[SleepaWeek NYC] Turning Towards Our Invisible Selves

​Join us for a day of guided small-group work on the things that usually go unspoken between people. No experience needed — everything is taught from the basics, everything is opt-in, and your "no" will always be honored. Come alone or bring a friend (discounts available on two-for-one tickets). Lunch is catered and included.

​“The truth is we are One. The reality is we are not.”

​- Leticia Nieto, Understanding Oppression

​Turning toward what is difficult and challenging in our relationships is a powerful way to meet the seemingly unaddressable challenges of our society. As we turn toward the places of fear and discomfort in ourselves and in our relationships, we build the capacity to turn toward the mirrors of those same issues in our culture and our world. This can include the ways we relate to our own identities like age, race, culture, education, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and more.

​“We don’t have to know the answers. We just have to choose to live into the truth.”

​- Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams

​We don't have to come from defeat, anger, misunderstanding, or powerlessness in order to do the social activism of acknowledging and loving these pieces of ourselves. In the midst of doing the real work of paying attention to the things we usually ignore, we can be supported by delight, laughter, joy, and lightheartedness. We'll weave together reverence for these “invisible selves” and the delightful play that comes from not taking ourselves too seriously. We don't know exactly what will come up between us in this workshop — but we know we're up for the adventure of finding out.

​"Social connection has been hard for me. I have a rich inner reality, but I've struggled to reveal it to others, often thinking that is weird, incomprehensible, or disfigured. Sleepawake helped me overcome this and recognize that there is nothing wrong with me." - Previous attendee

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​Agenda

• ​9:30am - 9:45am arrival

• ​10:00am - we begin together (please arrive within the window; we can't admit latecomers once we start)

• ​Morning - a guided interactive small-group activity to bring awareness to the implicit dynamics between us and the ways that we often feel misunderstood or unseen

• ​12-1 - catered lunch

• ​1:00pm - 5:30pm - a facilitated group process to clear some of the content that is ready to be cleared (up to you how deep you want to go). We’ll then move into guided activities around creativity and play, and a guided meditation to help integrate the process we just moved through

​Event details

• ​Everything will be taught from the basics – all you need is to be curious

• ​Everything is opt-in and your “no” will always be honored

• ​You can come alone or with a friend

• ​All you’ll need is a journal, a pen, and a water bottle. Lunch is included, accommodating for dietary restrictions.

• ​Spots at this workshop are limited to maintain the size necessary for small group work, so we’d recommend getting your ticket as soon as you know you’d like to come

• ​If you need a need-based scholarship to be able to attend, please reach out to info@sleepawake.camp.

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​Facilitator: Sarah Cruse

​"I felt extremely safe and comfortable with Sarah." - July 2026 retreat participant

​"Sarah created such a loving and nonjudgmental space" - July 2026 retreat participant

​Sarah has been with Sleepawake since 2023, leading both our emotional and relational curriculum and our creative expression curriculum at almost every retreat we’ve ever run. As a young repressed and depressed adult, trying to find her way out of patterns of personal and familial trauma, she found poetry and discovered the healing power of embodied truth, authentic voice and creative expression. Through spoken word, theater, singing, and sound exploration, she discovered an internal river of emergence. It is a deep listening, a profound wellspring of self-expression, a pathway towards healing that changed her life forever. Sarah now supports people and communities in activating their own inner creative pathways. Outside of Sleepawake, she is currently a practitioner of energetic medicine, sound healing and trauma clearing, and the lead singer of her band Yaya's Kitchen. Sarah is up for the adventure of whatever this day together brings and delighted to be part of it with you.

​About SleepaWeek
Sleepawake is coming to NYC for a week! Check out our events calendar to see everything happening this week. If the ticket price is a blocker to your attendance, please reach out to info@sleepawake.camp for details on need-based scholarship discounts.