Integrated Awareness

Spirit proclaims itself in stillness, in the gaps between thoughts, in the inexplicable intuition of ok-ness even when our life/world is a mess. Soul(Psyche) is an autonomous desire to know and taste life in its myriad ecstasies and sufferings, our personal and collective longings, hauntings, dreamings and images of beauty.

In this five-day retreat we enter a container of practices that provide direct immersions in Spirit and Soul as well as explorations into their blending and ultimate inseparability. We will engage meditation practices to open into the ground of stillness that vibrates with enlivening creative potency. We will dive into expressive and psychologically rich practices to help us engage with the images, energies and archetypes that emerge from that stillness. 

 

All of this in a beautiful setting with the richness of group connection and exploration.

Both facilitators draw from a wide range of traditions, so our soul-focused practices will be interdisciplinary — part ritual, part art-making, part inner work. Depending on the day, our work may include activities like:

Paratheatre: a modality, created by Antero Alli from Grotowski’s foundation, which is a multi-modal means to explore the archetypal landscape through gesture, voice and imagination. The foundation of this work is two-fold: No-Form, a practice that cultivates deep sensitivity to energies in the body and space and Vessel Tending, physical methods and rituals to make oneself available to non-ordinary states of energy and consciousness. Paratheatre includes elements of polarity work, shadow exploration, ego dissolution and emotional expansion.

Psychodrama Adjacent Practices: One example is called “Clearing” which begins with one person (the protagonist) standing before the group and embodying an inner part, emotion, image, or energy that wants attention. The protagonist then invites another participant to step in and “play” that part. As new inner figures emerge, the protagonist names them, embodies them, and calls on others to represent them. Soon, a living map of the psyche fills the room, and the protagonist gently guides this constellation—changing pace, direction, distance, or intensity—to see how the system responds. The aim is clarity: to see our inner world more vividly, and to discover new freedom within it. The tone is exploratory and curious, a kind of soulful tinkering that helps the psyche reveal its own intelligence.

Signal Amplification: a technique from Process Oriented Psychology that helps us notice and work with subtle impulses: the flickers, tensions, and tiny gestures that carry psychological meaning. For example: the tightening in the throat when someone interrupts us, a flash of heat when we feel seen, a stray impulse to move our hands in a certain way, or a quick mental image that disappears before we can name it. In signal amplification, we gently exaggerate these signals: giving them more space, more movement, or shifting them into different senses. The technique involves following the aliveness of our signals which reveals shadowy parts of ourselves in need of integration.

Expressive Dance & Movement: mainly drawing inspiration from Butoh, a Japanese avant-garde dance form that uses slow, evocative, often distorted movement to explore the hidden, emotional, and imaginal layers of the body. We may guide warm-ups using bold emotional gestures—laughter, tears, exaggerated shapes—or offer an evocative image for the group to explore through movement. At other times, participants may be invited to draw on personal images from their inner lives and dance with those.

PRACTICAL DETAILS

Structure:  Our event will begin with everyone arriving between 4-7pm on Wednesday. During this time you are welcome to set up your tent and get acquainted to the property, walk around, and begin connecting with the other participants. We will have dinner together on Wednesday and settle in with some grounding and introductions. Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be full days with early rising and meditating around 6am. The days will be interspersed with meditation, the soul-related practices mentioned above, meals and time for rest. We will be observing a noble silence for the majority of the retreat which may be occasionally and intentionally lifted for intentional conversations and activities. Saturday evening will conclude with a collective ritual intended to provide a culmination of our spirit-soul work for the retreat. Sunday will then be devoted to integration, reflection and closing dialogue. The retreat will end with lunch on Sunday followed by departures. We will have an on-site chef providing us with 3 simple and nourishing meals a day. 

Price: Tuition price is tiered based on an sliding scales of income/subsistence. Financially Abundant $550 / Financially Secure $450 / Financially Strained $350

Sliding Scale: Please try to reasonably and honestly select the price that reflects your economic situation. If you are unable to find a price that is suitable for you, please get in touch [thedeepplayinstitute@gmail.com]. We are committed to covering our basic costs, while also making this possible for everyone who needs it. 

Venue: The event will take place at Elkenmist, a 120 acre working farm nestled into 200,000 acres of wilderness located a 1.5 hour drive from Portland, OR. The farm has sheep, horses, rabbits, vegetables and old growth maples. With the exception of a beautiful yurt that can fit 25 people, most of the setting will be outdoors (sauna, outdoor showers, outdoor kitchen, fire-pit, hundreds of acres for hiking, etc). The location is rustic and does not offer modern amenities like indoor showers, toilets, heating, electricity, or cell service.  Participants will be expected to bring camping gear and supplies with them.  

Maximum Participants: 25

Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 30 days before the event - minus a $20 processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for the event. Refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis according to the timing of the cancellation and other factors.

Partial Attendance:  Given the intimacy, trust building and shared creative practice inherent to this intensive, we highly recommend that all participants plan to stay for the entire weekend. We may be able to make accommodations for participants to end early, or miss a section of one day; however, late arrivals cannot be accommodated. 

NOTE ON EMOTIONAL REGULATION: This retreat will involve the exploration of diverse emotional landscapes that unfold within and among our psyches. Many of the practices we explore are designed to cultivate vulnerability, with its pleasures and hardships, and might be compared to the way one's deepest romantic relationships sometimes surface one's most challenging psychological material. Conflict and hurt may arise that might conventionally be quieted or minimized. It is not uncommon for participants to encounter triggers of psychological wounds within these practices, and this should be considered a possibility. 

The facilitators will use techniques to contain and care for what arises, but will not be able to provide ongoing care for emotional fallout. We invite you to be watchful of one's own safety and opt out in little and big ways as needed, and to have emotional processing methods in place (such as therapy, meditation, journaling, processing with friends, etc) that can help you learn with and from what happens at the intensive. Additionally, we ask that you have some inner settledness and calm available so we can play deeply together. If at this moment in your life you find you are highly activated by something you cannot set down, it may be best not to participate at this time. We understand that therapy can be very expensive and trusted therapists are hard to find, and there might be some temptation to come to this group for that kind of care, but it is not designed for that kind of individual attention.

About the Deep Play Institute The Deep Play Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to exploring life’s deepest questions through transformative play. DPI’s facilitators – therapists, artists, coaches, and philosophers –  aim to use play to bring people into an experiential questioning of what it means to exist. Each program that DPI runs is a unique container, creatively constructed and inspired by practices that include: Gestalt therapy, Process Work, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Tavistock Group Relations, Relational Psychoanalysis, Authentic Relating, Nonviolent Communication, Circling, coaching, performance art, contact improvisation, experimental theater, LARPs, surrealism, existential games, and various schools of meditation.

FACILITATORS 

 

Aaron Finbloom is a philosopher, artist, therapist, and educator whose work aims to expand transformative inquiry through relational games, role play, performance art, and conversation scores. He co-founded The School of Making Thinking (SMT) and is the founder and director of The Deep Play Institute (DPI). His projects have been featured internationally at venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Gallery 151 in New York, Maschinenhaus Kulturbrauerei in Berlin, UNAM in Mexico City, Performance Works Northwest in Portland, and MainLine Theatre in Montreal. Trained in Circling, Psychodrama, Buddhist Meditation, and Processwork, Aaron holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities from Concordia University in Montreal and teaches philosophy at the City College of New York. Learn more at www.finblooming.com and aaronfinbloom.com

 

Jogen Adam Salzberg is a meditation guide, spiritual counselor and parts work facilitator. He is an authorized Zen Buddhist teacher with Dharma transmission in the Soto lineage, having trained under Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi, at Great Vow Monastery. Jogen has 30 years of meditation experience, including 15 years of intensive residential training. His teaching integrates his practice of Dzogchen, Paratheatre, Voice Dialogue and more. He loves to play drum set, marvel at cats, and search for/eat the best Pad Kee Mao he can find. Jogen leads the weekly Wednesday evening meditation gathering at Heart Of Wisdom Temple in Portland. For more detailed information, you can visit his website, solisluna.org