New Year’s Retreat: Widening the Heart, Deepening Practice
December 27th, 2020 thru January 3rd, 2021
7-Day LIVE, virtual Silent Meditation Retreat
facilitated by Kate Mitcheom, Lucia McBee & Elana Rosenbaum
Three recognized leaders in the field of MBSR with a combined practice of over 100 years of practice in mindfulness...
Join us for the new year!
Set aside time for yourself to renew and explore the Foundations of Mindfulness in stillness and in movement grounded in compassion, joy, friendliness and equanimity. You’ll have the benefits of a retreat AND the opportunity to integrate it into real life, in real time.
This online retreat is co-sponsored by Brown Mindfulness Center and the Copper Beech Institute and fulfills the requirement for the 7-day retreat in the MBSR Teacher training pathway.
Registration through Cooper Beech Institute
Together we’ll hold sacred space and connection as you strengthen your practice, providing the group with daily stability and reminders.
This retreat is appropriate for beginners or experienced meditators. This 7-day silent retreat mirrors a residential silent retreat and offers LIVE, daily instruction, daily Dharma talks, and teacher support, community building in silence online through practice – book ended by opportunities to connect in small groups at the beginning and the end of the retreat. An emphasis will be placed on movement practices and accessible yoga that focus on the inter-play between the mind and body.
The retreat begins at 6 p.m. EST on December 27th and ending at 10 a.m. EST on January 3rd and will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST on all the other days. We'll have a schedule similar to the in-person retreat: walking, movement, sitting and meals and work time along with an evening dharma talk and meetings with instructors.
About the co-facilitators:
Kathleen Mitcheom MSN, CNM, RYT
Graduated from the Yale School of Nursing as a Nurse-midwife in 1981. She has practiced women’s health care for thirty years at the Fair Haven Community Health Center which motivated Kate to pursue areas of integrative medicine including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. She has been practicing meditation since 1991 and teaching meditation since 1995 after training at Omega with Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD. and Saki Santorelli.
Lucia McBee LCSW, MPH, CYI
As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Lucia has extensive experience integrating mindfulness and integrative modalities into a clinical practice since 1994 with elders, high risk populations and persons with chronic conditions as well as their caregivers in a wide range of community, research, and institutional settings. She developed a pioneering practice using mindfulness as well as other complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities to improve the quality of life in community, hospital, clinic and nursing home settings. Learn more about Lucia.
Elana Rosenbaum MS, MSW & LICSW
Pioneering instructor in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, along with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli, Elana has been integrating mindfulness into daily life as a psychotherapist, certified MBSR teacher and leader in the mindfulness field since 1984. Her authority and wisdom, forged through her surviving cancer and a stem cell transplant, and her many years teaching and helping others be well, brings an authenticity and depth to her work.
FAQs about this Online, Silent Retreat
This retreat will no doubt offer some new challenges but will also provide the opportunity to observe our routine life and habits anew. The schedule will be rigorous with seamless practices identical to a residential retreat. Please consider your time zone and the adaptations that will be required.
You will need internet capability that allows you to be on camera for the retreat.
If you live with others you will need to get their commitment to cooperate so that you can remain in silence as much as possible, if not completely.
Elana can speak with those of you who anticipate factors in your environment or situation that could interfere.
Questions/Answers
What if we need to go outside of the house?
We will give clear parameters for retreating in the world rather than in seclusion. We will ask participants to get food and supplies ready ahead of time so that driving and shopping would not be necessary during the retreat. There will be specific times during the day for mindful food preparation and hygiene.
Could you provide a phone number so that loved ones could call in case of emergency? That way our phones can remain turned off?
Absolutely. I will give you my number to pass along to family should they need to reach you. One of the challenges will be refraining from using the computer for anything other than our live online retreat. Phones should be turned off and put away
Would you keep up updated on the COVID-19 if something drastic were to happen nationwide?
Definitely yes. While this retreat will provide seclusion from the daily news, should something arise that is imminent you would be notified in a timely fashion.