Tender Power: Great Pyrenees Ministry and More-Than-Human Belonging
Publication information:
Abstract
What do we lose, in ourselves and in our communities, when belonging hinges on obedience?
This experiential workshop uses embodied practices with a Great Pyrenees therapy dog to explore how conditional belonging harms both human and more-than-human communities. When we obey, or demand obedience from others as the price of acceptance, we risk losing connection to our own purpose while limiting, or even denying, others’ ability to discover theirs. Attendees will be guided to reconnect with their intrinsic character strengths as a pathway back to purpose, observing how obedience often asks us to suppress or exile those very strengths in order to belong. Through sensorimotor practices, reflection, and direct encounter with a more-than-human therapy partner, attendees will explore belonging rooted in tenderness, humility, mutuality, and wholeness rather than hierarchy, control, or self-abandonment. Ultimately, the workshop invites attendees to recognize that obedience imposes conditions on what should be inherently unconditional: belonging.
Presenter Biography
Kris Walker’s mission is to spread the “Pyrenees Gospel,” offering calm confidence in a world shaped by anxiety, disconnection, and despair. Drawing on more than two decades in hospitality alongside a Masters in Spiritual Psychology, she cultivates spaces grounded in integrity, care, and reciprocity, all in service of collective flourishing.