SHOP

Relational Arts

Embodied Facilitation

A deeply immersive retreat into presence, embodiment, facilitation, and relational practice.

Bodhi Khaya, South Africa

7 — 14 April 2027

Join us in the powerful earthy elegance of Southern Africa to deepen in your practice of true Embodied Facilitation!
sign me up

Embodied Facilitation is an approach that integrates body, heart, mind, and awareness into the practice of holding space. It invites us beyond purely conceptual or cognitive facilitation into a more relational, responsive, and fully lived experience of guiding individuals and groups.

Our intention is to create a space that supports your evolution, not only as a facilitator, but as a human being in relationship with yourself and others. A space where what is conditioned, performative, or no longer aligned can begin to soften and fall away, allowing more of your essential self to emerge.

About our Retreat

“Embodied facilitation” can be defined as a facilitation approach that integrates the mind and body, using physical + sensate awareness and movement to enhance learning, self-awareness, and communication. It fosters deeper emotional intelligence and holistic engagement in group dynamics and personal growth.

During this retreat we will focus on the principles and practices of embodied facilitation.

During the retreat we will emphasise how to work with individuals and groups to support them – in totality – to bring their true, authentic and most essential selves to the events and experiences we are facilitating. We will put into practice the theory and principles of embodied facilitation to anchor an understanding for ourselves of whole body listening, conscious communication, energetic clarity, emotional self management, proper preparation, container setting and more.

we will explore what it means to:

  • stay deeply connected to yourself while holding space for others
  • listen through sensation, intuition, feeling, and embodied awareness
  • sense and respond to the relational field as it unfolds live in real time
  • cultivate grounded presence amidst uncertainty, intensity, and change
  • communicate with authenticity, clarity, and relational sensitivity
  • work skilfully with emotions, activation, and nervous system states
  • practice energetic clarity, grounding, and embodied self-resourcing
  • create intentional containers that support safety and transformation

Facilitation is different from teaching or coaching. Fundamentally, it is about developing the capacity to be in the flow of what is happening in the room and learning how to both steer and guide people through an experience, while also giving them a lot of space to have their own unique experience…

Who Is This Retreat For?

This Relational Arts Retreat is designed for open-hearted-and-minded, curious lovers of truth, and lovers of love.

This retreat is for those who feel called toward deeper presence, embodied leadership, authentic relationship, and conscious facilitation. It offers a space to explore what it means to live, relate, and guide from a more integrated and fully embodied place — in connection with yourself, others, and the wider world.

Facilitators & Space Holders

This retreat is especially supportive for facilitators, educators, therapists, coaches, practitioners, bodyworkers, guides, and community leaders wanting to deepen their relational capacity and embodied presence in groups and one-on-one spaces.

  • deepen your confidence in holding individuals and groups
  • cultivate embodied presence within relational and facilitation spaces
  • strengthen your awareness of group dynamics and energetic flow
  • integrate body, heart, intuition, and awareness into your practice
Personal Growth & Development

This retreat is also for individuals committed to personal evolution, self-awareness, and authentic relationship — those wanting to explore themselves more deeply through embodiment, connection, and shared experience.

  • engage deeply in a process of self-awareness and inner growth
  • explore authentic relationship with yourself and others
  • meet life with greater openness, curiosity, and responsiveness
  • develop trust in your body, intuition, and lived experience
Visionaries, Leaders & Creatives

This retreat supports entrepreneurs, creatives, leaders, and change-makers wanting to bring greater depth, humanity, and soul into how they lead, create, and contribute to the world around them.

  • bring more embodiment and authenticity into your leadership
  • explore conscious, relational, and heart-led ways of working
  • infuse your work and business with deeper alignment and meaning
  • contribute to healthier, more connected group and community spaces

Our Beautiful Venue

At the foot of the Witkrans Mountain in the Overberg region, on the Southern tip of Africa, Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat is in one of the most diverse biospheres in the world – one of only seven floral kingdoms on the planet. Surrounded by indigenous Fynbos and ancient Milkwood forests it is a special place to reconnect to the ancient wisdom and healing power of nature. 

Bodhi Khaya provides a safe and nourishing environment for personal transformation. You’re invited to explore the library, indulge in a massage, take a forest walk, enjoy the sauna and take a refreshing dip in the spring-fed lily ponds…

Catering

Bodhi Khaya’s kitchen has a reputation for delicious, nurturing & nourishing country food using organic, seasonal produce fresh from the garden and other locally sourced fresh ingredients, combined with the cook’s spontaneous creativity! Your retreat fee includes 3 vegetarian meals per day.

Investment in Yourself

Prices include all accommodation, vegetarian meals & facilitation.
Prices are per person (sharing or single).
Early Bird until 30 November 2026

1. Complete the Application Form

Complete now

2. Choose your Accommodation & Payment Plan

View pricing options

Currency selection is location-based and will be applied automatically through the registration system at check-out.

  • Accommodation (Cloister, Courtyard Shared, Courtyard Single, Garden Room Shared, Garden Room Single or Camping BYO Tent & Bedding)
  • Payment Plan (Single Payment, 2 Monthly Payments or 3 Monthly Payments)
  • EFT Option – available for South Africans – please email info@shaktishiva.academy for banking details
  • Early Bird until 30 November 2026

3. Book your Discovery Call (Optional)

with Rhianne

Facilitation Team

Marcia Baczynski

Marcia Baczynski is a skilled facilitator, educator and coach with over 20 years of experience leading groups through transformative experiences. Her primary mission is to help adults who want more connection and intimacy to overcome shame and get in touch with what they truly want – romantically, sexually and relationally – even if it’s off the beaten path. Bringing wisdom, humor, and creativity to all aspects of her work, and a fresh perspective on love, sex and relationships, Marcia shares her expertise in boundaries, communication, consent, open relationships, LGBTQ+ experiences and sex positivity.

In 2004, Marcia co-created Cuddle Party, a non-sexual workshop and social event centered around boundaries, communication and touch, and in 2006 created its facilitator training program, which now has over 200 facilitators around the world. She is faculty at the School of Consent, teaching both Wheel of Consent workshops and the Like a Pro training for practitioners. Marcia is the co-author of Creating Consent Culture: A Handbook for Educators, which guides teachers and community builders on how to facilitate consent-based interactions in their classrooms and communities.

Over the course of her career, Marcia has facilitated and taught over 1000 in-person events and online experiences, and worked with tens of thousands of clients and students. 

Learn more about Marcia at www.askingforwhatyouwant.com

Claire Rumore

Claire role models ❤️HEART❤️and 🌈PLAY🌈 in her facilitation style and brings a wealth of experience, resources, and insight.

She has been involved in facilitation work in large and small ways, ranging from groups, conferences, workshops, extended courses and online classes to couples work, private gatherings and 1:1 sessions. She is able to mentor students in any of these frameworks.

Additionally, Claire is a certified Erotic Blueprint™ coach, an Urban Tantra™ trained sex educator, and a skilled coach, counselor and mentor in the realms of sexuality and spirituality. She’ll be bringing her 20 years of experience in these realms to her teaching at the retreat.

Claire has also worked in tech & innovation consulting since 2014 where she learned, amongst other things, how to facilitate ethnographic research and innovation design sprints at large companies globally. She worked for an organisational development firm in San Francisco, Ca that specialised in facilitated participatory group work. She helped revise their ground-breaking book “Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making.” She also trained as a graphic facilitator in 2015.

Learn more about Claire at www.ClaireRumore.com

Rhianne van der Linde

Rhianne is principal and senior faculty at Shakti Shiva Academy and her greatest delight is in supporting you to explore the breath as a thread connecting you directly to source, as a tool for embodiment and as a force for waking up! 

In the conscious connected breathwork session we’ll experience on retreat, you’ll discover the power of the breath and how to work with it very simply – as a conscious tool for healing and growth, personal awakening and transformation in body, mind and spirit – enabling you to flow effortlessly and easily with all of life’s movements…

Breathing is something that we are doing constantly and (mostly) unconsciously. The breath is life – it is our very connection to life itself. Awareness, Relaxation, Breathing – when these three elements are blended harmoniously together, then we arrive at a proper rest into the ground of being – and from this place we can live in a state of perpetual trust. From this place, our awakened facilitation can express its uniqueness…

Your beautiful breathing body is a gateway to the Bliss that is your Birthright. And the breath is the key!

Truth as emptiness and Truth as embodiment – as consciousness expressing in form, in beautiful breathing bodies of love – it is this language of the heart, this feminine language of embodiment & feeling that Rhianne is most interested in learning and sharing together with you.

What students are saying...

"I am so grateful for Marcia's uncanny ability to articulate big ideas (as if rattling off what she had for dinner), her taking a stand for "Hey, people, this stuff is messy!" and her good company (and sage advice) along the path."
Stella Orange (Copywriter)New York, USA
Stella Orange (Copywriter)
"Claire Rumore provided me with a safe, clean, and open container to explore challenging topics. With her help, I was able to challenge beliefs that were no longer serving me, with vulnerability, openess, and strength. I highly recommend her coaching, and her facilitation to anyone who is ready to go to their next level."
William Calvin Hamilton (Eye Medicine Professional)California, USA
William Calvin Hamilton (Eye Medicine Professional)
“Rhianne, I’m loving your deep space grounded meditations you take us on in the course...I can really feel the space and peace you have created in your inner being and it's so powerful to experience your embodiment.”
Kali van der Merwe (artist filmmaker photographer taxidermist designer)Baardskeedersbos, South Africa
Kali van der Merwe (artist filmmaker photographer taxidermist designer)
"Last night I said to Marcia: 'I think you're a relationship coach, because you work with people on the most important relationship they'll ever have: the one with themselves.' Marcia's really kickin' at helping with every other relationship in your life, too: I work with her 1:1, and I have a really high bar for who I'll hire as a coach."
Marcy Swenson (Executive Coach)San Francisco, USA
Marcy Swenson (Executive Coach)
"I was blown away by Claire's ability to hold space for the group. Her presence and grounded energy quickly made everyone feel at ease, in a context which can be uncomfortable for some. Her knowledge of the subject matter is evident, you can tell she walks her talk! Her delivery of the information has supported me in awakening clarity and deep insights which surpassed my expectations. I would highly recommend any course that Claire facilitates to anyone interested in this subject matter."
Marc Peridis (Orgasmic Shaman, Tantra & Somatic Movement Facilitator)Barcelona, Spain
Marc Peridis (Orgasmic Shaman, Tantra & Somatic Movement Facilitator)
“I realise how deeply moved, touched I have been by you Rhianne and the field you create. I receive your gentle presence, brave awareness, stillness in motion, motion in stillness, sensual flow between earth and sky, life and death so fully with my heart, my body, my breath.”
Richard Pakleppa (Documentary Film-maker)Cape Town, South Africa
Richard Pakleppa (Documentary Film-maker)
"I know Marcia Baczynski as a personal friend and I have also worked with her in a teaching role and I can say firsthand that she is absolutely fantastic, full of enthusiasm, wisdom and creative ideas...you will get your money's worth and more!!"
Joanna Burgess (Bodyworker)California, USA
Joanna Burgess (Bodyworker)
"Claire is an amazing coach and facilitator. I took several workshops and sessions with her and am always stunned by her warm and friendly personality and her professional skills. Claire has a deep understanding of the human heart and soul – and combines it with her unique way of openness, kindness, empathy, respect – and finally her way of always bringing joy and ease into the world, even when talking about very deep and touching topics. I can strongly recommend working with Claire!"
Markos Arnold (Project Manager)Münster, Germany
Markos Arnold (Project Manager)
Rhianne, Every time I witness you in circle, you activate something in me. Your presence is so powerful. You bring me into stillness. You hold space with few words. You see the whole. You are an anchor and a body of bliss. Thank you for your depth. Thank you for taking us on such a powerful breath journey. You are amazing! A phenomenal teacher, lover of myth, truth seeker, highly capable administrator (sorry for you!) mystic, mother, daughter, friend. Thank you for sharing a bit of your story with us. I am so grateful for all you are and all you offer to the world. Your consistency, courage and devotion is remarkable.
Gwendolen Ward (Coach, Facilitator, Thinking Partner)Cape Town, South Africa
Gwendolen Ward (Coach, Facilitator, Thinking Partner)
"I highly recommend anything Marcia Baczynski offers; she's one of the smartest women I know and her workshops are life-changing."
Dixie De La Tour (Professional Storyteller)San Francisco, USA
Dixie De La Tour (Professional Storyteller)
"Working with Claire through the Shakti Shiva Academy and also counseling one on one with her has altered the course of my life. She has gracefully created opportunities for me to trust in a deep shadow process by pointing to the places that were wanting to be seen within myself. Skillful, deeply caring and makes room for all of myself without bias. I’m touched and grateful for having Claire alongside me on this journey where she’s helped to open the door to exploring this profound and challenging work without interfering with my natural evolution. Amazing blessing!"
Rachel Schafer (Intuitive Wellness Coach)Montana, USA
Rachel Schafer (Intuitive Wellness Coach)
"Marcia Baczynski is a brilliant teacher. The way she breaks down complicated social constructs, and what could be daunting internal web into simple, useable ideas and tools, feels like a freaking miracle to me! And you know that's my jam. I don't say that lightly."
Mindy Lym (Voice Teacher)San Francisco, USA
Mindy Lym (Voice Teacher)
"I so love Claire's sense of humor, exquisite playfulness and outside of the box thinking. She is so easy to work with and a joy to be around; nonetheless, she carries so much innate wisdom and her insights are spot on. Claire embodies so beautifully both the masculine and the feminine energy, and the exercises that we've done together have brought so much clarity and softness in my life! She is definitely an extraordinary coach who I highly recommend anyone to work with and have in their life!!"
Andra Ionita (Body Image Coach)California, USA
Andra Ionita (Body Image Coach)
"I have experienced intense healing and insight from my sessions working with Claire. She has facilitated the work with the highest levels of care, respect, and commitment. Claire is a wise, intuitive mentor and each session with her has felt like a small journey into a larger one. She is an amazing woman with a rich range of knowledge, and working with her has been a healing and empowering experience that has helped me change old patterns and remember my way home. Thank you so much Claire for holding me with so much compassion during our sessions. It`s really been transformative!"
Andreea Bucsa (Counselor)California, USA
Andreea Bucsa (Counselor)

F.A.Q

Who is this retreat for?

This immersive retreat is designed for facilitators, educators, practitioners, bodyworkers, therapists, and individuals seeking personal and professional growth, and will be particularly valuable to practitioners of somatic modalities such as conscious dance, yoga, body work, family constellations, sexual awakening for men and women, midwifery, breath work, and so on.  It provides a rich array of embodied practices, tools and exercises to support clients to harness their erotic consciousness to heal, grow, transform, expand & evolve.

This retreat is designed as a solo experience alongside and together with others.  You will have the opportunity to deepen in intimacy with yourself and with others.

Regardless of gender identification, sexual orientation or relationship status, all of you is welcome.

  • No, the retreat is open to all persons interested in cultivating & deepening their facilitation skills
  • This retreat is a requirement for all students who wish to become a certified BlissDance Facilitator

Yes, please take your time to complete the participant application & consent form as it is of great support in enabling us to co-create a powerful and rich experience for all of us.  We hugely appreciate your care & consideration with this. 

Complete the Application form HERE

  • Travel from home country to South Africa
  • Gratuities
  • Gifts, curio’s & personal items
  • Travel to and from Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat
  • Fully facilitated Relational Arts – Embodied Facilitation Retreat
    programme with Marcia, Claire, and Rhianne; including guided and spontaneous movement meditations and practices, BlissDance, conscious connected breathwork, ceremony & ritual
  • Accommodation of your choice
  • Three vegetarian meals per day
  • The closest airport to fly into is Cape Town International.  
  • We advise arriving a minimum of 1 day early and overnighting in Cape Town, fresh and ready for transfer to Bodhi Khaya on Wednesday 7 April.
  • Cape Town is a modern, cosmopolitan city surrounded by nature. Lying between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the most sought-after holiday destinations around the globe. 
  • Cape Town is a wonderful city to spend at the very least a few days in as a tourist. Please connect with Rhianne should you require any assistance with planning your itinerary. 
  • Bodhi Khaya is approximately 150 mins by car from Cape Town. We will connect participants together for lift sharing purposes. We encourage our locally based participants to offer a ride to our international participants & travelers.
  • Shakti Shiva Academy can arrange transport (if required) with a shuttle bus from Cape Town to Bodhi Khaya (7 April) as well as from Bodhi Khaya back to Cape Town (14 April). Please note this cost will be additional to the retreat cost and is entirely dependent on how many participants require this service.

A non-refundable deposit of  £300 / €350 / $400 / ZAR5000   is required to reserve your place.

Whether you choose to register with a onetime payment, 2 monthly payments or 3 monthly payment plan, £300 / €350 / $400 / ZAR5000  will be treated as a non-refundable deposit.

  • * Cancellation up to and inc. 31 January 2027: All payments (less your non-refundable deposit) will be refunded to you
  • * Cancellation up to and inc. 28 February 2027: 50% of your payments will be refunded to you
  • * Cancellation up to and inc. 17 March 2027: 25% of your payments will be refunded to you
  • * Should you cancel after 17 March 2027: no refund will be due to you and you will forfeit any and all payments made

Facilitation Team

Marcia Baczynski, aka Marcia B, (she/her) is an internationally-recognized coach, writer and presenter on sexual communication, boundaries, consent and desire. She is the Lead Facilitator on this course.

Marcia Baczynski

LEAD FACILITATOR

Marcia Baczynski is a skilled facilitator, educator and coach with over 20 years of experience leading groups through transformative experiences. Her primary mission is to help adults who want more connection and intimacy to overcome shame and get in touch with what they truly want – romantically, sexually and relationally – even if it’s off the beaten path. Bringing wisdom, humor, and creativity to all aspects of her work, and a fresh perspective on love, sex and relationships, Marcia shares her expertise in boundaries, communication, consent, open relationships, LGBTQ+ experiences and sex positivity.

In 2004, Marcia co-created Cuddle Party, a non-sexual workshop and social event centered around boundaries, communication and touch, and in 2006 created its facilitator training program, which now has over 200 facilitators around the world. She is faculty at the School of Consent, teaching both Wheel of Consent workshops and the Like a Pro training for practitioners. Marcia is the co-author of Creating Consent Culture: A Handbook for Educators, which guides teachers and community builders on how to facilitate consent-based interactions in their classrooms and communities.

Over the course of her career, Marcia has facilitated and taught over 1000 in-person events and online experiences, and worked with tens of thousands of clients and students. 

Learn more about Marcia at www.askingforwhatyouwant.com

Claire Rumore

SUPPORT FACILITATOR

Claire role models ❤️HEART❤️and 🌈PLAY🌈 in her facilitation style and brings a wealth of experience, resources, and insight.

She has been involved in facilitation work in large and small ways, ranging from groups, conferences, workshops, extended courses and online classes to couples work, private gatherings and 1:1 sessions. She is able to mentor students in any of these frameworks.

Additionally, Claire is a certified Erotic Blueprint™ coach, an Urban Tantra™ trained sex educator, and a skilled coach, counselor and mentor in the realms of sexuality and spirituality. She’ll be bringing her 20 years of experience in these realms to her teaching at the retreat.

Claire has also worked in tech & innovation consulting since 2014 where she learned, amongst other things, how to facilitate ethnographic research and innovation design sprints at large companies globally. She worked for an organisational development firm in San Francisco, Ca that specialised in facilitated participatory group work. She helped revise their ground-breaking book “Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision Making.” She also trained as a graphic facilitator in 2015.

Learn more about Claire at www.ClaireRumore.com

Rhianne van der Linde

BREATHWORK FACILITATOR & ORGANISER

Rhianne is principal and senior faculty at Shakti Shiva Academy and her greatest delight is in supporting you to explore the breath as a thread connecting you directly to source, as a tool for embodiment and as a force for waking up! 

In the conscious connected breathwork sessions we’ll experience on retreat, you’ll discover the power of the breath and how to work with it very simply – as a conscious tool for healing and growth, personal awakening and transformation in body, mind and spirit – enabling you to flow effortlessly and easily with all of life’s movements…

Breathing is something that we are doing constantly and (mostly) unconsciously. The breath is life – it is our very connection to life itself. Awareness, Relaxation, Breathing – when these three elements are blended harmoniously together, then we arrive at a proper rest into the ground of being – and from this place we can live in a state of perpetual trust. From this place, our awakened facilitation can express its uniqueness…

Your beautiful breathing body is a gateway to the Bliss that is your Birthright. And the breath is the key!

Truth as emptiness and Truth as embodiment – as consciousness expressing in form, in beautiful breathing bodies of love – it is this language of the heart, this feminine language of embodiment & feeling that Rhianne is most interested in learning and sharing together with you.

Specialities: Breathwork, Dreamwork, Shadow Exploration & Integration, Sexual Awakening for Women, Embodiment and Somatic practices, Body De-armouring.

Learn more about Rhianne here

Scroll to Top