Where

SoCal - Joshua Tree Retreat Center, Joshua Tree, CA

59700 Twentynine Palms Hwy
Joshua Tree, CA 92252

When

(GMT-07:00) Pacific Daylight Time (America/Los_Angeles)

 
Start Oct 19, 2018 7:00 PM
End Oct 21, 2018 6:00 PM
Contact
Niki Schmid
408-805-5440
 
Event Cost
Event Registration Fee (per person) USD 595.00
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Event is Closed for Registration
Event Summary

Everyone starts with Connecting in Love, an immersive weekend workshop that is designed for you, exactly as you are now. In this workshop you will have profound opportunities for deeply connecting with yourself and others. We gently invite you to let go of the layers of defense that have kept you safe in the past,  but now may just be keeping you separate.

The workshop is designed to be a safe place for you to explore your inner world, as well as your connections with others. Our focus on Love, Intimacy and Sexuality provides fertile ground for self discovery, and true intimacy with others in a non-sexual context.

Food and some basic lodging options are included in your workshop ticket price. If you would like to upgrade your lodging or add high-protein meals, you will have the opportunity to do so once you are registered.

HAI is adding a mandatory $45 surcharge to in-person weekend workshops to cover COVID testing and other COVID related expenses until they are no longer necessary.

HAI Global is committed to the safety of its participants, volunteers and employees. You will be asked to provide a negative COVID test 2-4 days before the workshop in addition to testing onsite at registration.

 

Event Team

Facilitators

Rich Walkden has had a keen interest in interpersonal relationships and personal growth work from early adulthood. Rich discovered the Human Awareness Institute in 2001. As a facilitator, he uses his training in Clinical Hypnotherapy, personal growth coaching, and as a mental health consultant to support others in moving from disconnection to deep love and vitality. He has facilitated workshops for men convicted of domestic violence, aiding them in learning healthy, compassionate relationship skills. Rich has also effectively coached young adults confronting issues of sexuality and gender. Rich lives in the mountains of Vermont with his wife, Anne. They have a deep and powerful marriage, personifying and putting into action solid relationship principles and choosing love from moment to moment.
Sarah is a lover of all people. She is a deeply kind, authentic, and revealing facilitator. She has been leading HAI workshops since 1995. Sarah creates the safety for men and women to thrive in areas of love, emotional intimacy, spirituality and sexuality. Her passion is working with women to shed their shame around sexuality and blossom into their sexual aliveness. She currently also leads her women’s workshop called "All About Sex for Women." Sarah is very open about her life and her history, allowing people to feel at ease and supported by her. She is a powerful leader and combines this with a lovely sense of humor. Sarah’s was trained in process therapy at the Process Therapy Institute. The quote she aspires to live by is, “I refuse to tiptoe carefully through life only to arrive safely at my grave.” She has three children and 5 grandchildren and a magnificent relationship with her husband Peter.
 
Event Details

“There must be something more than this.”

For some who come to their first HAI workshop, they may not be able to identify anything specifically wrong with their lives, but just that something’s missing. You come to your first workshop full of who you have always been, and for most of us there is a sense that “there must be something more than this.” There must be a deeper, richer something—but it is elusive. We catch glimpses, whiffs and moments. We bring with us our hopes, our pain, even our undoing, and our very real sense of knowing underneath we feel there is something more.

We come and we listen and then we begin to share, answering questions we have perhaps not spoken out loud into a truly listening ear. We begin to listen to others in a way that makes little inroads into our own possibilities—something inside has a new, stronger voice—sometimes it cries, sometimes it laughs and sometimes it comes with a shiny new idea about how we might live. Perhaps it is true that there is a miracle inside the decision to love and we begin to follow a thread, a rope, a path, and then a road.

Along this road we find others that have sought something more. We begin to explore that elusive longing and find ourselves in the embrace of other like-minded humans. Then, we grow in the warmth of a community coming together to be the loving human family we all long for.

In your Connecting in Love workshop, we invite you to be both empowered, and naked. Naked in both your body, and your emotions. What if there were truly nothing in the way? See more on why we invite you to be naked.

The openings are some extravagant mix of inner looking and soft landing places. We begin to breathe deeper and our hearts quiver on the edge of true tenderness and understanding. At first it feels just vaguely familiar and then this openness begins to feel like where we truly want to live.

You will have the opportunity to:

  • Discover you are beautiful and lovable, just as you are.

  • Let go of fear and shame that can block love and intimacy

  • Practice speaking and listening from your heart

  • Accept and love your body, as it is today

  • Change habits and patterns that no longer serve you

  • Feel the support of loving community

  • Take risks, have fun, change your life

Come let your guard down, let your heart be touched, and come home to yourself.

“I learned at HAI workshops that I really am lovable and valuable, and I now believe people when they tell me, ‘I love you.’ As I have opened to loving myself, it has made my relationships so much richer, deeper and real.” ~K.L.

Event Policy

CANCELLATION & TRANSFER POLICY

Once you are confirmed in a workshop, your deposit is non-refundable.
If you cancel or transfer, the fee is $100.
Less than 2 weeks prior to the start of the workshop, if you cancel or transfer, the fee is $200.
Once the workshop begins, all payments are non-refundable.
To cancel or transfer your registration you need to contact the HAI office prior to the start of the workshop. 
If you sign up for a workshop while attending a workshop, you have one week to change the date without incurring any fees.

REFUND POLICY

If a credit balance remains after fees and deposit are deducted, a request for a refund must be made within 60 days of cancelling or transferring.
If no refund is requested within 60 days, you have 1 year to use the credit by attending a HAI workshop or a HAI event.
After 1 year, all payments and/or credits expire and are non-refundable.
If the next offering of the same workshop you are cancelling or transferring is over 1 year away, your credit will be extended to that date.                 



ADA POLICY

If you need an accommodation to attend a HAI event, contact your local HAI Office at least ten (10) days before the event and inform them of the nature of the disability and your needs. In the case of events held in private homes, additional time may be required.  See our ADA Policy for more information.

​Trained Service Animals as defined by the ADA are always welcome. Service Animals, such as Guide Dogs/Seizure Dogs/Hearing Dogs are trained to perform specific tasks and are working animals, not pets. Pets, Therapy Dogs and Emotional Support Dogs, specifically, are not Service Animals and are not allowed at HAI events.