Ecotherapy Retreat with Kiku Conservation

Axis Mundi is excited to offer our 4th Annual Summer Ecotherapy Immersive Retreat June 7-9 with Kiku Conservation, on their beautiful site just outside the tiny town of Sheep Ranch, CA, about 2.5 hours from the Bay Area.

As we welcome in summer, we welcome in our sense of wonder and exploration. As Bill Plotkin states it, in summer we find ourselves in an oasis, bustling with activity, immersed in culture and society, or in the cocoon, "unable to resist the bewitching call from our own depths and from the mysteries of the wide world." We have crossed over from the being self in the north of winter, into the doing self in the south of summer. We seek to "learn the givens of this world and our place in it, and to create a secure and authentic self." We may find ourselves feeling like the wanderer, or the visionary, or perhaps the orphan, finding an authentic path. This particular summer, we may find ourselves seeking greater security, looking for reassurance, hoping for some path forward out of the tremendous grief and terror of the past 7 months.

This 3 day therapeutic experience offers the opportunity to slow down and immerse ourselves in exploring nature, body, mind, spirit, and soul. This is not a luxurious weekend getaway, but rather a challenging and meaningful passage that includes rest practice. Our journey will involve intentional participation in communal ritual and shadow work, group process sessions (council) with other participants and clinicians, embodiment practices, dream weaving, psychospiritual education, and additional optional experiences (such as expressive arts, wandering, journaling, swimming, etc.). If you are a clinician, this is a great opportunity to explore a potentially new modality in ecotherapy, learning new skills experiencially. We will be exploring the Four Directions model, diving into council practice, feeling into deep ecology through sit spots, going into depth realms with a dream circle, and all the while swimming in a beautiful waterfall and hanging out together in a magical place.

Kiku Conservation is a 180 acre property privately owned with a conservation easement maintained by the Mother Lode Land Trust with the goal of connecting people with nature for education and healing. Our retreat space within Kiku Conservation is a primitive 5 acre site situated at about 2500 feet elevation. There is a large meadow surrounded by pines, a creek, and a waterfall. There is a port-o-potty on site. The terrain is variable with brambles, grasses, shrubs, and rocky creek beds. This land is inhabited by osprey, snakes, mice, mosquitoes, bees, ticks, deer, hawks, lizards, songbirds, bears, mountain lions, coyotes, and other local fauna. Temperatures will range from the high 80s during the day to the low 40s at night.

We will all camp and cook in the meadow. A camp kitchen will be available for use. Each participant is expected to bring their own camping gear and food for the journey. Basic camping materials (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad) are available to rent. Please reach out as soon as possible if you would like to rent gear.

Kiku is a wilderness area. There are no nearby stores or hospitals, or even cell service. Lauren is a Wilderness First Responder and will be present throughout the weekend, and we will have safety plans in place. Given this, please make sure you are comfortable enough in what you bring for yourself.

Our schedule is a rough guide meant to provide some context and container for therapy. We may deviate slightly or heavily from this schedule, depending on the therapeutic interests and needs of the participants and clinicians and the circumstances at play in our particular time and place. That said, here is the rough schedule:

On Friday, June 7, we will arrive at the Sheep Ranch Fire station at 4pm, and caravan down to Kiku Conservation. Once at Kiku, we will take some time to get oriented, take part in a ritual of severance and arrival, and hold our first group council session. There will be time for an evening meal.

On Saturday morning, June 8, we will offer a morning practice, time for a morning meal, and a group council session. Saturday afternoon will offer individual and group activities, and a mid-day meal. Saturday afternoon and evening will hold an evening meal, another group council session, and practice around night and dreams.

On Sunday morning, June 9, we will offer a morning practice, time for a morning meal, cleaning and packing up the site, and our final group council session. We will conclude our retreat with a closing ritual some time mid day.

In alignment with traditional practices around giveaway and reciprocity, this event is donation-based. The suggested donation for the retreat is $250-$800 for the weekend. If you are unable to pay and feel the event would be beneficial, please register at $0. Please pay what is feasible and fair for you, knowing that your donation supports the sustainability of the work for clinicians and our continued ability to offer these experiences to everyone regardless of ability to pay. Additionally, please consider donating to Kiku Conservation. Your donation contributes to the caretakers' basic needs and to the maintenance of Kiku Conservation. The suggested donation is $20-$50. Your donation can be added to your retreat payment (please indicate that donation amount in the ticketing section) or, preferably, given in cash at Kiku.

Prior to the retreat, you may wish to prepare by reflecting. Feel free to bring something written or created to share, whether in physical form or in mind/body/spirit. Here are some considerations to guide your reflection:

Ecopsychology and the four directions:

• East: spring, the dawn, birth and the womb, early childhood and late elderhood, spirit-centered or cosmocentric, oneness, connection, unity, innocence, wisdom, surrender
• South: summer, mid-day, adolescence, socio-centric, wonder, imagination, norms, rules, roles, abundance, indulgence, warmth
• West: autumn, sunset, late adolescence and early adulthood, world centric, ecocentric, shadow, facing the coming night, authenticity, fear, courage, the unknown
• North: winter, the dark night, late adulthood and early elderhood, holistically ecocentric and cosmocentric, ability to see in the dark, the wisdom to be in the unknown without fear, wholeness

Francis Weller's five gates of grief:

• The First Gate: Everything We Love, We Will Lose
• The Second Gate: The Places that Have Not Known Love
• The Third Gate: The Sorrows of the World
• The Fourth Gate: What We Expected and Did Not Receive
• The Fifth Gate: Ancestral Grief

In this life we are often asked to adhere to Leave No Trace wilderness ethics. While these are valuable guidelines for human use of wild spaces, the traces are what we are often left with. When we honor the traces that we leave, we are intentional in our practices and grounded in the recognition that we each impact and are impacted in every moment. In this space, at Kiku Conservation, Leave No Trace principles must be followed at all times. If you are unfamiliar with LNT policies, please visit https://www.nps.gov/articles/leave-no-trace-seven-principles.htm.

“Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are.” – Gretel Ehrlich

Facilitators:

Lauren Hoernig (she/her), MA, LMFT #145687, is an ecotherapist and wilderness guide practicing through Axis Mundi Center for Mental Health and Back to Earth. Lauren holds Wilderness First Responder, Education Specialist, Wilderness Leadership, and Holistic Counseling Psychology certifications and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Lauren is also a bi-racial cisgender mother, divorcee, lover, and artist who loves to sing and dance, currently living in Richmond, CA.

Jules Peithman (she/they), MA, AMFT #135486 is a pilipinx, mixed, queer therapist, educator, and group facilitator practicing through Axis Mundi Center for Mental Health, supervised by Suraya Keating, LMFT #43996. Jules comes to grief work from personal experience that has attuned her to the life/death/life cycles. Jules understands that grief is a gift that creates a sacred portal into understanding the depth of our love…and that grief brings us closer to what it means to be human. Jules works with individuals and couples both online and in the forest around themes of grief, life transitions, and relationships.

Erica Wheeler-Dubin (she/they), MA, LMFT #144743 was born and raised in the Bay Area and has a background in soccer and working with youth and in the arts. They are trained in depth psychology, have a certificate in trauma studies and are currently doing research on twin identity, relationship and attachment to deepen the understanding within the field of psychotherapy, as a twin themselves. They facilitate dream circles in memory of their teacher, the late Jeremey Taylor, who was an author, Unitarian Universalist minister, co-founder and past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. They believe that healing happens in connection with others and that our dreams have the transformative power to uncover parts of ourselves just out of reach from our waking selves.

Kari Miller (she/her) was born and raised in rural Indiana on a small farm. Since she was a child she has felt very connected to animal and plant life. She graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelor's in Sociology and soon after traveled to Costa Rica. There she lived in an ecological house and became familiar with different species of plants, sustainable wild harvesting, low-impact living, and the value of existing harmoniously with Earth. Now she resides in Oakland and cares for plants within companies and residences for work; whilst continually defending natural community flora and fauna. While at the Kiku Retreat, Kari helps to tend the land, hold the communal and natural "space", assists with orientation, safety, and overall background logistics. Her main hope is that we can experience more of the beauty of life through connection to our natural and inner world.