This retreat is an offering to the sacred space where grief is fully witnessed and truly released.
Here, we honor grief deeply, knowing it as a key to our soul’s healing and remembrance.
Grief has a way of cracking us open.
This retreat is a devotional offering to grief—a sacred space to feel, honor, and release what we have carried.
Together, we create a Temple of Grief, where sorrow can be witnessed, held, and transformed through talking circles, plant spirit ceremony, forest bathing, energy healings, ancestor offerings, and more.
Rooted in ancient wisdom, Earth connection, and sacred arts, we enter a shared journey of healing, remembrance, and release.
Whether your loss happened yesterday or decades ago, whether it has a name you can speak or only a feeling that lives in the body, your grief is asking to be alchemized.
No experience is required—only a willingness to feel, be witnessed, and grieve in community.
This Retreat is for you if:
You’ve experienced loss or grief that has changed you.
You feel a heaviness in your heart and are ready to release and transform it.
You’re called to deeper healing, ancient wisdom, sacred ritual, and the understanding that healing ourselves helps heal the world.
All grief is welcome:
Grief from the loss of a loved one
Grief from loss of a lived experience (job, health, way of life)
Grief from the loss of a relationship
Collective grief for the world
Earth Grief (for climate crisis)
Ancestral grief (pain felt from your ancestors)
How will you benefit?
Receive practical tools and sacred rituals for continued healing
Nourish and fortify your nervous system
Embody the understanding that you are never alone
Experience greater alchemy through grieving in community
Learn how to work with grief as a teacher
Our Weekend Journey will flow in 5 parts:
Each part includes your choice of one nourishing meal.
The exact schedule and offerings are subject to change to support the needs of the group.
1. Friday night - Ceremonial opening - Altar building - Meditation - Talking Circle
2. Saturday Morning - Transforming Chords Rites
3. Saturday Afternoon - Purification Rituals - Sauna - Plant Baths
4. Saturday night - Blue Lotus - Soul Sound Journey ritual
5. Sunday - Hitbedout - Forest planting - Fire release ritual
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Making altars for grief supports our healing through creating beauty in times of sorrow and working with altar technology that unlocks healing portals from our heart to the divine and natural realms.
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A sacred space to share, listen, and simply be heard. In our Talking Circle, each person is invited to speak from the heart while others practice the healing gift of full, compassionate attention. There is no fixing or advice-giving—only presence, witnessing, and the understanding that we do not have to carry our grief alone.
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A rite to transform energetic cords between yourself and another individual, group, or situation in which the relation is no longer healthy or beneficial. Before the rite, we will first explore what these cords in our grieving journey are that we want to be transformed so that we may let go and heal.
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Plant baths are powerful rituals that work with the energetic properties of plants to either purify unwanted energy. We then enter the sauna for further purfication of our energy with the spiritual of fire and water to tend to our energetic and physical bodies.
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This ceremony will recover the parts of our soul that have been fractured through our grief, through – receiving Blue Lotus medicine, a powerful plant spirit that opens our faculties to commune with deeper parts of ourselves – receiving 1:1 Rose Energy Healings, a nervous system attunement from the ancestral Rose flower – receiving sound frequencies healing the subtle parts of our soul.
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You will be guided into the forest for a time of quiet reflection and personal connection with the sacred. You may choose to speak, pray, listen, or simply sit in the presence of Nature and connect with whatever you understand as God, Spirit, or a greater presence. The forest offers a gentle place to be with what is here, without needing to have all the answers.
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Our grief is uplifted through ritualizing and giving honor to our ancestors and dead loved ones. Here, we create an offering of food and incense so that we may live in right relation with our ancestors as we prepare to become an ancestor one day ourselves.
About your facilitators
Shaina Garfield is a Death Doula, Grief Guide, Ritualist, and founder of Leaves With You.
With deep devotion to the sacred continuum of life and death, she offers compassionate support to those navigating dying and grieving processes.
Her mission is to cultivate a profound connection with the Earth and the Divine, fostering harmony within the Web of Life.
Shaina's approach is deeply rooted in ritual — the alchemical technology she believes is essential for tending grief, reclaiming spirit, and honoring the Mystery of Death.
Her work is for anyone moving through a soul transformation, where life asks us to let something go to be reborn anew. Through ceremony, sacred craft, and oracular guidance, she creates containers where the soul can breathe, grieve, and remember itself.
At her core, Shaina is a mystic, walking as a bridge on the path of the heart. Her spiritual walk has carried her through initiations across many traditions of the Emerald Earth, including the Earth Wisdom traditions of the West, to Hermeticism in the East. Their wisdom lives in everything she does.
Stefanie Frank is the founder and director of ESKFF Nest, a healing arts refuge and retreat center in Woodstock, NY. As a visionary retreat leader, she creates transformative experiences for spiritual and holistic well-being, weaving together music, sound healing, flute, dance, and breathwork.
She is deeply passionate about designing nature-based, spiritually diverse ceremonies and rituals that open the door to profound personal growth and healing.
Beyond the retreat space, Stefanie is a master gardener, herbalist, and gourmet mushroom farmer, rooted in a deep relationship with nature and sustainable living. As an active member of the Hudson Valley Psychedelic Society, she helps advance the understanding and responsible use of psychedelics for healing and personal development.
She also holds influential board positions, including with the Church of Sacred Mirrors (COSM), founded by visionary artists Alex and Allyson Grey.
A devoted single mother of three adult children, Stefanie holds her many roles — mother, community leader, healer, entrepreneur — with grace, leaving a lasting mark on everyone she touches through her work and vision
We are so excited to announce that Leah Brickley will be joining our team preparing nourishment for us throughout the weekend. Her cooking feeds not only our bodies, but our spirits and souls as well!
Leah Brickley is an intuitive cook, writer, educator, and grieving mother. Her lifelong relationship with food has led her into kitchens, gardens, and communities, including a career at Food Network, where she developed recipes, researched and wrote about food, and worked with chefs from around the globe. She believes that cooking and feeding others are powerful acts of care, rooted in our connection to the Earth, with the capacity to ground, nourish, and heal.
Join us for the entire weekend retreat and receive the benefits of all,
or choose one or more part
What is included in the full weekend:
A consultation call with grief specialist Shaina to support you in this retreat to be tailored to your specific needs
Nourishing meals throughout the weekend.
Communal sleeping in the Nest Sanctuary (beds available for upgrade; commuters are welcome).