen their embodiment practice as part of a broader political commitment; the cultural worker wanting to further integrate the body into their offerings; the practitioner asking the hard questions and peeling back beneath the surface; all those longing to integrate social, emotional, spiritual and/or embodied practices into their daily life and leadership.
We offer this course to our alumni as well as other advanced students (see list below for list of organizations/qualifying pre-requisites). We have heard the call for advanced versions of practices, repetition of practice in community, adding more nuance, interrogating the use of somatics in movement, and being in a community of practiced bodies. Join us for this online series from November - December 2026.
Proposed Times (TBD):
Tuesdays (6-8pm EST) OR Wednesdays (11am-1pm EST)
Participants will leave with:
Cross pollination across different lineages of practice
Advanced practices not taught in our other courses
Personalized coaching to support your commitment
Clearer sense of how to integrate practice into your daily life
Deeper nuance around the theory and practices of politicized embodiment
Ways to apply embodiment work in non-embodied spaces
Relationships with other advanced students and practitioners
Opportunities to maintain an ongoing community of practice within and beyond SEAL
A sense of restoration post-election/other big campaign pushes: space to re-set, reflect and digest
Pre-requisites:
Advanced course for those who have had one or more of these experiences:
At least one preliminary embodiment training with Sanctuary Embodied, BOLD, NDWA, AAEL, generative somatics, Strozzi, CAL, TEI, Thirdspace Somatics, or other similar organizations.
a somatics coach for at least one year.
Attended a local/regional Practice group
Attended the Politized Somatics Daily Practice space
This course is co-led by Eliana Rubin + Yashna Padamsee with MawuLisa Thomas-Adeyemo as our guest teacher.
Conspire
Five week workshop series for queer, trans, and BIPOC organizers and cultural workers to exhale and find resource to fuel their work
This is a 5 part series - attendance at all sessions is required | Durham, NC
August 30: 1:00-6:00pm
September 1, 8 & 15: 5:30-7:30pm
September 19th: 1:00-6:00pm
Conspire (verb): a) join in a secret agreement to do an unlawful act b) to scheme or c) to act in harmony toward a common end. The roots of this word come from Latin conspirare: con meaning “with” and spirare meaning to “breathe”. Breathe. Together.
In this workshop series, we will engage in body-based practices, political relevance building, relational work, and skill building for organizers and cultural workers. These practices are meant to bring more agency, freedom, connection, pleasure, and power into our lives and communities. By doing this work together, we are inherently deindividualizing and de-shaming the work we all have to do to get free while also gaining the opportunity to learn off of different bodies, histories, and movement locations. We will also put our practice into action by hearing from local organizers about how to get plugged in, or stay plugged in, to local campaigns.
To conspire, we will practice building the bodies that can disrupt status quo, create new worlds, take a deep breath, and perhaps even find joy while we are at it! So let's breathe together, let's build the kind of embodied presence that can wield power towards revolutionary change, let's conspire!
This course is co-led by Yashna Padamsee + Eliana Rubin with Alexis Pauline Gumbs as our guest teacher.
Transforming Together
A 5 week embodied workshop on how to find and sustain your role in this movement moment
Tuesdays | January 20 - February 17, 2026 | 3:00-4:30PT/6:00-7:30ET | Online
Where do my skills meet the needs of this moment? How can I make clear and powerful offers? Is there a more aligned role I could play? What contributions to movement are most effective and fulfilling? How can I bring my full self into my work/organizing?
This online course is designed to support you in reconnecting to a sense of purpose and recommitting or reinventing your role. We are in a prolonged moment of increasing pressure that shapes us personally and politically. Within these pressures, we want to be able to return to our agency, power, and purpose. We can only do that if we are clear on our role, and what kind of impact is possible from where we stand. In this workshop we will use somatic and popular education tools to help you identify places you have most influence to transform inside of yourself, your community, and our collective movements for justice. We will explore the roles of caregivers, base-builders, healers, frontline workers, organizers, artists and more! You will leave this workshop with a clearer sense of your commitment, what role you want to play in this movement moment, and what choices you need to make to embody what you care about. This course will center BIPOC applicants.
This course is co-led by Yashna Padamsee + Fayza Bundalli with Alexis Pauline Gumbs as our guest teacher.
Embodied Leadership I & II
In person embodied skills intensive for movement workers including two three day sessions and online sessions in between
March 5 - 8 & June 11-14, 2026 | Durham, NC
How can somatics be integrated into our leadership? How can we make somatics scalable to meet the needs of a larger collective? What does embodied practice and personal transformation have to do with building stronger organizing and social movements?
We will explore ways to more effectively coordinate, take action, and collaborate towards our individual and collective visions. You will reflect on your own leadership, envision the kind of leader you want to be, and begin to make the moves to get there. You will explore how you historically act under pressure and learn to shift unwanted automatic reactions. You will build skills in making direct requests and declines. You will learn to: articulate your vision for how you want to lead; form mutual relationships that can more easefully coordinate towards larger goals; embody greater authenticity and accountability; increase your ability to move others in beneficial directions; and compel and inspire people towards a collective vision.
The somatics of embodied leadership takes time—including days in training, daily practice, good models, and individualized support. Attendance is required at both weekends and will include a prep session before session one, and a practice session in between.
This course is designed for people within social and environmental justice movements, including cultural organizers, staff, members, and activists.
This course is co-led by Adaku Utah, Yashna Padamsee + Eliana Rubin with Denise Perry and Cindy Weisner as our guest speakers.
E, healing justice organizer
“This training space was incredibly unique - to be able to bring all the different parts of myself as part of a collective finding our way to justice and freedom.”
L, grassroots organizer
Sanctuary Embodied created a space for me to understand myself more deeply. The facilitation teams ability to move through live conflict and issues inspired me to be bolder in my leadership, make mistakes, and learn from them in public. Our movement will be stronger from the collective experiences they're offering to learn together.
B, queer organizer
“It was a joy and a gift to practice with other queer and trans organizers under Eliana and Yashna's skilled coaching and facilitation. I'm walking away from the weekend with a greater capacity to meet uncertainty with an open heart, grounded feet and aliveness in my belly.”
S, public school teacher