An in-person program with Jane Blount and Kindred Gottlieb
September 27-29, 2024

Come gather amongst the redwoods to explore the healing
and creative state of embodied presence. 

Quakers speak about “being moved by the spirit” and following “leadings”. We will spend this weekend engaging in embodied physical practices that enhance our ability to discern and follow our inner leadings. By listening within we will explore how we can honor the body’s ways of knowing and to expand our creative capacity to be present with self, other, nature, and spirit.

Click here to register

We will introduce the simple yet profound somatic practice of Authentic Movement. Pioneered by Mary Starks Whitehouse in the 1950s and further developed by Janet Adler, PhD, Authentic Movement has been described as a contemporary mystical practice. In some ways it is like a Meeting for Worship with permission to move our bodies. We enter into an empty, expectant space, not knowing what will emerge or how we might be moved.

“I am moved . . . is a moment when the ego gives up control . . . allowing the Self to take over moving the physical body as it will. It is a moment of unpremeditated surrender that cannot be explained, repeated exactly . . . The core of the movement experience is the sensation of moving and being moved.”
– Mary Starks Whitehouse

This practice invites us to be present with our full and deepest selves, to cultivate creativity and healing while strengthening our inner witness. Participants will be both movers and witnesses, and practice seeing and speaking our experiences with clarity and integrity.  We will also spend time outdoors, witnessing, moving with, and being witnessed by the natural world.

When we deeply honor the embodied experience, listening to the small nudges and inward openings we are able to find our way to a spirit-guided life.   

Open to all, including those with any physical limitations.

About the program leaders

Kindred Gottlieb is a sculptor and physical theater improvisor interested in the intersections between embodiment, art, and spirituality. A lifelong Quaker, Kindred earned a BA in Neuropsychology and the Creative Process from Hampshire College and an MFA in Interdisciplinary De-Colonial Art from Goddard College. She spent two years in Berlin pursuing sculpture, Butoh, and Action Theater improvisation while working as the Technical Director for Dock 11 Dance Studio. After returning to Los Angeles, she headed the lighting department for UCLA’s department of Theater, served as Art Director for the puppet film company Classics in Miniature, and taught art, animation, and performance at Wisdom Arts Laboratory and Friends Western School.

Jane Blount (she/her) is an Authentic Movement facilitator, holistic bodyworker, dance artist/educator and qigong teacher dedicated to the cultivation of community, creativity, and healing through conscious movement and touch. She holds an HHP (Holistic Health Practitioner Certification) in Integrative Somatics from the International School of Professional Bodywork.  She was introduced to Authentic Movement in 1993 and has been practicing this form more deeply since 2007 when she co-founded a San Diego Authentic Movement Peer Group. Studies in embodied anatomy, the Alexander Technique, Contact Improvisation, and Vipassana Meditation inform her practice.  She has been a Quaker since 1996 as a member of La Jolla Monthly Meeting in San Diego.

Click here to register

“Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart, and let that grow in thee and be in thee and breathe in thee and act in thee.”   
– Isaac Penington 1661