Expand Into Deeper Connection, Presence and Joy
Over two sacred days, The Pleasure Event invites women and their partners (optional!) into four experiential workshops designed to awaken embodied joy, deepen intimacy, and restore your natural connection to pleasure. Guided by wise and compassionate facilitators, these sessions weave science and spirit, breath and creativity, inviting you to remember pleasure as your birthright, your teacher, and a pathway back to wholeness.
The weekend begins Friday evening with an intimate gathering to connect in community—an art show, hors d’oeuvres and a talk that opens the conversation around pleasure and embodiment. Saturday unfolds as a full day of exploration and restoration, weaving together four transformational workshops, immersive experiences like yoni steaming, flower essences and moments of reflection and integration. Each element is thoughtfully curated to support you in softening, opening, and expanding into deeper presence, connection and joy.
Event Details
Date + Time:
Friday, November 14:
6:00 - 9:00pm
Open House
Saturday, November 15:
9:00am - 5:30pm
Pleasure Workshops, Vendors, Yoni Steams
Location:
Somatic Wisdom Institute
1324 Lake Drive, Suite 4
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
Friday Opening Event:
Open to all — Free Admission
Join us for an evening celebrating the art of the vulva — an art open house and presentation with Monica Vergara, a Somatic Sex Educator, Organizational Psychologist, and Erotic Arts Facilitator. Monica helps people reclaim connection with their bodies and sexuality. In this intimate evening, she shares her personal journey — the awakening that brought her home to herself — and offers insights into the body as a gateway to healing, aliveness and freedom.
🕕 Doors open: 6:00 PM
🎤 Talk: 6:30–7:30 PM
🥂 After: Hors d’oeuvres, art, and juicy conversation
Saturday Workshops + Vendors:
Design the day just for you, see below for all Saturday offerings…
Design Your Perfect Saturday Experience
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Women's+ Health Collective
Nisha McKenzie PA-C, CSC, MSCP, IF
This engaging presentation explores the science and stories of female pleasure—dispelling common myths, challenging misconceptions, and celebrating the truth about women’s bodies. Together, we’ll shift the focus from performance to pleasure, empowering women with knowledge, confidence, and tools to embrace authentic, shame-free sexuality.
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Somatic Wisdom Institute
Leah Grace
This breathwork ceremony is an invitation to reclaim pleasure as a conscious practice rather than something we stumble into unconsciously or feel guilty for. Through breath, movement, and embodied awareness, we’ll explore how to expand our capacity to receive pleasure and let it become a guiding principle in our daily lives. Together, we’ll shift pleasure from being a fleeting indulgence into a source of nourishment, presence, and wholeness.
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Susanne Werblow
Join Susanne Werblow for a meditative and creative journey exploring the second chakra—your center of emotion and creative flow. Drawing from the Kundalini Yoga tradition, this workshop blends breathwork, guided visualization, and expressive art-making to help you access your inner wisdom. No art experience is needed—just a willingness to explore. Using simple materials like crayons or paint, you’ll express the images that arise in meditation, then reflect on their meaning through journaling and group sharing. This is a safe, supportive space for anyone curious about using art and meditation for self-discovery. -
SOLD OUT
Gaiavox - Monica Vergara, M. A.
Discover how science and spirit, anatomy and energy, Becoming Cliterate and Tantric Orgasm for Women meet to expand your pleasure potential. In this experiential workshop, we’ll explore Western insights on closing the orgasm gap alongside Eastern practices that deepen presence and connection. You'll leave with practical tools to cultivate both equality and ecstasy — solo or with a partner.description -
Workshop Facilitators
Nisha McKenzie PA-C, CSC, MSCP, IF
Women's+ Health Collective
Pleasure Is the Measure: Reframing Female Sexual Wellness
This engaging presentation explores the science and stories of female pleasure—dispelling common myths, challenging misconceptions, and celebrating the truth about women’s bodies. Together, we’ll shift the focus from performance to pleasure, empowering women with knowledge, confidence, and tools to embrace authentic, shame-free sexuality.
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Nisha is the CEO and founder of the Women’s+ Health Collective in Grand Rapids, MI and has been in practice since 2002. She is a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner, an AASECT Certified Sex Counselor and a Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health. Nisha teaches Sexual Medicine and Gynecology for the Grand Valley State University and Western Michigan University PA Programs. She is also teaching faculty in the Sexual Health postgraduate program at University of Michigan and Modern Sex Therapy Institute. She speaks at medical and therapy conferences across the country with a dedication to helping providers understand how to better include sexual and hormonal health into general health and how to break down sex and gender bias in medicine.
Leah Grace
Somatic Wisdom Institute
Breathwork Ceremony: Reclaiming Pleasure
This breathwork ceremony is an invitation to reclaim pleasure as a conscious practice rather than something we stumble into unconsciously or feel guilty for. Through breath, movement, and embodied awareness, we’ll explore how to expand our capacity to receive pleasure and let it become a guiding principle in our daily lives. Together, we’ll shift pleasure from being a fleeting indulgence into a source of nourishment, presence, and wholeness.
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Leah Grace is the founder of the Somatic Wisdom Institute, a space devoted to disrupting the systems that separate us from our bodies, the earth, one another, and the intelligence that lives within. With over 24 years of experience, she specializes in working with women navigating complex, systemic, or generational trauma who are ready to cross a new threshold of healing. Leah holds space with fierce compassion and precision, guiding women through a process of deconstructing and unbinding while reclaiming their true essence and expression.
Susanne Werblow
Kundalini Yoga GR
Meditation & Expressive Art Workshop: Creative Flow at the Second Chakra
Immerse yourself in a meditative and creative journey exploring the second chakra—your center of emotion and creative flow. Drawing from the Kundalini Yoga tradition, this workshop blends breathwork, guided visualization, and expressive art-making to help you access your inner wisdom. No art experience is needed—just a willingness to explore. Using simple materials like crayons or paint, you’ll express the images that arise in meditation, then reflect on their meaning through journaling and group sharing.
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Susanne is a certified Kundalini Yoga instructor, life coach, and artist. You can find more information about her yoga classes or life coaching services at kundaliniyogagr.com or explore her art work on her facebook page Susanne Werblow's Art.
Monica Vergara
Resident Artist, Gaiavox
East Meets West: Pathways to Orgasm & Connection
Discover how science and spirit, anatomy and energy, Becoming Cliterate and Tantric Orgasm for Women meet to expand your pleasure potential. In this experiential workshop, we’ll explore Western insights on closing the orgasm gap alongside Eastern practices that deepen presence and connection. You'll leave with practical tools to cultivate both equality and ecstasy — solo or with a partner.
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Monica is a Somatic Sex Educator, organizational psychologist, and erotic arts facilitator who helps people reclaim connection with their bodies and sexuality. With a blend of science and spirit, she creates spaces of safety, curiosity, and play where participants can explore new pathways to intimacy. Her work is guided by the belief that pleasure is healing, and her mantra is Permission, Pleasure, Passion.
Yoni Steams + Flower Essences
Megan Smit
Mary Fields
Jodi Jenks, ND
Community Yoni Steam
Join Megan Smit and Mary Fields for a deeply nourishing workshop on the ancient practice of Yoni Steaming (also known as Vaginal Steaming, V-Steam, or Bajos).
Discover how this sacred ritual supports women’s health and vitality—offering relief for menstrual cramps, brown blood, clots, vaginal dryness, hot flashes, postpartum recovery, and even bladder, yeast, or vaginal infections.
Together, we’ll explore both the wisdom and the practice of steaming. You’ll have the option to participate in a group steam (with complete privacy—no one will see your Yoni), or simply join for the knowledge and discussion if you prefer.
Come connect with your body, your cycle, and your inner power in this beautiful celebration of feminine healing.
Limited to 8 people per steam. Steams will be held at 12:30 & 4:00pm.
Flower Essences
Flower essences are gentle vibrational remedies that support emotional balance, energetic alignment, and overall well-being. Working on a subtle, energetic level, they help bring awareness to underlying patterns, ease emotional stress, and invite a deeper sense of harmony and presence. These natural allies can be powerful companions in times of transition, healing, and personal growth.
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Megan Smit is a Reiki Master, Women’s Circle Creatrix, and sound ceremony facilitator who weaves together meditation, music, and storytelling. Through her work at Wave Tone Studio in Grand Rapids, MI, she offers mindful photography and immersive sound experiences that inspire alignment and connection.
Instagram: @wavetone.studio
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Mary Fields is a Naturopathic Therapist, Reiki Master, and Sound Practitioner who brings a gentle, heart-centered approach to healing in West and Central Michigan. After leaving a long corporate career, she followed her calling into holistic wellness, studying naturopathy, Reiki, and sound therapy. Through her business Holistic Fields, she now offers individual and group sound sessions that invite relaxation, balance, and self-healing through the restorative power of sound.
Instagram: @holistic_fields
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Jodi Jenks, Naturopathic Doctor, will be onsite offering personalized muscle testing sessions and sharing her handcrafted flower essences. Through gentle, intuitive testing, Jodi helps identify the remedies that best support your unique emotional and energetic needs. Stop by to explore how flower essences can bring greater balance, clarity, and harmony to your daily life.
*To ensure that this class is right for you, please take a moment to scroll down to read more about the contraindications of breathwork.
*Please note the contraindications for breathwork are:
Pregnancy, severe asthma, severe heart disease, untreated high blood pressure, history of psychotic breaks, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, epilepsy/history of seizures, severe or unregulated diabetes.
If you are unsure if breathwork is right for you, please reach out to us for a conversation. We offer many unique adaptations and modifications to meet your needs.
The breathwork ceremony is trauma-informed. Participant safety is of the utmost importance as we dive deep into our body and psyche to empower you with tools to create a life of liberation and ease.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact support@somaticinst.com
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*Space is limited. If you need to cancel, please contact us as soon as possible, as there is often a waitlist. Cancellations will be refunded with a $50 processing fee, if you notify us in writing prior to 14 days before the event. Within 14 days of the event, refunds will not be given due to health reasons, weather, or winter road conditions, unless your space is able to be filled (minus $50 processing fee). Please plan accordingly.
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Pregnancy, severe asthma, severe heart disease, unmedicated high blood pressure, mental illness, epilepsy and/or history of seizures, acute physical injuries, severe or unregulated diabetes
*If you are unsure if breathwork is right for you, please reach out to us for a conversation. We offer many unique adaptations and modifications to meet your needs.