Hanging on & Letting Go together

Somatic Music Sessions

My Offering to You

My offering to you is to become more aware of who you are by how you interact with others in a safe container that is held with music, play, and kindness.

Through these authentic interactions with others, deeper levels of self-awareness can be developed more quickly and retained more easily. This creates the resiliency and capacity to surf the inevitable traumas and transitions of everyday life that occur from simply being alive.

Somatic Music Practices

When sharing ourselves with another person who is present, sensitive, and rooting for us, it is often easier for us to marvel at ourselves moving/dancing/emoting, and feel more fully alive and self-compassionate with ourselves.

The usual “critical voice” that wants to crush any signs of “weakness” and relentlessly aims for only improvement and gain, starts to then take a backseat and actually gets to enjoy the time-limited party that is life! These dance games allow us to acknowledge that critical voice is there, and still make room to celebrate and play in the present moment with these bodies while we are still here.

These somatic music practices have roots from multiple aspects of my education, experience, and identity. I bring my life experiences from being East Asian, multi-cultural, bilingual, and growing up in different countries (resiliency, sensitivity, and holding from a holistic perspective); being a jazz singer and singer-songwriter (collaborative improvisation and creativity within a musical structure); being a positive dog trainer (understanding behavioral theory and highly valuing the preciousness of mammalian connection); being a web designer (creatively co-manifesting people’s dreams of new businesses/authentic identities prioritizing interaction and connection with others); and of course being a social worker and therapist (experience, knowledge, and awareness to the unconscious in relation to the multiple systems/environments we function in and how our minds, bodies and souls exist and react in those situations).

Below are just a sample of the games we can play together, with many more customized and creative possibilities depending on the abilities and preferences of each circle.

Why Am I Doing This?

I’ve been a closet dancer for my whole life. A private thing I did in front of my mirror in my bedroom or the bathroom when nobody was watching or at home. My body couldn’t resist the music. My body needed the music.

As an Asian, Chinese, Taiwanese, American, womxn, who has put in a lot of work, effort, and attention into training as a therapist and singer-songwriter I am excited to now be able to offer safe spaces for us to continue to blossom together. I identify as a human who dances rather than a professional dancer, and I embrace that as a strength that allows me to move without the same ideas of what movements are right/wrong, better/worse in an evaluative context. This is not about that. This is about being able to access that child-like part of us that is amazed at what our bodies and the world still has to offer us. It is about accessing the joy that we all deserve and that life offers us. Enjoying life. Embracing life. Not because of how good we have done something, but because we are already fucking amazing in just BEING who we are.

We can enjoy each other just as we are and organically find ourselves laughing, crying, and even celebrating our human imperfections and contradictions together, in a way that inspires hope and empathy rather than shame or self-discipline. This then opens the door to sustainable change, feelings of peace/satisfaction, and healthy growth into the versions of ourselves we hope to be no matter how young or old we are.

We play when we feel safe and we trust that we won’t be used, taken advantage of, or hurt by another. You are a part of that. We are all a part of creating the circle that will heal us, and I am here to help create and hold the container with you.

I’ll add structure or improvisation using sensitivity and experience, and give us permission to take care of ourselves as we acknowledge our impact and interconnectedness with each other. I am also here to remind us of the immense value in being curious, courageous, and compassionate with ourselves and each other.

Video Fun!

This age of tech allows us to share so many multifaceted versions of ourselves, and we can take advantage of that. By recording ourselves dancing when we feel safe in our own environments, we can share more real/vulnerable parts of ourselves.

I can help you through the tech parts too. I am also offering this as an invitation rather than a requirement since there are so many fun ways we can communicate back and forth these days.

Below is an example video of the Dance Game “Polyamory With Me,” where we are playing with self-response videos to explore the multiple, imperfect, and sometimes contradicting parts of ourselves. By continuing to show up to and for ourselves in the moment (without editing) it allows us to hold different parts of ourselves with acceptance, laughter, and compassion. The focus is on curiosity around the passage of time, change, and self-support/self-care/self-love. The bottom left me is the second take I did in response to my first dance in the middle, and the bottom right me is the third take I did in response to both of those takes. It’s fun to see the different versions of me show up in response to the first version of me even with all the imperfections (my kitten cat Lion also makes a cameo)!

What to Expect

1. Individual & Group Holding: The beauty of these games is that they can be played either on your own time or in live sessions together. If/when you feel comfortable meeting in a group context, we could determine together what that could look like and how often we would interact based on each person’s comfort levels. To start the fun, you can choose to:

   • Meet Live Online: Meet one-on-one with me online first to get to know each other better in this context and play 1-2 dance games together that sound fun to you. This is a great choice if you want more info or live support and feedback about what we can do together. Just let me know a few upcoming times that you can meet and we can go from there.

   • Start Video Trading: We can also jump into video trading by picking a song and a game you’d like to experiment with! You can either dance the way you want and feel in the moment and send it to me, or I can video a demo of myself doing a game first with it and we can play with that.

   • Additional Member Invites: If you’ve been invited to this page by a current Dance Circle member, we can explore a few dance games together with the person who invited you.

2. Confidentiality: Every participant will be required to agree to a confidentiality statement that protects our privacy and vulnerability. This allows us to build trust and create a safer container in order to sink deeper and get more out of each interaction we have with each other.

3. Organic Circle Development: To retain a sense of safety specific to each of our identities and lived experiences, we can co-develop each circle together in a more organic way by first having a conversation about what that would look like for both of us. We can prioritize the tender parts of your body/psyche so that the circle can feel more restorative rather than evaluative or draining. Ultimately, each dance circle is a place where we can collectively play and connect in a way that allows for grief and celebration to be held, and joy and pain to be processed the way our bodies and souls crave, long for, and were born to be able to do.