OPENING THE HEART
OPENING THE HEART
A Constellation Dance Workshop with Live Improvised Music
Maribor | October 17 | 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
What happens when we open our hearts?
Most of us long for more love, closeness, aliveness, and connection. At the same time, many of us carry experiences that have taught us to protect our hearts. Sometimes we do so by withdrawing, sometimes by over-adapting, sometimes through control, and sometimes by avoiding intimacy altogether.
But when we close our hearts, we are not only hiding our wounds.
We are also hiding what is most precious within us.
As the heart begins to open, everything that lives within it becomes more visible: our longings, tenderness, love, vulnerability, creativity, life force, values, and gifts. Yet old grief, pain, disappointments, resentments, fears, and shame—feelings we may have carried alone for a long time—also come into the light.
To open the heart means allowing ourselves to encounter everything that is stored within it.
It is both a beautiful and a challenging process.
Because what we hide from others, we often hide from ourselves as well.
In this workshop, we will explore what happens when we move closer to our own hearts and how what we discover there shapes our relationship with ourselves, with others, with love, and with partnership.
Together, we will explore questions such as:
- What is it that I hold precious and protect?
- What am I afraid to show others?
- What fears prevent me from opening to life and relationships?
- What happens when I become truly visible?
- How do I receive love, support, and closeness?
- How do I relate to partnership—am I seeking it, living it, or avoiding it?
- Can I stay connected to myself while being deeply connected to another?
- How can I protect my heart without closing it?
Through the unique method of Constellation Dance with Live Improvised Music, we will explore the patterns and dynamics that shape our capacity for love, intimacy, and authentic connection.
Movement, music, and the family constellation process allow us to sense what often remains hidden beneath our everyday roles, defenses, and habits. The live music is created in the moment, accompanying and supporting the group’s process as it unfolds, creating a space for exploration, insight, and transformation.
Special attention will be given to one essential question:
How can we remain open-hearted while staying safe?
An open heart does not mean having no boundaries.
It does not mean being unprotected.
It does not mean saying yes to everything or allowing everyone access to our inner world.
Quite the opposite.
Healthy boundaries are what allow the heart to remain open.
When we know how to say “yes” and how to say “no,” when we can recognize what belongs to us and what does not, we no longer need to protect ourselves by closing down. We can remain connected to ourselves and to the world without losing our sense of safety.
Opening the heart is not the loss of protection. It is discovering how to be both open and safe at the same time.
This workshop is open to all adults
No previous experience with dance, body-oriented psychotherapy, family constellations, or any other personal development method is required.
Practical Information
📍 Ornament, Popovičeva ulica 10, Maribor
📅 October 17
🕙 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (including a lunch break)
Workshop language: English, with Slovenian translation available if needed.
We welcome you into a space where we can explore how to live with greater openness, presence, and courage to be who we truly are. Because only when we dare to see what we carry in our hearts—both our treasures and our wounds—can we create relationships with ourselves and others that are alive, honest, and safe.
Facilitated by: Maša Ljotić Plichta and Marica Grgurinović
💝 Registration & Fees
- €85 Early Bird | €95 Regular Price (Early Bird until October 1)
- €100 Drop-in on the day of the workshop
- Places are limited.
- Registration via:
💝 Additional Information
- A minimum number of participants is required for the workshop to take place.
- Your place is secured upon payment of the registration fee.
- Practical information and participation guidelines will be sent by email one week before the workshop.
💝 Facilitators
MARICA GRGURINOVIĆ
Body-oriented psychotherapy counselor and member of the teaching team at CIR INTP (Split and Sarajevo). Member of the Croatian Association for Psychotherapy (HKPT), the European Association for Body Psychotherapy (EABP), and EUROTAS.
Marica is also a theatre director and drama pedagogue with more than twenty years of experience working with people. Drawing on acting techniques and drama-based educational methods, she supports the development of personal growth, communication, self-expression, and creativity.
Her professional background includes cultural management, production, and teaching performing arts at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split. Her additional training includes Family Constellations, energy work, and tantric and shamanic practices through the International School of Temple Arts.
In her work, she integrates her extensive experience in the arts— theatre, puppetry, dance, music, and film—with body expression and psychotherapy. Today, she describes art and therapy as the two legs she walks on through life, offering them with joy, humility, and deep gratitude to every soul she encounters through individual sessions, therapy, workshops, lectures, and everyday meetings.
More information: BESA and CIR INTP Split
MAŠA LJOTIĆ PLICHTA
Beyond the standard biography—born here, educated there—I consider myself a seeker of magic, and my search unfolds through music.
After completing my formal academic education, I experienced an expansion through personal growth, playing from the soul, and searching for my authentic expression. Along the way, I discovered how to play through other people’s bodies and souls, guided by my violin.
My music at workshops is, in essence, a practice of deep listening and translating you and your dance into the notes of my instruments. I look forward to our shared dancing, music-making, and the magic we create together.
And now, the formal part:
Born on August 20, 1986, in Niš, Serbia, Maša spent most of her life in Belgrade. She has been involved in music since early childhood, culminating in her formal education at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. Since then, she has performed as a solo artist and with numerous orchestras, ensembles, and bands. Improvisation has become both her closest musical companion and her second language. From 2018, she has been living on the island of Vis, Croatia.
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