Mercedes Vasquez: “Bernadette Is a Body Whisperer Who Channels and Leads With So Much Love and Grace”
Read below to find out about Somatic Movement to Envision & Birth Your Inspired New Life With Bernadette Pleasant
Bernadette Pleasant
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Be guided through heart-centered somatic movement practices to release and learn from the pain your body is holding onto, to arrive at a renewed state of reconciliation, gratitude, and rebirth.
Deep change is a lot like childbirth. It’s a complicated and intense journey of uncertainty, growth, pain, fear, trepidation, exhaustion, and exhilaration. The times in which we live are a lot like that process. There are moments when we, like an expectant mother, might say, “No, I’m too tired, too afraid, too in pain to keep pushing.
I. Can’t. Do. This!
Many of us are struggling not only to accept and adjust to the “new normal”... we’re also trying to embrace the opportunities that have been created by recent drastic changes.
We’re in that liminal space of fear and complete surrender about what’s to come, how to navigate the path toward it, and how our whole world is about to transform — and we along with it.
Celebrated somatic movement teacher and practitioner Bernadette Pleasant speaks of this time as a ring of fire — a painful and laborious initiation into a transfigured, inspired life.
She’s designed a brand-new course to help you process what you’ve been through — the storm, as she calls it — by first exploring where and how the challenges you’ve personally endured have manifested in your body.
Join Bernadette in a 7-week live video program, where she’ll guide you down a well-metered path to help you move through your personal challenges, and then define and work through the newness arising from this tempestuous period in history — using inspired intentional movement.
This course combines somatic movement, personal exploration, meditative practice, sound, and visualization... all to help you address your necessary growth and transformation with more awareness and ease.
You’ll learn to move through your grief, release blocks that have landed in your body... and gain wisdom from the lessons your pain holds... so you can regain your footing andenter a new phase with safety, trust, and, yes, even gratitude.
Moving Through Grief to Celebration
— Bernadette Pleasant
Many people prefer to put grief aside... to hide from it, deny it, and carry on as if it doesn’t exist — because it hurts too much.
However, before you can rebirth yourself out of pain and chaos and into something new and more empowered, it’s absolutely essential that you first acknowledge the grief of what you’ve lost over the past year...
... whether it’s a loved one, the “normal” everyday structure of your life, freedom, health, employment, lifestyle, or unfulfilled expectations. In fact, one of the seven sessions in Bernadette’s timely course will be entirely devoted to a grief ritual.
Processing loss gives you access to envisioning a road ahead.
Bernadette will establish a safe container for you to uncover and express your pain, and, from there, she’ll help you literally move through a somatic journey of reconciliation and rebirthing.
Each module will organically and systematically guide you to identify where the storm has taken hold in your body... nurture and heal yourself with movement-based self-care practices... and experience an inward “embryonic” phase of adjustment and visioning.
You’ll notice how your body responds as you reintegrate into a new version of yourself and society... and finally celebrate your healing journey and the exquisite transformation you’ve undergone.
Through profound and gentle somatic movement practices, you’ll powerfully claim a new inspired life.
And, you’ll cultivate deeply authentic empathy and compassion, as you discover a new illuminated way of being in the world.
In this 7-week journey of movement and rebirth, you’ll:
- Guided somatic movement to learn from and release the stress and pain your body is holding
- Movement practices to work through your heartache and grief into a place of hope, possibility, and expansion
- A process of sound and movement to experience symbolic “birthing” of the self
- Define for yourself the “new normal”
- Start to bravely navigate your place, position, identity, and impact in the world
- Understand the value of healthy grief as an important process to honor life and cultivate new vitality
- Learn how the body can develop new neural pathways — allowing the mind to open to new ways of being
- Explore the shadow side, the fiery energetic part of the self that holds courage and passion
- Be encouraged to take the compassion, wisdom, and commitment you’ve gained out into the new world
- Create a transformative vision for yourself and the community
- Celebrate joy as your birthright
- And more...
Bernadette has created this highly experiential program to help you reach a place of safety, acceptance, and trust that will empower you as you ride out and emerge from this tumultuous time.
Her movement practices, accompanied by the amazing percussionist Baba Donn Babatunde, will help you understand and feel gratitude for the destabilizing journey you’ve been on, because of the lessons and revelations it’s provided.
Coming from a long line of healers who’ve used touch and movement to help others find strength, peace, and wellness — and with certifications in somatic healing, reiki, and integrated energy therapy... as well as a background in African, Tribal, and Free Dance — Bernadette is just the person you want to help you find emotional freedom and cathartic healing.
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Weeks
In this 7-week transformational intensive, Bernadette will guide you through the fundamental body-mind-spirit skills you’ll need to successfully release the challenges you’ve held in your body during this tempestuous time and arrive at a state of reconciliation, gratitude, and rebirth.
The Power of Live Streaming Video
You’ll connect with Bernadette and experience her teachings through live streaming video. This connection is easy to use and will enhance the impact of Bernadette’s transmissions. Or you can easily connect just via audio if you choose — through any connected device.
(Can’t make it live? No worries! After each class, the video and audio recordings will be available for you to download or stream in high-quality format at your convenience.)
This course will feature LIVE teachings, interactive training sessions, experiential practices, and Q&A 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 envision and birth your inspired new life through somatic movement.
Weekly Sessions Wednesdays at 9:00am Pacific.
Module 1: The Storm — Establishing Safety to Explore the Feelings Arising From These Tumultuous Times (May 26)
In this opening module, Bernadette will lay the foundation for the course. Of utmost importance, she’ll establish the safety of the container, in which all are welcomed and supported — not only all participants... but all parts of all participants. Each person’s perspective and experience will be honored.
As the program begins, you’ll explore the recent storm-like challenges and stressors that have had the most impact on you. Bernadette will invite you to identify what issues have arisen for you — due to the global health crisis, social unrest, job loss, healthcare struggles, race relations, financial challenges, politics, family crises, personal loss, the isolation of quarantine, wearing masks, and more.
You’ll then examine where and how the impact of those difficulties — the frenzy, sense of danger, anger, panic, confusion, and upheaval — may still be present in your mind and body.
At the close of this first class, Bernadette will guide you to release any emotional disturbances that may arise during the session, so you feel complete at its end.
In this module, you’ll:
- Be grounded in a safe, accepting, and welcoming container... free of judgment
- Identify how troubling and traumatic experiences get stuck in the body
- Be guided in self-love exercises to break patterns of separation, isolation, and emotional disconnection
How You’ll Move…
You’ll discover an easy and liberating form of self-expression by moving your body to sacred drumming.
Module 2: The Reaction — Identifying & Releasing the Mind-Body Impact of Trauma & Chaos (June 2)
As our world has recently been in a collective state of emergency, your body and mind may have experienced shock and overwhelm... possibly with nowhere to escape and no reliance on “normal” coping mechanisms.
In this second session, Bernadette will take a deep dive into what happens to the body when we encounter harsh stimuli. You’ll explore the impact on your mind and body when norms are disrupted or fractured.
You’ll examine the feelings associated with a dearth of safety, and with uncertainty, misinformation, lack, restrictions, obstruction of rights, and more. You’ll see how you’ve either coped or checked out, or both... looking at emotional responses such as fight, flight, or freeze, chaos, isolation, and apathy.
Bernadette will guide you in a body scan — to identify where those emotions may have settled in your body — and lead you through movement, sound, and other exercises to help you release, expand, and bathe your entire body in self-care.
During this session, you’ll:
- Discover common ways the body responds to shock, fear, anxiety, anger, and trauma
- Be safely and gently guided to scan your body for stuck places of withholding, pain, and stress
- Be invited into breakout sessions where you’ll have the opportunity, if you wish, to share about your own experiences of fight, flight or freeze... or others
How You’ll Move…
You’ll receive powerful guided movement instruction to explore and release painful emotions stuck in your body — accompanied by sacred drumming.
Module 3: The Loss — A Ritual to Explore Your Experience of Grief With Nurturing & Self-Care (June 16)
In this module, you’ll explore the experience of grief, endings, and loss... with a focus on nurturing and self-care.
Death, in this context, doesn’t only apply to the death of a person. Death and grieving can apply to all aspects of ending and loss — the end of an era, the loss of norms, of freedom, of health, employment, lifestyle, ideologies — and you’ll work with your disappointment over unfulfilled expectations.
Grief is a sacred gateway to a renewal of life, and it’s best managed when we acknowledge and honor it. This module will focus entirely on the Grief Ritual and the path to embrace the personal pain loss has caused you.
With Bernadette as your guide, you’ll be invited to voice what you’re missing. You’ll come to understand the importance of making space for grief, rather than ignoring it or trying to power through it.
She’ll bring in a remarkable guest teacher, Elana Bell, who’ll lead you through an exercise of sacred song and sound healing — to help you vocalize unexpressed disappointments.
Throughout, Bernadette will hold a safe container for the collective experience of grief that unites us and creates empathy.
And she’ll close the session with a beautiful celebration of life.
In this class, you’ll experience:
- The value of healthy grief as an important process to honor life and cultivate new vitality
- A sacred sound-bath ritual for healing unresolved areas of loss, hurt, and disappointment
- How the gateways of grief can be honored and transfigured into lively and sacred rituals of celebration
How You’ll Move…
Bernadette will guide you through nurturing and transformative movement exercises that include the experience of “Cradling,” as a pathway to self-love and healthy healing touch.
Module 4: The Inner Quest — Experiencing the Undefined Embryonic Phase of Birthing Your New Normal (June 23)
Out of the loss of an old reality comes the beginning of growth. This can be an awkward and clumsy stage of navigating something that’s yet to be defined.
In this module, Bernadette will guide you through an inner journey of adjusting to this new, inspired life. This can feel like an “embryonic” experience of being suspended in a new, incomplete, unfamiliar, and curious state of being.
You’ll release the myth of “getting it right,” and creatively open the gate to new ways of approaching unfamiliar situations, with a focus on empathy, curiosity, compassion, and humanity.
You’ll experience how these internal embryonic states feel in your body... and begin to create new neural pathways of understanding.
You’ll acknowledge the rapid adaptation to new norms — such as social distancing, masks, Zoom, and other new digital platforms for business and personal communication — while also determining what activities are now safe to do in person again.
You’ll also learn how to manage complicated conversations about race and social conflicts.
And, you’ll honor sacred silence... the importance of stillness amidst the noise.
Join this session to:
- Explore sacred silence and the value of inner-focused and meditative contemplation, to quiet the noise of the external world
- Affirm the value of being in a fluid and gentle “right-brained” state of experimental adaptation without the “left-brained” constructs of “getting it right”
- Learn how the body can develop new neural pathways — allowing the mind to open to new ways of being, through sound and movement
How You’ll Move…
You’ll experience unique movement- and sound-based exercises that explore the awkward juxtaposition of curiosity and uncertainty.
Module 5: The Ring of Fire — Courageously & Passionately Reckoning With the Shadow Side of Humanity (June 30)
In this module, you’ll explore this crucial moment of reckoning. We’re no longer unaware. We’re in the space of undeniable truth, with nowhere to go but forward.
Like an infant coming rapidly through the birth canal, this is an intense but necessary stage... and there’s no turning back. You’ll begin to see this time of crisis as a catalytic opportunity to shift the human family and find growth and peace within it.
In this process, you’re both the one giving birth and the one being birthed. You’re likely to experience twisting, turning, primal feelings of discomfort... and you may feel quite exhilarated. It’s a thrust forward, a moment of great realization, as you step into new possibilities with faith.
You’ll look to ancestral-wisdom streams — calling on valuable cultural beliefs and practices to break free of falsehoods that no longer serve. You’ll examine diverse cultural values and norms, and ask big life questions... about your place, position, identity, and impact in the world.
Within this session, you’ll:
- Explore the shadow side — the fiery, energetic part of the self that holds courage and passion
- Discover the exploration of axiology, a valuable understanding of diverse cultural wisdoms
- Find passionate release and self-expression with dynamic, energetic movement practices
How You’ll Move…
Bernadette will gently guide you through the intense and often euphoric experience of symbolic “birthing” of the self through sound and movement.
Module 6: The Rebirth — Integrating, Awakening & Ascending Into the New Reality of Your Authentic Self (July 7)
With the social shifts arising from the new vaccines — the reopenings after a long period of separation — you’ll examine the body and mind’s responses to reintegration in a new version of society.
There’s a momentum forward into new and uncharted territory. Bernadette will guide you to feel that shift in your body. She’ll share wisdom on continuing to move ahead — with self-care and management of your and others’ vulnerabilities.
She’ll lead you through a deep awakening process... to gain access to new perspectives and a fresh understanding of yourself and the world.
You’ll affirm a sense of safety in your body and start to express your authentic sense of self... making space for others to do the same.
At the end of this class, Bernadette will give you homework for the final module happening the following week. She’ll ask (and inspire!) you to create a mantra, a love letter, a mission statement, or a declaration of intention — a vision of awakening for yourself and humanity — that you can present as an offering to the course community and the world.
You’ll dream into new possibilities and poetically dance and move that experience.
In this module, Bernadette will guide you to:
- Explore newness and experiential awakenings through journaling and sharing your innovative and creative way to design and live a new life
- Discover your ability to redefine safety and honor your body’s wisdom
- Prepare to create a transformative vision for yourself and the community
How You’ll Move…
You’ll be led through a life-enhancing practice of movement and sound to experience a symbolic awakening.
Module 7: The Reclamation — Moving Forward With Intention on the Illuminated Path (July 14)
This module is a celebration of your journey of healing... an integration of your experiences throughout the course... and an opportunity to move forward in the world in a new and illuminated way.
Thus far, you’ve been discovering a new land, planting fresh seeds in fertile ground, and arriving at a place to celebrate the harvest.
In this final session, you’ll share your new, visionary, heart-centered intentions for yourself and humanity. You’ll embody the mantra “Be the change you want to see in the world,” generating a new passion for transformation and healing.
Taking in all the lessons that these tumultuous times have brought, you can now reimagine life with a vibrant future.
You’ll be invited to share your intentions, digest what your co-participants have offered, receive final words from Bernadette, and joyously celebrate — closing the sacred container with dance and the life-affirming chant “Joy Is My Birthright!”
In this final session, you’ll:
- Discuss and integrate the earlier modules... honoring your sacred journey from awareness to empowerment
- Digest lessons and insights and share about this time of learning, healing, and growing
- Share the collective vision statements of the group for yourselves, the community, and the world
- Honor the experience of this course with a joy-filled closing celebration and the invitation to take the compassion, wisdom, and commitment you’ve gained out into the new world
The Inspired New Life Bonus Collection
In addition to Bernadette’s transformative 7-week virtual course, you’ll receive these powerful bonuses to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
5 Sessions From the Ancestral Healing Summit
Selected Video Sessions From the 2021 Summit
Whether you’re already immersed in ancestral repair work or you’re just beginning to explore it, these five popular sessions from the 2021 Ancestral Healing Summit will help you deepen your understanding of healing intergenerational wounds. You’ll receive insights, practices, and teachings from some of our most beloved Shift Network faculty — Bernadette Pleasant, Thomas Huebl, Suzanne Giesemann, Jean Haner, and Mark Anthony — to experience the deep and vitalizing benefits of ancestral repair... for spiritual, familial, and even genetic healing.
Plus... you’ll receive these bonuses too!
How to Ground Yourself When Everything Seems CRAZY
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant
In this teaching, Bernadette offers techniques to help you come home to your body whenever you feel stressed or overwhelmed by life. It begins gently... easing you into a space of comfort and relaxation. Bernadette will guide you in grounding practices, including conscious breathing, to bring your body back into alignment. This process also includes gentle touch and self-embrace to nurture and balance your body and all its meridians. You’ll be guided through hand and body positioning, visualizations, sounds, and mantras — all working together to help center and calm your nervous system... and invite awareness and insights.
Plus... you’ll receive these bonuses too!
How to Grieve in This New Normal
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant and Gayatri Schriefer
Explore one of the most popular sessions from the 2021 Somatic Movement Summit, hosted by Gayatri Schriefer. Bernadette discusses how to grieve within the context of the “new normal” that the pandemic has thrust upon us. She shares with you the three ingredients that create grief and relates why navigating challenging unchartered territory creates a perfect breeding ground for grief. And crucially, she offers best practices for tending to your heart and your raw emotions as you grieve.
How to Take Up Space
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant
What happens in the body when we play small and shy away from taking up space? In this inspiring video, Bernadette shares not only what happens, but how it occurs when we’re afraid of being seen or heard. Too often, social messages, external situations, or our own internal voices tell us that we’re too much, and we, in turn, diminish our energy and vibrancy. So Bernadette offers an inspirational tool for becoming more expansive... reclaiming your inner power... letting go of limiting beliefs... and becoming bolder and more fully alive. She guides you through movement to expand your confidence muscle, so you’re more willing to let your voice be heard. You’ll practice opening to life and turning that quiet, meager “Yes” into a full and hearty “HELL YES!”
Thank Your Body Meditation
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant
This practice honors the essence of who you are in your body. It’s a gentle, mindful, guided practice set to the melodic sounds of live hand drumming. In this meditation, you’ll honor each body part — from head to toe — with easeful awareness and intentional, loving touch. This practice invites in relaxation, wellbeing, and deep appreciation for all the ways your body supports you daily. It offers gratitude for the gift of your own being, using sensorial prompts, sounding, and affirmations like, “I am beautiful,” “I love you,” “I am grateful,” and “I am wonderfully made.” It’s a practice that you can carry with you throughout your life.
What Graduates of Bernadette’s Courses Are Saying...
— Mercedes Vasquez: “Bernadette Is a Body Whisperer Who Channels and Leads With So Much Love and Grace”
— Kelly Campbell: “Bernadette's Program Impacted Me on Levels That Were Truly Unimaginable”
— Alison Pena: “It Became Absolutely Critical to My Health and Wellbeing to Work With Bernadette”
“Bernadette Pleasant is a masterful teacher with grounded energy and sincere enthusiasm...”
This course is an invitation back to your body, exploring emotions in a way that is safe, sensual, powerful, and playful. Bernadette Pleasant is a masterful teacher with grounded energy and sincere enthusiasm — such a gorgeous guide whose teaching will stay with you long after the course.
— Danette Relic, Toronto, Canada
“Bernadette is a very colourful and inspiring woman, full of light and love.”
Very beneficial for developing body awareness and emotional awareness, emotional awareness within the body. Grounding and inspiring. Bernadette is a very colourful and inspiring woman, full of light and love. I am happy I met her through this course. She inspired me a lot, and the way she holds the space is uplifting.
— Katarina Larsson, Sweden
“Bernadette is a treasure... a beautiful woman who inspires all of us to be beautiful too.”
During this time... when we are separated from each other and encouraged to keep socially distant, this course was like spending real time with girlfriends. Bernadette’s teaching style is warm and encouraging. She is elegant and beautiful in her presentation. She encourages us to move in a way that only feels good, and I love her feminine way of moving her body... inspires me to do the same. She has a way of making me feel like she is talking only with me as if we were friends having a good talk over lunch. I appreciate her honesty and authenticity... especially about difficult topics like grief and racism. Every session in the course could be a course in itself. The drumming was also a reason I took the course... Baba Donn’s drumming was the perfect accompaniment to Bernadette’s teaching. Bernadette is a treasure... a beautiful woman who inspires all of us to be beautiful too.
— Bev Taylor, Brookings, Oregon
“Bernadette was an amazing, warm, welcoming, and extremely charismatic leader.”
I have just taken part in Bernadette Pleasant’s wonderful course... and I can quite honestly say that it was life changing. Bernadette was an amazing, warm, welcoming, and extremely charismatic leader. She instantly made me feel at home. She was not afraid of showing her vulnerability, and this made it easy to explore my own tender places. The live music from Baba Donn took us on amazing journeys, and the combination of Bernadette and Baba Donn was quite magical. I can honestly say that there were times when I felt really uncomfortable and other times when I felt a sense of freedom, but I always learned and uncovered something new and transformative. I also met some amazing, inspiring women in the breakout groups. I am truly grateful and can highly recommend this amazing adventure.
— Souli Yates, Bury St Edmunds, United Kingdom
“... she provided a safe, loving environment to work through powerful emotions.”
I am so grateful for this course. In particular, Bernadette worked with grief — very healing, and she provided a safe, loving environment to work through powerful emotions. Thank you!
— Lee, Indianapolis, Indiana
“Bernadette is so alive and vibrant...”
This course was truly amazing. Bernadette is so alive and vibrant and the course and the movement brought my body alive. I am so grateful for this course.
— Susanne Drury, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Join the Global Community
Somatic Movement to Envision & Birth Your Inspired New Life offers some of the most advanced online teachings available, within a thriving global community of learning and practice.
Join fellow students and practitioners to support and inspire each other as you integrate the teachings and practices Bernadette Pleasant will share in this powerful training.
You’ll be part of an international community that’s on the leading edge of a global movement of people manifesting a world grounded in principles of cooperation, harmony, and reverence for all of life.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Sessions With Bernadette Pleasant
Experience a unique opportunity to be mentored by and learn from the founder of Femme! and The Emotional Institute, Bernadette Pleasant, from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a live streaming video option and guides you to discover specific skills and abilities to explore and move through the traumas of the past year. Course sessions are on Wednesdays at 9:00am Pacific.
Seven Video Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the digital video will be available for you to download or stream in high-quality format. You will not receive anything in the mail. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can watch anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Seven Audio Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the audio will be available for you to download in high-quality MP3 format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Seven PDF Transcripts of Class Sessions
In addition to the high-quality videos and MP3 audios, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription after each session is completed. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Seven 30-Minute Interactive Group Practice Sessions
With live class attendance, there will be a 30-minute optional interactive practice session directly following each class. You’ll be placed in an intimate group with several other participants on the conference call to interact, share, and do additional practices with, to help further integrate the weekly lessons. Practice sessions are available for live attendance only, and are not recorded for playback. If you’re unable to attend the calls live, the Facebook online community group allows you to connect with each other and find alternative times to interact.
Interactive 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 week’s lesson.
Online Community
Our exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can continue the discussion about your course materials and interact with your fellow students to take your exploration to an even deeper level.
The Inspired New Life Bonus Collection
- 5 Sessions From the Ancestral Healing Summit
Selected Video Sessions From the 2021 Summit
- How to Ground Yourself When Everything Seems CRAZY
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant
- How to Grieve in This New Normal
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant and Gayatri Schriefer - How to Take Up Space
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant - Thank Your Body Meditation
Video Teaching From Bernadette Pleasant
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Somatic Movement to Envision & Birth Your Inspired New Life Online Training
We feel honored that Bernadette Pleasant has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online training. This is a unique opportunity to interact directly with the founder of Femme! and The Emotional Institute, whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about literally moving through the challenges you’ve faced this past year to find a state of reconciliation, gratitude, and rebirth, 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 Movement to Envision & Birth Your Inspired New Life — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form on or before June 16, 2021 and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for 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 in 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 cannot even begin to express my gratitude for the care, love, and gentleness you shared…”
I wasn't sure what to expect with the ritual today, and I was honestly caught off guard with how profoundly and deeply I felt it straight from the top. It was so beautiful, moving, validating, freeing, and necessary. I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for the care, love, and gentleness you shared, and how important it is that we started the conference with this ritual. Thank you so very much. Thank you again for sharing. With so much gratitude.
— Kinsey Keck, Programming and Membership Manager, NYC Arts in Education Roundtable
About Bernadette Pleasant
Spirited and energetic, Bernadette Pleasant is a fiery and sensual speaker, somatic healer, founder of The Emotional Institute, and creator of Femme!, a mind-body wellness program, and 400 Years, a somatic-based anti-racism program. She is known for channeling her personal journeys and radical empathy into transformative, immersive experiences that support and celebrate people of all genders, colors, ages, and sizes. She has transformed the lives of thousands of people around the world, inspiring them to become more self-expressed and empowered as their own badass selves.
With certifications in Emotions-Centered Coaching, Somatic Healing, Integrated Energy Therapy and studies in African, Tribal, and Free Dance, Bernadette promotes emotional freedom through movement and empowerment. She also facilitates deep and refreshingly real dialogues on emotional healing, grief rituals, and unlearning racism.
A woman of color, Bernadette comes from a long line of natural healers who have used touch and movement to help others find peace and wellness. Her classrooms, both online and in person, welcome participants without judgment, supporting all to experience comfort and pleasure in their own skin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What’s a virtual course?
A: It’s a great way to engage live and pre-recorded teachings and each other from the comfort of your home! All you need is a computer, mobile device, or telephone. If there’s more than one person in your household taking the course, you’ll each need your own connection. We use Zoom video conferencing to make it just like an in-person event, where you can ask questions and deepen your exploration of the course themes.
There’s no additional charge for connecting to Zoom with your computer or mobile device. Please note that dialing Zoom from your telephone is a toll call; your telephone service provider will charge you according to your existing long-distance calling plan. International access numbers are available.
“I’ve never seen a course so well put together ever...”
I had never participated before in an online course. The packaging, presentation, inclusion, and Facebook postings created a wonderful, safe cocoon within which to participate. I’ve never seen a course so well put together ever — not in all the years of taking college classes — and I had my doubts about doing an online course. The wealth of organization and ease of learning materials and support made this fun as well.
— Claudia F., Medford, Massachusetts
Q: Can I get benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
A: Absolutely! You can download the recordings and transcripts of all course sessions from our online media archive, so you never need to worry about missing live calls. You can also engage the full community and leaders on our private online community group.
Q: Can you tell me about the private online community group?
A: We’ll have a private online community group for all course participants on Facebook that will support you in making connections with others, sharing insights, engaging in discussions, and completing homework assignments that can supplement your transformational journey. You’ll have the ability to share your experiences, projects, and growth throughout the course.
Q: Are there scholarships available for this training?
A: Yes, we always make a certain percentage of spaces available for partial scholarships, for those who otherwise would not be able to enroll at the regular rate. If you’d like to apply for a scholarship, please review our guidelines, which include a link to our online application form.
Q: What’s your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee so that you can sample the course risk-free. The deadline to receive a full refund is June 16, 2021. To request a refund, please click on this refund request form and submit your request. Qualifying refunds will be processed within five business days and an email confirming the refund will be sent. 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! (No refund requests accepted after the above date or with scholarship awards.)
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.
