Somatic Shamanism: Your Fleshy Knowing as the Tree of Life

Two-Day Immersive Workshop

Held at The Acorn Wellness Retreat in the peaceful Nidderdale countryside near Harrogate and facilitated by Kay Louise Aldred www.kaylouisealdred.com @kaylouisealdred

A creative, embodied and deeply personal two-day workshop exploring Somatic Shamanism — a grounded, trauma-informed and non-bypassing approach to shamanic practice rooted in the wisdom of the body.

Based on my own professional, academic and lived experience, alongside the teachings within my book, this workshop invites you to reconnect with your own fleshy knowing — the intelligence held within your body, ancestry and nervous system. Together we will explore the body as the Tree of Life: a living portal of memory, insight, connection and transformation.

Shamanism is the oldest spiritual practice known to humankind. Across cultures, medicine women and men understood the body, nature and spirit as deeply interconnected. Somatic Shamanism returns to this knowing through an embodied approach that honours safety, groundedness and lived experience. Rather than transcending the body, we enter through it.

Through ritual, reflection, creativity and guided practices, you will begin constructing your own medicine wheel and developing a personal somatic shamanic practice rooted in your unique experience, archetypes and ancestral wisdom.

This workshop is both experiential and creative — designed for those wishing to deepen their relationship with body, spirit, earth and intuition in a meaningful and accessible way.

Workshop Structure

Each day runs 10 AM–3 PM
Self-catering workshop — please bring your own drinks and lunch.

Schedule:
Session 1: 10 AM–12 PM
Lunch Break: 12 PM–1 PM
Session 2: 1 PM–3 PM

Day One

Session 1 — Become the Tree of Life
An introduction to Somatic Shamanism, embodiment and the Tree of Life as a map of connection, awareness and journeying through the body.

Session 2 — Construct Your Wheel
Begin creating your own personal medicine wheel through reflection, symbolism, creativity and embodied inquiry.

Day Two

Session 1 — Discern Your Archetypes & Allies
Explore the archetypes, energies, ancestral threads and natural allies that support your personal path and practice.

Session 2 — Accessing Your Fleshy Knowing
Cultivate practices that deepen your connection to bodily wisdom, intuition, sensation and inner guidance.

Please Bring

Stones, shells or crystals
Natural objects and symbolic items
Pens and pencils
A notebook or journal
Any meaningful objects connected to your personal journey

About the Work

Somatic means “of the flesh,” and this shamanic process cultivates your own fleshy knowing — the wisdom held within your blood, bones, organs and lived experience.

This workshop offers an overview of shamanism and the Tree of Life while guiding you through practices that activate your own embodied shamanic awareness and connection

£180 total for the two-day workshop

“Embark on a powerful journey of self-discovery – or indeed rediscovery – between your body, ‘your fleshy knowing’, your relationship with the natural world, and your ancestral heritage as you become the Tree of Life...”
— Barbara O’Meara, Visual Artist, Writer and Celtic Shamanic Practitioner

“Where our minds are vexed by modernity, with even our wilder hopes limited by reason and logic, our creaturely bodies house and animate our strangest imaginations... We wield the intelligence of the flesh, our ‘fleshy knowings’ as Kay Louise Aldred describes them.”
— Danielle Dulsky, Founder of The Hag School and author of The Holy Wild