The Wheel of Consent® is a groundbreaking framework and awareness practice developed by Dr. Betty Martin. Since its inception, it has been brought into schools, universities, therapist programs, and organizations around the world and reshaped how therapeutic practitioners are trained.

This is a deeply nuanced way to practice consent as an agreement that brings integrity, responsibility, and empowerment into all human interactions. Our lens starts with the personal and expands to the global. It includes touch, relationships, power dynamics, and social issues of equality and justice.

The practice is simple, subtle, and profound.

Using the Wheel of Consent®, we develop our capacity to tune into our bodies and our ability to skillfully and gracefully navigate interactions and dynamics in intimate and professional relationships.

You will come away from this offering with a deepened ability to navigate consent in all your interactions, including these skills:
໑ Create a felt sense of safety in your body and nervous system
໑ Connect to what feels good and brings you joy
໑ Notice, value, and voice what you want, what you are available for, and what you don’t want
໑ Notice your tendency to go along with what is being done and reverse it
໑ Be mindful of others' tendencies to go along with what is being done and respect their limits
໑ Access two ways to receive and two ways to give and feel the joy of each of these four possibilities for interaction
໑ Navigate power dynamics, trauma, and systemic oppression and their impact on our capacity to access choice and uphold boundaries (yours & others)
໑ Make choices that support your well-being and connection with others
໑ Express your desires, limits, preferences, and willingness with more nuance and play

We will explore a foundational practice for relating that transforms our ability to connect with ourselves and others. Our increased awareness enables more authentic relationships centered in safety, clarity, and ease. Applied professionally, it makes us more effective practitioners, able to affect human change and healing. Applied personally, it allows us to access deeper and more meaningful connections.

What participants say about this retreat:
"Life-altering"

“It's truly transformational work and so necessary for the healing and growth we are in desperate need of."

"I know myself WAY more. I am trusting my impulses, my no's and yes's and I am able to voice them more clearly now. I am grateful for this modality. It is a gentle, deep, and foundational piece for creating healthy, safe, and intimate relationships with oneself and others."

"I’m bowled over at how much richness I received from this course. THANK YOU! The enduring piece was HUGE. To see everyone’s hands go up in that 3rd session was a real eye-opener for me. Another thing that struck me was realizing that saying NO provides such freedom for the other person, if I can just get over myself and not worry about hurting their feelings, it can provide a fertile container of new imaginings of what to do together! I felt some hard NO’s this week in my body and had the courage to just say it. The freedom here was realizing that I am actually SERVING them as well by saying NO."

"Deeply grateful for the workshop last weekend. It has been sitting with me all week. The content and my experiences have made their way into many conversations since...I feel very inspired by my experience!"

“A spa for the soul.”

This event is for
໑ Professionals who work with people to affect human change and healing
໑ Couples and individuals looking for deeper and more meaningful connection in their relationships
໑ Anyone interested in developing deeper self-awareness and relational skills for more ease and joy in life

This offering
໑ Meets you where you are – we welcome beginners and advanced practitioners
໑ Is experiential and embodied
໑ Respects your boundaries – you will always have choices about how you engage with the exercises
໑ Is open to all genders, sexual orientations, and relationship constellations

Logistics
Location: The Sentinel retreat center, Kaslo, BC
Dates: Fri Sep 29, Sat Sep 30, Sun Oct 1, 2023
Hours: 10 AM-6 PM each day

There are several shorter breaks throughout the day, including a 75-minute break for lunch. Lunch, tea, coffee, and snacks are provided.

We are delighted to be offering this experience at such a stunning and sacred wellness center location.
We highly recommend booking your lodging at The Sentinel to turn the workshop into a rejuvenating retreat experience.

Training Guidelines
How we ask that you engage with each other:
໑ Confidentiality — outside the group share only your own experience and learnings.
໑ Feelings are welcome and do not need to be justified or explained; honor the feelings that arise in others by allowing them to feel without fixing or advising.
໑ Share with intention, using "I" statements. Listen with attention.
໑ Use the names and pronouns people request, and honor the lived experience of those in the group. Be willing to stay open and set aside assumptions about people's identities and experiences (e.g. gender, race, sexuality, etc.).
໑ The workshop is clothed. We will not make requests or offers for unclothed, genital, or explicitly sexual touch during exercises. There will be options to engage in non-sexual touch with other participants and it is not required. You never have to touch anyone you do not want to. You get the full value from the workshop however you choose to participate.

What we invite for your own experience:
໑ Invite beginner’s mind — everything we offer is an experiment and an opportunity to notice yourself; take what works for you and leave the rest.
໑ Participation can look many ways and you choose how you want to participate — actively join an exercise, witness, journal, take a break, and change your mind at any time!
໑ Do not do anything you do not want to do.
໑ Self-care and self-regulation — take care of your needs (for water, rest, movement, etc.)

Sliding Scale Registration Tiers (all pricing in CAD)

Full residential retreat package: includes lodging Fri & Sat, 3-day workshop, 7 gourmet meals
Additional nights, meals, and spa treatments can be added. Book these directly with the Sentinel.

Basic (commuter) package: includes the 3-day workshop and lunches Fri, Sat, & Sun
Ocean Tier (from $995) I have investments or savings, I can afford vacations, I am financially comfortable
Lake Tier (from $895) I have stable housing, stable income or access to financial support, I can afford occasional treats
Pond Tier (from $695)  I have some expendable income, I stress about meeting basic needs but still regularly achieve them
Puddle Tier (from $495) I have unstable or living wage, I live closer to paycheck to paycheck and don't always meet my basic needs

Please be mindful that if you purchase a price at the lower end of the scale when you can truthfully afford the higher ticket prices, you are limiting access to those who truly need the gift of financial flexibility.
Contact the team for payment plan options.

Accessibility and COVID protocols
໑ Thank you for not wearing artificial scents (e.g. perfume, scented lotion, aftershave)
໑ We ask all participants to take a rapid antigen test on the morning of the first day of the workshop. If your test is positive, you will not be permitted to attend the workshop; however you will be able to transfer your registration to a future in-person or online Wheel of Consent workshop offered by Helena or Amy, within 18 months of this event.

Acknowledgments About Race, Neurodiversity, and Disability
The course is open to anyone interested in learning the Wheel, and our intention is for this to be a safer space that is inclusive. However, we recognize that this offering will not meet everyone’s needs. As facilitators and humans, Helena and Amy are committed to serve you as best as possible. You'll be invited to communicate specific needs in your registration form, and the team will do their best to accommodate them.

Tickets are non-refundable
If, for some reason, you book a ticket and then can't make it, you are welcome to find someone to take your spot. We invite you to be clear, listen to your YES and sign up for experiences you really want to be present for, and then show up!

About the facilitators
Helena De Felice (they/she) is the founder of Our Sacred Body, co-founder of the Living Love Revolution Sanctuary, a Certified Facilitator of the Wheel of Consent®, and a member of the faculty of the School of Consent. Her commitment that each human gets to experience the sacredness of their own being and life itself forms the foundation of her work.

Her facilitation is deeply trauma-responsive and non-judgemental, informed by many years in the field of prevention and response to gender-based violence, senior leadership roles in sexual and reproductive rights, teaching holistic peer counseling, holding space for births and death as a doula, and leading erotic healing and entheogenic rituals.

She is passionate about developing individual and collective awareness that deepens our capacity to facilitate healing.
She has taught the Wheel of Consent® in a wide range of settings to individuals, professionals, teams, couples, and groups and trains facilitators in trauma-responsive facilitations skills. Drawing from her background as a strategic management consultant and leadership coach, she supports teams and organizations in redesigning their offerings and processes to empower choice.

Amy Weissfeld (she/her) www.facebook.com/joyfulselflove
As a certified Somatic Sex Educator and Coach, and a School of Consent Facilitator, Amy provides a compassionate, body-based and consent-based approach to sexual health and wellness. She is deeply passionate about healing the world through pleasure, about truth in relating, about choice and voice, about empowerment, and about joyful living.

Her life goal is to empower people to enjoy the pleasure of their own bodies. We each have the power to transform ourselves into healthier, authentic, and loving beings. Tapping into our sexual power and letting go of culturally induced body shame and repression are crucial steps, and Amy enjoys guiding folx along the path she herself has walked. “See and believe in your own beauty. This is the gift I wish to share. Be your best sexual self.”

Amy is also a certified Betty Dodson Bodysex Facilitator and Orgasm Coach, Mother, Wife, and Fierce Friend. She teaches sex positivity and the importance of masturbation in our lives while providing a judgment-free, safer-braver space with a trauma-informed perspective to all bodies, all genders, and all sexual orientations. Poly & kink friendly.

Core belief: Knowing yourself and your own body makes you happy and whole. It also makes for better community and a healthier planet.

She hearts: Skinny dipping, laughter, time in the woods, being on the mountain, strong women, a sense of humor, dogs, adventure, intimacy, integrity, and beauty of all kinds.