About Bear
Wellbeing Artist and Retreat Facilitator
Bear balances professionalism with genuine connection.
His work is entirely based on stress management; the alchemy of directing tension with intention — creating clear boundaries for safety while encouraging creativity, curiosity, and self-trust.
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With over thirteen years of professional experience, Bear is a fully qualified personal trainer, yoga and meditation teacher, and massage therapist. His approach is precise yet intuitive, grounded in strong ethics and a deep respect for each individual’s wellbeing. Safety, trust, and long-term sustainability sit at the heart of everything he offers.
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He is also the creator of The Intention Approach — a practical behavioural framework designed to help people integrate wellbeing into everyday life, carrying clarity, calm, and self-trust far beyond the retreat space. His work is further informed by shadow work, Jungian psychology, shamanic traditions, parts work, and other integrative practices.
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Bear doesn’t simply host retreats or teach practices — he lives them. His ability to guide others into places that can feel difficult to reach comes from the way he lives day to day. Through cold exposure, stillness, movement, strength conditioning, reflection, and disciplined self-inquiry, he continues to explore the edges of comfort and presence. This lived experience allows him to support others through challenge, vulnerability, and meaningful change with steadiness and care.
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Intentionality forms the foundation of his work. Over four consecutive years, Bear undertook a self-designed process known as 'The 4 Years of Intention' — a personal rite of passage and lived inquiry into how intention shapes behaviour, identity, and freedom.
In 2021, he took a year-long vow of silence. In 2022, he lived an entire year wearing fancy-dress costumes as a study in identity and perception. 2023 was devoted to service and volunteering, exploring what it means to truly support community. In 2024, he spent a year barefoot, culminating in a 1000km shoeless pilgrimage from his home in Italy to England (with his dog, Thor). These experiences now quietly inform his work, presence, and understanding of human change.
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Beginning his career teaching movement classes in village halls in the New Forest on the south coast of the UK, Bear gradually expanded his practice through small-town studios and into an international setting. Today, his work spans private retreats and one-to-one sessions (both in person and online), therapeutic massage aboard super-yachts, yoga for diplomats, coaching CEOs, and supporting creatives — always with discretion, humility, and care. His understanding of wellbeing extends beyond conventional frameworks into more artistic, embodied, and intuitive approaches.
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Formative Years
(Formerly known as Sean Houlihan) Apparently gifted with self discipline at an early age, cultivated through competing at national level in various sports, Bear's tendency towards focused movement was a natural progression. This, combined with his first love of drums lead him into the arts, studying at Brighton Institute of Modern Music.
2012-2020
Tension
Management
Quaifications
Following university he gained a diploma in personal training. His interest in calisthenics and self inquiry lead him to Ashtanga Yoga and later, Yin Yoga– attaining 2 x 200hr Yoga Teacher Training certifications (Goa, India). With thanks to his teachers, he was soon skilled and highly employable. His embodied approach to fitness and self care opened doors to high net worth clientele. His objective views of tension were further enhanced by a passion for massage and detailed body-work, helping clients access otherwise stuck tension. His early understanding was thanks to Brandon Raynor, his teacher and founder of Raynor Massage.
2019-2026
The 4 Years of Intention
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During this time, Bear became utterly obsessed with intent; living this as a philosophical wellbeing approach, to deep his understand of what it means to 'bear intentions'.
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Greg Manning's distinct 'space holding' courses inspired Bear headfirst into shamanic practices and shadow-work facilitation. All of which leant him closer to his fascination with Intention. This fast became his purpose and devotion. The result was four self-generated, back to back, year-long challenges to enable him to examine the relationship between tension and intention. The result has been a profound, in-depth lived experience and training ground; a focus on listening, playing, love and empowerment as foundational for living with creative presence.
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Working alongside his close friends and colleagues at Hometown, Bear is currently co-producing a documentary covering his explorations into wellbeing artistry, performance and the role of integration within an ever changing zeitgeist.
He currently resides at his home and retreat centre, Casa Del Cervo, in the northwestern Italian alps. From here he designs and facilitates retreats and is working on a series of books, intended for release in 2027.
Experience
The Art of Integration
To Bear Intentions
