Events »»» HeartTouch - Glasgow - November 2023
HeartTouch
Mindfulness & Compassionate Touch Training for Anxiety, Emotional Pain & Trauma.
An transformational training for Experiencers of Emotional / Mental Distress, Psychotherapists, Shiatsu Practitioners, Couples & Family Members.
As well as facilitating personal transformation and self learning, this workshop explores the embodied foundations of co-regulation and care suitable for assisting people experiencing any level of emotional distress, up to and including complex trauma.
Kagyu Samye Dzong, Glasgow, November 5th 2023 10am-5pm - visit Samye Dzong

Embodied Mindfulness is a way of being in which you are fully connected with your body and you feel safe.
Your mind is quiet and present to your experience of life happening that moment and your heart feels warm and open to yourself and to those around you.
This is a state of well-being and good feeling.
We will explore together how mindfulness & touch based connection practices can help us to move closer towards this state of well-being whether as an experiencer of challenging states or as someone who cares for people in these situations.
We are not looking for 'cures' or 'fixes'. Whatever our 'role' we are learning to be with ourselves and to be ourselves. Just as important we are learning to be fully present with others.
As we transform the way we relate to ourselves, our experiences and the world, symptoms which distress us may also change.
Along the way everyone involved will enhance their capacity to hold safe space for others.
And this will touch everything we do in life from then on...
The Vision:

The HeartTouch project is about inspiring and empowering people to facilitate HeartTouch groups with those they resonate with and care about in our society.
Groups may form of diverse nature and membership, located in community spaces or in psychiatric services and serve people in distress or not.
The simple act of connecting authentically through compassionate touch with another human being nourishes something in the soul that makes life worth living.
I hope people with lived experience can play an equal role alongside specialists with bodywork or psychological training.
About Anthony:

I had my own journey first with anxiety, panic attacks and mild depression while in my final year at Cambridge University in 1991.
This continued during my work as a financial auditor, where I experienced chronic stress and then as a software programmer where I went into a meltdown of physical and mental fatigue. A serious breakdown / burnout.
Despite massive efforts to heal myself, this journey continued in 2001, with me entering non-ordinary states, we can say spiritual psychosis perhaps.
After an 8 month period in the psychiatric system, I came off anti-psychotic medications and took personal responsibility for my own well-being. This journey continued for the next 8 years with me going in an out of challenging non-ordinary states until I stabilised in 2010.
Over time I've become a qualified Mindfulness teacher, Tai Chi & Qi Gong teacher and have been teaching since 2015. I am also an experienced student of the late Akinobu Kishi , the founder of Sei Ki and teach his amazing touch therapy in my own way. I've spent twenty-five years exploring these fields with total dedication.
I found my own ways to recover and live a full life and now share what I learnt with others experiencing extreme states, trauma, broken nervous systems or simply chronic stress situations and misery.
This is what I do...
Click here for more on Anthony's background and experience
Details:
The event is being hosted by Anthony Fidler and supported by Gavin Anderson, a Core Process Psychotherapist.
This workshop is open to anyone who cares for or supports people experiencing challenging emotional or mental states: psychotherapists, shiatsu practitioners, mindfulness teachers, family members as well as those at times experiencing anxiety, emotional pain, trauma and what may be considered psychosis by some.
It is also open to couples wishing to enhance their capacity to connect and support each other through times of stress and distress.
Nb. Therapists: Please leave your hats at the door! In this work we are all just human beings with our life journeys, difficulties, beauty and pain.
Nb. Experiencers: I request people experiencing serious difficulties to book a short personal appointment with me , so we can 'get to know each other', before you attend the workshop. This in itself is a therapeutic process! I charge £25 per 1/2 hr.
A trauma-informed group experience is something we will all share responsibility for creating together. Even so as with any deeper work, I cannot say without meeting people how they may cope with the experience. Hence the online chat option. For some people 1-1 work may be more suitable.
Workshop size: Max 10 people.
Covid: We request attendees complete a lateral flow test before attending out of consideration to others.
Pricing: *Early bird pre Oct 5th
- Individual Fee: £90, Early Bird: £80
- Couple Fee: £160, Early Bird: £140
- Parent with Experiencer Fee: £120
- Concession Fee: £45, limited places
Nb. There are some concessionary price places available for those in an unwaged / low waged situation. Please contact me to discuss.
For those requiring a pre-workshop 1-1 chat I will charge £25 / half hour for this. I know from my own experience this can make a big difference anxiety wise before entering a group.
Cancellation / Refunds: 50% when notice is given at least 1 week prior to the workshop.
Places are limited to 10 so please book early to be confident of attending.
Registration Process:
The event is by invitation. The application process is as follows:
- We request that people apply by contacting us
- Then once we confirm there are places available, complete the application form
- We will then come back to you and may suggest a short online 1-1 session or you can request it if you wish.
- We will then confirm your place on the workshop once you've paid.
Nb. The intention with the application form is to provide an opportunity for you to communicate personal needs so we can hold the space well for you. It also allows you and us to reflect whether you are in a good enough 'space' to benefit from the practices being offered with the support we will have available on the day.
Non-experiencers, please be patient. It feels appropriate to ask all attendees to complete the forms if any do, but answers may be succint as appropriate. It is an opportunity to reflect on why you wish to attend the training and communicate this with me along with any personal needs.
Pre-workshop 1-1 sessions, while adding cost to the workshop are invaluable in my experience in terms of allowing us to establish a personal resonance before you enter the group environment.
Thank you, Anthony.
So please get in touch if you would like to attend: Contact EasternPeace
Testimonials from previous HeartTouch workshops:
Anthony Fidler has remarkable qualities and much valuable experiences of creating safe spaces where we can together explore difficult things.
This happens through movement, touch, breath work and so much more.
He has a very instinctive approach that can tune in to what people need regardless of their circumstances and needs.
I can thoroughly recommend people to join his workshops especially for families who are struggling with emotional distress.
Jen, SkiptonI came to HeartTouch through a posting that was shared with me online. Wasn't quite sure what to expect, but as I do a lot of work in Mindfulness and have been interested in Reiki and being a massage therapist, I thought I'd give it a go.
This work is about the individual opening up to the power of touch and flow of energy in the body.
That is it... there is nothing magical or out there about it.
The weekend we spent together was tribute to the power of this way of being.
No matter what you have going on, physical, mental, emotional... this work is so important.
Not only receiving the touch, but also offering the touch.
I am looking forward to taking this work of touch as well as mindful movement into my daily life and sharing it with whomever is open and interested in it.
Thanks Anthony!
James, BristolAnthony is a very engaging and enthusiastic presenter, he has a deep, uncompromising love for his practice and an unstinting generosity in sharing his knowledge.
His workshop has helped me to refresh my Qi-based practice and develop my understanding of this fascinating work.
Elise, BristolAnthony creates a welcoming and safe space, and he is very open about his own past mental heath struggles.
This enhances trust and a sense of community for participants who have faced/are facing mental health challenges.
Furthermore, it creates a sense of equity and democratises (as much as possible) the therapeutic space where participants are considered *experts* of their bodies and experience.
Dina, BristolI would certainly recommend people give Heart Touch workshops a try.
It's simple and affective treatment almost anyone can learn. I came away feeling empowered in body, mind and soul.
Peter, BristolThis is a great workshop for all those who wish to learn how to be there for themselves!
I've always struggled to soothe myself when others aren't available and I've been implementing new things that Anthony confirmed was useful, giving me further tools to practice on.
We also learnt other ways for others to be there for us and that was very interesting too.
"I've learnt nothing" is probably right, as I've learnt so much by very simple, but often missed, things to which Anthony guide us back towards.
Anna, NorwichAnthony has this wonderful skill to make practices powerful but simple enough so I can use them in every day life.
I very much appreciated learning a technique of safe touch to soothe and release emotions, which I will certainly use with my clients.
Silvija, LuxembourgThe Heart Touch Training was completely new to me.
I hoped this might be another step in helping me deal with some childhood trauma that I am currently working on from different angles.
The training was focussed on grounding and coming back to your own breath and turning towards your inner being, finding this deeper connection with oneself in the first place and all of this in a safe place, and yes, it worked!
I felt immediately at ease and was able to feel the connection and calmness coming over me.
This training gave me some precious tools that I will surely use on my personal journey.
Annick, LuxembourgAnthony was really engaging and down to earth with this workshop.
There was plenty of practices to try out and opportunity to reflect.
I learned a great deal which will inform both my own personal growth as well as my practice as a shiatsu practitioner.
I intend bringing some of the practices into my own personal and professional practice.
Thanks to Anthony for his compassionate presence, honesty and heart opening quality to his creative heart-touch approach, may it continue to grow in our communities where it is so needed . Corrinna Bain, shiatsu practitioner.
Corrinna, UKAnthony's engaging and authentic teaching style provides a very grounded approach to this work, inspired by his own experiences and work with Akinobu Kishi
Elaine, UKThe work helped me immensely.
I have not felt so calm and grounded for a very long time.
I feel the work gave me some valuable tools to calm and ground myself.
Really grateful for the safe and welcoming space that Anthony created and held throughout the day.
Dina, UKI would highly recommend Anthony's training to anyone needing to down-regulate their nervous system and wishing to be better able to connect with others.
Anthony's practices are unique, grounded in decades of training with Eastern masters.
Through these he has discovered what helps him in his moment to moment experience of life.
He embodies his experience with complete authenticity and this is what makes the training so powerful.
I felt really calm and revitalised by the day's workshop and look forward to attending another.
Anon, UKI attended Anthony’s HeartTouch workshop not quite knowing exactly what to expect, and to be honest I was just the slightest bit apprehensive about how it would be to be touched by or have to touch someone I did not know.
But for some time now as a parent of a son with psychosis and as an advocate for compassionate healing outside of the coercive psychiatric model, I had a hunch that this work might be important.
Anthony has also worked with my eldest son online with really positive results, another reason I wanted to see the workshop practise for myself.
Within moments of arriving the space was so welcoming as was Anthony himself.
There were flowers that filled the room with beauty, and the dojo itself was light and airy.
We had tea and by the time we started the meditative walking practise I was fully present and grateful to be doing this work.
We chanted together, which I found so enriching. The touch work happened in the afternoon when there was a sense of safety and camaraderie that Anthony had created from the morning session.
The afternoon offered me a way to connect deeply to my own sense of self and also to the partner I was working with.
I think that the profound effect of touch cannot be overestimated. I wish that I had been able to use it when my son was distressed as I think it would have deescalated some of his fear.
We all need to learn to live in our body and to come back to the breath and to remind each other to do so.
The mind and body are but one organism as this workshop reaffirmed for me.
Thanks Anthony. I will be back and will put to use what this teaching has given me.
Tanya Frank, UKI found the day really valuable.
It was structured and paced in such a way that one activity naturally moved to the next with increased intensity that always felt safe and healing.
Thank you Anthony.
Jo, UKSimple yet such incredibly powerful work.
Exploring these practices in our society which is grossly touched deprived as a means for supporting each other is necessary now more than ever.
Thank you Anthony
Andrew, UKThe Heart touch training was an opportunity to develop an understanding of and participate in compassionate based bodywork.
It gave me an understanding of how therapeutic touch can soothe the nervous system and open the human heart.
Joan, UKI would recommend Anthony's workshops and approach.
His focus, exploring our self perception and how to develop and work with this in relation to supporting both ourselves and others, I feel to be very effective.
Adam, UKThe HeartTouch workshop was held in a beautiful Zen healing space, and we warmed up into the bodywork practices very gently.
Thank you.
Emily, UKYour workshop was very useful because it gave me a lot of tools to help me relax in a more profound way, acknowledge my feelings and come back to my body.
I also loved the compassionate touch practices.
I found them very rewarding, a great way to connect with other people and to honour our basic humanity.
Monica, LuxembourgOther Events
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Recently Completed:
29/9 - 1/10 2023 : Sei Ki HeartTouch
Where: Kiental, Switzerland -
How it went...
26/9/23 : HeartTouch for Medical Professionals
Where: Aosta, Italy -
How it went...
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31/8 - 4/9 : Qi Gong in the Park
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12/8/23 : HeartTouch for Well-Being
Where: Skipton -
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23/7/23 : HeartTouch Training
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Coaching:
Sei Ki Private Sessions
Sessions can take several forms:
- Sei Ki Touch Therapy Session for Health & Well-being.
- One-One HeartTouch Tutorial Session.
- Couples HeartTouch Tutorial Session.
- Small Group HeartTouch Tutorial Session - contact me for pricing.
- Katsugen Undo One-One Session.
I am happy to consider sessions with anyone whatever their state of physical or mental health.
I am open to invitations to run half-day or full-day tutorial training and may be able to travel to you.
Session Fee: £80 / hour