Love and Ecstasy Training: Cycle 5, Freedom in the Form

Love and Ecstasy Training, Cycle 5: Freedom in the Form is a one-week SkyDancing Tantra seminar held at Sunrise Ranch Spiritual Retreat Center in Loveland, Colorado. It is made for experienced participants of the Love and Ecstasy Training who want to build on the earlier cycles. Four certified SkyDancing Tantra teachers lead it: Laurence Heitzmann and Laurent Lacoste from Europe, and Sara Stout and SatchiJo (Thomas Stout) from the United States. This is the first time Cycle 5 is offered in the USA.

What to Expect

The theme is freedom within the forms we live in: our bodies, relationships, histories, responsibilities and beliefs. Freedom here does not mean escaping those forms. It means becoming more aware of how we live inside them. The week explores how to tell a choice that is truly yours from one shaped by conditioning, and how to feel your boundaries rather than only think about them.

The work is embodied and experiential. Within a field of awareness and safety, participants get curious about the places where they contract, protect themselves or follow familiar patterns. Some boundaries deserve to be honored. Others turn out to rest on old beliefs that no longer serve. Practices include advanced embodiment and energy-awareness work, pelvic laughter and other Tantric practices, and explorations of how boundaries, relaxation, pleasure and orgasmic energy relate. The teaching draws on the methods of Margot Anand and combines ancient traditions with trauma-informed group facilitation.

Each day begins with a morning meditation, followed by two to three sessions. The breaks are long enough for a leisurely meal, a rest, a walk or a sauna. The training opens on the first Tuesday with registration from 2:00 to 4:00 PM, an opening session from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, dinner at 6:00 PM and an evening session. It ends the following Tuesday at noon, followed by lunch. The first hours matter most in a gathering like this, so plan to arrive in time for the opening session.

About the Teachers

Laurence Heitzmann is a Certified SkyDancing Tantra Teacher and co-director of SkyDancing Tantra International with Laurent Lacoste. She is a mind-body therapist and workshop leader, and a member of the French Society for Bioenergetic Analysis, whose teaching is based on the work of W. Reich and A. Lowen. She and Laurent teach three of the six cycles of the TEL (Training for Ecstasy and Love) in Montpellier, in the south of France.

Laurent Lacoste is a Certified SkyDancing Tantra Teacher and belongs to the team that teaches the Love and Ecstasy Trainings. With Laurence, he supervises SkyDancing Tantra International on behalf of its founder, Margot Anand. For him, being Tantric means choosing, through consciousness, a lasting state of joy and inner peace, one that lets difficult emotions be present without attaching to them.

Sara Stout is a Certified SkyDancing Tantra Teacher and a director of SkyDancing Tantra Institute USA. She brings more than three decades of therapeutic and embodiment experience, including many years as a psychotherapist and sex therapist. During the pandemic she led the SkyDancing Tantra Online Program, and she later helped mentor a new generation of international SkyDancing teachers. She co-founded LovePassionately: School of Mindful and Bodyful Intimacy with Thomas.

SatchiJo (Thomas Stout) is a Certified SkyDancing Tantra Teacher and a director of SkyDancing Tantra Institute USA. He has more than 40 years of experience in massage and bodywork and has been immersed in the SkyDancing lineage for over a decade, teaching the Love and Ecstasy Trainings with Sara. He is known for warmth, humor and groundedness.

The Setting

Sunrise Ranch is a spiritual community and conference center on a holistically managed 400-acre ranch and farm in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The grounds include a workshop venue, a lodge for socializing, a year-round sauna and a hot tub in season (May to October).

Lodging options are apartments with a private room, single rooms, double rooms, shared rooms for two or three with twin beds, and camping. All lodging uses a shared bathroom. Participants reserve lodging directly with the venue after registering, and rooms are first come, first served. Meals run from Tuesday dinner to Tuesday lunch, three a day plus snacks, with options for most dietary preferences. Arrival is possible from 2:00 PM on the first day, and departure is by 3:00 PM on the last.

Before You Go

Cycles 1 through 4 of the Love and Ecstasy Training are required, or approval from the instructors. Participants should be comfortable with self-reflection and embodied group work. The training is taught in English.

Tuition covers the week-long seminar and full access to the Sunrise Ranch amenities. Lodging and meals are paid separately to the venue, and travel is not included. Tuition is tiered, with lower rates for early registration.