mini retreats
Sound, Stillness & integration mini retreats
These monthly mini-retreats offer a longer, more spacious container for the kind of practice you may already be familiar with. It’s an opportunity to slow down, settle, and explore awareness in a supported, embodied way.
Each session unfolds as a 2.5-hour experiential journey, gently weaving together sound, meditation, somatic attunement, and time for integration. Rather than offering teachings or explanations, the practices themselves invite insight and understanding through direct experience. This is a place to relax and settle, and explore yourself arriving just as you are.
This work is not oriented toward fixing, healing, or achieving particular states.
It is an invitation for you to notice what is already present, and to allow your experience to unfold without effort.
VENUE: St. Martins Church, Vicarage Road North, Castleton, Rochdale. OL 11 2TE
DATE & TIME: First Friday of every month beginning 1st May 2026 6:30-9pm
An Integrated Approach
These mini-retreats bring together sound-supported rest, cacao, gentle somatic attunement, and meditation/contemplation as a single, continuous process.
Sound, somatic attunement, and stillness are not treated as separate practices, but as complementary ways of supporting awareness to settle into the body and the breath, and the wider field of experience. Each element prepares the ground for the next, allowing the nervous system to soften and attention to become more receptive.
The intention is not to guide you towards a particular outcome, but to create conditions where presence, clarity, and regulation can arise naturally.
Is This Mini Retreat for You?
You may feel drawn to this mindful embodiment mini retreat if you are experiencing any of the following:
The Role of sound supported rest
Sound-supported rest is included to allow your body and nervous system to settle before deeper meditative exploration.
Rather than functioning as a stand-alone sound bath, this period helps you to arrive, soften tension, and release some of the effort that often accompanies meditation. This makes it easier to remain present and embodied during integration and meditation without strain or over-efforting.
Resting here is not an end in itself, but part of a gradual inward turning.
The role of sound supported meditation
Sound supported meditation uses sound as a support for awareness, rather than as something to focus on or be immersed in.
Instruments such as Himalayan and crystal singing bowls are offered slowly and with care, with silence woven throughout. Sound is not used to lead attention, but to accompany it, inviting listening without effort.
cacao & integration
After the sound bath, you’ll be offered a warm cup of high-grade ceremonial cacao, or a herbal tea if you prefer. This is not a cacao ceremony, but a simple, nourishing offering to support gentle integration of the sound experience.
Cacao is traditionally known for its heart-opening qualities and its ability to support presence, groundedness, and subtle energy flow. Enjoyed mindfully, it can help bridge deep rest with embodied awareness, inviting a soft return to the senses. You’re welcome to receive this time quietly, listening inwardly and allowing the experience to settle in your own way.
why somatic attunement is included
This is a gentle, intuitive practice of embodied presence and body listening. You’ll be guided to notice breath, sensation, and the quiet impulses of the body, allowing small, natural movements…or stillness, to arise. There are no poses or techniques to follow, and nothing to get right.
This practice offers a soft reawakening after deep rest, supporting nervous system ease and helping the body-mind transition naturally into meditation.
how this differs from standard sound baths
These mini-retreats are not just sound bath sessions.
Sound is not continuous, immersive, or used with a healing agenda. There is no energetic work being offered, and no expectation of release, catharsis, or transformation.
Instead, sound appears alongside silence, breath, and awareness, supporting a meditative exploration where participants remain connected to their own inner experience throughout.
The emphasis is on noticing rather than receiving.
the shape of a session
Each mini-retreat follows a familiar, gentle arc, with subtle variations depending on the monthly theme:
All elements are invitational. You are welcome to lie down, sit, move, or step back at any point.
monthly themes
Each month explores a different aspect of embodied awareness, while maintaining a consistent structure that allows the body and nervous system to settle over time.
reset & root
An exploration of grounding and support. Attention is drawn towards contact, weight, and stability, supporting regulation and a sense of being held.
breathe & be
Breath becomes the primary point of contact for awareness. Sound and silence support attention to rest with the natural rhythm of breathing.
sense & settle
A somatic exploration of sensation and embodiment. Awareness is guided toward direct felt experience as a foundation for presence and safety.
notice & soften
A somatic exploration of thought, sensation and compassion. A gentle noticing of arising thoughts with a kind openness and acceptance.
open & rest
Sound gradually gives way to silence, inviting awareness to rest in stillness and spaciousness without effort or direction.
integrate & ground
A gathering of experience. Attention is drawn towards coherence and continuity—supporting the integration of practice into daily life.
who these mini retreats are for…
No prior experience with meditation or sound is required.
A monthly rhythm
Each mini-retreat stands alone, while also forming part of a monthly rhythm of practice. You are welcome to attend occasionally or return regularly, allowing familiarity and depth to develop over time.