Somatic Expression with Jamie McHugh

"The great sea has sent me adrift;
it moves me
like a reed in a great river.
Earth and the great weather move me,
have carried me away,
and fill my inward parts with joy." - Uvavnuk, an Iglulik Eskimo woman shaman

"Whenever we touch nature we get clean. People who have got dirty through too much civilization take a walk in the woods, or a bath in the sea. Entering the unconscious, entering yourself through dreams, is touching nature from the inside and this is the same thing, things are put right again." - CG Jung

"We must uncenter our minds from ourselves. We must unhumanize our minds a little and become as confident as the rock and the ocean we are made from." - Robinson Jeffers

EcoSomatic Expression Online 2027

A Somatic-Expressive Exploration of Place

For over 35 years, I’ve guided EcoSomatic Expression retreats in forests, mountains, and coastlines across Europe and North America. And while those immersions are magic, it’s hard for many people to leave daily life for a weeklong retreat.

This five-month online series brings the practice home where you are, and invites you to explore your local terrain through presence, play, and creative response.

Through simple somatic practices and aesthetic expressions, you’ll discover what nature has to offer you— and what you have to offer nature. This process of mutuality and reciprocity involves listening and responding to your body, your land, and your rhythm.

* An overview of the EcoSomatic Expression methodology can be found HERE

What You’ll Do

Cultivate a somatic-expressive relationship with your local landscape
Investigate and integrate place through regular sensory engagement
Create and share images, videos, soundscapes, writing and movement responses using your phone or tools at hand

How It Works

We begin each phase online by attuning with the body’s five somatic technologies: Breath. Vocalization. Self-Contact. Movement. Stillness.

These create a shift from the automatic to the extraordinary — opening your perceptual field and re-calibrating how you meet the world.

In tandem with these somatic practices, you are guided through the Five Phase Relational Map: Witness. Contact. Mirror. Respond. Rest.

Each month, you are given a series of scores based on the relational theme of that particular phase to explore in your own time in the environment of your choice. You are also welcome to invite others to join you in these outdoor explorations.

You bring back "souvenirs" (from the French, memories) to share with the online group.

Together, these frameworks support an embodied, creative, and relational experience of your nature - in nature.

Monthly Structure

Each phase of the journey is explored across five weekends

Phase	Dates	Theme
Phase 1	April 10 & 11	Witness & Rest
Phase 2	May 29 & 30	Contact
Phase 3	June 26 & 27	Mirror
Phase 4	July 24 & 25	Respond
Phase 5	September 4 & 5	Map Integration

Saturdays (somatic explorations + themes)

Sundays (sharing + guidance)

9-11:30am PDT/ noon-2:30pm EDT/ 6-8:30pm CEST both days

5 group check-ins in between phases: schedule determined by group

1 Individual Consultation with Jamie

All sessions recorded for playback and download

Who
This series is for anyone ready to explore somatic-expressive engagement with the natural world — as continuing education, personal re-creation, or artistic research.

Whether you are a therapist, artist, educator, activist, or simply a curious human, EcoSomatic Expression offers a framework for discovering your relationship with place over time.

Participants have used this approach as a foundation for performance, creative writing, environmental education, and ecopsychology.

No prior experience in somatics or art-making is required. Just a love for the natural world - and a willingness to show up, feel, explore and respond.

Program Fee: $675 paid in full by March 1/$750 after
Payment plans available.

Fee includes all sessions, playback recordings, hand-outs, monthly group check-ins, and an individual consultation with Jamie.

HOW
Submit an application here with a little information about yourself and your intentions for participating as well as payment through Venmo or Wise

Upon receipt of your application and payment, you will receive all logistical information and assorted readings for the journey.

YOUR GUIDE Jamie McHugh

I primarily lived in rural locations on the US West Coast for the past 20 years before moving recently to the hills of Western Massachusetts. While staying connected to the modern world virtually, the bulk of my time was spent in the vastness of the environment. I became a photographer of water in all its many dimensions, in particular the coastal ecosystem of waves and eddies, coves and tidal pools.

The beach was my movement studio where I could lay down in the embrace of sand, breathe and move while listening to the ever-present drone of the ocean, and enter another frame of consciousness. Taking my camera on these excursions amplified this kinesthetic state of mind though focused attention on the visual domain.

Where the confluence of breath, vocalization, movement and stillness enabled a wide-open fluid perception, the focus of the lens brought concise attention to detail, form, and color. Suspending time temporarily to touch an ephemeral moment and embrace a still image became a practice of action-reflection, impression-expression, gather-hold…and then release and re-set.

This rhythm of concentrated attention modulated by spacious breath and movement was its own reward, deepening my relationship with place while altering my state of being. Having all these countless “souvenirs” (from French, memory) to share with others as prints and video montages was an extra bonus. www.naturebeingart.org

Making art has potentiated and amplified my relationship to place just as place has done the same to my aesthetic sensibility. This reciprocity with the natural world is the essence of this learning lab dedicated to Somatic Attunement, Relational Presence, and Creative Engagement.

It has been my soul medicine, and I am happy to share it with you!

For in-person EcoSomatic retreats, go here