Hailey Holl-Valdez

through movement & expressive arts, i explore the erotic material of life

I draw on a variety of mediums (collage, poetry, photography, video) and embodiment practices (breath, movement, rhythm, sound, touch) to witness the felt-state of my experience, alchemise the energy, and invite the expression that wants to move through me. Over the years, I have cultivated my own personal flavour of storytelling.

i create space for you to play & explore your own connection to your creative, erotic essence

You also have a unique story within your body & system. There are desires & joys & wounds & mysteries that are uniquely yours to experience, hold, and express. I am honoured to collaborate with you as a teacher, witness, & creative partner, as you journey into deeper connection with yourself.

Connect with me to explore working together!

my approach

My work is largely intuitive and the tools I use are innate to our human experience.

With me I bring 10 years of experience and training in community & youth work, and somatic embodiment, along with my personal movement, arts, & rhythmic practice which has evolved throughout my life.

All of my work centres an understanding that we are in a reciprocal, co-creative relationship with life, where we simultaneously are affected by, and affect, the world around us.

As we begin to embody this approach, life becomes the dance floor for our most juicy & alive dance to unfold, and for our true essence to be revealed. When we learn to listen & move in the direction life is calling, we can experience greater intimacy with life itself.

back to earthly basics what is somatics? what is the erotic?

Let’s go back to earthly basics: community, storytelling, creativity, movement, love, earth. Starting with how we inhabit our bodies, hearts, eros, and holistic sense of being.

“Somatics” refers to your whole system (body, spirit, mind, community, land) and is a word we can use to describe activities & ways of being that are inherent to us as beings. Working with the various channels available through our soma, offers us the possibility for creative, embodied, and richly-textured engagement with life.

The erotic as aliveness, feeling, power. The pulse of life (our sensations, feelings, desires, creative impulses, also the mystery & the unknown) that guides us towards our creative power and purpose in life. Drawing on the wisdom of Audre Lorde: “the erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling”. Life is inherently erotic; we just need to remember how to meet it as such.

publications & exhibitions

I have two published volumes of poetry & collage art Sometimes Vulnerable and Sometimes Vulnerable Volume II. Purchase printed books or ebooks in my shop. Subscribe to my substack of rose & water for more personal, reflective long-form writing. Visit my Academia Profile to read my academic works and check out my photo essay Now, Previously & Afterwards published by Epoiesen Journal.

I have participated in two art as social commentary exhibitions: Artist as Citizen at Berkeley City College in 2019, and Plant Visions at Laney College in 2018.

training & education

I am a life long student and devotee of exploring various wisdom channels & forms of knowing.

In 2024 I completed my Mind Body Coach Certificate with the Embody Lab, and my Dance Teacher Training Level 1 training with the Lighthouse Studio. I have also completed my Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Certificate with the Embody Lab and my Somatic Erotic Educator Certificate with Embodied Psychotherapy.

Additional trainings include: Dynamic Mindfulness with the Niroga Institute, Storywork Facilitation with StoryCentre, and Youth Wellbeing Train the Trainer with Mind UK.

In 2015 I completed my BA in Archaeology & Anthropology from the University of Manchester, and in 2017 I completed my MA in Youth Justice, Community Safety & Applied Criminology. I also attended the Decolonizing Knowledge & Power Summer School with the Center of Study for Decolonial Dialogues.