SACRED DESIRE
SACRED BOUNDARIES
A Sex Positive Retreat
With Kari Kinkead and Nicholette Routhier
October 4-7 | Austin, TX
“If you're curious about exploring something new in your intimate or expressive life, this event is for you. Whether you're curious about opening your relationship, exploring same-sex attraction, bringing more depth to your kink play, having deeper energetic sex with yourself or a partner, discovering or exploring a new kink, or anything else, this event will help you explore that with a lot of safety and trust.” - 2023 Retreat Participant
Unearth freedom by claiming your desires.
Do you want to be more turned on and in touch with desire in your life?
Have you attempted to try something new in the bedroom and after little success, lost faith in your desire?
Do you feel fear or shame about your deepest sexual desire?
Are you adventurous, but no matter how far you’ve gone, or how much you’ve experienced, you still crave more?
Let this weekend be your playground to explore and experiment in a safe environment!
Sacred Desire, Sacred Boundaries is a 4-day immersive retreat to dive into your sexual desire. This is not a sit-and-passively-learn workshop—play and experimentation are vital. You will be guided through a variety of engaging solo, partnered, and group exercises. This workshop is appropriate for all experience levels.
Boundaries and consent are taught and prioritized throughout the weekend and you are empowered to participate in each exercise in a way that honors your Yes and your No. Skills learned throughout the weekend will be brought into evening sessions of unfacilitated, gently supported, exploration, expression, and free play.
Through this experiential deep dive, you will leave feeling energized, turned on, and empowered to move toward what you want with passion, courage, freedom, and sovereignty.
To ensure a safe and intentional experience for all, you will submit an application and have an interview with one or both of the facilitators to make sure it’s a good fit. If selected, we’ll send you a registration link and everything you need to dive in with us!
You will Experience:
Embodiment Practices - Deepen your felt sense of your body and yourself so that you can expand your capacity to feel and sense others.
Sacred Self-Pleasure - Celebrate your pleasure through a safe and inclusive space to explore your own pleasure, and share it with others, if you choose.
Connection Exercises - Cultivate a common language for sharing, connection, and diving deeper.
Sensual Exploration Dojos - Explore your desire and boundaries around platonic touch in a nourishing, sensual, supported space.
Sex-Positive Play Dojos - Explore, experiment, face challenges, and improve your skills around negotiating and navigating pleasure and connection in a space that prioritizes the full expression of intimate desire and boundaries.
Integration Sharing Circles - Share discoveries, receive support and celebrate wins each day.
“This event was the perfect blend of supportive, challenging, nourishing, confronting (the good kind), and opening. I'd recommend this event to anyone curious about how they can practice being bold in their identification and claim of their desires.” - 2023 Participant
The Stages of Embodied Desire
We will explore this framework for deepening into true, sovereign, and trusting connections through the lens of desire.
1. Feeling-Sensing - What are the sensations in your body and heart?
2. Articulating - What, exactly, do you desire?
3. Claiming - What would support you in fully owning this desire for yourself?
4. Negotiating - What do we want to create by meeting this desire and how do we honor each of us in the process?
5. Giving and Receiving - What do you need in order to fully give or receive this desire with an open heart?
What’s Included:
Cozy Shared and Private Retreat Rooms
Delicious Catered Meals
Pre-Retreat Zoom Introduction & Intention Setting Call
Post-Retreat Zoom Integration Call
Highly Trained Facilitation and Emotional Support
Travel to the retreat location is not included.
Pricing:
$1400-$2200 Individual* | $3600 Couple
*Exact price depends on room selection and availability.
Venue:
A magical sanctuary nestled 45 minutes outside Austin, TX.
Our practice space is a cedar-clad pyramid. Our housing is a range of beautiful cabins and glamps surrounded by live oaks wrapped in vines.
Schedule:
Thursday, September 26: Pre-Retreat Zoom Call | 7pm-8:30pm CDT
Meet your Facilitators and Fellow Participants
Set Intentions
Friday, October 4: Retreat Day 1
Arrive and Settle
Orientation and Agreements
Facilitated Sessions to Explore Foundational Principles
Evening Sensual Exploration Dojo
Saturday, October 5 & Sunday, October 6: Retreat Days 2 & 3
Morning and Afternoon Facilitated Sessions
Evening Sex-Positive Play Dojos
Monday, October 7: Retreat Day 4
Closing Session
Depart by Noon
Monday, October 14: Post-Retreat Zoom Call | 7pm-8:30pm CDT
Debrief and Integrate your Experience
To ensure a safe and intentional experience for all, you will submit an application and have an interview with one or both of the facilitators to make sure it’s a good fit. If selected, we’ll send you a registration link and everything you need to dive in with us!
“I would recommend mindfully setting aside a long luxurious weekend to get to know yourself in the context of desires and boundaries in a safe and beautifully held container.” - 2023 Participant
Meet Your Facilitators
Nicholette Routhier
Nicholette is a coach, teacher, author, and artist committed to healing cultural shame and the trauma most of us carry in our bodies as a result. Her passion is supporting others in cultivating their fullest sovereign expression. She has been supporting individuals and couples for the past five years to deepen their relationships with their partners, themselves, their community, and the world at large. She is a certified Embodiment Teacher, having completed over 1000 hours of training in Masculine and Feminine Embodiment and Sexual Polarity with John Wineland, David Deida, and Kendra Cunov. She was John Wineland's Lead Program Assistant for four years. During that time, she co-facilitated and co-created workshops and programs, such as the Embodied Women's Relationship Immersion and The Teacher Training, and led dozens of Assistant Teams to hold in-person and virtual groups from 40-200 participants across the globe. Over the past three years, she has been training in the lineage of Carlos Castaneda with Teo Alfero. She is a founding core ensemble member of UpLift Physical Theatre, an acrobatic theatre company that tours nationally and internationally.
Kari Kinkead
Kari is a sex and intimacy embodiment coach. She works with singles, couples, and groups to ultimately create the most pleasure-filled, healing, mind-blowing, cosmic, warm, loving, freaky, dirty sex life of their dreams.
A teacher of embodiment (breath, sound and movement), sexual yoga, kink, and ontological coaching, she also brings her devotion to and scientific knowledge of the physical body and levels of consciousness, from having spent 18+ years as a nurse and anesthesia provider. She views sex and sexual energy as sacred and healing, a way to experience the divine and more of yourself.
Kari works with clients on being in the body in day-to-day life, navigating relationship challenges, harnessing the power of desire, and unshaming and healing sexual struggles, all in order to unlock and create more passion and freedom in the bedroom that ripples out to more passion and freedom in all areas of their life.
Curious? Or Concerned?
Watch this video from your facilitators:
“This skillfully facilitated event will give you the tools you need to navigate your intimate desires while honoring the sovereignty of your embodied boundaries.” - 2023 Participant
FAQ
How many people will be attending?
We will not run the event with less than a certain number of people and yet we will limit the group to 30 max in order to maintain a tight and safe container.
Can I come with a partner?
You are welcome to join solo or with a partner(s). If you are partnered and come alone, you are fully empowered to honor your boundaries, including the boundaries of your relationship(s), and participate to the extent you are most comfortable. This is a safe space to explore and conjure up juiciness to bring home to your beloved(s).
If you come with your partner(s), you can choose how you participate. You can spend the whole weekend completely with each other and you’re also welcome to play with others. We provide solid structure and support to safely communicate and empower each partner in their desires and boundaries.
How will I meet people if I am single?
Much of our time together will be in structured exercises, so you will have plenty of opportunities to meet a variety of people and we’ll drop in deeper with each other each day.
How inclusive is this event?
Our commitment is to create a culture of safety, self-expression, and belonging. Adults of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, relationship statuses, etc. are welcome here.
Who is the retreat not for?
There are only a small number of things that would cause us to turn someone away from this event. For example, someone who has a new or active sexual trauma may benefit from deeper healing work before joining us. Or if you don’t have a solid support system outside of this retreat. We can explore these things together during the interview and talk about whether it would be a good fit at this time. This retreat is definitely not for someone who just wants to f**k. If you’re not up for approaching the content with consciousness, open-heartedness, and safety in mind, this is not the retreat for you.
How much am I required to participate?
We specify a few parts of the schedule that you are required to attend and they are sessions like the opening, in which we set expectations and agreements. Beyond that, we will give highlights of what to expect for each session and you can opt in. After the first 5 minutes of each session, once we outline what to expect, anyone who stays will be asked to remain in the room to maintain a tight container, but you can still opt to sit out and observe if you prefer not to participate. Doors will remain open for the evening Play Dojos to enter and exit as you wish.
What is your COVID protocol?
At this time, we have no required COVID protocol, but please note that if you are sick or test positive for COVID, you will not be able to participate in the weekend. Please get plenty of rest and nourish yourself, so you arrive healthy. We strongly recommend taking a COVID test before arrival to confirm that you are negative. If you contract COVID while on the retreat, you will be responsible for your own quarantining off-site. These protocols are subject to change based on CDC recommendations.
What is your safer sex policy?
We ask that all participants get screened for STI’s if their latest check-up is not up to date or it has been more than 4 months. That said, we do not track anyone’s status. There will be space to share your STI status with potential play partners before engaging if you choose to do so and we empower every participant to take responsibility for their own health and safety. We will provide some safer sex and cleaning supplies, but we encourage you to bring your own supplies of choice.
Are alcohol and other drugs allowed?
No. This is strictly a sober event. The venue also has policies against drug use. No exceptions.
Webpage Photos by Max Tombly, Marek Piwnicki, Alexander Grey, Nsey Benajah, Mahrael Boutros, Omid Armin, Alexander Krivitskiy, Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦, and Olga Drach on Unsplash.