Student Circle
- Sara McRae
- 21 hours ago
- 8 min read
News, opportunities, resources & support for Zenbrio students and practitioners
Welcome to the Student Circle
If you've taken a class at Zenbrio, you probably already know what circle means here.
We begin and end our days together in circle—a place for wins and appreciations, housekeeping, questions, checking in, and asking for support.
The Student Circle is the online version of that space.
It's where I'll keep you updated about what's happening at the school, upcoming opportunities to learn and practice, ways to return and deepen your work, things I'm exploring, and occasional requests for your knowledge or participation.
Right now, most of our Learning Circle is made up of Touch for Health students and practitioners who have trained at Zenbrio over the years. As the school grows, this space will also include Balance First, HigherCx, retreats, and other learning opportunities.
This page will continue to change as new classes, gatherings, opportunities, and ideas emerge, so check back occasionally to see what's happening.
You don't stop belonging to the learning community because the class ended.
✨ Wins + Appreciations
○ Balance First Has Officially Launched!
After many years of behind-the-scenes development, Balance First is officially out in the world.
Our first classes have begun, and we're currently running a pilot of the Balance First Foundations course with PeaceHealth hospital caregivers. Balance First was designed with caregivers and Touch for Health students particularly in mind.
Over years of teaching TFH, I've come to recognize that there are foundational capacities I want students to develop alongside technique—awareness, state literacy, boundaries, self-responsibility, working with our own energy, and learning to stay connected to ourselves while supporting someone else.
I increasingly see Balance First as both its own pathway for self-balancing and personal development and a beautiful entry point into the Touch for Health learning path.
Additional Balance First coursework is still in development, with plans to begin introducing it through Zenbrio School in 2027. More to come!
○ A Shout-Out to Mandy
A big appreciation for Mandy Baucum, who has stepped into teaching Balance First and is doing a beautiful job bringing the work into the classroom.
It means a great deal to me to see this work carried and taught by someone else with such care and dedication—and to see students receiving it so well.
Thank you, Mandy, for helping bring Balance First to life.
🌿 Housekeeping + Dates to Know
○ Next Touch For Health Synthesis
Our next full Touch for Health Synthesis — Levels 1–4 is on the calendar! February 5–12, 2027
If you've recently completed Level 1 and are ready to continue, this will be your next opportunity to move through Levels 2–4.
And if it's been a while since you've taken Synthesis, you may want to save these dates too. Returning students now have several options for coming back to review, integrate, deepen their skills, or move toward Proficiency and Instructor Training.
February 5–12, 2027 — save the date.
If you're considering joining us, please reach out and let me know. It helps me to know who may be coming.
Want to bring a friend? If there’s someone you’d love to share Touch for Health with, reach out to me about a referral discount for the February Synthesis.
🤲 Practice Together
○ TFH Play Dates
We've been gathering monthly for Touch for Health Play Dates, and I've loved having a space where we can simply practice, review, experiment, and keep learning together.
Along with reviewing TFH balancing skills, we've been introducing things that aren't necessarily part of the regular Synthesis curriculum.
Recently we've explored:
TMJ balancing
Using tuning forks in practice
Coming up, we'll be playing with things like:
Surrogate balancing
Balancing without muscle testing
Temporal tapping
And more
Play Dates are $10.
Not Local? Maybe Join Us on Zoom.
A few students from outside the area have asked whether they could participate in Play Dates over Zoom. I'm open to trying it!
Some Play Date topics will lend themselves to virtual participation better than others, but I'd like to experiment and see what works.
If you're not local and would be interested in joining us by Zoom, please reach out and let me know. If there's enough interest, we'll give it a try.
○ Community Gatherings
You're always welcome to join us at the Gathering the second Wednesday of the month at 6pm. We explore a different theme each month through discussion, guided balances, and shared learning. They're open to anyone who is curious about this work.
→The Gathering
🤝 Learning Opportunities
○ Come Back to Touch for Health
Finishing a class doesn't have to mean you're finished learning. There are now several ways for past TFH students to return to the classroom depending on what you're wanting from the experience.
Return + Integrate - Come back through Synthesis with the emphasis on repetition, confidence, integration, and your own practice.
Assist + Lead - Return in a more active role, supporting newer students while continuing to refine your own skills and developing leadership in the classroom.
Individual Mentorship - For students who want more individualized support with muscle testing, balancing, clinical application, Proficiency requirements, teaching skills, or wherever you are in your TFH learning path.
🏔️ Events + Retreats
○ Touch for Health Conference
The Touch for Health Kinesiology Association's Annual Conference is a wonderful opportunity to learn from and connect with TFH instructors, practitioners, and students beyond our own classroom.
This year's conference, Personal Wellness to Professional Mastery, will be held virtually and will include presentations, workshops, and opportunities to deepen both your personal and professional use of Touch for Health.
Continuing education hours will be available, and registration includes access to the conference recordings for one year.
If you're enjoying TFH and want to experience more of the larger community around this work, I encourage you to check it out!
Interested in presenting? Speaker applications are open through August 30.
I will not be presenting in 2027, but if you'd like to listen to one of my past presentations you can do so here: Stream episode Sara's TFHKA Conference Presentation 2025 by SMcRae podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
○ Destination Healing Retreats for Women
A few times each year, we leave the classroom behind and gather somewhere beautiful. Our Destination Healing Retreats bring together a small group of approximately 10–15 women for several days of workshops, healing, balancing, reflection, connection, and time to simply be.
Each retreat is organized around a different theme and offers a combination of guided personal work, group experiences, energy balancing, time in nature, good food, laughter, and the kind of conversations that tend to happen when women have enough space to really arrive.
I'll post upcoming destinations, themes, registration dates, and deadlines here in the Learning Circle as new retreats are announced. Our next retreat in Sisters, Oregon is currently full, but you can reach out to join the interest list.
📚 Learning Resources + Writing
○ Have You Seen the Glossaries?
I've been building out a collection of glossaries on the Zenbrio School website to give you an easy place to look up terminology, revisit concepts from class, and better understand some of the language I use across the different bodies of work.
There are currently four:
Touch for Health Glossary — TFH terminology, techniques, and concepts
Balance First Glossary — terms and concepts specific to the Balance First framework
Core Terms — foundational language you'll hear across much of the work at Zenbrio
Signature Terms — language and concepts I've developed or use in a particular way within my own teaching and frameworks
If you come across a term in class, in something I've written, or while revisiting your notes and think, Wait...what exactly does that mean again?—the glossaries are a great place to start.
○ A TFH Blog Is Coming
I've been wanting to create a space specifically for Touch for Health students and practitioners—somewhere I can share deeper dives, practical applications, teaching insights, case reflections, and some of the things that don't quite fit into our regular classes.
That's on the horizon for early 2027. I'll keep you posted as it develops.
In the meantime, if you enjoy my writing, you can also find me on Substack, where I write much more broadly about health, healing, relationship, culture, and the patterns I'm noticing.
🔭 What's Emerging
One of the greatest gifts of teaching is that it continually raises new questions. These are a few of the ideas currently capturing my curiosity and shaping the next stage of my work.
○ Balance First + Recovery
One of the areas I'm beginning to explore is how the principles and skills taught in Balance First might complement AA, Al-Anon, and other recovery work—particularly around self-responsibility, boundaries, awareness, staying connected to yourself, and recognizing what is and isn't yours to carry.
I'm still very much in the learning stage.
If you have meaningful personal or professional experience with AA, Al-Anon, or other recovery programs, I'd love to learn from you.
I'm particularly interested in hearing:
What do these programs do exceptionally well?
Where have you experienced limitations, challenges, or gaps?
What concepts or practices have been most important to recovery?
Where, if anywhere, do you see Balance First principles, personal inquiry, nervous system and energy work potentially offering something complementary?
If you'd be willing to have a conversation with me, please reach out.
I'm listening and learning before deciding what, if anything, belongs here.
○ The Language of Color
I'm considering offering a Color Balancing class that combines energy balancing with professional color analysis in Spring 2027. We'll explore how color relates to the meridians and chakras, while also using a professional color draping system to discover the colors that naturally complement your unique features.
We'll also explore our personal relationship with color—including colors we're naturally drawn to and those we tend to avoid—and use balancing techniques to gently work with aversions that may have developed over time. You'll leave with a deeper understanding of how color can influence wellbeing, practical ways to use color intentionally, and greater confidence in choosing the colors that both feel good and help you shine.
If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, send me an email. Your interest helps shape what I create next and when I offer the class.
🙋 Questions + Requests for Support
Circle goes both ways.
Sometimes I'll have a question for you, need people with particular experience, be looking for research participants or classroom support, or want input from those of you actually using this work in the world.
And you can reach out too.
If there's something you'd like more practice with, a topic you'd love to see at a Play Date, a question about continuing your education, or a way the school could better support your learning, I'd like to hear it.
○ Treatment Room Available.
We have a beautiful furnished treatment room available for part-time rent at Zenbrio House.
If you know a counselor, therapist, massage therapist, acupuncturist, energy practitioner, or other aligned wellness provider looking for a welcoming space to practice in Eugene, please send them our way!
We'd especially love to find someone who feels like a good fit for the community already practicing here. Please see the ad on Craigslist.
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