Ritual Retreat Journeys

Journey together in a retreat setting…

Sometimes life thresholds ask us for more time and sustained tending. Together we can craft a personalized ritual journey.

Throughout life, we encounter cycles of beginning, endings and new beginnings. It is rare that our contemporary culture supports these natural transitions in a conscious, intentional way. I hold a space for you to be with your greatest joys and your deepest griefs, and mark these thresholds with embodied presence, brave truth, love, and reverence.

As a threshold tender, soul-centered somatic guide, and sacred witness, I support you in creating a personalized ritual retreat journey that meets you at your unique threshold. We meet at Santuario, a healing retreat haven that offers a peaceful respite from the demands of daily life. Here, you can reconnect with yourself, listen to your deepest longings, and ground into your most intimate prayer. We will call on the support of the elements of Earth, Water, Fire and Air, opening to the alchemy of what is possible for you.

Your Ritual Retreat Journey can range from a half-day to a full-day experience or a journey can be customized to span over a period of time.

We will weave threads that best serve your intentions for your transformative unfolding.

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Menu of elements

  • Following the thread of what you are tracking, tending in your life currently (deepening into your intention, deepest prayer)

  • Creating a personalized threshold ritual of releasing of the too small story, too tight skin and opening into the largest story you can live

  • Rituals with water and/or fire (release, transform, alchemize)

  • Somatic healing (Somatic Archaeology, dance/movement ritual, ancestral healing)

  • Nourishing earth-based bodywork

  • Healing nourishing soaks in hot tub and access to outdoor shower

  • Journal writing/creative writing

  • Time for solitude and quiet

  • Time on the land (deep listening, being with Earth)

  • Spontaneity and meeting the moment 

  • … and so much more!

Ritual Retreats are held at Santuario and include intention setting and post-integration session and fresh organic meals, ceremonial fire and healing waters.

contact me to begin with an exploration consultation.

Connect

ExampleJourneys

Pre-marriage support

Prenatal/Postpartum support

Grief ritual

Transition to empty nest

Conscious Conception Preparation

Invisible Thresholds

Pregnancy loss

Fertility journey

Life-stage transition

Journey through illness

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Personalized Ritual

Weaving Holy into the
Day to Day

2-4 hour ceremonies to mark important thresholds

The medicine of ritual is ancient. Rituals serve to mark significant thresholds, invoke intentional space, open into the mystery, honor change and the vast expanse of becoming through the life cycles. Together with the elements, I hold a sacred container for you to create and enact your own ritual. This may be with only you or you held with your people. These rituals include an intention/preparation session and usually last for 2-4 hours.

EXAMPLE RITUALS:

  • Mother BlessinG

  • Milestone Birthday

  • Anniversary of Loss

  • Ceremonialize a medical birth or medical procedure

  • Rite of Passage Transitions

  • Grief Ritual

  • Celebration Ritual

  • Mother BlessinG

  • Milestone Birthday

  • Anniversary of Loss

  • Ceremonialize a medical birth or medical procedure

These rituals are a remembering of the old, honoring life ways. As we create your ritual, we will together land a sacred exchange/contribution that works for both of us.

Connect

  • Life Stage Transition

  • Grief Ritual

  • Celebration Ritual

Return to Remember
a reclamation of embodied wholeness, so you can live and love what is yours to live and love in the world.

TESTIMONIALS

  • “Jennie has seen me through the deepest, wildest, most tremendous thresholds of my life, including the death of my mother, my daughter and the birth of my son. And she has held me immaculately, with the most gentle and competent hands and incredible tenderness and compassion. She is a true healer, I believe, and the epitome of what our world needs in terms of a community holder, wise woman, elder, and heart tender. Anyone would be so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Jennie.”

    Sara E.

  • "Jennie holds a space of deep, intergenerational healing that is so trustworthy. Her skill, care, love, and ground in spirit feel like running water for what is dry and parched, allowing bodies to trust and hearts to unclench. When I feel lost, despairing, and disconnected from spirit I go to Jennie and find a tapestry of community, love, and ceremony that puts me back at the center of myself, roots reaching strongly down. Working with Jennie, I have experienced true homecoming. I’ve learned to trust my body and emotions through immense grief, lean into community, and return again and again to what is whole and sacred. She has been a deep mentor in weaving heart, togetherness, and ceremony into all aspects of healing and living."

    Eve P. LPC

  • "I met Jennie seven years ago for a women's retreat she was guiding. My life has never been the same. Through group programs, individual psychotherapy/body work, and intensive couples therapy with my husband (who I met during this time), she has guided me to remember the true path of my soul. SO MUCH HEALING and growth, wow. I credit much of the growth of my family and business/purpose to the work we have done together. Jennie is an authentic healer and will only bring light, truth, and beauty to your life."

    Sophie S., LCSW

  • “I have circled with Jennie Gershater-Lopez for many years, calling upon her profound guidance in several life rituals; dancing and singing at my wedding, grieving through death and changed relationships, honoring my motherhood, sparking my authentic professional voice, and providing containment to find my way back into my body when I feel emotionally tangled. I continue to come back to Jennie because she poetically, vivaciously, and tenderly honors the voice of my soul. Her intuition embodies the essence of wild, fierce, and wise women through timeless lineages. She is a sacred portal of a being who has the life altering capacity to know you, to truly see you, and to ground you into your most authentic self. To receive ritual, massage, or any guidance from Jennie is to feel unconditional love at its most highest.”

    Ellen G. LPC, Dance/Movement Therapist

  • "I have been deeply blessed to have worked with Jennie over the past 13 years. She has held me in the midst of debilitating grief, shining her light in my darkest hour. She walked with me as I prepared for marriage, and officiated my wedding! She held me and my babies in pregnancy, and postpartum. She ushered me through the leaps of courage required to buy my first home, and launch my work into the world. She held my family steady in the midst of an immigration crisis that threatened to tear us apart. There is truly no way to convey or even conceive of what my life may have been like without her guidance, and steadfast support throughout all these stages and phases of my life. "

    Sarita R.G.

  • “Jennie is a masterful space-holder. She tends to the collective with such depth of heart and care. I always feel exquisitely held and seen in her midst, whether through communal dance rituals, truth-telling councils, seasonal ceremonies, or individual somatic work. She has a true gift of nurturing soulful embodiment and connection, and I'm sincerely grateful that she is sharing her gifts with the world.”

    April T.

  • "I have worked with Jennie in various capacities for more than a decade and I will forever be grateful for her as a person and as a practitioner. Jennie creates and holds an exquisite container of safety, depth, and presence. She always meets me wherever I am in my own experience with such tenderness, wisdom, and fierce love that I cannot help but soften. Jennie is a gift to the world and to our communities and I would heartily recommend her to anyone seeking guidance or support in any capacity that she is available for."

    Camille L.