The Element of Touch
“A weekend of curated touch exploration”
UPCOMING DATES:
May 2-4, 2025 | Helper, Utah
December 5-7, 2025 | To be announced
Discover ‘THE ELEMENT OF TOUCH’ Weekend Retreat!
Explore touch through the five elements in this transformative experience.
At this retreat, you will learn about your own touch needs and desires, how to get them met, and how to better communicate them to others.
Perfect for:
- Touch-seekers
- Those with touch-related fears
- Self-discovery enthusiasts
- Partnerships seeking intimacy & communication help
By practicing touch, we heal, meet a longing in our body, and restore a more natural way of being. We re-humanize.
During this 3-day retreat, you can expect to intentionally and gently explore touch with yourself and others. Each activity will be clearly explained before you choose in to your level of participation. A lot of space is given for choice in each moment. You will never be pressured to do anything past your comfort level.
You can expect all participants to have a clear understanding of the boundaries of the space, including yourself.
You can trust that Melissa has interviewed all participants to help ensure everyone’s safety and comfortability.
You can also expect about one hour of pre-retreat homework. This is required.
– A notebook for journaling.
– Comfortable clothes that are versatile.
– A water bottle.
– Food for yourself for the weekend. There’s a full kitchen available to you. There are also restaurants close by.
– Pillows, cushions, blankets, or any other comfort items you’d like.
– An open and curious mindset.
Accommodations vary depending on location.
In Helper, Utah, where events are often held, we will be staying at an old, renovated brothel. All rooms are private as well as warm, clean, and comfortable. Some rooms have private bathrooms and most have shared bathrooms. There is a full kitchen for you to use with all of the modern necessities you’d expect.
Contact Melissa with specific questions.
To register, start with emailing Melissa with the link below.
Emailing Melissa is a required step in the registration process. From there, we will set up a short phone interview. This is for us both to ask any questions that we have and to see if it’s a fit for you to participate.
Once that is complete, payment can be made via PayPal or Venmo.
Other payment options available, if necessary.
THE ELEMENT OF TOUCH TESTIMONIALS
“Melissa is extremely qualified to be doing this work and has so much experience and education that enables her to safely and effectively facilitate this kind of work. If you are new to this kind of workshop, I highly recommend doing your research when looking into options and ensuring you are in good hands. Melissa knows how to create the environment needed for a large group of strangers to safely explore. I was empowered and held in a way I will never forget!”
“The Element of Touch workshop was incredibly informative. It offered clarity into how my body prefers to be handled and also provided opportunities to practice and embody these preferences with others. Attending the workshop with my partner was helpful, offering us a clearer map on how each of us prefer to be touched. The workshop also gave us short-hand language to better articulate what we’d like to receive from each other and also what we can (or can’t) offer in any given moment. Melissa takes the framework of consent and sovereignty and masterfully helps people practice bringing these concepts into their bodies. Melissa’s coaching is gentle, intuitive and direct. She feels comfortable in her own body as well as working with other people’s bodies, their boundaries and preferences.”
“As a first-time participant, I felt the pace and mix of discussion with play was nearly perfect. The time allotted for journaling and group discussion was helpful to decompress the feelings from each event. The general environment felt safe and made it much easier to share my experiences with the group. I felt that nearly every experience helped to open my mind and to expand my world view on how we experience each other as humans. By the end I craved more intimate interactions with people and wanted to share what I had experienced. It destigmatized touch and from a personal note, seemed to have built confidence in myself and my ability to speak with less fear (in general and in intimate situations).”
“I really loved blending the visuals and sensual nature of the elements with touch. It helped build a shared vocabulary with my partner and increase the awareness around my own preferences.”
“I appreciated the pacing and the safety built into the structure. I felt like I spent most of the workshop right at my growth edge, which was what I had hoped my experience would be.”
“The container that was created allowed me to feel safe being vulnerable.”
“I was really impressed with this area (facilitation). Melissa’s presence is that of sweet, caring authority. I felt heard and safe. Both discussion and play were thoughtfully prepared. I left wishing that I had developed more of a friendship with Melissa. This just shows how approachable she is, while still being able to maintain a position of authority in the container.”