What’s on at Soul Gathering 2025
Celebrating Grounding and Wintering, the festival will focus on the deep connections between sauna, community, and seasonal wellbeing.
*All sessions are included in the price of a ticket, but some may be reserved ahead of time due to limited capacities.
Sauna
With beautiful saunas bringing fire, steam, and soul, this year’s gatherings will be guided by an inspiring circle of sauna masters and makers from across Europe and the UK. Together, they’ll create spaces for ritual, connection, and deep restoration: SEE TIMINGS FOR THE DAY
Saunotus - Finnish Sauna Ceremony with Laura 18:00
Laura Foon “Sauna-Akka” is a Finnish Saunotus practitioner at Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna. Her rituals and teaching draw deeply from Finnish mythology and cultural heritage, offering modern participants a chance to pause, let go, and heal through the ancient wisdom of sauna traditions.
In Finnish tradition, health is seen as a holistic balance, living in tune with the seasons and the natural cycles of life. This workshop invites you to explore the wisdom of herbs, treatments, myths, and rituals that connect us back to nature’s rhythm. Together, we’ll rediscover the sauna not only as a place of sweat bathing, but as a sacred temple of health and a sanctuary of harmony with nature.
Daoist Sauna Flow & Elemental Sauna Yoga with Wendy 10:30
The Sauna Daoist Flow is a meditative sequence that unites the elemental power of heat with the gentle circulation of qi. It is practiced in a sauna, where warmth relaxes the sinews and opens the meridians, allowing energy to move with ease.
Elemental Sauna Yoga - Gentle movements In the sauna, the body becomes a living crucible where Earth grounds, Fire transforms, Water balances, and Air liberates. The practice is not only detoxifying for the body but also an alchemical meditation for spirit. Honouring the elements of the sauna.
“Awakening the Wild Goddess” – a Lithuanian sauna journey for women with Birute 20:15
The sauna has always been a temple for women, a threshold between the ordinary and the eternal. In this circle of sisters, we step into a living sanctuary of plants, touch, scent, and sound, where the ancient alchemy of transformation still whispers through the steam.
Here we awaken the primal wildness within and embrace the radiant silence of the Goddess soul, weaving both into one luminous presence.
Mulan - The Warrior’s Steam with Wendy 13:20
A **Mulan-inspired sauna ritual** that blends the art of relaxation with the strength, resilience, and grace found in her legendary story. The ritual merges physical renewal with emotional empowerment, using Mulan’s legendary story to guide intention, transformation, and healing.
Using scent of of Magnolia / Sandalwood/ Vetiver / Jasmin/ Mint are naturally soothing, brightening, and anti-inflammatory.
Gentle Sauna Reflections with Liz Watson 14:15
Gentle Sauna Reflections with Liz Watson - Founder of Beach Box Brighton and Council Representative for the British Sauna Society.
Liz will hold space on a panel discussing the affect of sauna on women, particularly around hormonal health.
After Liz will guide a gentle sauna and continue the conversation in the heat, sharing her vast experience and knowledge with touches of ritual along the journey.
Rejuvinating Aufguss with Meg 11:05
Join Meg for a rejuvenating Aufguss session, a sauna ritual designed to awaken the senses and restore balance.
Guided by the Aufguss master, waves of heat, fragrant essential oils, and music flow through the sauna, carried by rhythmic movements of towel and steam.
Ice and water enhance the contrast, leaving you refreshed, grounded, and deeply renewed. This is more than a sauna - it’s a multisensory journey to reset body and mind.
Sound Rituals with Ula 19:15
This is not just a session - it is a ritual of presence.
As the temperature rises, your body begins its quiet work—adjusting, adapting, centering itself.
This experience isn’t about pushing beyond your limits, but about listening. Tuning into what your body and mind are telling you in the moment.
With the resonance of sound healing, conscious breath, and mindful awareness, we explore how it feels to fully engage with what is, without resistance or distraction.
Pinch pot vessel making in sauna with Michelle 16:45
Join Michelle for a unique session of relaxed, meditative making in the sauna. This is an invitation to slow down, connect with yourself and others, and enjoy the simple pleasure of working with your hands in the calming space of a sauna.
In this experimental session, you’ll be offered support to make a small pinched or coiled vessel—such as a cup or bowl. The focus though will be on the process, connection and experience of making together rather than the finished product.
Be prepared to get a little messy! If you do create something you’d like to keep, Michelle can take it away to be glazed and fired for an additional fee of £10.
Rewilding Thought with Katharine & Eric 12:15
From Ritual to Remedy: The Power and Art of Sauna Whisking 17:00
Are you ready to experience the sauna in a way that truly moves you?
Join Rimas Kavaliauskas, President of the International Bath Academy, as he shares his lifelong passion for the transformative art of sauna whisking. This isn't just about heat — it's a living, breathing practice that weaves together therapeutic touch, mindful breath, and deep warmth into a powerful symphony of well-being.
Together, we'll journey through its graceful evolution — from a personal cleansing ritual whispered down through generations, to a communal act of connection and relaxation, and finally into a respected form of gentle body psychotherapy that helps us restore balance from the inside out.
Prepare for an experience that engages every sense. Rimas invites you to step into a multisensory journey — to feel the textures, breathe in the natural scents, and listen to the rhythms of this ancient craft as it comes alive before you.
For sauna professionals and visionaries, this session offers more than inspiration: it opens doors to new professional pathways, certified training, and emerging business opportunities in the growing field of authentic sauna wellness.
Let's rediscover the art of sauna together — where heat becomes healing, and ritual becomes remedy.
Rewilding Thought weaves together storytelling, sauna practices, and guided reflection. Set within the gentle, elemental space of heat and steam, this session offers a chance to step outside of ordinary thinking patterns and sink into a slower, more embodied way of knowing.
Through stories and simple practices, we will explore how thoughts, imaginations, and perceptions of the “natural” world can be softened, expanded, and re-rooted. The sauna becomes not just a place of warmth and cleansing, but a vessel for creative rewilding - a space to reconnect with yourself, with others, and with the living world around you.
Yoga & Movement
Our movement programme is designed to help you ground, release, and reconnect through a diverse range of practices ~ from vinyasa flows to mindful movement, posture release, and therapeutic yoga. Whether you want to energise, reflect, or simply come home to your body, these sessions will hold space for you just as you are. SEE TIMINGS FOR THE DAY
Earth Mandala Vinyasa Yoga with Bex 11:00
Connect to the element of Earth through the practice of Mandala Vinyasa.
Earth is the element of Autumn and reminds us to slow down, turn our gaze inwards and reflect upon what brings us stability, a sense of home and safety whilst honouring the wonder that is Mother Earth.
Mandala is Sanskrit for circle and we will be moving in a circular pathway around our mat. Our physical focus will be centred around our feet and legs with lots of forward folds helping us both literally connect to the earth beneath us whilst curling inwards to a more introverted energy.
Move To Feel with Ailsa 19:30
Move To Feel invites you to connect inwards through an immersive, intuitive movement meditation that awakens your natural rhythm, imagination, and joy.
Guided by somatic practitioner Ailsa Lochhead, and set to an eclectic soundscape via headsets, it’s a silent disco for the soul.
Foundation Training with Mora 13:00
Unwind your body and ease pain with Mora. Through a unique blend of Foundation Training rooted in holistic anatomy, combined with Somatic and fascial release techniques, this workshop helps you connect with your deepest layers and reconnect with your body in new ways.
You’ll explore whole-body exercises that create space for your joints and nervous system, freeing patterns of held tension and awakening deep structural strength to support your frame. As you release restriction and improve posture, you’ll leave feeling lighter, more grounded, and more at ease in your body and movement.
Yoga Therapy with Laura 20:00
Shake off your stress and come home to your Self. When we are braced against life's challenges, we can miss the subtle moments that make life special. Whether you are numbed out, wired, tired, low, overwhelmed (or all the above) this practice is here for you.
Laura will offer you the space to let go of the protective mechanisms that hold you in your suffering and move you towards a place of balance and 'optimal openness'. The class will include breath, movement and meditation.
Gentle Autumn Vinyasa with Sonny 16:00
Step into the quiet embrace of Autumn with a slow, grounding vinyasa flow.
As the season shifts, it offers a subtle invitation to ease our pace and to soften our presence. Autumn is a threshold, a tender passage from outward action to inward reflection, from doing to simply being.
Sonny will guide you through a meditative journey, inviting you to honour the season that has passed, to recognise how far you've come, and to root yourself fully in the present moment. She will then lead you through a slow, intentional flow that will invite deep connection to your breath, to the earth beneath you, and to the quiet wisdom within your own body.
Breathwork with Caroline 18:30
Caroline's breathwork session will start with breath awareness, progress to functional breathwork, and then move to techniques for reducing stress and finding calm.
Breathing is a practice we can use anytime, anywhere, and it supports every body system. Optimal health is possible with good respiration. Many of us tend to over breathe; conscious breathing helps lengthen, slow, and soften the breath, enhancing gas exchange in the lung tissue. Since our emotions are linked to our breath, both physical and emotional challenges can be managed through these techniques.
Creative Workshops & Rituals
Across the day, step into a space of creativity, ritual, and imagination. These sessions invite you to slow down, play with materials, and discover new ways of reconnecting with yourself and the elements around you. SEE TIMINGS FOR THE DAY
Felted Wisdom Dolls with Belinda 13:00
In the old Russian fairy tale, Vasilisa is given a small magical doll who guides and protects her through life’s challenges.
What if you could create a little helper of your own, one imbued with the qualities you most need for comfort and support?
In this gentle workshop, Belinda will share the story of Vasilisa while guiding you through the simple art of needle-felting to craft your own magical doll.
No experience is needed - just come, create, and invite a touch of enchantment into your life.
Nature inspired dish making with Michelle 13:00
We’ll begin with a short, mindful walk around the site to forage for natural textures such as pebbles, leaves, seeds, driftwood, and twigs.
Returning to the yurt, you’ll use your found materials to create a unique, nature-inspired plate using simple press-moulding techniques.
The session will involve rolling out slabs of clay, imprinting textures, and shaping the clay into dish forms using wooden moulds.
If you’d like to keep your finished piece, Michelle can take it back to her studio to glaze and fire it for you. There is an additional fee of £10 for this service.
Heat and Flow - Poetry Session 12:00
Come listen, share, or simply let the words wash over you as Vicky Allan, Julie Foubister, and Mika Meskanen read poems inspired by fire, water, steam, and sauna.
After the readings, the space opens for anyone moved to contribute; whether it’s your own writing or a favourite poem that inspires you.
A warm, supportive gathering where voices, stories, and elements flow together.
Bathe in Sound with Ula 14:15
Sink into a soothing soundscape of vibration and resonance. Let gongs, bowls, and chimes wash over you, bringing deep relaxation and opening space for stillness and renewal.
Creative Heat Press workshop with Ailsa 16:45
Fermented Foods & The Gut Microbiome with Janice 16:00
Join Janice for a hands-on, sensory session exploring the fascinating world of the gut microbiome and the ancient art of fermentation. Learn how the foods we eat and the microbes that live within us shape our health, immunity, and mood.
Discover how to make simple, nourishing ferments at home, from tangy krauts to vibrant pickles, and leave with the confidence and inspiration to keep the magic bubbling in your own kitchen.
Add a spark of creativity to your day of wellbeing!
In this playful, hands-on session you’ll discover the magic of heat pressing - a chance to slow down, get curious, and express yourself through mindful making.
Create a soulful keepsake infused with colour, pattern, and personal meaning, and carry the spirit of Soul Gathering home with you.
Tides of Creation - Land Art with Lawrence 12:30 & 16:00
Join land artist Lawrence Winram on the beach for a day of creativity, collaboration, and connection with the elements.
Working with natural materials ~ sand, stones, driftwood, seaweed, and whatever the tide brings. Lawrence will guide the making of spectacular land art that celebrates the beauty of place and moment.
Everyone is invited to take part: add to the artwork, find your own meditative rhythm in arranging patterns, or simply pause in the calm of creating outdoors. Together we’ll shape something fleeting and beautiful, a shared expression of nature, art, and community.
Botanical Scrubs with Helen, Founder of DOOK 11:30
Seaweed Salt Scrub with Rory 15:30
Rory owns a forest, deep within which he has built an earthen hot bothy, a liminal space deeply rooted in place. A crucial part of the ritual is seaweed scrubs. But which seaweeds, and how can they be used?
The feeling of seaweed on skin is intense and deeply healing. All will be revealed with samples given to participants
Join Helen, founder of Edinburgh-based, award-winning DOOK, to create your own bespoke salt scrub.
Step up to a fragrant table of salts and essential oils, and let your senses guide you as you blend a little jar of self-care magic. With bright mandarin, grounding cedar, refreshing rosemary, and more to choose from, you’ll craft a 100g pot that’s uniquely yours.
This playful, hands-on workshop invites you to slow down, explore scents and textures, and leave with something both beautiful and useful, ready to take home, or to enjoy straight away as part of your sauna ritual.
Join us around the hearth to hear directly from the voices shaping sauna and wellness culture today. SEE TIMINGS FOR THE DAY
Fireside Talks
From Steam to Stream: The Sauna - Swim Connection 17:00
Exploring wild swimming, sauna, and body positivity.
Author Emma O’Kelly (Wild Sauna) meets Vicky Allan and Jackie Kemp (Take Me to the River), together with Vaughan Statham from Edinburgh Blue Balls and Anna Nubert from WanderWomen Scotland.
This conversation dives into the connections between cold-water swimming and sauna practice, while also exploring attitudes to nudity, body positivity, and how these rituals build resilience, foster seasonal living, and create space for deeper human connection.
From Blueprint to Bathing: The Craft of Sauna 14:30
How do architecture, materials, and tradition come together in the design of a sauna?
Lassi Liikkanen, author of The Secrets of Finnish Sauna Design and Finnish Sauna: Steam, Wood, Stone & How to Build Your Own, joins Rimas Kavaliauskas, President of the International Bath Academy, and Wendy Liu to share insights into sauna as a crafted space.
This conversation explores self-build innovations, regional traditions, and hands-on construction, showing how sauna design is always rooted in human experience, cultural heritage, and community.
Bringing together Laura Foon (Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna, Finland), Birutė and Rimas(International Bath Academy, Lithuania), Kirsty (Soul Water Sauna, Scotland), and Wendy Ball to explore what sauna culture means today across different traditions.
Together they will reflect on the role of ritual in contemporary life and how ancient practices such as pirtis, whisking, and saunotus continue to nurture connection, resilience, and holistic wellbeing.
Bathing Rituals: The Meaning of Heat & Water today 12:45
Hormones, Health & Heat 11:00
Exploring natures remedies and embodied practices to support balance and resilience.
Fermenting guru Janice Clyne, seaweed specialist Rory MacPhee of The Curative Forest, and Liz Watson of Beach Box Brighton are joined by Caroline Phipps, trauma-informed somatic therapist.
Together they will deep dive into the connections between hormones, health, and heat.