BEYOND TOUCH WITH STEVE KOKKER 17-19 October 2025

Over dit evenement

BEYOND TOUCH - Masterclass massage-bodywork 18 hours workshop with STEVE KOKKER- Cultivating Insight and Authentic Presence in Bodywork. Bringing together the deep presence of Zen and the fluid balance of Taoist principles to enrich your conscious touch. A framework of grounded attunement to the human body, offering tools to foster intuitive flow and authentic expression in your bodywork practice.

✨ We are so exited about co-creating with Steve Kokker, with his amazing knowledge of the human body, Zen Buddhism and Taoism. We know Steve as a college and a teacher at the Tantric Joy Festival Amsterdam where he offers teaceremonies and workshops around touch.

Steve : “I believe bodywork is, at its core, about creating the conditions for the receiver to connect with themselves in a new, potentially profound way—like a gentle guidance to heal from within, rather than imposing a 'fix' from the outside. The true art of touch lies in setting the stage for deep healing to naturally emerge. This involves a blend of technique, skill, sensitivity—and the humility to allow Small Me to step aside when needed.”


WHAT TO EXPECT

🌿 Add tools to your toolkit, enabling you to deepen your clients' experiences of themselves through a balance of technical expertise and energetic sensitivity, including methods to slip underneath your client’s ever-vigilant mind’s radar to affect change on deeper levels of consciousness. How to step beyond mechanics to touch with presence, precision, and care.
🌿 Learn how to reshape and redefine what a touch can be—opening new possibilities for connection and healing.
🌿 Sharpen your ability to provide a touch that feels intimate, attuned, safe, and non-invasive.
🌿 Learn how to sustain a state of flow, reducing fatigue and enhancing the joy in your work.
🌿 Improve your confidence in reading subtle body signals, allowing for more precise and impactful interventions.
🌿 Learn how the human nervous system holds stories of stress and emotion, and how touch can help rewrite those narratives.
🌿 Strengthen your ability to integrate sensual wisdom into your practice without crossing (professional) boundaries.
🌿 Examine your own needs, desires, and attitudes toward touch, and understand how these influence the quality of touch you offer.


BEYOND TOUCH

Techniques and styles are the tools in our bodywork toolkit—valuable for spontaneously addressing a variety of needs. Yet, Beyond Touch focuses less on the tools themselves (though some practice-changing ones will be shared) and more on the mindset and presence that shape how we use them. It’s also the space where those receiving touch feel profoundly seen and held, to their deepest core.

Beyond Touch is a unique course that is the result of over 25 years of bodywork experience across multiple disciplines, and rooted in lessons learned during training in Zen Buddhist training. It explores the fundamentals of conscious touch. Yet it also helps you achieve the Taoists ideal of harmony—where your inner wisdom and the needs of the moment flow together seamlessly.

In Beyond Touch, each day will be filled with dynamic paired massage and touch exercises, allowing you to fine-tune the unique frequency you already bring to touch. You’ll also engage in quieter solo practices, creating a balanced experience of both action and reflection. Through a blend of instructional sessions, interactive activities, paired and group exercises, demonstrations, and hands-on practice, we will expand your awareness and sensitivity. Touch-based games will spark moments of discovery and connection, while fun movement sessions will keep you energized—stretching, staying loose, and exploring playful physical expression together.


ABOUT STEVE

My fascination with how people respond to touch began well before I formally studied massage in 1998. After completing an intensive three-month daily course, his learning has never stopped. His journey has been multi-layered and eclectic, reflecting the vast spectrum of needs and moods inherent to the human experience.

I have studied Yumeiho, Myofascial Energetic Release, Lomi-lomi, Thai, shamanic, tantric, Thanatotherapy, and Visceral Massage modalities of bodywork, while also receiving hundreds of sessions from a diverse array of practitioners—including two transcendent masters. Yet, my greatest insights have come from the thousands of bodies that have silently taught him as they rested under his hands. 

I studied bodywork/massage in Canada, Estonia, Germany and Russia, have been an assistant teacher at massage retreats in Bali, Greece, Portugal and Estonia and have led many workshops, seminars and retreats in Estonia, Sweden, Canada, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Germany.

My practice has also been deeply influenced by studying tea ceremony at the Zen & Tea Centre (Global Tea Hut), my academic background in psychology and social work, my studies with Betty Martin and the Wheel of Consent, and my explorations of plant medicine. Together, these experiences have woven a fabric that spans 26 years—yet feels like a lifetime in the making—profoundly deepening his understanding of the embodied spirit and the kinds of touch it truly responds to.”

LOCATION AND TIMES

We will have this weekend in the amazing location at the Vondelpark: De Roos, P.C. Hooftstraat 183, 1071 BW Amsterdam

Friday 17 October (13:00-17:00)
Saturday 18 October (9.30-17:30)
Sunday 19 October (9.30-17.30)

PRACTICALITIES

* Accommodation and meals are not included in the ticket. You can bring your own lunch en enjoy it at the Vondelpark, or reserve in the morning a lunch in the café of the venue De Roos.
* On Saturday you are welcome at 9.00 so we can begin on time at 9.30
* Two weeks before the event you will get a participants letter with all the information about what to bring.

If you have any question, please send us an email: growinglovingrelations@gmail.com

See also Steve’s website for more information www.teaandtouch.com