What we’re about
Centered is a community school that offers classes, training workshops, and both local and international wellness retreats to the New Haven County community. What sets Centered apart is our emphasis on teaching from traditional or thoughtfully informed practices, including spiritual, religious, or philosophical teachings.
Upcoming events (4)
See all- Stuffed Animals Cuddle Party!Centered , New Haven, CT
Ever just need a HUG? Want to meet new people?
Bring your Pj's, your *favorite stuffed animals* and experience a sweet bubble of nourishing connection!!
At Cuddle Party we like to say that we are providing an EMPOWERING communication workshop, cleverly disguised as a pajama party!
Amanda is a Certified Cuddle Party Facilitator is honored to host these events for our growing community of Cuddle Monsters! Come out and try this unique oxytocin bliss-filled experience and let your stresses melt away.
In our cozy, safe space, we will start with icebreakers and the rules of cuddling for the evening. You will gain practice in setting boundaries, expressing your NO and delivering it with compassion. Simultaneously, you will be encouraged to navigate our space with fearlessness and fun to ultimately discover your HEAVENS YES!
These are skills that can be taken back into your personal life and can drastically improve ALL of your relationships!
You will walk away with newfound confidence and unforgettable memories!
What you will gain:
*Connection
*Friendship
*Community
*Personal Development
*Giving and Receiving Affection
*Healing Touch
*Laughter
* Think hugs, back rubs, foot rubs, nuzzling, head scratching, spooning and all forms of non – sexual snuggling!Please note this is an alcohol and drug-free space and nonsexual environment.
18+ event.
We are not currently requiring a negative covid test for entry.
Tickets here:
https://thetantricmama.mykajabi.com/offers/Y5TzpPkn/checkoutRefunds up to 24 hours in advance.
Parking:
There’s free street parking, a free parking lot across the street, & free parking around the corner near sports field. DO NOT PARK IN THE PARKING LOT TO THE RIGHT OF THE BUILDING, those are marked reserved spots. Enter the building via “The Market Place” doors or the Teakwondo studio door on the east side of building.Wondering if this is for you?
You can listen to Amanda talk about Cuddle Party in an interveiw with Chion Wolf on CT Public Radio here:
https://www.ctpublic.org/show/audacious-with-chion-wolf/2022-06-02/we-have-to-talk-about-cuddle-partiesYou can find out more about the event/organization here:
http://www.cuddleparty.comABOUT YOUR FACILITATOR:
Amanda Ananda is an International Tantric Facilitator and Domestic Goddess of 2 outrageous young boys. Amanda has a diverse Tantrica background that allows for a unique, blissful and radiant experience to unfold in her workshops, online courses and sessions. She has studied with The School of Tribal Tantra based on Kashmir Shaivism and Shamanic Ritual, Ipsalu Tantra – Kriya Yoga based on Osho’s dynamic teachings, and Babaji Nagaraj’s esoteric Cobra Breath Technique and Urban Tantra combining modern tantric philosophy with conscious kink. Amanda as a life-long student, immersed herself in the sacred teachings from the Temple of Isis and Mary Magdalene, and is most recently now diving deeply into Somatic Trauma Healing. She encourages you to live blissfully in this intense world by gently taking care of yourself and making joyful well-being your first-and-foremost priority. Her techniques will help you to become embodied with simple-yet-profound, heartfelt tools that you can apply in your daily life.
Working with Amanda will assist you to clear the “murky gunk” that blocks you from your true light, guiding you in opening up to the miracle of life, and embracing the bubble of “ananda” (or, in English, bliss!) that is constantly accessible to us all. She is tremendously enthusiastic and humbled to share these teachings with the wonderful souls who say ‘HEAVEN’S YES’ to time spent with her.
Amanda is responsible for bringing Cuddle Party to the Connecticut area. She is ecstatic and honored to support the quickly evolving local Cuddle Monster community.
You can follow her at Amanda Ananda on Facebook or @thetantricmama on Instagram. Go to www.TheTantricMama.com for free meditations, online courses, private sessions and event schedule.
Amanda is responsible for bringing Cuddle Party to the Connecticut area. She is ecstatic and honored to support the quickly evolving local Cuddle Monster community.
You can follow her at Amanda Ananda on Facebook or @thetantricmama on Instagram. Go to www.TheTantricMama.com for free meditations, online courses, private sessions and event schedule.
- Intro to Tantra - An Ipsalu Tantra InitiationCentered, New Haven, CT
Have you been curious about Tantra?
Interested in experiencing TRUE CONNECTION with yourself, the Divine, and others?
This evening's event will begin with the very basics.
My goal for the evening is to reconnect you with your TRUE DIVINE NATURE, to experience the fountain of unconditional love and acceptance we all have access to but have forgotten. Once you are floating within your own BLISSFUL MAGNIFICENCE, I will lead you through some fun simple exercises with each other that will help you to truly experience an embodied heart-opening intimacy with life.
What you will gain:
*Connection
*Friendship
*Community
*Personal Development
*Witness Consciousness
*LaughterWhat is Tantra?
Many think of Tantra as a way to enhance their sexuality. While that is an amazing benefit of practicing Tantra, that’s only part of the picture.
Tantra isn’t just a practice. It is method of spiritual advancement as derived from a sophisticated lineage of yogic masters of the ancient world. These methods enable us to cultivate the energy of our bodies (physical, energetic), mind and soul, so we can blossom into our authentic natures. By doing so, we can more joyfully and skillfully engage in our contemporary world. By recognizing our power within the quantum field of love and light, and the influences we can have within it, we can master positive change in our own lives and of the world. The ego mind believes having its desires fulfilled will bring happiness but that is seldom true. The Soul lives in bliss. By identifying more and more with your divine nature, you release your desires and discover who you truly are.
(taken from http://www.ipsalutantra.org/what-is-ipsalu-tantra/)Curious and want to jump ahead? Grab these textbooks!
https://www.ipsalutantra.org/shop-ipsalu-tantraACCEPTING 35$ LOVE OFFERINGS HERE:
https://thetantricmama.mykajabi.com/offers/ze5jcgoj/checkout18+ EVENT
LOCATION: Centered,PLLC 285 Nicoll Street, New Haven, CT, 06511
COVID PROTOCOL: none, please stay home if you don't feel well.
Check your email upon registering! Please check your spam folder before reaching out. If you have any questions please email support@thetantricmama.com
About Your Facilitators:
Amanda Ananda’s Bio:
Amanda Ananda is an International Tantric Facilitator and Domestic Goddess of two outrageous boys.
Amanda has a diverse Tantrica background that allows for a unique, blissful and radiant experience to unfold in her workshops, online courses and sessions. She has studied with The School of Tribal Tantra, Ipsalu Tantra – Kriya Yoga, and Babaji Nagaraj’s esoteric Cobra Breath Technique and Urban Tantra.
Follow her at Amanda Ananda on Facebook or @thetantricmama on Instagram. Go to http://www.thetantricmama.com/ for free meditations, online courses, private sessions and event schedule.Rob Krause, has been practicing, yoga, meditation and tantra for thirty years. After completing yoga teacher training in Goa he was introduced to the practices of neo-Tantra in Pune India. He continued his path studying tantra through Margot Anand’s SkyDancing School, Barbara Carrellas’ Urban Tantra, The Body Electric School, and over the last several years through the teachings of Hareesh in the Tantra Illuminated School he has been studying traditional non-dualistic Shaivist Tantra. Rob also is certified in Sex Therapy through the California Institute of Integral Studies.
- Psychedelic Retreat informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy!Mother's House, Weert
In the recent Special issue for "Psychedelics in the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2020", multiple leading researchers illustrate how ACT and psychedelics can be interwoven to create what may become new era of breakthrough therapies. This retreat has been developed in a very similar vein and following the daily data of 62 single cases that we already collected during these retreats.
This programme is aimed at mental health professionals interested in becoming psychedelic-assisted therapists, psychedelic therapists interested in an ACT-informed psychedelic experience and those wishing to better support people in integrating psychedelic experience. There is currently a psychedelic research renaissance involving sizeable clinical trials in both Europe and the USA. The current results suggest unprecedented success rates for depression, addictions and more. With such trials underway, psilocybin is expected be medically licensed in the next 5 years.
Following recent developments in psychopharmacology research (see New Atlas FDA Breakthrough therapy, or Wired for more depth). The purpose of this retreat is to prepare and connect those interested in such developments. If you are interested in collaborating on future retreats like this, you are especially welcome.
Event Location: Mother's House, Weert, The Netherlands
The Programme: This four and a half day retreat + two month (average length) integration programme consists of:
**Day 1:** Arrival (in the afternoon) and preparation: approaching the psychedelic experience as an opportunity for personal growth, leaning into challenging emotions and opening to a flexible sense of self.
**Day 2:** Self-as-context meditation breath and bodywork – you are not your programming. Afternoon ceremony – with Psilocybin Truffles, you embark on your psychedelic journey with the support of sober mental health professionals.
**Day 3:** What is still coming up? Being in your direct experiencing. ACT-informed authentic relating exercises to go deeper into our personality structures, face shame and bond in our common humanity. A spectrum of selves exercise to integrate your parts and foster a transcendent self.
**Day 4:** Increasing willingness and noticing the barriers of mind. Let different parts of you speak. Breathwork. Second Ceremony – an opportunity to go deeper.
**Day 5:** Further integration – Is any of your inner or outer behaviour changing? What new paths do you feel invited to follow? Is a new view emerging of the kind of life you want to live? Balancing the head with the heart: Awareness practices coupled with behavior change.Minimum facilitator ratio: one to every 3.5 participants minimum. Each participant will also receive one-on-one pre, between and post-ceremony check-ins.
Each day will include experiential practices to help us get into our direct experiencing. Through sharing circles we will learn from each other.
**Integration therapy:** Then each participant is then offered four 60-90min integration sessions via zoom. These sessions further support the unfolding of awareness that opened during the retreat and help translate this awareness into multiple domains of your life. It may also be a critical learning period to take advantage of. Our current integration model brings together evolutionary science, ACT and ‘parts work’ in psychedelic context as described in Henry’s "Spectrum of Selves" publication, integrating behavior change to find a new balance between self-care, relationships, community and environment.
In preparation you may consider your personal challenges in terms of ‘willingness’ (how open are you to certain discomforts?), ‘experiential avoidance’ (what are the obvious or subtle ways you avoid those inner discomforts?), your motivations (what impulses behind your inner and outer behaviors are keeping you from what you truly want). Simple metaphors such as the ‘reverse compass’ may guide us on our way: where is your mind telling you not to go? Preparatory work suggested a from a month before the retreat.
To integrate your psilocybin experience into a life better lived, you may also consider if your old thought patterns take you where you really want to go. What new behaviours do our insights invite? How might our old patterns get in the way of what we really want?
As well as offering these latter perspectives, the ACT model also invites its own integration with other models and traditions, into a behaviourally aware eclecticism. Some of these modalities of integration include breathwork, art therapy, shame work and Internal Family Systems therapy.
Minimum facilitator ratio: one to every 3.5 participants minimum. Each participant will also receive one-on-one pre, between and post-ceremony check-ins.Spaces are highly limited to a maximum of 14.
- £2300 (accommodation and meals included, excluding cost of psilocybin truffles (approx £80 – provided by a trusted legal third party).
- Two low-income places of £1500 are available.- Contact us for concessionary fees or other questions (https://psychflex.co.uk/contact-us/)
Event Website/ Registration link information: https://psychflex.co.uk/product/psychedelic-retreat-for-mental-health-professionals-informed-by-acceptance-and-commitment-therapy/
- New England Cuddles Campout!Wildheart, Wallkill, NY
## Ever wished Cuddle Party was longer, maybe a sleepover event?Now it is!
I took your feedback and created us a summer New England Cuddles Campout!! Bring your fav pjs, fun summer games and experience a sweet WEEKEND bubble of nourishing connection!!
At our New England Cuddles Campout weekend we hope to extend the sweet energy of Cuddle Parties to include making meals together, music jamming, fireside chats, cold water plunges, morning meditations & karaoke night and obviously LOTS OF SNUGGLES!!
More information and tickets here:
https://thetantricmama.mykajabi.com/new-england-cuddles-campout-2025
(enjoy the BEAUTIFUL pictures of the Hudson Valley and the WildHeart Center)WE WILL SHARE OUR FIRST MEAL TOGETHER @ 5:30/6pm, COVER THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW & START THE WELCOME CIRCLE at 7:00pm Friday, the 18th.
Closing brunch will be Sunday at 10:30am and checkout is at 12pm.
Please note this is an alcohol and drug-free space and nonsexual environment.
## About Your Facilitator:
Amanda Ananda is an International Tantric Facilitator and Domestic Goddess of 2 outrageous young boys. Amanda has a diverse Tantrica background that allows for a unique, blissful and radiant experience to unfold in her workshops, online courses and sessions. She has studied with The School of Tribal Tantra based on Kashmir Shaivism and Shamanic Ritual, Ipsalu Tantra – Kriya Yoga based on Osho’s dynamic teachings, and Babaji Nagaraj’s esoteric Cobra Breath Technique and Urban Tantra combining modern tantric philosophy with conscious kink. Amanda as a life-long student, immersed herself in the sacred teachings from the Temple of Isis and Mary Magdalene, and is most recently now diving deeply into Somatic Trauma Healing. She encourages you to live blissfully in this intense world by gently taking care of yourself and making joyful well-being your first-and-foremost priority. Her techniques will help you to become embodied with simple-yet-profound, heartfelt tools that you can apply in your daily life.
Working with Amanda will assist you to clear the “murky gunk” that blocks you from your true light, guiding you in opening up to the miracle of life, and embracing the bubble of “ananda” (or, in English, bliss!) that is constantly accessible to us all. She is tremendously enthusiastic and humbled to share these teachings with the wonderful souls who say ‘HEAVEN’S YES’ to time spent with her.
Amanda is responsible for bringing Cuddle Party to the New England area. She is ecstatic and honored to support the ever evolving local Cuddle Monster community.
You can follow her at Amanda Ananda on Facebook or @thetantricmama on Instagram. Go to www.TheTantricMama.com for free meditations, online courses, private sessions and event schedules.
