Wheel of Consent: 2-Day Workshop with Beth Poague

Saturday, July 11th, 9 am - 5 pm

Sunday, July 12th, 9 am - 4 pm

Sliding scale $200-450(flexible payment options available)

What do I want? How do I ask for it? 
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Dive into your truest wants. Learn to speak up for your needs. Get in touch with your body. Listen to your inner voice. 

In this immersive, two-day workshop, we’ll tap into our somatic feeling-sense, learn how to access our desires, and get comfortable expressing our wants and needs.

This workshop offers a framework to practice choosing. You will shed the idea of “should” and notice when a desire is truly your own.

Does this sound like you?

• You feel like you give more than you receive

• You find it hard to say no, and then are left feeling resentful 

• You often go without, because asking feels too hard

• You hear yourself saying things like “that’s fine” or “you decide”

• You have a hard time even knowing what you want 

Take a pause and notice how reading this made your body feel. Are you tense? Constricted?

In this workshop you will:

• Learn to notice what you want, and practice asking for it

• Practice saying no and expressing your limits, instead of enduring 

• Become awakened to what is pleasurable and joyful to you in this moment

Imagine receiving what you ask for, which is actually what you want, and being able to give to another, and knowing it’s actually what they want. What would it be like to say no with ease, and be able to hear no without taking it personally? 

How does your body feel now? Breathe. 

The Wheel of Consent, developed by Betty Martin, is a wonderful tool and embodied practice to help us ask for what we want, and disrupt patterns of just going along. 

This workshop is not about consent in the way we have been taught to understand it. Instead, we will learn to make agreements that allow us to express our desires, notice our limits, and feel comfortable saying and hearing no. Practicing through touch exercises brings the Wheel into our bodies, and reflection and discussion helps us understand when and how we can bring our new skills into our daily lives. 

What the experience will be like: 

This workshop will take place in the beautiful, light-filled space of Valley Spirit, in Beacon, New York. There will be solo and paired exercises, and opportunities for reflection and discussion. The schedule will be gentle and spacious. We will move slowly, pay attention to our nervous systems, take breaks, and create a container where we can be vulnerable and listen to our bodies. You will be able to participate by doing or observing, and request that the exercises be non-touch, if preferred. The space is fully accessible with a variety of seating options, and we will make every effort to accommodate sensory, diet and any other accessibility needs.

This workshop is presented by Beth Poague, certified facilitator-in-training of the Wheel of Consent. Beth has been teaching workshops, facilitating monthly practice circles, and presenting about consent in a variety of spaces for many years. She considers the Wheel of Consent a tool for liberation, allowing her to practice being fully present in her life and body, and to do the work of becoming trustworthy for herself and others. She works in education, disability justice, and abolition, and believes in social change through community and relationship.