Being gentle with yourself is not habitual for a woman coming to terms with the legacy of incest or rape. Learning to treat yourself lovingly expands the possibility of reconnecting with your essence. During this empowering, down-to-earth weekend, we'll explore how to live safely, peacefully, and joyously in your body, and in your world.
In Rowe's cozy indoor spaces, as well as outside in its picture-postcard scenery, this retreat will be safe, creative, fulfilling, and fun. If it's not hidden under drifts of snow, we'll walk Rowe's labyrinth. Using guided meditation, movement, dialogue, journaling, and breathing, you will have an opportunity to share your strengths as well as your vulnerabilities. We'll survey each woman's emotional landscape and learn about ourselves in the non-judgmental environment survivors long for in our daily lives.
Expect to be heard. Expect to feel feelings. There will be lots of soft tissues for the hard times. This workshop will support you with the utmost gentleness and respect in developing the emotional tools necessary to create safety and self-awareness for your unique path to healing.
Prepare to stretch your capacity for fun. On Saturday evening we will celebrate our phenomenal stamina, our incredible courage, and our beautiful collective wisdom! It is a precious gift for incest and rape survivors to live among peers for a whole weekend, and we will build a powerful community together. Imagine yourself laughing in the safety of our group. Even though sexual violation happened to us, we are people, after all. Navigating the outside world alone is burdensome; silence and secrecy are confusing. People who have done this workshop found their experience "life-changing."
Please bring a journal, bring objects, wear clothing that comfort you. Bring written, poetic, theatrical, or artistic creations.
Donna Robin Lippman makes use of many of the available, wonderful opportunities in New York City to organize the incest and rape communities. She's Executive Director of the Incest Awareness Foundation, editor and writer of Eyes Wide Open, co-organizer of the annual To Tell The Truth conference, and a regular workshop presenter at Healing Works and other conferences. A psychotherapist and workshop creator and leader, Donna offers short-term group work at the Incest and Rape Recovery Center. She also offers monthly workshops using individual talk therapy as well as Rubenfeld Synergy Method (a dynamic healing modality for the integration of the body, mind, emotions, and spirit). She gives interviews and has published many articles clarifying issues of rape and incest for survivors as well as for the general public. Donna sees her efforts as one small, manageable piece of the larger effort to heal our world. She finds personal as well as political violence abhorrent, including the tricky and confusing violence that masquerades as entertainment. She is honored to return to the warm and sane oasis that is Rowe, and we welcome her return.