Movement Quest

Movement Quest -

A retreat to unearth and process internal energy, through mindful movement and somatic experiences.

Are you feeling bottled up?

Do you want to get back to connection, with yourself and community?

Join us for a mindful movement and dance weekend at Camp Earnest.

A group of dancers and lovers of movement will come together to explore connection to ourselves and our fellow dancers at our retreat center in the Sierra Nevada forest.

The weekend will take place at Camp Earnest, a 21 acre former summer camp now turned retreat center in Twain Harte, California. The camp offers cabins, yurts and tents for accommodation, a hot tub and sauna for relaxation, and our Good People Lodge where farm-to-table meals prepared by a chef are enjoyed in community. Our campus is beginning to fill with murals and sculptures by visiting artists.

Workshops will take place in our movement and meditation hall and the camp is yours to roam including our main field with a rock labyrinth, trail down the creek and more. Come relax, move and discover more of yourself with a group of good folks.

Participants do not need to be dancers, yet some experience in conscious dance, movement or yoga will allow for a deeper experience.

Please bring a journal or something to write with.

Our camp director for the weekend will be Karin Johnson, co-founder of Camp Earnest.

Karin is a lover of dance and found conscious dance back in 2017. That moment sparked a transformational journey, taking her to dance floors all over. After attending a conscious dance retreat in Guatemala, she knew she wanted to support a retreat someday and she is thrilled to host this retreat at the camp she founded with her husband Raman in 2020.

When she's not dancing, she's a social worker supporting mental health programming for refugees and a new mom to a gorgeous little boy. One of her nicknames is Cool Mom! Along with dancing and social work, she also runs Camp Earnest with her husband. It is truly a dream for her to host this retreat.

Meet Your Guide:

Carmen Casado has long believed in the body's innate wisdom and capacity for resilience.

In her work as an Integrative Somatic Therapist she helps this wisdom to emerge and transform. She supports clients who are dealing with stress and trauma and those seeking general mind-body support or embodied shifts along their life path. She uses mind-body awareness, gentle pendulation, Biodynamic Craniosacral touch work, and other somatic interventions to help restore nervous system regulation, in conjunction with parts work (IFS) and positive psychology to bring about insight and transformation.

Carmen completed a three-year professional Somatic Experiencing® training at Somatic Experiencing International® and is an ongoing student of Peter Levine’s at the Ergos Institute. In addition, she is studying Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and Internal Family Systems, has completed a 500-hour Yoga Therapy training, and is a certified Functional Health and Wellness Coach with the Kresser Institute. Carmen draws on over two decades of yoga and mindfulness practices, including Zen Buddhism, Vipassana meditation and conscious dance, and over a decade of yoga and mindfulness teaching when supporting clients’ embodied wellness journeys.

Carmen serves on the Board of Directors of Somatic Experiencing International® and previously served on the Board of the Reciprocity Foundation from 2011 - 2021. Both organizations are dedicated to supporting trauma resolution and resiliency. Carmen practiced law for over 16 years, having attended law school on a full scholarship, and she founded and ran several law practices in New York and California. During this time she navigated her own journey with stress and anxiety.

Carmen is currently teaching in-person group hatha yoga classes where she weaves her knowledge of somatic regulation into her teaching. She also regularly facilitates group somatic workshops and retreats.

Carmen is an eco-enthusiast, and is passionate about equitable and sustainable nutrition and lifestyle. She has lived in four countries, and is fluent in Spanish.

Meet Your Guide:

Rachel Jennine Goudey, C-IAYT, Psy.D.

Rachel is an integrative yoga & somatic therapist, doctor of clinical psychology, bodyworker, group facilitator and community builder. Specializing in embodied trauma healing, nervous system attunement, chronic pain, and mental health issues, Rachel takes an integrative and educative approach to healing where body, energy, mind, heart, spirit, and environment merge together and are included and addressed as part of the healing process. Her work as a healer, guide, and facilitator encompasses both her lived experiences as well as years of classical and formal studies in dance, psychology, yoga, Buddhism, qigong and earth-based wisdom traditions. Her inquiry began as a way to understand and heal herself, and grew into a greater passion to help heal whole communities. Rachel's intention is to help people understand their innate wisdom, feel connected, seen, inspired, and loved. She will empower you to navigate the darker depths of your stories with compassion and grace so you may write a new, self-chosen narrative for the life you wish to create and live, experiencing more ease and joy in your body, mind, and heart.

With nearly two decades of mental health experience working with at-risk and underserved populations Rachel has brought Integrative Yoga Therapy programs into community mental health centers, hospitals, and schools throughout California, as well as provides mentorship and clinical consultation to International Yoga Therapy certification programs, schools and nonprofits. She is passionate about making healthcare more inclusive, accessible and holistic. Rachel’s work seeks to bring humans back to a place of deep love and connection with our sense of self, each other, and the natural world. When not serving her community you can find her in the kitchen serving her loved ones, resting underneath the redwoods, or earthing with her bare feet on the sand. To learn more about Rachel and her work visit racheljenninewellnessandyoga.com.

Schedule

(tentative and subject to revision)

Friday

2-3pm Arrive & Settle-in

3-4pm Free time on the land and to orient to the space

4-6pm Opening circle ~ grounding sound healing, contract & release with Somatic Experiencing, and intention setting

6-7pm Dinner

7pm Bonfire

Saturday

7:30-8am Morning Somatic Meditation

8-9am Breakfast

9-10am Personal/Free Time

10-11:15am Qigong & Dynamic Yin Yoga Flow

11:30-1pm Movement Quest workshop: Dancingthrough Emotion

1-2pm Lunch

2-5pm Personal/Free Time

5-6pm Art & Wild Writing Flow

6-7pm Dinner

7pm Silent Disco Bonfire Dance Party

Sunday

7:30-8am Morning Somatic Meditation

8-9am Breakfast

9-10am Free Time/Pack Up

10am-12pm Closing Integration Dance and Circle

12pm Departure

Our Chef:

​Raman Frey is an event producer, writer, speaker, advisor and community builder based out of northern California. For the last 22 years, Raman has built companies, non-profits and communities, bringing people together for meaningful conversations about art, technology, religion, politics and philosophy.

Raman has zero professional training as a chef and his food tends to be wildly creative, seasonal, improvisational and not bland. Expect big colors, novel flavor combinations, foraged ingredients and whatever he can muster from the Camp Earnest garden. Despite his novice line cook status, Raman hangs with a whole lot of incredibly talented chefs and has learned by helping them. He also grew up on a hippie commune, The Temple of Yoga, in Coconut Grove, FL and has been part of communal feasts his entire life. From his Jewish grandmother he's internalized food as an expression of love. So you'll be eating too much love at this retreat. Most people like his meals very much (check out the menu).

Raman is also Karin's husband. In addition to all his daily cooking, he has started a range of small businesses and served on the boards of a variety of organizations.

Retreat Contribution

Private Room in Cabin (2 spots) - $750

Shared Room in Cabin (4 spots) - $650

Yurt (2 spots) - $550

DIY Camping (10 spots) - $500

Work Study Camping (2 spots)

Locals Rate - $400

All rates are inclusive of accommodation and meals. Campers and yurts share our beautiful cedar bathhouse, with toilets, showers, sinks, a Finnish sauna and a hot tub. Those in cabins have their own bathrooms. Please reach out for rates for shared beds for friends or couples.

Locals to Tuolumne County rate includes meal and retreat costs, these cannot be separated.

Work study option is available. This will be for a camping spot and we ask for assistance with camp needs including lodge preparation, hall preparation and some kitchen assistance.

Below: Our Two Hearts Cabin just above the lodge.

Above: New York City Chef Tessa Velasquez unpacks her menu for our guests from Conservation International at Camp Earnest.

Meals:

This is no ordinary camp kitchen!

We work with chefs across northern California who bring their culinary talents and enthusiasm to our camp. Various dietary needs are welcome, just let us know your needs when you book. Along with mindfulness and movement exploration, we will also enjoy feasts from our talented chef!

We will provide delicious creative libations as well along with some local wine from the California foothills. Tea and cacao treats also may be served.

We look forward to having you. Register soon. Beds on campus are assigned in the order in which attendees sign up.

OUR MENUS:

(subject to whimsy, availability, inspiration and other changes)

FRIDAY:

Welcome Snacks

Grazing Board of Dried apricots, figs, Brazil nuts, almonds, Point Reyes Blue, Oakdale Gouda and Mt. Tam triple cream cheeses, assorted crackers.

Crudites and garlic hummus

House made balsamic medium salsa, macerated cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, house made guacamole, corn tortilla chips.

DINNER:

TO START:

Lime crushed kale salad, lemon cucumbers, fresh shallot, toasted almond slivers, miso maple dressing.

MAINS:

Marinated bison flank steak

Black truffle and Parmesan papardelle

Honey cinnamon roasted organic carrots

TO FINISH:

Vanilla chia pudding, apple clove compote

SATURDAY:

Breakfast:

Iron skillet frittata, sweet potato, white onion, feta cheese, parsley (good w/hot sauce)

Steel cut oat porridge with fixings, maple syrup, dried currants, roasted sunflower seeds

Toast station with fresh sourdough, butter, ghee and assorted jams.

Lunch:

Falafel wraps, wheat or corn tortilla wraps with romaine lettuce, tomato, tahini and chipotle tomatillo sauce on the side.

Tabouleh salad

DINNER:

TO START:

Coconut, lemongrass, turmeric and lime soup, yukon gold potatoes, celery.

Romaine salad, fresh shredded beet root, hearts of palm, roasted pistachios, blue cheese dressing

MAINS:

Mount Lassen trout fillet, miso, dill

Black Tibetan Barley

TO FINISH:

Lavender panna cotta, candied orange

SUNDAY:

Breakfast:

Buttermilk pancakes w/fresh blueberries or bananas, organic maple syrup.

Organic egg shakshuka w/New Mexico green chili sauce

Toast station with fresh sourdough, butter, ghee and assorted jams.

SAFE TRAVELS ONWARD!

Please email us at least 72 hours in advance if you have any dietary restrictions and we'll do our best to accommodate them.

Below: Nolan Love sings around the campfire at our summer jamboree.

Below: The entrance to Hilltop House, where a few of you will stay, adjacent to Hilltop Hall, where dance, movement and meditation sessions will be held.