Inspiring you to live a free, authentic life
of deep connection and aliveness
WHAT CLIENTS SAY ABOUT DEEP CONTACT SESSIONS
Harmony is a life-long explorer of movement & subtle sensation. I've watched her evolve this form, and it is luscious.
-Marci Javril- Vitality Coach
Harmony guides and models this: allowing yourself to slow down, sense yourself, and move from your own internal and physical support; from your true powerful center, exploring relationship with another; from a conscious, grounded confident place of self-trust; resulting in increased ability to invite, sense and trustingly accept the genuine support of others.
- Lisa Detloff- High School Science teacher
Harmony has demonstrated both a long-term dedication to sensing the messages our bodies give us about how we are living, and an advanced knowledge of how these messages can be used to aid our greater being. These body-messages are a key to transcending the often confusing and poorly founded messages originating from our old beliefs and the thoughts that emerge from these beliefs. In turn, this transcendent body-knowledge can be used to give us a healthier life and a greater sense of well-being. Her knowledge is unique. I have not found her particular depth of insight and talent anywhere She facilitated a postural change in me that transformed my whole self-image. She is on the cutting edge of the cutting edge.
-John Kottage-
Harmony brings you into her world of movement and connection in this amazingly strong, gentle way. She uses her whole body to cradle you, roll you, stretch you and challenge you. Her groundedness and relaxation are contagious.
-Ingrid Good- Artist
My experience with Harmony she is assessing the situation has always met my needs for respect, being seen, acceptance, love and humor, the right amount of play and lightness, and the right amount of being taken seriously so I could entrust my being into her hands and body during our sessions.
I feel really safe with Harmony. I relax more and more into fully letting myself fall into whatever experience is true for me. I particularly appreciate her presence with my in pain, terror, grief, and rage - emotions where I have rarely had the pleasure to experience companionship.
Harmony always make it easy, because she takes herself with a grain of salt, and I don't remember experiencing much defensiveness from her at all when I expressed needs or boundaries. She’s always invited me to be honest about that.
It's nice to have it be a minimal need for communication to get my needs met, but it's good to to be able to co-create a little bit as a client. Harmony’s ease with allowing herself to “not know”, allows for mutual co-focused adjustments.
I experienced a release of stress from my body, and a sense of feeling safe again inside my body.
-Nora Hoffman-
Harmony bridges a gap that creates a feeling of oneness. She closes the gap of separateness that I feel between myself and another. I surrender and feel safe and more comfortable to pass that gift on to others. I want to share that with everyone. I have been afraid of being close to people in the physical. Now I feel connected Spiritually, mentally and physically with others. Harmony helped me bring that feeling of connection and oneness into the body and into life. She bridges the gap of separateness to oneness through touch. -Leah Joy- Singer
I have learned to ground during dance and movement. Before I would ‘ground’ through my imagination by sending roots into the earth and feeling solid. But I didn’t realize that id not ground kinesthetically. But the most powerful experience I have taken away from my sessions with Harmony is learning to connect with others while remaining connected to myself. I have always equated connecting and loving with merging with another.
I thought I had to give myself up in order to connect with and love another. But this would always result in me recoiling, resenting, and becoming cold to others. Through my work with Harmony, I have found the balance of being contained within myself while remaining open with others. I am learning to feel myself through the connection with others; to ground through other people rather than get lost in them.
–Patrick Numair-
I am so grateful for the powerful and deep space holding and facilitation of deep healing Harmony gifted me.
I had been feeling fresh grief from a recent realization with my partner, that we need to transition into another configuration of relating and loving. With Harmony I moved grief on the dance floor that goes beyond this present grief. It felt ancient and ancestral. I feel she gifted me a profound transmission of the magnitude of the power within my soul's heart and of how to feel powerful even when feeling grief or despair and also how to transmute the grief with love. It felt like I gave birth to my heart.
-Pia Luz- Healer
The work I did with Harmony allowed me to take my dance/meditation practice to a much deeper level. Some of the elements that she helped me with include grounding, breath, reaching, boundaries, presence, communication, surrender, control, flow, strength, stillness, etc. She is gentle and nonjudgmental, yet she challenged me to seek what is true and authentic for myself. Whether for deep personal growth work or coaching in the art of Contact Improv Dance, I highly recommend spending some time with Harmony.
-Brett-
Having experienced a lot of bodywork over the years of being a professional dancer and instructor, I have never felt so nurtured, so cared for and deeply touched as I did during my work with Harmony Gates. Her ability to hold space physically and energetically is honest, vulnerable and revealing, as well as healing. By being allowed to enter total receptivity, I was able to receive myself in new ways, to meet myself in those places I push away from or hide from. Being able to stay at the edge of my own pain (physical,
emotional) gave me the opportunity to release, expand and be nurtured. At times I struggled. At times I cried. At times I allowed myself to be cradled as if I was a fragile baby. The freedom that emerged is still integrating into my everyday life now and I am sure it will continue as my work with her continues. “Harmony has a true gift of allowing one to feel completely vulnerable and completely safe at the same time.
-Melinda Deamon- ‘Dance Alive’ Instructor
I had a whole new experience in my body last night following the amazing bodywork session Harmony provided me. I have been dealing chronically with a pelvis that is stuck, weak and creates limitations in my daily life. Our session opened up the ligaments, connective tissue and musculature of my pelvic (hips, thighs, belly and gluts). I also had a full awareness when I was dancing later that evening of how much more strength and freedom I had to move and play. With so much driving and sitting all the time, I limit my range of motion. Even yoga and stretching I do on my own hasn't opened me up as much as I did, embraced by her precise, guided, initiative, innovative approach!
The work she is doing is a beautiful cross pollination of contact dance, compressive massage, joint mobilization, stretching, nurturance and gentle guided movement to facilitate release of the most deeply held physical tension in my body. I loved the intuition she has developed that allowed the pace of the session to be slow and the moments of pause that she brought while we were engaged in a movement so that subtle shifts occurred naturally. I also love the contact with her and her body. I felt completely held in that sacred way that I experience when someone is being fully present with me. The floor was our third partner in this unique dance massage. Through my contact with it, I felt massaged from nearly a 360 degree perspective! My exposure to contact dance has been very limited, so I am clear that even if I knew nothing about contact dance, as long as am open to a much fuller body contact with a therapist, I would have received the same degree of benefit.
- Linda Gaylan- Marketing Coach
Harmony, working with you has helped me clearly identify: I DO want to be here.
–Chris D.-
“You are Wasabi for the Soul.”
(spoken to me by a client who had experienced ritual sexual abuse in her family as a child)
Harmony’s energy is so pure when she touches.
-R.-
Nobody embraces me as fully as Harmony— It’s like trying to describe the taste of a mango to someone who has never tasted one”
-Billy Ray Boyd- Teacher
I think Harmony, invented touch. It didn’t exist before she came along!
-Claire Shields-
I thought the session was good-It felt like it cleared out some stuck places which was very helpful. I've definitely had more access to lighter places in myself since then.I felt like I was physical in a way that I'm not very much--in the pushing so hard against harmony, and she being able to follow, let me push her away but still be there, was somehow significant for me. When she dances/moves with me I feel acceptance and connection. She opens a window for me, and when I step through it, I feel fully embodied. It feels like the relief of the dissolving of my individuality and the celebration of my full individuality simultaneously. The duality of self and other is dissolved, yet I am still very much Present and alive.
-Carrie Perrin-
I find it intriguing being in this dance, this deepening and very profound learning curve with Harmony. I find her loving, warm, lovable, adorable, actually, and sometimes quite quite intimidating! I find myself sometimes on the edge with her, and I like that because it helps me learn more about myself, and my wounds.
I also feel received in a very different way, which I am learning to be very comfortable with.
I call her incredible and stupendous because not everyone has her level of depth and absolute integrity coupled with her dry wit, her total almost brutal honesty, and her skills set. She one in a million.
I am appreciating Harmony very much.
-Veenaa Saynana- Co-Founder/CEO at Thanktuary Retreat
It’s Luscious
-Laura Centorrino- intuitive bodyworker, transformational healer
It was sorely need, much appreciated, and that you seemed to have a very slow, deliberate, unique way of working knots and muscle groups that I responded to very well.
-Shawn Swanson-
Sometimes it's difficult to find the words to describe the experience of this contact connection with another. Having this experience, like with you last night, is a great gift. Thank you
-David Patterson-
I’ve never received this gift of mutual touch with no agenda from a woman before. I could touch and be touched without there being a sexual agenda. I was free from ‘performance’ pressure. There was no pressure. It was an invitation to be physically present to another human being. I noticed during the hour that I could touch Harmony anywhere, and she could touch me anywhere. I felt accepted…physically accepted. She didn’t shame me at any time during that hour. I felt Safe. It was good to be there. This was an hour in Paradise. I haven’t experienced anything like it anywhere else—and I’ve been getting massaged for 25 years. Her work is amazing. it’s Non-threatening. Non shaming.
-John D.-
Delightful. This is a meditation You leave your mind and get into your physical space with another person. Being ‘in the groove’ with them physically.
-Dan-
Harmony and I were warming up to prepare for several hours of dancing at Sweat Your Prayers with some contact improvisation. I felt a muscle start to spasm in my lower back and realized I was irritating an old injury. I told Harmony I was nervous I'd hurt myself and she treated me to some of her bodywork. Mixing full body massage and contact improv, Harmony slowly applied pressure to the painful spot in my back, and later added pressure and massage to the opposite shoulder when tension builded there. She didn't work with me for more than five minutes, but when she was done, I felt a sense of complete release throughout my torso, and was able to dance fully and without any pain. If you're suffering from any buildup of physical or emotional tension, and looking for thorough release with complete support, I fully recommend a session with Harmony.
-Kristen-
It was an awesome hour, one of the best sessions of bodywork I have ever had. I was passive during this rolling massage, where I did not initiate movement with Harmony but let her do all the work during the session. During our previous session, I had been very active, initiating moves while Harmony met and supported my moving, offering precise points of pressure with her hands, arms, legs and feet, and strategically using her torso and bodyweight. This first session was fun and challenging and gave me a deep isometric workout.
I am a big guy -- 6'3" and 220 pounds. I like strenuous exercise -- running, backpacking and weightlifting -- so I get fatigue and soreness deep in my body and my muscles. I have always found strong pressure necessary for the release of this tension, whether I am on the table or the floor.
Harmony's use of her bodyweight and stretching is a wonderful combination. Here are some of the methods I really liked: (This is an incomplete list since I tranced out through much of the session; I wished many of the positions could have been photographed so I'd remember more.)
* Back-to-back. Harmony rolled her torso up and down my back from pelvis, to neck, to ankles and back to pelvis. Then she rolled her back directly on mine, up and down, spine-to-spine. It was a super way to start because it warmed me up and released all the back muscles for more detailed work on my shoulders and mid-back. Harmony stayed on my back, like riding a horse, to do the detailed work with her strong hands through my clothes. She finished up by sliding her body up and down my back using her feet as anchors to further promote circulation and mellow out all the muscles.
* Rolling on the front and side of the torso. Harmony did extensive rolling across my torso after turning me over. She rolled my body over her, and she over me with hers. This worked my rib cage and stomach from all kinds of angles. She was able to use her feet and hands to keep moving so the bodyweight was never too heavy. In fact, the pressure released tensions so I was able to breathe very deeply and felt energized.
* Cradling. She did a wide variety of creative and satisfying stretches. Some of them involved her hipbone in places of great tension like the small of the back and the back of the neck; these were comforting and releasing at the same time. She would also extend the arms up and out for great angles on the lateral muscles and shoulders while supporting and bending the hips up.
* Legs. She was able to stretch and angle the legs so that her detailed strokes on my hamstrings and quads were very effective in relaxing these chronically sore body parts. Despite the complexity of the positions Harmony was able to repeat for each leg.
* Centering. To finish up she gently but deeply worked in the belly with one hand while giving deep pressure to the back muscles directly below. It was powerful and calming energy work as well as soothing muscle release.
-Peter Kirby- ‘4 Hands Massage’ Body Worker
-Marci Javril- Vitality Coach
Harmony guides and models this: allowing yourself to slow down, sense yourself, and move from your own internal and physical support; from your true powerful center, exploring relationship with another; from a conscious, grounded confident place of self-trust; resulting in increased ability to invite, sense and trustingly accept the genuine support of others.
- Lisa Detloff- High School Science teacher
Harmony has demonstrated both a long-term dedication to sensing the messages our bodies give us about how we are living, and an advanced knowledge of how these messages can be used to aid our greater being. These body-messages are a key to transcending the often confusing and poorly founded messages originating from our old beliefs and the thoughts that emerge from these beliefs. In turn, this transcendent body-knowledge can be used to give us a healthier life and a greater sense of well-being. Her knowledge is unique. I have not found her particular depth of insight and talent anywhere She facilitated a postural change in me that transformed my whole self-image. She is on the cutting edge of the cutting edge.
-John Kottage-
Harmony brings you into her world of movement and connection in this amazingly strong, gentle way. She uses her whole body to cradle you, roll you, stretch you and challenge you. Her groundedness and relaxation are contagious.
-Ingrid Good- Artist
My experience with Harmony she is assessing the situation has always met my needs for respect, being seen, acceptance, love and humor, the right amount of play and lightness, and the right amount of being taken seriously so I could entrust my being into her hands and body during our sessions.
I feel really safe with Harmony. I relax more and more into fully letting myself fall into whatever experience is true for me. I particularly appreciate her presence with my in pain, terror, grief, and rage - emotions where I have rarely had the pleasure to experience companionship.
Harmony always make it easy, because she takes herself with a grain of salt, and I don't remember experiencing much defensiveness from her at all when I expressed needs or boundaries. She’s always invited me to be honest about that.
It's nice to have it be a minimal need for communication to get my needs met, but it's good to to be able to co-create a little bit as a client. Harmony’s ease with allowing herself to “not know”, allows for mutual co-focused adjustments.
I experienced a release of stress from my body, and a sense of feeling safe again inside my body.
-Nora Hoffman-
Harmony bridges a gap that creates a feeling of oneness. She closes the gap of separateness that I feel between myself and another. I surrender and feel safe and more comfortable to pass that gift on to others. I want to share that with everyone. I have been afraid of being close to people in the physical. Now I feel connected Spiritually, mentally and physically with others. Harmony helped me bring that feeling of connection and oneness into the body and into life. She bridges the gap of separateness to oneness through touch. -Leah Joy- Singer
I have learned to ground during dance and movement. Before I would ‘ground’ through my imagination by sending roots into the earth and feeling solid. But I didn’t realize that id not ground kinesthetically. But the most powerful experience I have taken away from my sessions with Harmony is learning to connect with others while remaining connected to myself. I have always equated connecting and loving with merging with another.
I thought I had to give myself up in order to connect with and love another. But this would always result in me recoiling, resenting, and becoming cold to others. Through my work with Harmony, I have found the balance of being contained within myself while remaining open with others. I am learning to feel myself through the connection with others; to ground through other people rather than get lost in them.
–Patrick Numair-
I am so grateful for the powerful and deep space holding and facilitation of deep healing Harmony gifted me.
I had been feeling fresh grief from a recent realization with my partner, that we need to transition into another configuration of relating and loving. With Harmony I moved grief on the dance floor that goes beyond this present grief. It felt ancient and ancestral. I feel she gifted me a profound transmission of the magnitude of the power within my soul's heart and of how to feel powerful even when feeling grief or despair and also how to transmute the grief with love. It felt like I gave birth to my heart.
-Pia Luz- Healer
The work I did with Harmony allowed me to take my dance/meditation practice to a much deeper level. Some of the elements that she helped me with include grounding, breath, reaching, boundaries, presence, communication, surrender, control, flow, strength, stillness, etc. She is gentle and nonjudgmental, yet she challenged me to seek what is true and authentic for myself. Whether for deep personal growth work or coaching in the art of Contact Improv Dance, I highly recommend spending some time with Harmony.
-Brett-
Having experienced a lot of bodywork over the years of being a professional dancer and instructor, I have never felt so nurtured, so cared for and deeply touched as I did during my work with Harmony Gates. Her ability to hold space physically and energetically is honest, vulnerable and revealing, as well as healing. By being allowed to enter total receptivity, I was able to receive myself in new ways, to meet myself in those places I push away from or hide from. Being able to stay at the edge of my own pain (physical,
emotional) gave me the opportunity to release, expand and be nurtured. At times I struggled. At times I cried. At times I allowed myself to be cradled as if I was a fragile baby. The freedom that emerged is still integrating into my everyday life now and I am sure it will continue as my work with her continues. “Harmony has a true gift of allowing one to feel completely vulnerable and completely safe at the same time.
-Melinda Deamon- ‘Dance Alive’ Instructor
I had a whole new experience in my body last night following the amazing bodywork session Harmony provided me. I have been dealing chronically with a pelvis that is stuck, weak and creates limitations in my daily life. Our session opened up the ligaments, connective tissue and musculature of my pelvic (hips, thighs, belly and gluts). I also had a full awareness when I was dancing later that evening of how much more strength and freedom I had to move and play. With so much driving and sitting all the time, I limit my range of motion. Even yoga and stretching I do on my own hasn't opened me up as much as I did, embraced by her precise, guided, initiative, innovative approach!
The work she is doing is a beautiful cross pollination of contact dance, compressive massage, joint mobilization, stretching, nurturance and gentle guided movement to facilitate release of the most deeply held physical tension in my body. I loved the intuition she has developed that allowed the pace of the session to be slow and the moments of pause that she brought while we were engaged in a movement so that subtle shifts occurred naturally. I also love the contact with her and her body. I felt completely held in that sacred way that I experience when someone is being fully present with me. The floor was our third partner in this unique dance massage. Through my contact with it, I felt massaged from nearly a 360 degree perspective! My exposure to contact dance has been very limited, so I am clear that even if I knew nothing about contact dance, as long as am open to a much fuller body contact with a therapist, I would have received the same degree of benefit.
- Linda Gaylan- Marketing Coach
Harmony, working with you has helped me clearly identify: I DO want to be here.
–Chris D.-
“You are Wasabi for the Soul.”
(spoken to me by a client who had experienced ritual sexual abuse in her family as a child)
Harmony’s energy is so pure when she touches.
-R.-
Nobody embraces me as fully as Harmony— It’s like trying to describe the taste of a mango to someone who has never tasted one”
-Billy Ray Boyd- Teacher
I think Harmony, invented touch. It didn’t exist before she came along!
-Claire Shields-
I thought the session was good-It felt like it cleared out some stuck places which was very helpful. I've definitely had more access to lighter places in myself since then.I felt like I was physical in a way that I'm not very much--in the pushing so hard against harmony, and she being able to follow, let me push her away but still be there, was somehow significant for me. When she dances/moves with me I feel acceptance and connection. She opens a window for me, and when I step through it, I feel fully embodied. It feels like the relief of the dissolving of my individuality and the celebration of my full individuality simultaneously. The duality of self and other is dissolved, yet I am still very much Present and alive.
-Carrie Perrin-
I find it intriguing being in this dance, this deepening and very profound learning curve with Harmony. I find her loving, warm, lovable, adorable, actually, and sometimes quite quite intimidating! I find myself sometimes on the edge with her, and I like that because it helps me learn more about myself, and my wounds.
I also feel received in a very different way, which I am learning to be very comfortable with.
I call her incredible and stupendous because not everyone has her level of depth and absolute integrity coupled with her dry wit, her total almost brutal honesty, and her skills set. She one in a million.
I am appreciating Harmony very much.
-Veenaa Saynana- Co-Founder/CEO at Thanktuary Retreat
It’s Luscious
-Laura Centorrino- intuitive bodyworker, transformational healer
It was sorely need, much appreciated, and that you seemed to have a very slow, deliberate, unique way of working knots and muscle groups that I responded to very well.
-Shawn Swanson-
Sometimes it's difficult to find the words to describe the experience of this contact connection with another. Having this experience, like with you last night, is a great gift. Thank you
-David Patterson-
I’ve never received this gift of mutual touch with no agenda from a woman before. I could touch and be touched without there being a sexual agenda. I was free from ‘performance’ pressure. There was no pressure. It was an invitation to be physically present to another human being. I noticed during the hour that I could touch Harmony anywhere, and she could touch me anywhere. I felt accepted…physically accepted. She didn’t shame me at any time during that hour. I felt Safe. It was good to be there. This was an hour in Paradise. I haven’t experienced anything like it anywhere else—and I’ve been getting massaged for 25 years. Her work is amazing. it’s Non-threatening. Non shaming.
-John D.-
Delightful. This is a meditation You leave your mind and get into your physical space with another person. Being ‘in the groove’ with them physically.
-Dan-
Harmony and I were warming up to prepare for several hours of dancing at Sweat Your Prayers with some contact improvisation. I felt a muscle start to spasm in my lower back and realized I was irritating an old injury. I told Harmony I was nervous I'd hurt myself and she treated me to some of her bodywork. Mixing full body massage and contact improv, Harmony slowly applied pressure to the painful spot in my back, and later added pressure and massage to the opposite shoulder when tension builded there. She didn't work with me for more than five minutes, but when she was done, I felt a sense of complete release throughout my torso, and was able to dance fully and without any pain. If you're suffering from any buildup of physical or emotional tension, and looking for thorough release with complete support, I fully recommend a session with Harmony.
-Kristen-
It was an awesome hour, one of the best sessions of bodywork I have ever had. I was passive during this rolling massage, where I did not initiate movement with Harmony but let her do all the work during the session. During our previous session, I had been very active, initiating moves while Harmony met and supported my moving, offering precise points of pressure with her hands, arms, legs and feet, and strategically using her torso and bodyweight. This first session was fun and challenging and gave me a deep isometric workout.
I am a big guy -- 6'3" and 220 pounds. I like strenuous exercise -- running, backpacking and weightlifting -- so I get fatigue and soreness deep in my body and my muscles. I have always found strong pressure necessary for the release of this tension, whether I am on the table or the floor.
Harmony's use of her bodyweight and stretching is a wonderful combination. Here are some of the methods I really liked: (This is an incomplete list since I tranced out through much of the session; I wished many of the positions could have been photographed so I'd remember more.)
* Back-to-back. Harmony rolled her torso up and down my back from pelvis, to neck, to ankles and back to pelvis. Then she rolled her back directly on mine, up and down, spine-to-spine. It was a super way to start because it warmed me up and released all the back muscles for more detailed work on my shoulders and mid-back. Harmony stayed on my back, like riding a horse, to do the detailed work with her strong hands through my clothes. She finished up by sliding her body up and down my back using her feet as anchors to further promote circulation and mellow out all the muscles.
* Rolling on the front and side of the torso. Harmony did extensive rolling across my torso after turning me over. She rolled my body over her, and she over me with hers. This worked my rib cage and stomach from all kinds of angles. She was able to use her feet and hands to keep moving so the bodyweight was never too heavy. In fact, the pressure released tensions so I was able to breathe very deeply and felt energized.
* Cradling. She did a wide variety of creative and satisfying stretches. Some of them involved her hipbone in places of great tension like the small of the back and the back of the neck; these were comforting and releasing at the same time. She would also extend the arms up and out for great angles on the lateral muscles and shoulders while supporting and bending the hips up.
* Legs. She was able to stretch and angle the legs so that her detailed strokes on my hamstrings and quads were very effective in relaxing these chronically sore body parts. Despite the complexity of the positions Harmony was able to repeat for each leg.
* Centering. To finish up she gently but deeply worked in the belly with one hand while giving deep pressure to the back muscles directly below. It was powerful and calming energy work as well as soothing muscle release.
-Peter Kirby- ‘4 Hands Massage’ Body Worker
Transform the way you live and the way you relate
Learn more satisfying ways of relating to yourself and others
through awareness, attunement, and authentic connection
A body-centered approach
"You bridge a gap that creates a feeling of oneness. You close the gap of separateness that I feel between myself and another. I surrender and feel safe and more comfortable to pass that gift on to others. I want to share that with everyone."
--Leah Joy, Artist , Singer
--Leah Joy, Artist , Singer
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