The She Climbs Mountains Retreat encourages motherless daughters to acknowledge and move with their grief through creative activities, workshops, movement, and connection with other women who have the shared experience of mother loss through death. The retreat is designed to offer women an opportunity to intentionally attend to their grief, engage in self-care, and be in community with the desired goal of providing a safe space for sorrow while also experiencing gratitude and joy in a new way.
The $750 retreat price includes lodging at an incredible lakeside property in Shoreview, MN (2 twin beds + 8 full beds are available in two bunk rooms and 1 king bed is available in a private room - to be shared by interested participants on a first come first served basis), five delicious meals catered by Lunds & Byerlys, healthy snacks, N/A beverages (please note that this is an alcohol-free weekend), and a variety of activities/workshops listed below. During breaks and free-time, participants are encouraged to express thoughts, feelings, and experiences through writing – journals will be provided.
The retreat is open to women ages 21+ who have experienced mother loss 2 or more years ago.
In order to provide a unique and intimate experience for our community, this retreat is limited to 12 participants. Only 2 spots remain with registration closing Friday, October 27. Limited scholarships are available. Please contact christine@sheclimbsmountains.org for further information.
Register for the She Climbs Mountains Retreat!*
*For registrants in need of payment flexibility, PayPal Pay Later option is available at check-out.
Founder Christine Meyer co-facilitates weekly calls and has completed training with Author Hope Edelman, Founder and CEO of Motherless Daughters. Please note that the She Climbs Mountains Retreat is not associated with Hope Edelman’s Motherless Daughters Community or Motherless Daughters Retreats.
-
CANCELLATION POLICY:
Up to 45 days prior to the start date: 100% refundable minus a $100 non-refundable fee.
Up to 30 days prior to the start date: 50% refundable minus a $100 non-refundable fee.
From 14 days to the start date: non-refundable.
She Climbs Mountains reserves the right to cancel the retreat up to 14 days prior to the start date if minimum enrollment has not been met. If cancellation occurs by the organization, registrants will receive a 100% refund.
Please note that we are unable to issue refunds due to illness, including COVID-19.
"It is not a matter of waiting for the pain of grief to wane. It is allowing for the possibility that JOY and SORROW can and do coexist." - Unknown
PROGRAM
Friday, November 3, 2023
5:00-6:00pm – arrival + introductions
6:30pm – heavy appetizers
7:30pm – Welcome + Connection Activity
8:30-9:30pm – Soul-Nourishing Sound Bath Meditation led by Paula Jiménez
Join Paula Jiménez, Mother, Sound Facilitator, Reiki Master and End-of-Life Doula, for a deep, immersive, and soul-nourishing sound bath meditation.
Paula will use a variety of instruments, including crystal singing bowls, gongs, chimes, and drums, to create a safe and sacred space for healing. She will guide you into a state of deep relaxation, allowing your body to restore and rejuvenate naturally.
Saturday, November 4, 2023
9:00am – breakfast
10:00am-12:00pm – Story Sharing facilitated by Christine Meyer
Story sharing is an important ritual within our community - being seen, heard, and validated by other motherless daughters is an extremely powerful and healing process, and helps us understand and accept that we are not alone as grievers. Participants will be invited to share about our mothers lives and deaths, and the impact of both on our own lives.
12:00-12:15pm – Self-Love Meditation led by Christine Meyer
12:30pm – lunch
1:30-3:00pm – Nature Connection & Healing led by Suez Nields
Suez Nields will guide us on a nature walk exploring the healing power of the earth and the connections we can form with ourselves and our mothers by being present in our natural environment.
3:00-3:30pm – break/free-time
3:30-5:30pm – Marking Time through Ritual: Mandala Altar Making facilitated by Ann Viveros
Pain, grief, and loss can be transformed into something beautiful and meaningful for deeper understanding. Let nature and art bring inspiration, vision, remembrance and connections to our lives. Impermanent earth art altars provide a meaningful place to gather, to reflect, to remember, to wonder, and to celebrate. They are ritual pieces, meaning-makers, and ways to honor our life. We will practice mindful awareness through altar making; aiming to balance and integrate our head, heart, and belly. We will connect with ourselves so that we may connect more authentically with each other. Together we will create an impermanent nature mandala. As we create the mandala we will be invited to share a memory, gratitude or an intention.
On Sunday morning we will return to our altar and see the mandala as a symbol of impermanence as we let it go and return to nature.
5:30-6:30pm – break/free-time
6:30pm – dinner
8:00-9:00pm – Mother Loss Journaling & Open Discussion led by Christine Meyer
Journal prompts will be provided and sharing/open discussion will be encouraged as a way to continue to connect with our mothers and our community.
Sunday, November 5, 2023
9:00am – breakfast
10:00-11:00am – Yoga Practice led by Betsy Elworthy Sundell
11:00-11:30am – closing + group picture
12:00pm – departure
Featuring:
Paula Jiménez is a Mother, Sound Facilitator, Reiki Master and End-of-Life Doula. Originally from Colombia, Paula intuitively uses with a variety of healing modalities that help cultivate connection with community and promote wellness of the whole person: mind, body, spirit, and emotion.
Christine Meyer is the Founder and President of She Climbs Mountains. Christine earned her B.A. in Sociology from St. Olaf College in 1997 and over the next decade worked in Email Marketing Sales. After leaving her career when her second daughter was 6 months old, Christine became an at-home mom and also joined her then-husband’s home renovation business, managing the books. Christine previously served on the Board of Minnesota Families for Midwifery for over 5 years, last holding the position of President. In January 2014, after a series of meaningful events, Christine created and began facilitating Motherless Mothers Workshops and hosting monthly gatherings for motherless mothers through a local yoga studio. In March of 2017, after another series of meaningful events, she was moved to launch She Climbs Mountains. Most recently, Christine is proud to announce programming for girls ages 8-18, Girls Rise Up.
Suez Nields is a Nature-Connected Transformational Guide based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Her own decades long battle with anorexia nervosa, chronic migraine syndrome, PTSD, clinical depression and anxiety deeply informs her work today. Her own journey to healing began with slow steps inward, facing the fear and darkness of the unknown. Through a deep connection to nature, permission from self and others to explore new ways of being, unwavering systems of accountability and support and an underlying commitment to do “whatever it takes”, she overcame the odds and the naysayers and is now living a life of fulfillment, health and adventure.
Suez trained in Education at Augsburg College and the College of St Catherine In Holistic Studies. She worked with Students with ASD, EBD and CP, and in Family Advocacy before turning her attention to advocating for others in their Radical, Transformational Growth. This path led her to train at the Earth-Based Institute, out of Boulder, Colorado where she received Her Nature Connected Coaching Certification. (NCC)
She shares her life with Her Husband Charlie, and their canine hiking companion Roo La Roux. When not out on the trail or meeting with clients she enjoys hanging out with any combination of her three Sons and Grandson, time with Friends, traveling, camping, reading-preferably by a fire with a cup of hot cup of coffee or tea in hand… Just BEING.
“I will shout it from the mountain top, for as loud and as long as I have breath in my body… Nature is powerful medicine, and profoundly healing. Nature is all around us, nature is IN us. It is within, from that place of SOUL, where the answers lie. Come explore with me!”
Ann Viveros (she/her) is an intuitive artist and facilitates mindful mandala drawing and art making classes for individuals and groups. She is a self-taught mandala artist inspired by world cultures and traditions as well as personal dreams, meditations, and inquiry. She teaches meditation, mindfulness, and inquiry through experiential practices that integrate our minds, hearts, and bodies. Ann leads grief and healing circles and is a Conscious Dying Coach and End of Life Death Doula. She is a certified Morning Altars teacher and practitoner. She is a life-long learner and educator who believes in radical love and acceptance. Ann has served in public education for over 30 years.
“Personal transformation in service of universal transformation is at the heart of my life's work. I believe in using experiential practices that integrate our minds, hearts, and bodies. I believe in using inquiry-based mindful awareness practices to uncover our blocks and biases. I believe in radical love and self-compassion. I am an artist, life coach, meditation teacher and end of life death doula.”
Betsy Elworthy Sundell All it took was the invitation from a good friend, a quick bike ride, and one crazy, intense Ashtanga yoga class at the Piedmont Yoga Studio to hook this lifetime lover of movement into a new method to explore the complexities of body, mind and spirit. Betsy has been practicing yoga ever since that memorable first class. Growing up in a home saturated with music, art, dance and two active older brothers, Betsy was attracted to the creative asana sequences, physicality and flow of a Vinyasa yoga class. Life has changed over the years, along with her practice. As a classroom teacher in the public schools, yoga provided the opportunity to recharge, realign and restore. As an expecting mother, Betsy learned to surrender to the wisdom of the body during prenatal yoga. And, as a new parent, Betsy relished the quiet connection of mother and baby postnatal yoga with Yoga Bonding. Now with two children, Betsy's practice has expanded to include these dynamic yogis. Betsy’s yoga classes for kids reflect her family’s yoga practice that integrates yoga with stories, songs, games and a whole lot of imagination. Betsy continued to study, practice yoga and completed her yoga teacher training through the Yoga Center of Minneapolis 230 hour Yoga Study Program. With her new favorite role as a mother to Reyna and Boden, a fortunate next step was to apprentice Lisa Bergly, founder and and creator of Yogabonding. Soon Betsy was a certified Postnatal Yoga teacher. The love for nurturing the mother and child bond grew into another passion, prenatal yoga. Betsy studied with both Sarah Longacre and Stacy Seebart through Blooma's Prenatal yoga trainings. Her total delight was to attend another postnatal training with Katie Wise in Boulder, Colorado and then an opportunity to develop Blooma's BYOB (Bring Your Own Baby) teacher training based on the wisdom of her teachers and of her own experience. Other credentials include a Masters degree in Education, Bachelor of Arts in Dance and English and a Certification in Participatory Arts and Research.
She Climbs Mountains/Girls Rise Up believes that the loss of a mother through estrangement, abandonment, or separation is devastating and causes a unique grief for a daughter living without her mother. However, at this time, our organization only provides programs for women and girls who have experienced mother loss through death.
She Climbs Mountains/Girls Rise Up is an inclusive organization and welcomes all humans who identify as daughters. Additionally, though we use the pronouns she/her/hers, we welcome individuals who use pronouns such as they/them/theirs and/or other gender-neutral pronouns.