Bernadette Pleasant
Embody healing somatic movements as a powerful and easy way to release constricted emotions, calm your nervous system, and step more confidently into your authentic Self.
What if you could just let go... and open to the wisdom and guidance of your emotions?
Many of us are too emotionally on guard these days to open to the life-affirming messages of support, encouragement, and love that can flow from our hearts and authentic feelings.
That’s where dance mage Bernadette Pleasant can meet you, see you, and guide you...
Through a gentle, and, at times, exhilarating form of somatic dance, she can help you touch into difficult feelings you may be experiencing — including fear, grief, anger, shame… or joy that’s stirring beneath the surface.
Our emotions are meant to be experienced, expressed, and released. Whether we deem them good or bad, it’s their nature to “move” us, and, for our own wellbeing, they should move through and out of us as well.
Scientific research shows that stress caused by pent-up emotions can contribute to many health issues, including high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even a suppressed immune system.
Bernadette’s own life challenges triggered a deep emotional shutdown and overwhelming sense of shame and discomfort around her body. It wasn’t until her daughter was born that she found the courage to turn things around and start the long and difficult journey back to her Self.
Bernadette followed the groove of her own drumbeat to reach the indwelling place of her truest passion: primal, natural, emotional movement through dance.
She’s a spirited, energetic, and fiery teacher, and the creator of the popular mind-body wellness program Femme! And it’s no wonder... she comes from a long line of natural healers who use touch and movement to help others find peace, empowerment, and wellness.
— Bernadette Pleasant
In this 7-step emotional tour with Bernadette, you’ll be welcomed without judgment, and receive compassionate, loving support.
You’ll be guided in simple somatic movements to honor and safely express your emotions so you can open to the authentic you — the key to living a vital and healthy life.
Studies of the psychotherapeutic use of dance show that dance promotes emotional, social, cognitive, and physical integration, and can significantly improve your health and wellbeing.
During these turbulent times, we’re all bound to be holding strong feelings… perhaps some we’re not even aware of. And if you’re like many, you may even feel guilty about feeling joy in the midst of all the suffering around the globe.
Feeling joy is what you MOST need to be doing right now!
In her own journey of self-exploration and healing through movement, Bernadette discovered that this ancient form of self-expression can help break patterns of soul-stifling behaviors and valuing others’ expectations above your own.
Bernadette’s specific innovations in somatic movement and dance therapy can help you rediscover your primal self — perhaps the most essential and potentially most minimized factor in your personal freedom. Primal wildness doesn’t mean lack of control and unaccountable behavior; it means actually feeling alive — in a world that prefers tameness and sameness.
This is a form of dance anyone can do... drawing from your own inner rhythm — your Higher Self — as a catalyst for expressing and releasing your feelings that need to be released.
And Bernadette is a vibrant example of what’s possible for you. Her high-energy teaching style — using sound, beat, rhythm, and emotion — is inspiring and intoxicating. You’ll want to know her secret... to feel the abandon and joy she exudes... to jump right in and learn to better recognize and express your emotions.
In this physically and spiritually invigorating and transformative course, you’ll:
- Come to understand that there is no “right” or “wrong” way to move — everyone knows how to feel emotions... anyone can do this
- Experience how dance can help you reclaim childlike spontaneity, curiosity, playfulness, and joy
- Discover the ultimate femme experience — beginning with slow, soothing, and grounding movements... then creating a safe container, stepping into a womb-like ritual space… and finally stepping into a nesting space for nurturing future realized dreams
- Realize the importance — to your health and wellbeing — of honoring and expressing your feelings
- Explore how movement and dance can open you to your full range of emotions and be a powerful means for expressing difficult feelings during these chaotic times
- Give yourself permission to acknowledge, name, feel, and fully express your emotions in a safe way that enhances, rather than disrupts, your life and relationships
- Learn how healing sexuality through dance means freeing yourself from fear of sexuality
- Take an emotional tour through your body — where do you feel grief or a sense of injustice/anger/rage? What about lust/desire? Confidence… where do you feel that in your body?
- Put your body in positions that make you feel confident — so you can feel full and right with yourself
- Discover that you can choose joy, and learn how movement can help you access this pleasurable feeling — even through any pain you may be experiencing
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-part transformational intensive, Bernadette will show you how to embody healing somatic dance movements as a powerful and easy way to release constricted emotions, calm your nervous system, and step more confidently into your authentic Self.
This course will feature teachings, training sessions, and experiential practices with Bernadette. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to work with dance and movement for emotional freedom.
Module 1: Living Emotionally Stifled (August 12)
It’s not that we intentionally live emotionally stifled — it’s just that early on in life we learned lessons about emotions that aren’t actually true. We’re told we’re “too much” when we’re bubbling over with joy or exploding with anger… we’re told that “good girls don’t do that” and “boys don’t cry.”
We learn to suppress our emotions and contort ourselves to fit within the “acceptable” emotional range. We miss out on the full range of emotions and the gifts they have to offer us. That’s why this course begins with unlearning what we learned about emotions as young people.
In this module, you’ll begin with emotional literacy, and:
- Explore the differences between emotions, feelings, and moods
- Consider the words that describe emotions (e.g., joy, grief, jealousy, anger, etc.)
- Understand how your discomfort with emotions may be holding you back in every area of your life
- Come to terms with how shame keeps you on an inner “lockdown”
- Discover the increased quality of life that’s available to you when you release shame
How You’ll Move...
You’ll somatically experience what stifled has felt like in your life. Then you’ll be guided through a full emotional tour (including joy, grief, anger, lust, confidence, flirt) so you can begin to explore the fuller range of emotions available to you.
Module 2: Relationships & Emotions (August 19)
When our emotions are repressed or suppressed, we move through life trying to hold everything in as tightly as we can. All of this constriction creates a kind of armor that blocks us from experiencing true intimacy with ourselves and others.
You’ll learn how to express your emotions, and:
- Sense how emotions show up in your body through sounds and storytelling
- Release the armor that creates separation with yourself and others
- Cultivate intimacy with your own emotions — because quality relationships with others begin with the quality of your relationship with yourself
- Express your emotions with others (your partner, children, loved ones, and beyond) in honest, truthful, constructive ways that create greater intimacy and understanding
How You’ll Move...
Together we’ll do a deeper dive into the emotions of “flirt” and “confidence.” You’ll get to move these emotions in your body, exploring what they awaken for you in relationship with yourself first, before exploring them with others.
Module 3: Sex & Emotions (August 26)
Your fears and blocks around sex must be honored. But, do not hide from your own vitality — the potential power you will reclaim for yourself when you confront your fears and own your sexual nature is immeasurable. Just as we learn lessons early on in life about our emotions, we also learn distorted lessons about sex...
We’re taught that it’s not okay to have, let alone feel, our desires. We’re taught to be ashamed of lust. Living in a narrow margin of life prevents us from fully enjoying our own sensual pleasure and sexuality.
In this module, you’ll learn how to experience true sexual freedom, and:
- Identify the stories about sex that have stopped you from enjoying it
- Open to your sexuality through your emotions
- Recognize the gift of connection through vulnerability
- Uncover the hidden gifts in lust, desire, and flirting
How You’ll Move...
Explore the somatics of sex, emotion, and sensuality through touch. When was the last time you caressed your own face? Or allowed yourself to enjoy the touch of a rose petal on your palm or an ice cube on your stomach? You’ll be guided through these experiences in a way that allows you to honor your own pace, sensations, and sexuality.
Module 4: Racism & Emotions (September 2)
There is an awakening occurring right now in our country and on the planet. There is both a lot of pain and tremendous potential for growth. If we feel called to participate in this growth, it’s important that we look within to explore the ways we may be contributing to the perpetuation of racism.
In this module, you’ll explore the regenerative power of interbeing between all people, and:
- Learn how shame begins as a healthy response but can turn into an unproductive preoccupation
- Explore how shame can hold you back from doing the real work to contribute to the healing you wish to see in the world
- Tap into the courage required to transform your judgments about people of other races than your own
How You’ll Move...
You’ll be guided to explore, somatically, the shame, guilt, fear, and anger that we’ve too often buried in our depths. We’ll also use movement to dream into a different way of being in emotion around racism.
Module 5: Health & Emotions (September 9)
Our emotions are like the weather. Sometimes there are gloriously sunny days and our face is raised up to the sky. Sometimes there’s a storm coming. Sometimes it’s an earthquake. But none of it lasts forever… except when we suppress and repress our emotions. Then our bodies begin to experience health issues such as physical pain and chronic illness.
In this module, you’ll discover how to practice emotional self-care, and:
- Embrace your body (and any physical symptoms) as a barometer of your inner weather
- Tap into compassion for yourself and your body
- Pay attention to your body and listen for what it needs
- Honor the importance of rest for your mind, body, and spirit
How You’ll Move...
You’ll strengthen your health and wellbeing beginning with your foundation — your feet. Through a combination of somatic exercises and affirmations, we’ll explore what “healthy” looks, feels, and moves like.
Module 6: Aging & Emotions (September 16)
As we age, our fascia tightens. This is what causes the stiffness and tightness we feel. All the emotions we’ve locked into our bodies contribute to that contraction and limitation. One of the secrets of aging gracefully that most people aren’t aware of is how our emotions can serve as a fountain of youth.
In this module you’ll discover the real fountain of youth, and:
- Redefine “gray”
- Find out how to make the essential act of stretching a sensual experience
- Discover how sensuality stretches the fascia and can open you up to increased flexibility and enjoyment of your body
- Explore how you can receive with self-compassion the gifts that fear and anxiety around aging can produce, how you can get to the core of what fear and anxiety really mean, and how to step fully into the courage to age with grace
How You’ll Move...
You’ll be guided, somatically, to connect with the elements to raise your vibration and fall in love (again, or maybe for the first time) with your body, and with all of its many changes. You’ll explore, through movement, how aging is inviting you to grow into yourself even more.
Module 7: Living With Emotional Expansion (September 23)
There is so much wisdom available to you when you know how to let your emotions move you and move through you… rather than remain buried. Your courage to take on your deepest issues through somatic movement will pay off!
In this final class, you’ll celebrate your sensual vitality, and explore:
- How to “sssstir” Wise Hips — for deep insights and longevity
- How being in your pleasure heals the world
- Tapping into the primary emotion of love for calm, clear guidance through challenges and important moments
- Dancing to the beat of NOW ... so you don’t step on the toes of your future!
How You’ll Move...
You’ll be guided on another full emotional tour in a fun and exciting way — you’ll get to discover and explore how your relationship with your emotions has changed. You’ll also move like an emotional warrior… allowing that part of you to come out, play, and inhabit your body and life!
The Somatic Dance Bonus Collection
In addition to Bernadette’s transformative 7-part virtual course, you’ll receive these powerful training sessions featuring leading visionaries and teachers. These bonus sessions complement the course and promise to take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Skin Is a Mood
Video Practice From Bernadette Pleasant
Featuring Baba Don Babatunde
Wake each day to a celebratory ritual that literally honors the skin you’re in! It’s time to acknowledge and pay homage to the 18-22ish square feet of your body’s largest organ. Our skin houses our beautiful bodies. With this practice, you’ll take your time to relish and affirm every single inch of the physical home you dwell in.
Percussionist Baba Don Babatunde has performed with major American dance companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Limon Dance Company, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
Drum – Heart – Dance
2 Video Practices From Bernadette Pleasant
Featuring Baba Don Babatunde
Join Bernadette in a gentle meditation that begins with listening to the first sound we ever heard... a heartbeat. Feel and acknowledge your heart. What does it have to say? Get still and intimate with it. Feel life pulsing deep inside. Become present with that life-giving pulse… that gently becomes a rhythmic beat (boom) (boom) (boom) (boom)... waking up every curve, every system, every bone, tendon, muscle, and cell of your body gradually into an ecstatic dance break. Wake up to life!
Transforming Fear Into Flow
Video Dialogue Hosted by Devaa Haley Mitchell
With Dr. Katie Hendricks
Many women are experiencing a great deal of fear in response to the current events. Simply watching the news can be cause for high levels of anxiety, and we each respond differently. Join author and co-founder of the Hendricks Institute, Katie Hendricks, as she walks us through the four typical reactions to a frightening situation: flight, fright, freeze, and faint.
During this much-needed session, you’ll discover:
What People Are Saying About Bernadette Pleasant...
“Bernadette has inspired me to liberate myself from feeling any shame for having a full range of emotions.”
Like most women, I was taught to conceal my deep-seated anger and grief. Bernadette has inspired me to liberate myself from feeling any shame for having a full range of emotions. In her Femme! class, we move out EVERRYTHANNG from sadness to FLIRTATIOUSNESS! Her one-day experience, Emotion in Motion, and her luscious retreat in Jamaica were the revolutionary medicine supporting me in moving out all of the loaded feelings I was carrying my first year of motherhood. Learning to accept and love the many gorgeous facets of myself has helped me remove the judgment and, instead, set my body on fire!
— Leora Edut, Author of Goddess on the Go: Rituals to Help You Slow Down and Slay
“... tasting the power in consciously moving emotions through your body...”
[Bernadette Pleasant’s] Femme! is a class geared towards people who... want to explore expressive movement. These classes are one way of tasting the power in consciously moving emotions through your body and allowing them fuller expression than what is typically available to us in our day-to-day lives.
— Alicia Munoz, LPC, author of No More Fighting: The Relationship Book for Couples: 20 Minutes a Week to a Stronger Relationship
“... you will explore and feel every square inch of your divine, sensual temple, and never think of leaving it again.”
With Bernadette in the house, you will explore and feel every square inch of your divine, sensual temple, and never think of leaving it again. She’ll take you on a journey we all recognize, starting at the edge of your seat in anticipation, to receiving well-deserved news that you have reached the top of your personal Mt. Everest, triumphantly, only to retreat back into your shell and under your rock shortly after, to protect others unable to take in your light and joy. After getting the depth of this collective tragedy, she gets you out of your seat, and with her signature Femme! moves and drumming ensemble, she masterfully gets EVERY SINGLE MEMBER in the revved-up audience to cross the ocean with their hips and rediscover and inhabit their bodies in brand-new ways so that no woman or girl, including YOU, will ever dim your light again for ANYONE.
— Loraine Van Tuyl, PhD, award-winning psychologist, author, shamanic practitioner, and founder of the Sacred Healing Well
“... a woman who has given herself permission to express her own truth, even on a cellular level.”
The moment Bernadette takes the stage, the energy in the room goes up. She is so fully alive inside her body it intoxicates the entire audience. I was awestruck by her power to open and move me as she shared her story. Bernadette is a wonderful example of a woman who has given herself permission to express her own truth, even on a cellular level. She is a leader in her field of expertise to support women in the full awakening of their own power by breaking through their embodied judgments and limitations of what is acceptable or even possible.
— Prasanna Diana Manuela, inspirational speaker and author
“... a new perspective on ways to heal trauma...”
Bernadette left everyone wanting more! Before she stepped one foot on the stage, she had the crowd on their feet moving to her beats. The presentation and brilliance of her message was riveting. The fact that she was able to command our large audience to physically lean in with a simple whisper speaks volumes to her hypnotizing presence. Bernadette invited us into her world, and allowed us to travel in time. She gave a new perspective on ways to heal trauma while keeping us engaged. This woman embodies sensuality, strength, and intelligence.
— Aundrea Veney, Entrepreneur, public speaker, author, and professional executive trainer
“I was blown away by the experience.”
— Victoria Uwumarogie, senior editor of MadameNoire
“This woman is pure magic.”
— Amy Emmerich, President North America and chief content officer at Refinery29
“Seen. Heard. Felt. Loved. Filled.”
Seen. Heard. Felt. Loved. Filled. I recently attended a Femme! workshop in Alexandria. I want to express the deepest and greatest love and gratitude for what Bernadette Pleasant has created. I’ve endured some of the hardest trials and tribulations in this lifetime and I’ve never worked and soothed my internal energy the way I did here. I laughed. I danced. I hugged. I cried. I screamed and I had my voice and presence affirmed in a way I will never depart from again. I meditated to the voice of a beautiful soul and held my inner child, teen, and current self in my arms and told her we were finally safe. I stared into the eyes of a dove. She named me “little deer” and called me beautiful. Full. So full. Even weeks after. Thank you.
— Ciera Adair
“Sharing space with Bernadette is a visceral experience.”
Sharing space with Bernadette is a visceral experience. In person or through the wires, she speaks through her heart. My vigilance center relaxes and my heart connects beyond the mind... where something new is available.
— Krista Birch
“I can take up space!”
I was very lucky yesterday and saw one of your videos. I can't stop thinking about it… In the video you do a short exercise where we tighten all our muscles and are tight and small. Then we allow ourselves to take up space. I'm crying as I write this. I can take up space! I want you to know, your message is nestled in my heart. Thank you. Thank you.
— Leah Cathleen
“I started… to pause, to breathe, to unbuckle the armor, let myself be open to joy…”
Under [Bernadette’s] almost amazingly ever-present gaze, for the first time in so long I started, super slowly, to pause, to breathe, to unbuckle the armor, let myself be open to joy, but also pain, and step through the door into the community of her classroom. I felt so good, so warm and held and protected in that space, and when I could drop my doubts and fears, my body felt alive. Joyously alive, but also so sad looking back over so many years of sleeping through everything.
— William
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Recorded Class Sessions With Bernadette Pleasant
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from Bernadette Pleasant, speaker, somatic healer, and creator of Femme! — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a video teaching and guides you to discover specific skills and abilities to embody healing dance movements as a powerful and easy way to unveil and release suppressed emotions and liberate the authentic YOU.
Seven PDF Transcripts of Class Sessions
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription in PDF format. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each lesson.
The Somatic Dance Bonus Collection
- Skin Is a Mood
Video Practice From Bernadette Pleasant Featuring Baba Don Babatunde - Drum – Heart – Dance
2 Video Practices From Bernadette Pleasant Featuring Baba Don Babatunde - Transforming Fear Into Flow
Video Dialogue Hosted by Devaa Haley Mitchell With Dr. Katie Hendricks
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Somatic Dance for Emotional Alchemy Online Training
We feel honored that Bernadette Pleasant has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive online training. This is a unique opportunity to learn from a speaker, somatic healer, and creator of Femme! whose powerful insights and pioneering work with dance and emotions are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about transforming your life with healing dance movements that alchemize your emotions, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in evolving yourself, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! If you don’t absolutely LOVE Somatic Dance for Emotional Alchemy — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form within 2 weeks of your purchase and we'll happily issue you a refund.
About Bernadette Pleasant
Spirited and energetic, Bernadette Pleasant is a fiery and sensual speaker, somatic healer, and creator of The Emotional Institute LLC and Femme!, a mind-body wellness program. She has spent a lifetime exploring creative visualizations and celebrations of the human form, from sensual dance to somatic healing. A gifted healer, dancer, and entrepreneur, she channels her personal journeys and her radical empathy into transformative, immersive experiences that empower and celebrate people of all genders, ages, sizes, and fitness levels. Bernadette travels globally empowering all through classes, private workshops, retreats, and conferences.
With certifications in Emotions-Centered Coaching, Nia Technique, Nia 5 Stages, Ageless Grace, Pole Dance, Somatic Healing, Reiki, and Integrated Energy Therapy — and studies in African, Tribal, and Free Dance — Bernadette promotes emotional freedom through movement and empowerment.
Bernadette regularly leads discussions on emotional healing, grief rituals, inclusive movement, and empowerment for all. Her authenticity, charisma, and warmth allow her to empathize with and inspire those ready for a journey of emotional exploration and affirmation. Intuitive and engaging, Bernadette is a vibrant, sensual speaker who connects with those who have been silenced and shut down to support their physical, emotional, and healing journeys — whether in a classroom, from a podium, or one-on-one.
Bernadette, a woman of color, comes from a long line of natural healers who have used touch and movement to help others find peace, empowerment, and wellness. Her classrooms welcome participants without judgment, and support their paths to finding comfort in their own skin. In the Femme! experience, Bernadette creates a safe space for all ages, backgrounds, body types, and dance skills to explore their sensual selves. Everyone is empowered to fully embrace and embody all of their emotions and fully express them through movement; joy, sorrow, rage, ecstasy, and more are all welcome at Femme!. In Femme! everyone is infused with the affirmation, “It’s your body; you can do whatever you want with it — including love it unapologetically!”
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee for a full two weeks so that you can try out the course risk free. The deadline to receive a refund is 2 weeks from your date of purchase. To request a refund, please click here to submit your Refund Application Form. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we will send you an email confirmation when your refund has been completed. However, we’d love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there’s something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com, and we’ll be happy to help!
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to your problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
