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They are connective, healing, facilitated, community events. They are a hybrid workshop & concert. Like a house concert, but with elements of authentic relating, dance (conscious movement), consent, nurturing, and more softness of pillows, blankets and padding to relax into sharing stories, massage, connection, music, playfulness and love!
Every event has Katie teaching/sharing the 4 Pillars of Traditional healing, first revealed during over 25 years of spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical training and practices, but researched and shared in the book What Happened To You by Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey.
Many people want to learn what will actually HAPPEN at a Cuddle Concert.
Before we get to the ELEMENTS of the Cuddle Concert, let's cover some important foundational things:
Consent and connection with SELF are embedded in these events. Participation is optional. We encourage every person present to tune into their inner compass of connection to choose if and how they'll participate. Consent is alive and fluid; at these events we are free to consent, change or revoke our consent/minds, and ask for what we want! These are friendly/PLATONIC events.
So, here's a rough outline of what the events look like...
We start with some guided embodiment movement/dancing.
Then we CIRCLE up, set the CONTAINER, have a cacao ceremony, share GUIDELINES for the event, and exchange names and brief intentions.
Then, we move into NURTURE PODS, small groups of 3-4 people, where we all get to practice asking for what we want, RECEIVING (which almost all of us need to practice given our cultural conditioning), giving, and holding space. Within the nurture pods, we share our reflections and experience with our small group.
Then, the CONCERT! While participants continue to massage, or choose to cuddle, stretch, dance, sing along or eat some healthy food...
Katie Strand plays some original music, sing-alongs, shares storytelling of transmuting grief and pain into connection, creativity, gold, love, and teaches the 4 Pillars of Traditional Healing.
Then, Katie opens up the mic for participants to share music, poetry, stories and whatever flows.
Katie's note:
One of my FAVORITE things about these events is the visible transformation of participants within the event... humans start to glow and appear lighter through this beautiful human connection, natural increase of oxytocin, and likely nervous system regulating experience of being seen, heard, felt and accepted, within themselves and with others. It is simply a radiant, natural beauty of each person that emerges in these experiences. Mama Kay LOVED the Cuddle Concerts and often said "Katie, I understand why you call us CUTIES at your cuddle events, because with cuddles and connection, everyone becomes SO CUTE!!
is our next Connection Concert.
You have THIS much time until we gather, sing, nurture & heal together!
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Many said this was the most touching and inspiring memorial service they've experienced. We celebrated my Mom using songs she loved, sharing stories about her life and how awesome a friend, Mom and member of community she was. The service had an open mic component and the stories are so touching. Mom's Celebration of Life was April 29, 2023 at The First United Methodist Church in Duluth, MN.
Just like my Mom's service, many have shared that my father's memorial service was inspiring and celebratory. When asked "how was Coach's memorial," one friend replied, "It was fun!... which is weird to say about a funeral..." We cried, laughed, told stories, and honored my beautiful father. Later in the day after the service, some of us played in the yard of our family home, running his old football drills! We celebrated my Dad sharing songs he loved, stories about his life and how he was an aw
Mama Kay's Transition
As most of you know, my beloved Mom and I were SUPER close… We had such a fantastic relationship. I had the honor, privilege and intense experience of being with her every day for the last month of her life. She transitioned like a goddess… on a FULL moon, April 6th, 2023. Now, every full moon, I look up to the sky and say tearfully, gratefully, "Hi Mama!" We celebrated her life with her church & Duluth community (& some of you all virtually & in-person) April 29, 2023. The link to her celebration of life is below.
Celebration of Life for Muriel "Kay" Strand
Papa Rollie's Transition
My beloved father and I were also close. In a different way than my Mom, but we talked often about teaching, life, and he told me (and my siblings and his former players) "I Love You" on a regular basis. Many call him a Life Coach as well as a sports coach. And HE WAS. He taught all four of his children so much about life, relationships, love, leadership, communication... myriad lessons I can't begin to cover in this short paragraph.
My parents died about 15 months apart. My Mom April 2023 and Dad July 2024. It's been A LOT. I'm still processing, giving space and grace with grief. If you'd like to learn more about me and/or my parents, one of the best ways is to watch their memorials. We celebrated their lives with music, many stories, and I gave eulogies at both of their services. Many have said they were the best memorials they've ever experienced. That they rewatch to remind them of who they want to be and how they want to live...
Celebration of Life for Rollie "Coach" Strand
Most Valuable Cuddler (MVC)
Mom absolutely LOVED these events. I often say she was my MVC (Most Valuable Cuddler). For anyone NEW to Cuddle Concerts, now called Connection Concerts, there's a ticket link above & button below for saving your spot with a longer description specific to each event, but let me just share this…
Integrated Sharing of Gifts/Healing
These events are a lifetime in the making for me. My whole life has culminated into facilitating, holding space & creating this type of experience & bringing people together to HEAL, CONNECT, PLAY & LOVE each other! In a caring, consent-based, platonic experience...
We combine MUSIC, dance, ceremonial cacao, wellness arts, authentic relating and consent exercises to bring people together to deepen connections in community & create a healing environment and experience… These elements have all been REALLY IMPORTANT parts of my life, especially allowing me to intentionally create a life of learning, growth, healing, movement, dance & music! And, they're all supported by RESEARCH... that these elements have helped, throughout human history to heal & build resiliency.
Life Research & Resiliency
I have cultivated & found profound INTEGRATION, healing and RESILIENCY discovered & revealed from over 25 years of personal, spiritual growth & the intense experiences of losing TWO of the MOST important people in my life. Mom & Marcus have been the most powerful & expansive relationships of spiritual growth/evolution, creativity & co-mentorship… Being both of their caregivers & medical advocates for the last months of their lives transformed me into someone who understands grief, transmutation & the profound GIFT of birth, presence, breath, life & death.
For anyone curiously thinking, 'what are the details of these two loves & their lives, illnesses & deaths?' I’ll talk about that more at the event, but the broad strokes are:
Marcus Lovemore
My partner Marcus Lovemore & I shared 9 years in-love. He was a lifelong meditator (logging thousands of hours & studying/integrating all the great spiritual methods/books/teachings) & an enlightened human who went through the process of dying with tremendous presence, grace, acceptance, love & gratitude. He transitioned from complications from surgery & side effects from unknown ideology kidney failure on November 4th, 2017 at age 45.
Mama Kay (Kay Strand)
My Mom & I co-created a really close relationship where we were each other’s confidants & often emotional/mental & spiritual-processing buddies. She got me started in personal growth, paying for my first weekend seminar in 1997. I became her “way shower” (her words) and taught her much of the yoga, processing & growth tools I learned in myriad trainings and my master’s in spiritual psychology. She transitioned 14 years after her first diagnosis of breast cancer at age 82 April 6th 2023.
Be Curious
Our Cacao Connection Concerts are EXPERIENTIAL, so I encourage everyone to be CURIOUS.
Notice whatever thoughts or preconceived ideas you have when reading the description, and COME anyway!
Ask yourself: What can I be curious about & what can I learn from how I feel right now and from this experience?
Full of Love
My Mom told me a few months before she died…“Katie, I feel so FULL of LOVE. My life, my family, my friends, all wonderful, and YOUR EVENTS, connecting with your COMMUNITY & cuddling has FILLED ME UP with LOVE!" I’m crying as I write these words; remembering how emphatic she was when she shared this with me. "The connections are so powerful. I’m so grateful!!"
My Dad, who has never been to one of these events, was in awe when a small crew of our loving community descended upon our home in Duluth to massage, sing to and share LOVE with my Mom (& support me & my family) in her final days… he said: “I’m amazed at how strong the connections are with you, your friends & Mom… Mom has only known them for what, a year or so?! It’s incredible. Her face just LIT UP when she saw them…”
I hope you can come & experience this. I plan to have one Cacao Connection Concert per month in Minneapolis. I also plan to create these in other locations & would love your support! If you've been to a Cacao Concert and would like to fill out a feedback form, that helps us learn and improve upon these events! Feedback Form
In the meantime, reserve your spot using the link or button below & I hope to see you at our next Cacao Connection Concert!
Together we feel. Together we heal!
Love & Gratitude,
Your Chief Connection Officer,
Katie Strand
On April 6, 2023, Mama Kay transitioned from metastasized breast cancer. She lived life with so much LOVE, growth, learning, healing, connection. She kept friends from childhood. As most of you know, we were extremely close. My heart felt broken all over again... After experiencing the intensity of caregiving, medical advocacy, and being present for my beloved partner Marcus's transition in 2017, the whole experience was familiar, but of course unique to my Mom... and, I had over a decade of adult life before I knew Marcus. I've never known a life without Mom. I continue to learn from both of them, as they were two of my greatest teachers. Memories of things they said, spiritual connection and communication with them, and the gifts of grief and pain continue to help me grow and evolve. And, I still wish they were here, healthy and whole. I also had a LOT of FUN with both of them. My primary emotions about both Marcus and my Mom are: GRATITUDE and LOVE. Those remain beyond everything. Those are in the foundation of existence.
“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
-Albert Einstein 1879-1955
This happened recently… August, 2023
My Mom has a BRICK that we dedicated to her at Loring Park in Minneapolis.
I meditated & brainstormed some words that I felt encapsulated how she lived life…
Big loving thanks to Michael Putman for gifting this brick to my beautiful Mama.
with Peter Everest
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Viktor Frankel
Top "Couch" Image: Joann Jardin Studio One: https://studioonephotography.biz