Healing the Leaders

Healing the Leaders Retreat (December 2024): A 7-day immersive wellness retreat created to provide formerly incarcerated and system-impacted movement leaders a space to heal from trauma and burnout. By investing in their healing and deep restoration, we create a ripple effect that strengthens entire communities.

Offering “a buffet style” of modalities & practices so that each participant could explore and discover:

•Healing Modalities: Meditation, sound healing, yoga, reiki, breathwork, temezcal, chi-gong, acupuncture, IFS, water therapy and more

•Digital Detox: Disconnect from crisis, reconnect with self.

•Nourishment: High-vibrational meals that restore mind and body. Nature immersion and intentional connection with the land and culture.

• Community: Sacred space for reflection and shared healing. Connection with the other participants as well connection with the indigenous and people and practices of the land.

TESTIMONIALS

Mike Milton

Executive Director, Freedom Community Center, St Louis

“My experience was truly transformative. Still 10 out of 10. It unlocked the trajectory. It changed my life. I am still learning from the experiences I had on the retreat. I want everyone to experience what I did.”

Richie Reseda

Co-CEO, Question Culture, Los Angeles

Please share one word that captures your experience:

Transformative

“I had never before been with indigenous people on their land, practicing their ways. It showed me how easy and embodied integrity with self, community and earth can be. Everything I fight so hard for. It was hands down the most impactful, transformative, aligned travel activity I've ever done in my life.”

Tammar Cancer

Director of Special Projects, Center of Community Alternatives, Albany

What was the most meaningful part of the retreat for you? All of it!

"The experience was magical/powerful. Water therapy changed me in a way that I’m still processing."

How would you describe the impact of this retreat to someone considering attending?
Transformational

KeWee Roselle

Director of Multi-Systems Development, The Black Rose Collective, Washington

“When I was locked up all them years, what you guys put together was something that I dreamed about.

What really excited me and got me going was thinking: ‘What can this look like to bring this to the folks in Washington?… Cause I didn’t even really allow myself to 100% experience it (even though I felt like I was giving it my all) because I was feeling guilty thinking, ‘I wish my brothers and sisters could experience this, I know they would have got so much out of this, this would have changed their lives.’”

Greer Ellis

Columbia Center for Justice, New York

“The healing retreat has been absolutely life altering. I have done things in terms of healing practices that I have never done before and I am ready to dive in and do more. I don’t even want to go to any other healing retreats, y’all have set the bar extremely high. I have a new family, new sisters, new brothers…

I am so grateful.”

Impact

The Healing the Leaders retreat sparks deep personal transformation that extends out to organizations, communities, and movements for justice.

Mental Health and Wellness Tools: For many participants, the retreat was their first encounter with holistic healing modalities and they experienced profound release— laughing, crying, and screaming as years of stored trauma surfaced and began to move. These practices offered powerful tools to regulate the nervous system, confront fear, and build lasting confidence.

Several participants from the first cohort have gone on to study these modalities in depth.
Some are now certified practitioners who are bringing these healing practices back to their communities.
The tools shared equip leaders to return to their organizations and communities more grounded, more self- aware, and more intentional- strengthening their leadership.

Physical Health: Some folks came to the retreat with serious health concerns. They left with new healthy habits that they have continued. Others had little awareness of their body and upon leaving had new health goals and a new awareness of heir physical wellbeing. Participants are sharing their new healthy habits and they are spreading to those they interact with.

Rest and Restoration: For most, this was the first opportunity to step away from the constant demands of leadership. Time in nature, digital detox, and intentional rest provided clarity and renewal, preparing them to re-engage with their work with greater focus and presence.

Movement Building and Collaboration: The selected leaders brought exceptional value, insight, and lived experience to the space. People not only felt a relief to be in community with folks with shared experiences, but the comradery, friendships and new collaborations had profound unexpected impacts.

• Formed accountability pods, building consistent peer support and shared accountability to sustain their healing.

• Leaders began integrating retreat practices into their organizations, bringing healing circles, breathwork, and mindfulness tools to their teams and communities.

• A cross-country community of practice emerged, with participants collaborating on youth healing programs, hosting community dialogues, and strengthening solidarity across cities.

Healthier leaders return to their work more grounded, connected, and intentional. This transformation is seeding healthier organizations, expanding access to healing practices in communities that need them most, and building the foundation for sustained, collective liberation.