The Repertoire: Body-Based Creative Practices To Transmute Heartbreak & Grief Into Reinvention
A 6-week container to metabolize emotion, reclaim your identity, and embody joy again through movement, somatic ritual, and artistic exploration starting 4.4.26
You Already Know “The Body Keeps The Score” But You Don’t Know How to Make It…Not
Most people are never taught how to move through grief, heartbreak, or big life transitions.
In our darkest moments, we’re still expected to:
overload our schedules and somehow pull everything off
continue to anticipate other people's needs at the expense of our own
optimize, optimize, optimize
abide by a strict timeline to “get over it”
and push those big feelings down deep when they are inconvenient or make others uncomfortable
band-aid treat the physical manifestations of our hurt (the aches, the fatigue, the tension that will not go away) with endless expensive bodywork appointments instead of actually addressing the root cause
As they say, the show must go on!
…Even when we know deep down we’re just kicking that can of consequences down the road.
But! The heart and body don’t heal through sheer will, no matter how indomitably determined you are. (Trust me, I tried!)
They process the tough stuff through:
movement that completes the stress response (think your cat shaking it off after a humiliating tumble off the counter but x1000)
breath and presence that return to the nervous system to a more regulated state
and you’re gonna hate this part but…yes, time
I know all of the above can feel esoteric and overwhelming.
So, I created The Repertoire as a six-week course to help you build your own bespoke arsenal of embodiment methods that work for you.
The Repertoire will help you move out of the stress state, process, and integrate experience through the body…and because the grief did change you, non-intimidating creative practices for safe expression and meeting your new self.
Practices you can return to again and again.
Maybe This Is Where You Are…
You might be here because:
You’re moving through a breakup, loss, or major life transition
You feel emotionally stuck or numb
You are realizing you can’t “think your way out” of this one
You want tools that help you feel grounded in your body again
You’re craving a creative outlet to put all this pain into but feel like an impostor calling yourself an artist…or, simply just have no clue where to start
If that sounds like you, The Repertoire will meet you where you are and get you feeling like yourself…nay, even better, in six weeks.
The Repertoire: Body-Based Creative Practices To Transmute Heartbreak & Grief Into Reinvention
The Repertoire is a six-week somatic and creative course designed to help you orient, ground, stabilize, process, and heal through embodiment and artistic expression.
Inside the program, you'll learn a collection of my favorite practices that support:
nervous system regulation
emotional processing
creative expression
embodied resilience
Each week introduces new practices drawn from:
esoteric anatomy
contemporary mat pilates and functional strength straining
somatic movement (shaking, tapping, humming, grounding, body scanning, etc;)
fascial release
breathwork and pelvic floor/diaphragm co-contraction and integration
channeled writing and guided journaling
poetry divination and bibliomancy
archetype embodiment
digital collage
gestural based improvisational dance (no dance experience needed, promise!)
By the end of the course, you’ll have built your own repertoire of practices — tools you can return to anytime.
And if you’re thinking “Uh, sorry, you keep saying ‘somatic” but I was not a dance major and don’t know what you’re talking about…”
Somatic is just a fancy way of describing slow, intentional mindful movement that increases interoception (awareness of your internal experience), proprioception (orienting and awareness of your body in space), and strengthens the neuro-muscular connection.
Here’s what’s in your Repertoire:
A six-week guided experience designed to help you process change through movement, reflection, and creative expression.
Inside the program you’ll receive:
The Opening Ceremony
A ritual opening class to mark the transition into a new season of self-tending through grounding movement, nervous system regulation, and future-self visioning.
Weekly Live Group Somatic Sessions
Each week includes a live guided movement session with me to move emotions through the body with an intuitive blend of contemporary mat pilates, somatic movement, fascial release, breath exercises, structured improvisational movement, and reflective journaling exploring how the esoteric body aids in:
• anchoring through the feet and legs to find stability and safety
• fluid hip mobility to reconnect to your sensuality and creative energy
• core strengthening to find embodied agency and listen to your gut
• heart-opening to build confidence taking up space
• expressive upper body movement to reclaim your voice
• integrated full-body flow to release stored tension
The Inquiry: Daily Morning Pages
Weekly journaling themes and prompts that deepen self-awareness, helping you explore identity shifts, emotional patterns, gratitude, and meaning as the course unfolds.
Creative Expression Practices
Hands-on creative exercises like collage, body mapping, movement improvisation, altar building, and visual storytelling to give form to experiences that are difficult to articulate.
Curated Reading & Inspiration
Thoughtfully selected excerpts from books exploring embodiment, neuroscience, creativity, and emotional resilience to support the themes of each week.
Community & Accountability
A private group for participants to ask questions, share their progress, stuck points, artistic explorations, hold space, and keep you invested in staying consistent.
Your Personal Repertoire
By the end of the course, you will have been exposed to several difference body-based approaches and developed your own best practices to return to whenever you need support navigating change, pain, and anxiety.
The Transformation
By the end of The Repertoire you will have:
a repertoire of movement, ritual, and creative practices you can return to whenever you feel overwhelmed, stuck, or disconnected
a deeper understanding of how your body processes emotion—and how to work with it instead of against it
tools to move through intense feelings without shutting down, spiraling, or overthinking
a stronger sense of agency in your body—knowing you can shift your state through movement, breath, and expression
a more connected relationship to your intuition and creativity
safety to feel deeply without getting stuck there
increased body awareness and emotional resilience
finally understand what “listen to your body” means
maybe even release chronic pain from unprocessed emotion stuck in the body
You’ll leave with something tangible:
a Repertoire of practices you can rely on the next time you feel punched in the gut by grief.
The Repertoire is for you if:
You are navigating grief, heartbreak, loss, or a life transition
You need tools that help you shift your state and manage stress
You are curious about somatic movement and the mind-body connection
You are craving an artistic outlet but can’t seem to get a practice going
You want to feel more safety and calm in your body
You need structure but also space to move at your own pace
You don’t need to be “good” at fitness, movement, writing, or art, just willing to show up, be vulnerable, take risks, and get curious.
The Repertoire is not a replacement for therapy or professional mental health care, rather an additive complement and a place to organize your self-care. This work offers practices for working with your body, emotions, and creative expression, but it does not replace the support of a licensed therapist. If you need additional support, I encourage you to seek out a qualified mental health professional.
Maybe you’re staring at the screen thinking…
“I’m not an artist…what if I’m bad at this?”
This isn’t about being artistic or producing something “good.” Creative expression here is simply noticing, responding, and letting your body lead. There’s no right or wrong way to do it.
“I’m not coordinated, flexible, Or athletic…is this even for me?”
You don’t need any prior experience with movement, fitness, or art. The practices in The Repertoire are all explorative, meaning everyone from all levels of experience is trying new things for the first time. While there is some pilates and strength work in the live classes, it is structured in an accessible, non-intimidating way that works for all levels. The guided improvisational dance based prompts are not about performing technique, but accessing flow state and release—so it doesn’t matter what it looks like!
“What if I look or feel awkward?”
You probably will at times. And that’s ok! We’ll all look and feel awkward together. That’s part of learning something new and letting go of control. The meat of this work is not how it looks like, rather, what it feels like. And over time, that awkwardness becomes less scary, and ultimately: freeing.
“I don’t trust myself to stay consistent with something like this.”
The heavy lifting of the creative practices happen during live classes to give you structure and stay accountable (though you will always have access to the replays if you can’t make class live). This is also where our community group will come in—ever notice how when you’re in a group fitness class you are able to give a little more effort than working out solo? That’s because collective energy is powerful, as is letting yourself be seen. While the six-week container is meant to be done consistently it’s what you make of it, not all-or-nothing or something you have to “keep up with” and is a set of practices you’ll have access to return to when you need them most.
“Is this going to be too woo-woo to be work?”
This work might feel different—but it’s not vague or ungrounded. It’s based on how your nervous system actually works: emotion shows up as physical sensation, your body responds through breath, tension, and movement, and those patterns can shift through structured, intentional practices. You’ll be guided through clear steps every time: orienting, breathing, moving, and coming back to regulation. So, while it may feel new, it’s also practical, repeatable, and rooted in your physiology.
The Repertoire is a six-week somatic ritual and creative expression program where you’ll learn how to process heartbreak, grief, and loss by working with your body, your creativity, and your internal rhythms.
The Investment
7 Weekly Semi-Private Somatic Movement sessions: The Format
Guided sessions intuitive blend of contemporary mat pilates, somatic movement, fascial release, breath exercises (Value: $1,050)6 GUIDED IMPROVISATION WORKSHOPS: The Study
Guided gestural and improvisational dance workshops where structure softens and intuition takes the lead—allowing you to explore movement, creativity, and identity without trying to get it “right, to follow impulses, experiment, and access parts of yourself that don’t usually come forward when everything is planned and controlled and pushed down (Value: $1050)
6 Guided Journaling Workshops (The Inquiry)
Structured writing sessions to help you process emotion, identify patterns, and build self-trustplus bonus daily journaling prompts—a framework for consistent self-inquiry across all six weeks (Value: $450)6Weekly Creative Practices & Rituals
Workshops in poetry divination, channeled writing, digital collage, altar creation, and archetype embodiment to support expression and integration (Value: $300)Curated Reading & Integration Materials
Selected excerpts and homework exercises to deepen your understanding of esoteric anatomy, embodiment, creativity, brain rewiring, and nervous system regulation (Value: $100)A private community Group
A safe space to share your revelations, roadblocks, and artistry, ask questions, and be held accountable for consistency, so that this work can actually stick. (Value: $200)
$3,100+ value, including live lectures and recordings, on-demand mini fascial release classes, and somatic sessions available only in The Repertoire, journaling prompts, a personalized ritual tracker, Notion templates, meditations, and more.
Investment: $1,499
The curriculum
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We focus on creating a sense of stability in the body through grounding movement and supportive practices working with the root chakra, the Earth element, the kidney & bladder meridians, and guided improvisational framework that begins with orienting, breath, and nervous system regulation, then moves into repetitive gesture work connected to grief—exploring resistance, weight, and sensation before settling into stillness and body awareness.
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This week softens control and reconnects you to fluidity, pleasure, and inner rhythm through hip-focused movement and creative exploration in relation to the sacral chakra, the water element, and the kidnes and liver meridians and embodied interpretation of poetry divination—translating words into movement, shape, texture, and rhythm to access emotion in a non-linear way.
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We build core strength, heat, and personal agency—exploring action, choice, and self-trust working with the solar plexus, the fire element, the stomach and spleen meridians, and improvisational exploration of transformation—working with grief as texture, sound, or form, then exaggerating, shifting, and reshaping it through movement to reclaim authorship and direction.
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This week centers breath, openness, and connection—creating space for tenderness and expansion working with the heart chakra, the air element, the lung meridian and a visual-to-physical translation practice—creating a digital representation of your emotional landscape, then embodying its shapes, textures, and energy through gesture.
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We explore expression through breath, sound, and movement, the throat chakra, ether, the lung and large intestine meridians, and archetype embodiment—building a visual representation of your future self, and guided improvisation to discover how that version of you moves, sounds, and takes up space.
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The final week brings everything together—integrating strength, awareness, and identity into a more coherent whole with the third eye and crown chakras, light, central channel meridian, and a culminating improvisational sequence—deconstructing your ideal self phrase work from week five, introducing imperfection, imbalance, and unpredictability to build adaptability, integration, and self-trust.
Bonus tools:
Helen Phelan Studio’s 10 Principles of Intuitive Exercise PDF
Pre Pilates Practice Intentions To Reframe Your Relationship To Exercise PDF
How To Breath Functionally For Efficient Core Activation and Nervous System Regulation Tutorial & PDF
An evergreen recording of The Somatic Shed Masterclass
A Daily Ritual Tracker Notion Template
A comprehensive recommended reading list with every resource I drew material and inspiration from
And some surprises along the way
Schedule:
Live Weekly Somatic Sessions are held Mondays 6pm ET/ 3pm PT
Week 0: 4.4.26 (Opening Ceremony & Preparatory Class)
Week 1: 4.11.26 6pm ET/ 3pm PT
Week 3: 4.18.26 6pm ET/ 3pm PT
Week 4: 4.25.26 6pm ET/ 3pm PT
Week 5: 5.1.26 6pm ET/ 3pm PT
Week 6: 5.8.26 6pm ET/ 3pm PT
All sessions are recorded and replays made available
If we haven’t met yet…
I’m Helen!
I’ve been teaching movement in NYC for almost thirteen years (!!) and am the founder of Women's Health Magazine FitTech award winning online pilates platform, Helen Phelan Studio. I received my dual BFA in dance performance and choreography with an emphasis on somatic theory and modern dance release technique and a BA in psychology from Elon University.
From there, I went on to become a professional dancer…and promptly got injured. I got deeper into pilates as rehab an and fell in love with it’s ability to both heal my body and as a tool to shift my state.
I’m comprehensively certified in pilates mat and apparatus by Kinected/The Kane School of Core Integration, and hold certifications in functional anatomy for movement injuries, prenatal and postpartum corrective exercise, The Floss™ Fascia Flossing I and II, Intuitive Eating™, Integrative Nutrition, reiki I and II, TRX functional fitness, TRX suspension training, Good Move’s Somatic Intuitive Leadership Training and have recently begun my Somatic Experiencing™ studies.
Helen Phelan Studio has been featured in The New York Times, The Cut, InStyle, Bustle, Huffington Post, Coveteur, MindBodyGreen, Well & Good, Women’s Health, and more…
But what really matters is this:
I created this course after experiencing a series of capital-T traumas.
I relied on embodiment, breathwork, movement, dance, journaling, and perhaps most importantly, reclaiming my identity as an artist, to claw my way back to the land of the living, genuine joy, expansiveness, and an even stronger, more resilient, more vibrant version of myself (in concert with working with my licensed therapist).
The Repertoire is an all-encompassing collection of the practices that brought the color back to my face. I hope they are of service.