The Doghouse

The Doghouse The Doghouse is an intimate, community focused space, offering classes & workshops. Our emphasis is Alright community, we're doing it!!!

Toni Dunne and Kristen Gilbert are manifesting a creative hub on our beloved property. We have an amazing 1000sq ft. room with 13 ft ceilings, gymnastic rings, ropes silks, swings and a pole... We will be hosting yoga, dance, circus, poi, hooping, art and monkey business classes and workshops!!! If you have an idea for a workshop, pitch it to us!!! We are located in Courtenay at 1690 Carron Rd.

✨From the Archives ✨This was the last time  taught live at The Doghouse. It’s like 2018, and none of us have any idea wh...
11/26/2025

✨From the Archives ✨

This was the last time taught live at The Doghouse. It’s like 2018, and none of us have any idea what we are heading into as a global community.

I am VERY EXCITED to be co-teaching with Nat this coming weekend in front of this wood stove for our Hearthfire Gathering.

It was meant to be last weekend at another location, but as fate would have it (and unexpected viruses), we find ourselves back at The Doghouse.

It feels correct.

Because of the shuffle, we have a few spaces open for anyone wanting to join us in 2 days of mytho-poetic practice.

Movement, meditation, storytelling, writing, expressive art, and being together.

There will be snacks and tea.

We would love to have you.

Link to event is in my bio.

/Re:SOURCE / Resource is a term I initially found vague and dry. I associated the word with extraction or bibliographies...
11/26/2025

/Re:SOURCE /

Resource is a term I initially found vague and dry. I associated the word with extraction or bibliographies.

I can get really hung up on language so I had to offer myself a reframe.

A friend reminded me to lean into the word source.

Source energy is that which animates us, lights us up, comforts and (re)connects us to ourselves and life itself.

Source energy speaks to that which is illuminating, so by ReSourcing we are practicing coming back to our own personal experience with agency, essence, & a visceral sense of aliveness.

When we can acknowledge and return to what personally resources us, we have greater access to connection and safety in our nervous systems.

This ability to locate and feel safe in our bodies is an important practice not only for ourselves but for others as well.

This is the thread that weaves through the practices, workshops and integration sessions of this winters offering

Re:SOURCE
An embodied immersion in
care & remembering

Jan-March 2026


I am taking free exploration calls over the next few weeks, an opportunity to connect and see if this feels like the right fit.

Head to my website (link in bio) to find all the details. ✨

Early Bird Ends
December 10th

This coming year will be the third round of this dear to heart offering ✨🙏🏼✨✨Re:SOURCE✨An Embodied Immersion in Care and...
11/18/2025

This coming year will be the third round of this dear to heart offering ✨🙏🏼✨

✨Re:SOURCE✨
An Embodied Immersion in
Care and Remembering

I’ve just updated my website with this years dates and prices.

This is an intimate group offering with monthly 1:1 sessions.

Space is limited to 11 participants.
Early Bird pricing ends Dec 10th

Begins Jan 11th, 2026

Check out the link in my bio, and book in for a free Exploration call.

Friendship, companionship, collaboration and inspiration.✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨Today I am reflecting on and celebrating my long and ...
11/17/2025

Friendship, companionship, collaboration and inspiration.
✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Today I am reflecting on and celebrating my long and ever evolving relationship with

We first met in Tofino in 2005. I attended her class at the Botanical Gardens, and instantly felt her warmth and authenticity. We became instant friends. Since then we have travelled a serendipitously parallel path, and are finally teaching our first offering together.

🔥🔥🔥🔥Hearthfire🔥🔥🔥🔥
A Soulful Gathering for Deep Autumn

Nov 22 & 23
130-730pm dailybody

This offering infuses poetry, myth, expressive arts, mindfulness and somatic practices. Over two days we will explore what it means to walk through the dark with one another.

We have been dreaming this into being for a long time, and part of what makes this gathering so special is the friendship at its heart.

We inspire one another and share a deep devotion to crafting beauty out of both light and shadow.

To be in the creative field together, alongside others willing to step into the unknown, is what lights us both up.

We chose the name Hearthfire because we want the weekend to feel like entering a warm, lamplit room while the wind howls outside, a place where stories are shared, silence is honoured, and no one has to journey alone.

A hearth is not just a fire; it is a center. A place of return. A gathering point where warmth, nourishment, and belonging are tended into being through care and presence.

That is the kind of nest we are preparing. A soft place to land. A space to remember that even in the dark seasons of life, there is companionship.

If this offering entices you, there are still a few available spaces. We’d love to have you.

DM for more info or click to register through the link in my bio.

Hearthfire Gathering ✨🖤🕸️✨🖤🕸️✨The end of November finds us in the depths of autumn, the sun low and the nights long. Thi...
11/03/2025

Hearthfire Gathering
✨🖤🕸️✨🖤🕸️✨

The end of November finds us in the depths of autumn, the sun low and the nights long.

This seasonal threshold can be a helpful time of year to gather and assess our resources; an opportunity to gather quietly into ourselves alongside community, a chance to fill our basket with tools to companion us through the darker days of winter.

and are delighted to co-host a nourishing weekend of connection, inquiry, movement and expressive arts.

Over two spacious days, you will be led through simple, somatic and sensory exploration practices. These practices, rooted in embodied mindfulness, are intended to reconnect you to what matters and what has heart.

The days will be woven together with story, poetry, movement, rest, play, food and creative expression.

Each participant will create an altar card as a visual representation of their personal tools and allies for resilience.

Art supplies, snacks & tea will be provided.

See link in Bio to register.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨Small group vibes at my sweet and cozy downtown clinic space✨✨✨✨✨✨✨I love working from home AND I am adoring bein...
10/28/2025

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
Small group vibes
at my sweet and cozy
downtown clinic space
✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

I love working from home AND I am adoring being right in the hub of downtown Courtenay a few days a week as well.

Right now I have space for 3-4 NEW clients for Relational Somatic Inquiry. I offer a free 20-minute exploration call if you’re curious about how we might work together. I’d love to connect.

I’m also scheming some winter programming for small groups.
Currently I’m running a creative immersion called The Guest House.

In this 5 week course, we are exploring our emotional landscape through embodied mindfulness practices, conversation, poetry and collage.

I’d love to run this again!
Anyone curious?

Other ideas:

✨Monthly enneagram study group

✨Midlife-transit exploration

✨Poetry for The Present Moment

What kind of course/content interests you? I’d love to hear. 🙏🏼

I’m so excited to be collaborating this fall with my long time friend, teacher, and extraordinary human  On the weekend ...
10/27/2025

I’m so excited to be collaborating this fall with my long time friend, teacher, and extraordinary human

On the weekend of Nov. 22nd and 23rd we are co-facilitating a gathering in Cumberland called Hearthfire

The end of November finds us in the depths of autumn, the sun low and the nights long.

This seasonal threshold can be a helpful time of year to gather and assess our resources; an opportunity to gather quietly into ourselves alongside community, a chance to fill our basket with tools to companion us through the darker days of winter.

Natalie Rousseau and Toni Dunne are delighted to co-host a nourishing weekend of connection, inquiry, movement and expressive arts.

Over two spacious days, you will be led through simple, somatic and sensory exploration practices. These practices, rooted in embodied mindfulness, are intended to reconnect you to what matters and what has heart.

The days will be woven together with story, poetry, movement, rest, play, food and creative expression.

Each participant will create an altar card as a visual representation of their personal tools and allies for resilience.

Art supplies, snacks & tea will be provided.

For more info or to register, see link in bio.

Hi Pals.Wow does it ever feel good to be in the flow of teaching and group work again. I am excited to announce that I w...
10/10/2025

Hi Pals.

Wow does it ever feel good to be in the flow of teaching and group work again.

I am excited to announce that I will be offering Community Meditation again this fall at .body in Cumberland.

Embodied Mindfulness
Poetry
Slow Time

Oct 23rd-Dec 10th
7-8pm
By Donation
(Partial proceeds go to a
local charity TBD)

Come sit and breath and be and rest and receive and do whatever you need with other humans in a circle.

All Are Welcome.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Write For Your Life:The Harvest Edition✨🍁✨🍁✨Starts this Wednesday, Oct 8thAre you curious to deepen your relationship to...
10/06/2025

Write For Your Life:
The Harvest Edition
✨🍁✨🍁✨

Starts this Wednesday, Oct 8th

Are you curious to deepen your relationship to writing?

Are you wanting to drop into a holding container for your process, a space for traversing your tender heart?

This is the second round of this 8-week offering and I’m really delighted to see the group come together.

What’s the deal?

Each week we meet for a 2 hour live call.

You will be guided through an embodied grounding.

I will introduce you to poetry and readings to generate and move what’s alive in you/us.

There will be ample opportunities to share and listen.

I love the depth and magnitude of these writing circles, and I look forward to being with you all.

Please know that this is accessible for all. No need to identify as a writer.

Send me a DM if you are curious to join.

The sweet return to my favourite seat.Last night was the first class of The Paradox of Being Human. What a delight and h...
10/02/2025

The sweet return to my favourite seat.

Last night was the first class of The Paradox of Being Human.

What a delight and honour to teach and guide and facilitate. I’m so grateful for all of you who have spent time in the doghouse with me over these past 14 years.

I have learned so much from all of you.

Theres a couple of lines I shared last night from a Mark Nepo poem:

Those who wake are the students
Those who stay awake are the teachers

How we take turns

Thanks for being both students and teachers to me. My heart feels wide and ready this morning. What a dance.

—Toni ♥️

Hello Friends.A friendly reminder and heart felt invitation ♥️✨♥️✨♥️✨Casey .and.acupuncture and I  are hosting our seaso...
09/24/2025

Hello Friends.

A friendly reminder and heart felt invitation ♥️✨♥️✨♥️✨

Casey .and.acupuncture and I are hosting our seasonal Acupuncture & Yoga gathering this coming Sunday 6-9pm .body in Cumberland

RELEASE: a practice for letting go + returning home 🍁🍁🍁

The turning of season, even if we are craving autumn, can prove difficult and confronting.

Our culture, which largely focuses on and celebrates ascension—attempts to carry on as though we lived in an endless summer.

This paradigm is simply not sustainable and this thinking keeps us striving, pushing and ultimately burnt out.

It’s no surprise then, that autumn, with its turning in and natural descent can challenge us. This offering is an opportunity to shift, to notice what wants to be released.

What parts of you can you let go of, to more fully step into the version of yourself you are becoming?

Please join us for an evening of conversation, poetry, inquiry, gentle somatic exploration, restorative yoga, and deep long rest with acupuncture points.

Sliding scale: $65-$80
DM or email Toni
yogatoni@gmail.com
to reserve your space

So excited to be in collaboration this season with my longtime friend, colleague and co-creative-nerd 🤓🤓  The end of Nov...
09/17/2025

So excited to be in collaboration this season with my longtime friend, colleague and co-creative-nerd 🤓🤓

The end of November finds us in the depths of autumn, the sun low and the nights long.

This seasonal threshold can be a helpful time of year to gather and assess our resources; an opportunity to gather quietly into ourselves alongside community, a chance to fill our basket with tools to companion us through the darker days of winter.

Natalie Rousseau and Toni Dunne are delighted to co-host a nourishing weekend of connection, inquiry, movement and expressive arts.

Over two spacious days, you will be led through simple, somatic and sensory exploration practices. These practices, rooted in embodied mindfulness, are intended to reconnect you to what matters and what has heart.
The days will be woven together with story, poetry, movement, rest, play, food and creative expression.

Each participant will create an altar card as a visual representation of their personal tools and allies for resilience.

A simple seasonal lunch is provided both days, as well as tea and art supplies.

For more details click the link in my bio.

Address

1690 Carron Road
Courtenay, BC
V9N9K5

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