The Listening Body
Qigong, Chinese Medicine & Craniosacral Therapy with Emily Morrison, LAc, MAOM
February 17-22, 2027
Tulum, Mexico
$3,500 for early bird by Nov 1st
$4,000 after Nov 1st
Payment Plans Available
An Immersive Retreat Exploring the Intersection of Qigong, Chinese Medicine & Craniosacral Therapy
The Listening Body is a five-day immersive educational retreat centered around a simple practice: learning to listen before we respond.
Modern life trains us to move quickly—to identify, decide, react, and act. This retreat offers another approach: slowing down enough to perceive what is actually happening before choosing our response.
Over five days in Tulum, we will explore this process through Qigong, Chinese medicine, and Craniosacral Therapy—three distinct practices that each offer ways of developing greater awareness of the body and its internal relationships.
We begin by cultivating awareness within our own bodies through daily Qigong. Chinese medicine provides a framework for understanding the body as an interconnected system, shaped by relationships among organs, tissues, channels, emotions, environment, and natural cycles. From there, Craniosacral Therapy brings that awareness into our hands as we learn to observe, palpate, perceive subtle rhythms and tissue movement, and respond without imposing a predetermined correction.
The emphasis throughout the retreat is not simply on learning techniques, but on developing our ability to listen, perceive, understand, and respond.
Who Is This Retreat For?
The Listening Body is open to both practitioners and curious beginners.
For acupuncturists, massage therapists, bodyworkers, movement teachers, somatic practitioners, and other wellness professionals, the retreat offers an opportunity to refine palpatory awareness, therapeutic presence, and listening skills that can inform and deepen your existing work.
For those without a professional bodywork background, the material will be taught accessibly and from the beginning. You'll develop a greater understanding of your own body, explore foundational principles of Qigong and Chinese medicine, and learn introductory hands-on listening and craniosacral practices that can be explored personally and with loved ones.
No previous experience with Qigong, Chinese medicine, Craniosacral Therapy, or bodywork is required.
What We'll Explore
Qigong
Qigong is a traditional Chinese health and self-cultivation practice integrating posture, movement, breath regulation, attention, and energetic awareness to cultivate and regulate Qi.
We will practice Qigong daily, using movement, stillness, breath, and attention to develop awareness within our own bodies before extending that awareness toward another person.
Our practice will support vitality and self-regulation while cultivating some of the fundamental skills used throughout the training: presence, sensitivity, perception, and the ability to remain centered while working with another person.
Chinese Medicine
Chinese medicine provides a framework for understanding the body through the dynamic relationships among organ systems, tissues, channels, emotions, environment, and natural cycles.
We'll explore foundational concepts including Yin and Yang, the Five Phases, Qi, Blood, the channel network, organ relationships, tissue layers, emotions, and seasonal influences.
Rather than approaching these concepts only intellectually, we'll explore how they can help us observe and understand what we encounter within our own bodies and through touch.
We will also explore areas of relationship between Chinese medicine's understanding of channels and tissue layers and our anatomical understanding of fascia and connective tissue—while respecting the distinctions between these different systems.
Craniosacral Therapy
Craniosacral Therapy is a gentle, hands-on therapeutic approach grounded in anatomy, physiology, skilled palpation, and the perception of subtle tissue movement and rhythmic activity within the craniosacral system.
Through sustained, attentive contact, we'll learn to perceive changes in rhythm, movement, tension, and tissue response rather than immediately trying to change what we find.
Training will include relevant anatomy and physiology, the craniosacral system and craniosacral rhythm, observation, palpatory sensitivity, nonverbal communication, listening stations throughout the body, and foundational hands-on techniques.
Partner practice will allow plenty of time both to give and receive, learning through our hands as well as through our own experience on the table.
Learning To Listen
A central principle of The Listening Body is that stopping is part of the technique. Rather than immediately deciding what the body needs, we practice becoming quiet enough to notice what is present and allow our response to emerge from what we perceive.
Arrive → Perceive → Listen → Respond → Listen Again
Through observation, palpation, and partner practice, we'll explore craniosacral rhythm, listening stations throughout the body, subtle tissue movement, sustained contact and therapeutic stillness, along with foundational techniques involving the pelvic and respiratory diaphragms, thoracic inlet, hyoid, and cranial base.
The intention is not simply to memorize a protocol, but to develop the sensitivity to recognize when to act, when to wait, and when to stop.
The Retreat Experience
While The Listening Body is an educational training, this is also a retreat.
Our days will balance Qigong, classroom learning, hands-on partner practice, nourishing meals, rest, and time outdoors so that the material has room to settle rather than simply accumulating more information.
We'll also take two group excursions in and around Tulum, creating space to experience the landscape and culture beyond the retreat house.
Our home for the week is a private retreat property surrounded by tropical vegetation, with private accommodations and shared spaces for meals, practice, conversation, and rest.
Meals will be fresh and primarily vegetarian, with an emphasis on nourishing cooked foods, vegetables, fruit, eggs, grains, and other simple, well-prepared foods, with dairy and dairy-free options available. Meat or fish may be offered for our final dinner.
What's Included
Your retreat registration includes:
Five nights of private accommodations
The complete five-day educational program
Daily Qigong practice
Chinese medicine instruction
Craniosacral Therapy and palpation training
Supervised partner practice
Participant materials
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the retreat house*
Two group excursions
Scheduled round-trip group airport transportation
Certificate of Completion documenting the training and instructional contact hours
*One meal during an excursion may be at the participant's own expense.
Airfare to Mexico is not included.
Scheduled group airport transportation will be provided from a designated airport during established arrival and departure windows. Participants traveling through another airport or outside the scheduled transfer times will be responsible for arranging their own transportation. Full travel details will be provided to registered participants before flights are booked.
Certificate of Completion
Participants who complete the educational program will receive a Certificate of Completion for The Listening Body, documenting the training and instructional contact hours.
The certificate recognizes completion of this educational program and may also serve as a prerequisite for future levels of The Listening Body.
This retreat is not a professional certification, licensure program, or continuing-education/CEU program, and completion does not authorize participants to practice outside the scope of their existing professional training or licensure.
Investment
Early Bird — $3,500 (Register by November 15, 2026)
Regular Registration — $4,000 (Beginning November 16, 2026)
Payment plans are available.
Your registration includes private accommodations, meals, the complete training and participant materials, two group excursions, and scheduled group airport transportation.
Airfare is not included.
Space is intentionally limited to keep the group intimate and allow plenty of individual attention during hands-on practice.
Interested in Joining Us?
Because The Listening Body is a small retreat with substantial hands-on and partner work, we'll begin with a brief 15–20 minute conversation with Emily.
This gives us an opportunity to connect, answer your questions about the training and retreat experience, discuss any relevant needs or considerations, and make sure the experience is a good fit.
Your Facilitator
Emily Morrison, LAc, MAOM
Emily Morrison is a licensed acupuncturist, educator, bodyworker, and founder of Valley Spirit in Beacon, New York.
For more than twenty years, Emily has dedicated her career to the study and practice of bodywork, Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, Qigong, and the internal arts. Her work has been deeply influenced by fifteen years of lineage training with the North American Tang Shou Tao Association, where she studied classical and traditional Chinese medicine, Gongfu medicine, internal martial arts, and an integrated approach to Western Craniosacral Therapy and Chinese medicine.
Emily's work begins with the body as the place where our lived experience is continually expressed. Integrating Chinese medicine with a strong foundation in anatomy, biomechanics, and hands-on assessment, her approach emphasizes careful observation, listening, and responding to what is actually present.
The Listening Body brings together several threads of Emily's clinical practice, personal practice, and teaching while maintaining the integrity of each discipline.
In Collaboration With Vivid Visionaries
The Listening Body is offered in collaboration with Vivid Visionaries, supporting retreat coordination and the on-the-ground experience in Tulum.