Living in Contact

How Bodies Organise in Relationship

An Experiential Core Strokes® Workshop
9–10 January 2027 · LuxembOurg

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We do not enter relationship through words alone.

Before we explain what we feel, decide how close we want to be, or consciously respond to another person, the body is already participating. Breathing changes. Posture shifts. We orient towards or away. We reach, hesitate, open, protect, approach or withdraw.

The presence of another person changes how we organise ourselves.

Living in Contact is an experiential Core Strokes® workshop exploring how relationship takes shape through the body — through breath, movement, sensation, spatial orientation, boundaries, touch and relational response.

In relationship, much of our attention can become focused on the other person: What are they thinking? What do they want from me? How do they feel about me? What should I do or say? In this workshop, we will also turn attention towards our own embodied experience and ask:

How does my body organise when I am with another person?

Through guided individual, partnered and group explorations, we will investigate proximity and distance, reaching and receiving, support and resistance, approach and withdrawal — and what becomes possible when there is greater awareness and choice.

The workshop draws on Core Strokes® and includes breath, touch and movement, selected explorations from the Energetic Breath Cycle™, relational exercises, and embodied awareness.

Relationship Is an Embodied Experience

Human beings develop through relationship. From the beginning of life, experiences of being held, approached, seen, supported, protected and given space contribute to how we learn to participate in contact with others.

Some of us move easily towards contact but find it more difficult to maintain our own boundaries. Others remain strongly differentiated but find receiving support or allowing closeness more difficult. We may reach and then withdraw, long for contact while protecting ourselves from it, or notice that our breathing changes as soon as another person comes near.

These responses are not only ideas or feelings about relationship. They can become visible and tangible in the organisation of the body.

Living in Contact gives us an opportunity to slow these processes down, experience them directly and become curious about what happens.

Key Points

• Relationship involves the whole body, not only thoughts, feelings and words.
• Breath, posture, movement and spatial orientation change in the presence of others.
• Proximity and distance, reaching and withdrawing, giving and receiving are fundamental movements of relational life.
• Healthy boundaries allow both contact and differentiation.
• Patterns that once served protection may become more flexible when there is sufficient awareness, support and choice.
• Greater awareness of how we organise contact can open new possibilities for participation in relationship.

How Do We Organise Contact?

How close can I come while remaining connected with myself? What happens when another person approaches me? Can I reach, receive, move away or say no while remaining in relationship?

Through guided experiential work, we will explore how contact is organised through proximity and distance, orientation, boundaries, reaching and withdrawing, support and reciprocity.

In Core Strokes®, some of these patterns are understood through Relational Geometry: the changing organisation of distance, orientation, boundaries, direction and reciprocity between people.

There is no ideal way of relating. Sometimes contact calls for closeness; sometimes for space. Sometimes we reach; sometimes we wait, differentiate or withdraw.

The aim is to become more aware of these movements and to discover greater choice in how we participate in relationship.

What to Expect

Living in Contact is primarily experiential. We will work with breath, movement, touch, sensation and relational awareness through individual, partnered and group explorations.

The workshop includes selected work from the Energetic Breath Cycle™, explorations of approaching and withdrawing, boundaries, giving and receiving, support and resistance. Touch will also be explored as a form of relational contact — including how we approach, offer, receive, respond, support and set boundaries through touch.

There is no need to perform or move in a particular way. The exercises are invitations, and you are encouraged to follow your own boundaries and pace.

At the centre of the workshop is a simple question:

Can I remain connected with myself while genuinely meeting another person?

The location – Luxembourg

This non-residential workshop will take place in a spacious 60 m² group room in Senningerberg, just outside Luxembourg City. The venue is easily accessible by both public transport and car. Full practical details will be provided upon registration.

Facilitated with care by…

Dirk Marivoet

Dirk Marivoet, MSc, PT, PMT, ECP, is a Belgian body psychotherapist, physiotherapist and psychomotor therapist, and the founder of the International Institute for Bodymind Integration (IBI). He has more than forty years of clinical and teaching experience in body psychotherapy, psychomotor therapy and embodied approaches to human development.

A senior trainer and supervisor in several traditions of body psychotherapy, including Core Energetics and Bodymind Integration methods, Dirk is the developer of Core Strokes®, an integrative approach exploring how breath, fascia, movement, emotion and relationship participate in the organisation of embodied experience.

His work brings together clinical practice, phenomenological inquiry and contemporary perspectives on embodiment and living organisation. He teaches Core Strokes® internationally and maintains a private practice in Ghent, Belgium.

Practical information

Languages:

English (with possible translation into French)

For additional questions, please contact Veronika Dozbabova, who is responsible for the organization, at: veronika.dozbabova@gmail.com