A Wellbeing & Yoga Retreat
Outubro 15, 2025 - Outubro 19, 2025
Fundamentals of Human Organisation
Advanced Training in Sintra, Portugal – 15th to 19th October 2025
The core of the Feldenkrais Method prepares us for action in the real world. Empowering, physically active methods which promote fitness and creative movement expression are rooted in neurological and biological fundamentals which are very close to our own understanding.
Our ATM lessons, based on primitive and developmental movement patterns help to develop agency, self-reliance, confidence and resilience through movement. In this workshop we will explore movements the human body was designed for: building the basics for running, jumping, moving on all fours, balancing, squatting and climbing,… and taking those basics into joyful, collaborative experience.
Throughout the days we will reflect on:
- Primal patterns of evolutionary and developmental movement
- Principles defining the quality of an action
- Moving with power, efficiency, and grace
- The intricate and intrinsic beauty of upright standing in man
- The exhilarating sense of lightness and speed when performing rotary movement around oneself
- The underlying functionality of walking forwards and backwards
We will work with dynamic ATMs which emphasize moving into physical competence. In FI we will explore strategies which allow us to impart this sense of physical, mental and emotional capabilty to our clients. The workshop will provide you with fantastic additions to your repertoire and a deeper understanding of fundamental concepts, that can be applied to many other aspects of your work.
Sign up for: “The Fundamentals of Human Organisation” BOOK NOW
Kathryn will also be available for indivdual Functional Integration lessons in the afternoons.
Please indicate your interest on the sign up form.
Shamballah Retreat Centre, Sintra
The venue is a high-quality retreat centre, which accommodates 13 persons in 5 bedrooms: three twin rooms, one triple with ensuite and one large four-bed room, also with ensuite. Cosy relaxing areas, a living room and a large terrace provide plenty of space to relax alone or together. Underfloor heating gaurantees our comfort, even in October. The house is surrpounded by a large garden, where a tapestry of birdsong and the sounds of the ocean in the background will delight your ears.
Delicious, healthy and nourishing vegetarian meals, sourced from local and organic producers, are included in the price. Breakfast is served at 9:00 a.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m. Lunch is available as a takeaway package.
A 10 minute walk brings you to one of the most stunning stretches of coastline in Sintra’s National Park. With an extensive beach along the cliffs, Praia da Aguda is wild and beautiful. The access is for the adventurous, but beauty and tranquility awaits at the end of the stairs. Along the coast, 2 km each way, you will find Magoito beach and Azenhas do Mar, a beautiful and awe-inspiring village perched on the cliffs. This location is ideal for long walks of exploration and close contact with Nature´s beauty. Our seminar times in the mornings and evenings keep the afternoons free, so that you will be able to enjoy the afternoon sun and daylight hours in nature.
www.shamballahretreats.com
www.instagram.com/shamballah.retreats
See on google maps
What moves me: Kathryn Hume-Cook
I have been a passionate Feldenkrais teacher since 1999 – and over that long space of time have observed a big change in the landscape of somatic movement practices and natural movement fitness systems surounding our method. The neurobiological understanding at the core of our craft has long since hit the mainstream. We see widespread recognition as to the intertwined nature of thought, emotion, behaviour and physical embodiment. As sedentary lifestyles become more common, people are looking for outlets for dynamic, active physical expression, where they can experience the empowerment of harnessing the capacities of their human biology.
If we think back to the Amherst Training, most of the participants were young and fit – dancers, sportspeople, artists and students of the human potential movement. It seems to me however, that once we leave the Feldenkrais Training and start teaching in the real world, our method is often relegated to the corner of relaxation, rejuvenation and rehabilitation.
Biological development, both in an evolutionary sense and in the way we learnt to move as children, led us from rolling to creeping to crawling, bringing our centre of gravity ever higher until we could run and jump and squat, kick and throw. Often as not, though we have these functions in mind, we allow our teaching to remain somewhere between the embryonic phase and all the pleasant possibilities for rolling around on the ground. But what are we preparing for? How can we teach in such a way, and give FIs in such a way, that people truly are supported in the activities of their life and regain affinity and joy in physical capability?
When Moshe speaks about the absence of effort in “The Elusive Obvious”, he says that “the sensation of effort is absent no matter what the actual expenditure of energy is”. Thus an “absence of effort” doesn’t mean we just lie on the floor being lazy, but that we organise good, powerful movement so well, that we feel no unnecessary effort. Think of how often Moshe incites us to “contract the muscles powerfully”, when he asks us to specifically harness the large muscles of our centre.
In this workshop I would like to invite you to explore with me how to be courageous and creative in your teaching and speak to a different mode of action. Our method is a means to an end – let’s bring it from the floor into life!
Feel free to get in touch with me via e-mail to [email protected] if you have any further questions.
www.feldenkrais-humecook.de/en
www.instagram.com/feldenkrais.kathryn.humecook
Overview and Registration details
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN ORGANISATION is a 5-Day Advanced Training for accredited Feldenkrais Practitioners
Dates: Wednesday 15th – Sunday 19th October 2025
Check in: Wednesday from 2pm
Class Times: Wed.-Sat. 7.30-9.30pm / Thurs.-Sun. 10am-1pm
Seminar Location: “Shamballah Retreat Centre”, R. do Chão Velho 10, 2705-627 São João das Lampas, Portugal
Participation Fee: 595€ (Various discounts available)
Recordings included in the price
Accomodation: 500,-€ p.P., includes 3 vegetarian meals per day
Sign up for: “The Fundamentals of Human Organisation” BOOK NOW
Discounts
“Bring-a-friend” discount
The retreat centre is reserved exclusively for our group. Accomodation is in shared bedrooms. We will offer you a discount and assign you a room together if you sign up with your friends. Each of you must sign up individually, but if you note the names of your friends on the form, then each of you will receive the discount.
Twin room (you and one friend): less 10,-€ each
Triple room (you and two friends: less 20,-€ each
Four-bed room (you and 3 friends): less 30,-€ each
“Bring-a-table” discount
The retreat centre provides yoga mats and cushions. Please bring your own Feldenkrais materials such as blankets, rollers and cushions for your head. If you are able to bring your Feldenkrais table and to share its use with the group we offer a 50,-€ discount.
“Early Bird” discount
Sign up and pay before 15th June 2025 to receive an additional 50,-€ discount.
Regular registration closes on 15th August 2025 and full payment must be made by this time.
Cancellation policy
Cancellation before 15th June: free of charge
Cancellation between 15th June and 15th August: 50% charge
Cancellation after 15th August: 100% charge
Of course you can find someone to take your place instead! Please note that the cancellation policy applies to all reasons for cancelling, including sickness, accident or work commitmments. You may want to choose seminar insurance.
My team on site
Organisational questions and support: Yara Koberle
A successful Yoga teacher, Yara also gives a regular Feldenkrais classs at the Shamballah Retreat Centre. She runs her own charming studio “Quinta das Sobrales” with attached air bnb not far from our location.
Yara is there to help you with all your questions on site, or any organisational matters you would like to clarify in advance regarding accommodation, meals, or travel to and from the centre. She is also a liscenced masseuse and happy to give you a massage to round out your stay 🙂 Yara has been an enormous help in setting up this workshop, providing networking and background support.
Kontakt:
[email protected]
www.yarakoberle.com
www.instagram.com/yara_koberle
www.instagram.com/quinta_das_sobrales
Technical Assistance: Artur Chruszcz
I have known Artur ever since he began his Feldenkrais Training in 2018, and appreciate his warm, competent and thoughtful manner. Since graduating, Artur has not only deepend his very successful practice of Feldenkrais but also developed the useful additional competency of managing everything to do with providing high quality recordings. Taking care of the technical details regarding equipment, set-up, videography, editing and digital availibility, Artur frees up a very large portion of my attention and time. He is also a super nice guy to have there with us 🙂
Kontakt:
[email protected]l
www.arturchruszcz.pl
www.instagram.com/arturchruszcz