The Cauldron

A Women's Dance and Expressive Arts Therapy Group

During the Fall 2026 Venus Retrograde

An Inclusive, Fierce, and Dynamic Container

Through the Wilds of Story, Movement, and Sisterhood

To Meet our Wounds and Connect to our Value

Guided and Improvised Movement

Integrating Healthy Anger

Shedding Armor and Trusting Impulse

About every 18 months, Venus descends for her cyclical retrograde journey, bringing forward themes in our lives related to relationships, creativity, and personal value. This story of descent and rebirth is expressed in myths throughout the world, describing the personal journey of healing through confronting our shadow material, integrating repressed emotions, and re-claiming our vitality.

This group will navigate the journey of the Venus retrograde cycle through the scaffolding of a favorite myth of descent- that of Vasalisa in her journey to meet the weird and wild Baba Yaga, and re-emerge with the sacred flame from the heart of the forest.

This group is a very personal offering crafted out of my own history (and ongoing process) of healing deeply held attachment wounds through the alchemy of embodied creative process. The group will weave guided movement practices, authentic/witnessed movement, and releasing and expressing the voice. We will build the capacity to integrate and express constructive anger to support the release of internalized and toxic anger. Perhaps the most important part of the process is the element of the group itself- witnessing one another as we find movement to our wounds, voice for our anger, sanctuary for our softness, and expand beyond the limits of what previously felt safe to be embodied.

Practices will integrate an array of forms that toe the line between the healing arts, somatic practice, and dance and theater training, including: Authentic Movement, Linklater Voice Technique, Skinner Releasing (Open Source Forms), Axis Syllabus, Physical Theater, Butoh, and Bio-Energetics, mixed in with the wilds of personal and spontaneous emergences... with ample space for discussion, reflection, and integration.

What is your heart's desire? What are you hungry for?

What are you ready to release? Addictive habits, unhealthy relationship patterns? Self-criticism, numbness, masking, judgment, jealousy, loneliness, shame?

What might emerge from offering it into the cauldron's heat?

What might emerge from softening, risking, sighing, punching, moving,

cooking a collective soup...

Holding and being held, seeing and being seen?

8 Tuesdays, 6-8 PM

Sep. 29

Oct. 6

Oct. 13

Oct. 20

Oct. 27

Nov. 3

Nov. 10

Nov. 17

Located at Dell'Arte in Blue Lake

131 H St. Blue Lake, CA

The group is crafted as a journey, so participants sign up for all 8 sessions.

$240-440 Sliding Scale*

(Please contribute more if you can to make this group accessible for those who need to pay less.)

To register:

Complete this brief Application Form, and Anastasia will follow up via e-mail with details to secure your spot.

Registration closes September 15 (or earlier if group capacity is reached)

Prior dance, theater, or expressive arts experience is not required, though welcome.

Space is limited!

*There are a couple of low-income spots currently available at a reduced price. If price is a barrier for you, please e-mail to ask if any are still available.

Questions? E-mail anastasia@lifeforcetherapy.org

Anastasia Barron, MA, LMFT is a psychotherapist with specialized training in somatics and the healing of complex trauma, along with extensive experience in somatic movement modalities, bodywork, and performance. She holds certifications as a NARM (Neuro-Affective Relational Model) Therapist, Touch for Trauma with Kathy Kain, as well as being a certified Open Source Forms Teacher- an improvisational movement practice that engages imagery to actualize embodied creativity and healing. She graduated from the Professional Training Program at Dell'Arte, trained with the Song of the Goat Theater in Poland, and has performed in dozens of physical theater and dance performances. She created and collaborated on multiple ritual performances and films on the themes of reclaiming the wildness and sisterhood of women, including the site-specific "Red Delicious" in the Oakland Hills and "I Will Walk with my Song Torn Open" at the Arcata Playhouse. She has trained and played extensively in the somatic practices of Axis Syllabus and Contact Improvisation, and previously practiced for over a decade as a Certified Massage Therapist. Besides her therapy practice, Anastasia works as a coach with Olivier Mythodrama, bringing archetypal embodiment into the corporate world.

Anastasia holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Meridian University. She practices psychotherapy at Life Force Therapy in Arcata, CA, where she lives with her partner and daughter.

Photo Credits: Lau Trejo, Misako Akimoto, and original collages by Anastasia Barron

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