There is something about live music that reaches us before words ever can.

At the Artfilled Wellness Retreat, we are honoured to welcome three extraordinary musicians whose intuitive, introspective playing will shape the emotional and energetic landscape of our time together:

• Colin MacLeod – Fiddle
• Brenda Bowen Cox – Harp
• Donna Hutchison – Harp

These are not simply performances.
They are living conversations between sound and movement.

Music as Entrainment, Emotion, and Release

Colin, Brenda, and Donna bring decades of musical refinement — but what makes their presence so powerful in this retreat setting is their ability to play intuitively in response to the room, the land, and the movement unfolding before them.

Brenda was a part of Season 3 with the Be Well with Dr Michelle Greenwell podcast.

Their music becomes an entrainment opportunity.

As participants move through Tai Chi, trauma-informed unwinding, Spine Resonance explorations, and creative art sessions, the music gently guides emotional flow and mental processing. The rhythms help regulate the nervous system. The harmonics open space for reflection. The melodies allow emotions to surface and soften.

This is NeuroArts in practice — where art, sound, and physiology intersect to build resilience and integration.

A Foundation of Depth and Service

Each of these musicians carries a long history of working with sound in meaningful contexts, including:

• Sound healing environments
• Music therapy-informed experiences
• Hospice and palliative care support
• Trauma-aware settings
• Community-based resilience programs

Their collaborative work with the Greenwell Center for Holistic Health has deepened this further — exploring the Spiritual Essences of the Spine, unwinding trauma through sound and movement, and building resiliency practices that have been shared through initiatives such as:

• Marathon Jam (North Carolina, USA)
• Knowlative Conference
• The U.S. Touch for Health Association

This integrated team has also received recognition through CanBeWell.org, bringing an award-winning NeuroArts lens to everything they create. Currently, they share the stage for the online Symphony of Radiance program that you can find in the shop.

Music in the Landscape of Cape Breton

One of the most beautiful aspects of this retreat is that the music will not be confined to a single room.

Colin’s fiddle may echo along the shoreline.
The harps may resonate in community halls and art studios.
Sound will weave through beach gatherings, learning sessions, and outdoor creative spaces — including the extraordinary environment of Doug Fraser’s Art Studio just outside Inverness, where nature sculptures rise against the Cape Breton sky.

Music and movement outdoors, surrounded by land and sea, create an exquisitely immersive experience. The environment becomes part of the ensemble. The wind, the tide, the breath of the group — all contributing to a shared field of awareness.

The Music of Cape Breton in Your Veins

Cape Breton is known worldwide for its musical heritage. The fiddle, especially, carries generations of storytelling and community connection.

During this retreat, you won’t just hear that tradition — you will feel it.

Through daily movement practices, intuitive soundscapes, shared meals, and spontaneous moments of harmony, the music becomes embodied. It supports learning. It supports integration. It supports joy.

And when it is time to return home, you will carry something with you — a rhythm in your nervous system, a steadiness in your spine, and the unmistakable flow of Cape Breton music in your veins.

An Invitation to Immerse

The Artfilled Wellness Retreat is more than workshops and sessions. It is a fully immersive experience of:

• Movement and energy medicine
• Intuitive art and creative expression
• Trauma-informed resilience building
• Sound as medicine
• Community as catalyst
• Land as teacher

With Colin MacLeod, Brenda Bowen Cox, and Donna Hutchison weaving music through every layer, the retreat becomes a living, breathing composition.

If you are ready to experience learning that moves through your body, resonates in your heart, and stays with you long after the final note fades…

We invite you to join us.

Spaces are intentionally limited to preserve depth and connection.
Visit the retreat page to learn more and reserve your place.

The post The Sound That Moves Us: Welcoming Colin MacLeod, Brenda Bowen Cox & Donna Hutchison first appeared on Greenwell Center for Holistic Health.

In each session, we will explore how music and movement work in harmony—connecting the spine, nervous system, muscles, and organ systems to the intuitive notes created just for our practice. The music serves as a guide, inviting your body to respond, align, and open with ease.

Sound therapy has long been recognized as a profound way to bring harmony to the body. Combined with simple, flowing movements, these frequencies move through the tissues, helping to:

• Release tension and stress held in the body
• Free stuck emotions that may be limiting your potential
• Unwind poor movement habits that create discomfort
• Shift mental patterns that sabotage your sense of wellbeing

This program is designed for all levels of experience—whether you are new to mindful movement or have practiced for years. Each class offers an hour of gentle exploration, allowing you to connect more deeply with your body and experience the vibrant energy that emerges when music and movement become one.

Join us on this journey to harmony, peace, and vitality. You may be surprised at just how alive you feel after only one session.

Date: Tuesday, September 9
Time: 12:00 noon (Atlantic)
Location: Online with the Greenwell Center for Holistic Health

We invite you to step into this transformative experience and discover how the power of sound and movement can unlock new levels of wellness.

Recordings and background information will be provided for each week’s session. You can revisit and review the program and develop more skill with it through the week.

Are you wanting to discover more about music and movement? Colin and I recorded this special podcast episode a while back…we explored music through the energy centers of the body known as Chakras, or the Nerve Plexus in the nervous system. Be sure to make a cup of tea to enjoy the podcast and explore the movement patterns with the music. There is so much to discover about the power of Movement and Music…join us for the fall session!

For those looking for an in-person class be sure to check the calendar for Tai Chi Cape Breton’s schedule. This includes our upcoming workshops on Oct 1 – 3. Or, in West Kelowna and Peachland, BC, check out www.winecountrytaichi.ca Their open house begins Monday, Sept 8th with free classes all week. Join in now, and use the online class to help you gain experience with movement and releasing of tension. We got you covered this fall for moving with ease and grace!

The post New Music & Movement Class – Finding Peace and Harmony Through Sound and Motion first appeared on Greenwell Center for Holistic Health.

Learn more about the whole Marathon Jam experience below:

On April 12^th, in North Carolina, the most amazing program was offered by MarathonJam.org.  Healing through Music and Movement was a FREE special event for veterans, first responders, caregivers, clinicians, and laypeople.  It was an opportunity to consider how the arts can affect neuroplasticity and build resiliency. It was a magical time for everyone involved. It was a full day at the Springfield Cellars Winery in Stokesdale, North Carolina, with sessions offered indoors and outdoors amongst the kegs of wine, and in the beautiful gardens on the property. The winery owners, Robert and Natalie Wurz, provide a beautiful place for musicians to be inspired during sessions, helping to build community and sharing their award-winning wines in the process.  You can learn more about the winery here:  Stonefield Cellars Winery.

“I attended the Music and Movement workshop the other week. I loved your unwinding trauma session. It was meticulously and beautifully put together. An art!”

“Watching the joy and release on the faces of veterans who have worked so hard to recover from their health challenges was beyond inspiring, it was truly magical.”

Tom O’Shea, the president of Marathon Jam, and the board created a vision in their strategic planning session earlier in the year to advance the ability to provide more healing opportunities through music.  Their weekly gatherings at veteran hospitals and nursing homes have been astounding, with multiple stories of successful healing and connection for people.  Their new approach, with Music and Movement combined, would set the stage for more opportunities for people to move forward from their traumas and challenges into a place of resiliency, connection, and joy.  “This vision from the Marathon Jam objectives is to expand its members’ musical capabilities and outreach”.  Their willingness to bring these ideas to new audiences provides a bigger audience for healing through Music and Movement – for  Traumatic Growth.  Tom’s background and expertise in advancing mindset and action for agility inspire the forward momentum of Marathon Jam members and healing.

The approach for this special event was inspired by the Unwinding Trauma program Dr Michelle Greenwell, Colin MacLeod, and Tanya Levy created for the Knowlative conference in 2024 in Tenerife, Spain.  Their special project includes NeuroArts and the BioEnergetic Wellness Formula identified by Dr Greenwell in her dissertation.  In addition to the intuitive musical talents of Colin MacLeod from Scotland, this program utilizes the musical connection to the spine, organs, muscles, and emotions, also identified by Dr Greenwell during her Master’s thesis. 

Michelle Greenwell, a movement specialist, tea artist, and program developer, introduced simple movement ideas along with Tai Chi patterns that empower.  Michelle’s addition of the five senses, the BioEnergetic Wellness Formula for traumatic growth, and the NeuroArts application of colour, nature, intention, sound, body connection, NeuroReflex activation, movement, and forward thinking for traumatic growth provides an overarching program for building resiliency and growth.  The addition of herbs through the tea inspires a connection for the herbal essence of growth and inspiration and brings new value to the sense of taste and smell by passing through the nervous system to reach the limbic system and connect the motor system.  Check out the shop for tea and programs here.

***Special note: For the Marathon Jam Event, Michelle shared the uplifting opportunities of the Natalie MacMaster Tea Set: Fit as a Fiddle, Kitchen Party and The Autograph. For the Unwinding Trauma program there are also the 6 Harmony Blends and the Harmony Coasters for support. Michelle also used the It’s in the Cards deck for activities during the event. You can find these items in the shop! Natalie Wurz and Michelle created special tea and wine blends for the evening Soup and Sing.

Colin MacLeod, a proficient fiddler and classical violinist, is open to learning and growing with the healing capacity of music and sound.  He immediately opened to the idea of using the BioEnergetic Wellness Formula,  letting go of a musical score, and opening to expand into the intuitive aspects of playing.  His humour, puns, and musical knowledge create a whole new language to tickle the body and inspire it to move forward.  His perception of traumatic growth is clearly felt through his ornamentation, note pulling, and tempo changes with the musical notes and keys.  His passion for sharing music and liftng others up is exceptional. You can reach Colin at www.CelticFiddleGuru.com.

Sarah Arnett, a retired dancer, massage therapist, and psychotherapist, shared her movement-based approach to storytelling, which rewrites the endings.  Sarah’s understanding of body, mind, and spirit through dance, psychology, music, and storytelling provides a powerhouse of play for the subconscious and conscious to meet.  Old stories move into new outcomes, trapped emotions transform, and traumatic growth is inspired as people are empowered by their stories.  Sarah can be found at: Ampersandbox Coaching and Consulting.

Lyn Koonce, a musician, singer, and songwriter with an outstanding career in coaching and building music programs for empowerment, opened up the floor for some crazy vocal exercises.  Lynn’s ability to provide fun and friendship in her sessions invites people to explore the sound possibilities within themselves and to consider where sound may be held back and what that means for forward momentum.  With body percussion and fluidity felt in the body, she inspires a connection internally for sound and movement.  For those who have felt powerless on their healing journey, their ability to vocalize and express through scatting and play is a means to capture a superpower that has been hidden within. Lynn can be found at: Lyn Koonce Music.

The powerhouse program within Marathon Jam provides veterans and first responders with a new approach to music for healing.  Exploring the musician with postural skills while playing also releases inhibiting muscle patterns that keep music form optimizing the healing process.

A mastermind of collaboration for self-empowerment this program supercharges people and their best life.  Marathon Jam’s Healing through Movement and Music.

Why would you want to be a sponsor?  A revolutionary new approach – you are leading the way in positive outcomes with joy, fun, and purpose at the forefront.  Self-empower veterans, first responders, caregivers and clinicians you will be a leader in a new paradigm for wellness. To learn more about being a sponsor for the next events please reach out to info@marathonjam.org. Tom and the crew will be happy to hear your ideas and support opportunity.

The post Movement and Music for Healing first appeared on Greenwell Center for Holistic Health.