Events & Workshops
Acu-Meditation with April
Oct 15, 2026 · From 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Waterbury | 46 S Main St, Ste 3A Waterbury VT 05676
Travis
Join Travis from OPEN in Waterbury/Berlin and April from Love University as we combine that lucid dream state that often accompanies acupuncture with a guided meditation. April uses guided meditation frequently in her practice as a psychotherapist. As April says on her website: "Why keep holding on to that little bit of anxiety, irritation, or anger that seems to just subtly (or maybe not so subtly) be there, either in your body or the back of your thoughts? When we create space in our days to do…noootthing… no-thing… it’s magical what can happen. The more we can enter this space of no-where to go and no-one to be, the more our worldviews, perceptions, personalities, you name it!, will change." Combining acupuncture with meditation helps get you to that space faster and deeper. This is a great combination for people who think they are "bad" at meditation as well as experienced meditators.
Space is limited so please pay in advance in addition to signing up here to reserve your spot. To pay, decide how much you would like to pay on the $15-50 sliding scale, then choose between two payment methods: either Venmo: @opencommunityacu or use this link to Love University's support page (scroll to the bottom). If you prefer to pay cash please get in touch with us.
On the day of the event attendees will come into the space and get comfortable using OPEN's recliners or getting situated using yoga mats or bolsters on the floor. Feel free to bring whatever you need to make yourself comfortable for the meditation. Recliners are limited so please let us know when signing up if you would like a recliner.
Once settled, while April prepares you for the meditation, Travis will come around to perform the acupuncture, applying a combination known as the 4 gates. These 4 points are found in the hands and feet. Once the meditation portion is completed, there will be space to stay quiet or share questions, thoughts, or insights.
$15.00
Meditate and Create w/5NP
Oct 24, 2026 · From 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Waterbury | 46 S Main St, Ste 3A Waterbury VT 05676
Travis
This workshop is led by artist and psychotherapist Megan Bisbee with the addition of 5NP ear acupuncture (optional) provided by Travis from Open Community Acupuncture in Waterbury. We will use a process of meditation, expressive arts, and basic writing practices to access and explore creativity. By cultivating mindful relaxation, the deepest source of our creativity can begin to emerge naturally from our unconscious. With this emergence arrives meaningful symbols and messages like sparks or nudges for our creative lives. Wherever your creativity is found—fine art, writing, collecting, relationships, work, cooking, adventuring, organizing, etc.. this workshop will offer fundamental and useful techniques - as well as practical understanding - for un-sticking the places we get stuck; and for cultivating a more creative life. No experience is necessary. Whether you are a seasoned creative, feel completely disconnected from your creativity, or just want to jump start your creative self, this workshop will benefit you.
Join us if you want to:
• Relax
• Learn about and practice a variety of meditation styles
• Jumpstart your creativity
• Learn and play with mixed media art techniques
• Meet like-minded introspective people
• Explore the relationship between your art and your inner experience
• Reform your inner critic
• Or if you are just curious!
Meditate & Create classes that are a part of series of workshops so look for future installments! This month's theme is Remembering Our Creativity
What to expect: As we sit in chairs around the art tables, the group will be guided through four types of meditation: progressive relaxation, guided visualization, vipassana or "clear seeing" meditation, and metta or "loving kindness" meditation. Each kind of meditation offers a different way to bring the mind to the present moment with relaxation and awareness. As an added bonus with this process, many experience meditation as a way to befriend or surpass our inner critic when it comes to making art. No experience or special props are necessary. New and seasoned practitioners are welcome.
About Contemplative Art: Following the meditation, we will make art. Our class theme determines the art project. Unlike academy art where a final product is the goal, we focus on the process, self-expression, cultivating creativity, and the experience of using art to explore our present-moment experience and cultivating a symbolic life. Although there is not right or wrong way to make art in this class, each project has clear guidelines, goals, and material demonstrations to work with. All materials are provided. No experience is necessary. New and experienced artists are welcome.
About Megan: Megan Bisbee is an artist, teacher, and depth-oriented psychotherapist whose work focuses on creativity as a psychological process and psychological processes as creative. Under the umbrella of The Art of Self-Knowing, all of Megan's work blends more than two decades of teaching and practicing art, yoga and meditation, over a decade as a practicing depth-oriented psychotherapist, and a lifetime of fusing artmaking with introspection. Whether teaching workshops, painting in her studio,
writing, or sitting in the psychotherapist's chair, she keeps an inner ear to the
undercurrents of the unconscious and the deeper callings of the soul. Megan is currently training to become a Jungian analyst.
This workshop is offered on a sliding scale from $40-60 (you choose what to pay). Please prepay to reserve your spot using OPEN's Venmo: @opencommunityacu . Contact us with any other payment inquiries at opencommunityacupuncture@gmail.com or call 802 552 8187