…thank you so much for our time on Dartmoor. It was excellent in every way. Thank you for your gentle but deep holding of that space for us. I feel so much more resourced in being able to downregulate and bring myself into total peace in my being!
– Rhiannon, Dartmoor 2022
I’m not sure what made your workshop day so safe for me …. Whether it was endorsements from people I love and trust before I even came, whether it was your honest, light touch that also felt very holding … whether it was feeling held by the nature in which we moved as our nature … or a combination of all of these and more, as yet unidentified. I felt at home with like-minded people, people who know and love the nature in which we abide.
– Debbie, Kenilworth 2022
Thank you so much for yesterday . I’m still feeling the holding and reverberations of the group and our time together.
– Mary, Kenilworth 2022
I’m feeling the strength of reconnecting what is us in environment … and this has helped me to kick some arse today! 🤣 seriously it helps xxxx
Doing a kinship workshop is a disturbing experience – stay with me! – in that it disrupted my normal patterns of time, moving, thinking and feeling. Only as the experience progressed did I begin to realise how sorely needed this was. My body-mind was able to calm, regulate with the different landscapes I was in, and then become curious and playful. There were many moments throughout the experience when my usual thought patterns were completely absent, and it was as if a repressed self (one that doesn’t get much of a look in living under a hyper-capitalist and controlled society) was able to emerge.
Tom and Katye are really skilled at creating the conditions […] to slow down and rest, which I now understand is a great way to lay the foundations for grounded movement scores in quite wild landscapes. They also work from a deep respect for the land we live in, and as I deliberately paid attention to the land in the way they encouraged, I felt very happy and peaceful in a way that is difficult to describe.
All in all, the experience was a kind of ‘coming home’. Thank you to Tom and Katye.
– Ruby, Cornwall 2022
I really valued the invitation to give such time and attention to an experience and the care with which you and Katye held it all.
– Sam, Cornwall 2022
Thank you again
Your thoughtful and considered Kinship workshop enabled me to find a rich rhythm of exploration that although gently offered, resulted in vibrant and joyful connections with body and landscape. The workshop offered a rebalancing of the brain and body in which the body feeds the brain’s desire to explore and learn and listen and through conversation and practice you revealed your thoughts and considerations around “group” or “tribe” or herd work and living.
You guided us to stunning locations in the earth and body landscapes and introduced me to tahini smothered sea spaghetti, what more could I want.
– Lois, Cornwall 2022
Thankyou. The workshop was a real gift for me; very slowing, calming, inviting me to experience a familiar place in a different way […] My heart was glad to move, and observe gently with a group of warm and open people. I felt well held, and sensitively guided…
– Emma, Dartington 2022
I want to thank you and Kayte again for the workshop on Saturday. I loved it – the way it was held by you both and the tangible affect it had on me… I feel it’s just what I need at this time and I’m hungry for more!
– Rhiannon, Dartington 2022
I felt a kind of elastic companionship over those days which warmed me – that came with you and Katye, your kinship. Such nourishment.
– Carolyn, Dartington 2022
It was so reassuring to be in the presence of the stoic wisdom of the Beech trees in Epping. The invitation to surrender to the slow-time of the forest was received with a deep outbreath in my body. To respond to and be in relationship with land, birds, trees and each other from this subtle quiet place was a delicious feast for the senses.
– Sara, Epping Forest 2022
Tom and Katye hold space with loving permission and gentle encouragement to explore, in keeping with the trees themselves.
…it was a truly moving experience. I really appreciated the language that was used for the facilitation, how simple and gentle it was but also never too fluffy or much, and that is a delicate balance to strike…
– Munira, Epping Forest 2022
The whole workshop was very well thought out and organized in a way that created a safe and welcoming space as the day flowed with ease, yet full of surprises. The choice of places, texts, paths and the way you put everything together in general was exquisite. A gentle, quiet and powerful way of holding the space as we walked together… I am also very grateful for the possibility of paying a discounted amount… I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity. Being in the Epping Forest with all of you was a healing experience for me. I hope to attend another workshop in the future.
– Muge, Epping Forest 2022
I would like to say a big thank you to Katye and Tom…
– Irene, Kinship@Home 2021
A wonderful day embracing nature and strengthening my belief that nature is precious and a real healer for the human spirit.
So good to meet kindred spirits!
For me, in these lockdown isolated pandemic times, Kinship was a first return to people. To the simplicity of sharing and being. We walked and sat … and swam … it was a big and little exploration. I got lost and the kin waited for me, they came to find me. We led each other with full trust. We ran into the sea and rolled in the sand. We shared chips. We shared dreams and laughs. It was a gentle, memorable togetherness with each other and the landscape.
– Fionnuala, Abercych 2021
Tom planned a route through the wonders of the old and expansive Epping Forest. [Frameworks] of listening, climbing and attentiveness accompanied the weekend. This allowed a space to leave the city behind and immerse yourself within the surroundings of nature. When you enter that place everything seems to quieten, and the senses settle back to their simplest state. This place was hard to leave, but heading back to the city, you feel more awake, open and calm.
– Alexander (Epping Forest, 2018)
…
[Tom] created a space where all kinds of people could move, listen, play, and experience together. It was an incredible weekend that I wish had lasted a lot longer…
I’d never attended anything like this before. I had an interest in what I guess you’d call “mindfulness” but had only really explored this via apps and online. I also have no background in movement, so did come to the weekend with some trepidation.
I was immediately put at ease by Tom, who led the weekend with a rare openness, inclusiveness and kindness. The group was also a nice size and consisted of a lovely bunch of people.
The time spent in the woods was my favourite part – which brought us into nature in new and ultimately quite moving ways.
I’d definitely take part in something like this again and I encourage anyone who’s feeling a bit unsure about whether it’s for them to give it a go, I did – and loved it!
– Jamie (Epping Forest, September 2018)
Tom’s gentle and natural approach created an atmosphere that felt effortlessly relaxed. There was enough structure to make it an experience but plenty of time to just slow down to the rhythms of communal living and explore the beautiful location with some like minds.
…the studio work was […] easy to adapt to one’s own body and abilities, and the work out on Dartmoor with its ponies, skylarks, cows, rabbits, and insects of all kinds was very memorable. Thanks Tom, Katye and Hilary for a gorgeous week (and many unusual foraged salads!)
Oh and the group naps. I liked those. I always want a nap after lunch.
Kinship is for anyone who wants to explore through their bodies what a greater sense of connection and attention to the land, the creatures in it and to each other might feel like.
– Maisie (Dartmoor, May 2018)
KINSHIP WORKSHOP 