TUCSON SOMATIC PSYCHOTHERAPY EVENTS

Spring 2026

Writing From the body :

An authentic movement and Discovery writing workshop 

No need to fear what’s in the shadows …

Our “shadow selves” are often misunderstood …  and they get a bad rap! But what’s found there is exactly what’s needed for true aliveness and wholeness.

Join me for the coming together of two realms of discovery — depth movement and creative writing. I bring my training in dance, creative writing, dreamwork, and somatic psychotherapy to facilitate a process of shedding light on what’s in the shadow … and getting to know it in a meaningful way.

Our shadows make us interesting and real. What’s found in the darkness — the place not illuminated by consciousness — holds crucial energy for our healing, growth and thriving. To come away from the trap of goal-oriented and achievement oriented language (which pretends we are not already whole) what’s found in the darkness is key to our felt sense of aliveness. 

We can turn toward what’s there with humor, play, reverence, curiosity, and love. If we do, our shadows empower us, enabling us to feel internally connected … and to empathize and connect with others.

In this workshop, I will lead very basic movement warm-ups and teach the basic form and practice of authentic movement. We’ll start with sensation and movement to begin awakening the wisdom of our bodies, intuition, and imaginal selves. From there, I’ll provide prompts and guidance to further illuminate and flesh out what’s emerged as meaningful.

Come sense, move, feel, excavate, imagine, and create! If you’ve been feeling numbed, two-dimensional, lost, uninspired, confused, or stuck — this is the workshop for you!

Never has there been a more important time than now to access our nuanced truths — those that the body reveals to us when we are really listening — for the benefit of all.

 Stay tuned for spring 2026 dates. Preregister by sending me an email on my Contact page.

Bare Bones: Stories In Motion

with Modern dance choreographer, Kathy Wildberger

Kathy Wildberger, master teacher of dance, choreography, and improvisation comes to Tuscon following a lifelong career in dance!

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I invite you to join me in this rare opportunity to work and play with Kathy Wildberger. I’m delighted that the local treasure that is Zuzi Dance is joining with me to co-host this workshop of “stories in motion.”

I credit dancing with Kathy Wildberger for my becoming a dance movement therapist: Kathy’s passion for storytelling through dance is infectious! Her heartfelt love of and gift in collaborating with movers at all levels of experience can’t be missed. In Kathy’s hands, you don’t need technique, theory, or dance experience … you only need a willingness for your heart to be opened to the world of emotion and stories found in rhythms and shapes. In Kathy’s words:

Bare Bones — “The Class” — is for adults of all ages, who are dancers, movers, and those who dream of dance.

Athletes, yoga practitioners, movement artists, healers, and moving musicians (+) are welcome!

“The body choreographs and the mind cues it.” — Robert Ellis Dunn

The Class focuses on warming up the body in order to grow. These sessions of juicing up the body will investigate levels of skin, fascia, muscle … down to the bones. Through improvisational movement games, we move through spirals, breath, and “elements of release” to let go of our patterns and habits.

With these tools, you will learn phrases that will be enhanced, manipulated, and developed as raw material for dances. We will dig into the corners and edges of the movement, and into the physicality of “down into the floor”, “up onto our feet”, and “into the air.”

The final session will bring together all we have worked on in the previous sessions, orchestrating “everything comes together.”

$200

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Kathy Wildberger has been teaching, performing, and choreographing nationally and internationally for dance and theatre since the early 1970’s. In New York her choreography has been produced by Dance Theatre Workshop, DIA Foundation, The Museum Of Modern Art, The Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church, Movement Research, Joyce Soho, White Wave, and the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center. Kathy has been reconstructing the repertoire of Jeff Duncan since his death in 1989. It is through this connection Kathy developed storytelling through dance. 

Her professional credits include: founding and directing the PATH Dance Company in Baltimore for 12 years, touring internationally as a founding member of the Toronto Dance Theatre, and choreographing and performing with Sean Curran in NYC. She has been awarded several choreography fellowships as well as a First Light Grant from the Jerome Foundation. Kathy is a Master Teacher of the Jose Limon Technique and improvisation. Recently retired from 20 years as Senior Lecturer at Vassar College and Assistant Director of Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre, she now joyfully is a contributing choreographer and instructor for Rocky Mountain Dance Theatre. 

Ongoing

Individual Somatic R & R® (Regulation and Resilience) Program – (Currently Full: CONTACT ME ABOUT MY WAIT LIST)

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Here’s what a few participants have said:

 “I connected with my body, mind, and soul in ways I have never been able to realize…  I somehow feel more ‘whole’. I am moving forward with a larger sense of self and the space I inhabit. Leslie was able to draw out those of us more hesitant to be more vulnerable to the point where what once felt so intimidating felt so natural, good, and freeing! It was a profoundly beautiful experience.” – T.W.

“I appreciated the flexibility in doing what was right for me. I feel more secure within myself and my abilities moving forward.” – L. B.-P.

“Leslie is so kind and compassionate and offered a beautiful space and energy to the workshop.” – F.V.

 “Going forward, [I imagine] a more peaceful and full outlook and moving more from my body.” – N.V.