The Art of Queer Intimacy

Friday, October 11th 6:30pm-8pm
at Lemon Tree Embodiment Studio

“Being queer is not about who you’re having sex with — that can be a dimension of it — but queer as being about the Self that is at odds with everything around it, and it has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.

An in-person, experiential somatic workshop to expand your capacity for deeper intimacy with yourself and others.

The Art of Queer Intimacy, at its core, is about your intimacy with your Self.
It's about feeling so radically connected with you, you're able to effortlessly become a conduit to love.

This practice-based workshop will equip you with tools and knowledge to deploy your parachute from the shame that's been conditioned.
It’s time to have an alternative for the endless pursuit of external fulfillment.
The truth is–the shame around being “other” ends when you belong to you.
From this place of wholeness, you open to create deep partnership, ending the loop of "less than" and alchemizing it into overflow. The queer community deserves a soft landing from the culture of “never enough” into a more embodied, holistic, and fulfilled sense of being.

Find more joy and pleasure in intimacy, by intentionally coming home to your own body.

Expect to

  • Experience a coming home to your own body, so you can strengthen your sense of inner belonging, and allow it to take root to cultivate external belonging.

  • Soften your heart while finding reverence for your boundaries to both become, and receive, the love you desire.

  • Unfurl and reconnect to your own inner circuitry and allow it to flow, free from the kinks of conditioning.

  • Explore, through practice, how your strengthened self-intimacy can create connected, embodied intimacy with others, from start to finish.

  • Feel supported in expansive, understanding, and accepting community while being simultaneously invited to meet your edges.

  • Have space for live coaching and to have your personal questions answered.

  • Leave with tools and practices you can use to continue to support yourself in your intimacy journey.

Your Hosts

Kelley Hoag, M.S. is a Somatic Behavioral Therapist who works with high-level leaders wanting to go deeper than traditional talk therapy, and live a life beyond the status quo.

About Kelley

She stands for her client’s sustainable self-growth by blending unique research-backed and intuition-led methods to find clarity and acceptance from the inside, out. Kelley guides her clients to deep self-trust by connecting them to their bodies in order to process their emotions and beliefs, turning loud voices of judgement and criticism into ones of success, and compassion.

Kelley holds her Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology, and Master’s of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis. Kelley is also a Certified Integrative Health Coach, 200hr Yoga Teacher and Meditation Teacher, and holds certifications in Integrative Somatic Parts Work, Somatic Attachment Therapy, and Mindful Resilience for Trauma Recovery.

As the founder of Root to Rise, Kelley has 10+ years of experience in the field. She works virtually with her clients one-on-one and hosts retreats, workshops and in-person events all over the country.

About Zachary

Zachary Ryan (he/they) experiences the world through a soft, creative energy.

Coming out as gay at age 25, he understands the angst of hiding a queer identity behind the values of the rural south. Around the time Zachary came out, he began finding his unique voice as a storyteller. As the owner of a visual storytelling firm (LA FLECHA FILM CO), Zachary leaned into his passion for capturing the essence of the queer rural experience. Pulling from an empathetic core, he began exploring avenues for capturing queer stories in North Carolina. 

This journey led him to film, and produce “You Belong Here.” This hour long narrative explores the dynamics life of over 20 LGBTQ+ folks growing up in the rural south. Soon after the documentary was released, Zachary traveled to different areas of NC to share the film. The months that followed the premiere, Zachary came face-to-face with a greater need in the LGBTQ+ community. Being queer, being other, was always a problem to be solved. As he gained gentle, consistent support, he softened into a capacity for presence. He stumbled into a yoga practice that saved his life and led him to his greatest healer–himself. 

As a 200-Hour Yoga Teacher, Zachary creates supportive spaces for his students to unwind the shame, grief, loneliness, and trauma coiled around the tissues of the body. He continues to lean into his own personal experiences on an arduous path to Queer Liberation. A liberation that flows out of nurturing a craft in storytelling and a commitment to being a student of conscious movement.

What People Are Saying

“I chose myself last Sunday. I chose not to expose myself to some anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment that makes me feel unsafe, and it has been a decade and a half now that the negative comments have been flickering into my life. It felt good [to choose me], and started with [Zach’s] yoga practice.”

“I love Kelley's space for honesty and rawness. She showed up for herself the same way she invited us to show up for ourselves, and lead by example. Kelley has a graceful way of introducing us to our intuitive self. I felt invited into a world of self-trust in which my body was fully leading me, and it felt empowering and exciting.”

*This event is for all genders, and any relationship status
Please dress comfortably and bring a journal.