Rahamim Retreats for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Trauma, or Pain offer a safe environment to do healing work using art. No artistic skill is required. Retreats are usually day long from 10:00AM to 4:30PM CT. They have from 5 to 8 participants. Overnight lodging is available for as low as $30 a night.

Rahamim Retreats:

“Finding the Holy/ Exploring our Spirituality through Art”: a day retreat for women survivors of childhood sexual abuse or trauma. This retreat uses simple collage and painting to help participants explore their spirituality – an aspect of life that is often badly wounded by childhood abuse or trauma. No religious agenda is promoted.

“Nurturing the Inner Child through Art”: a day retreat for women who wish to do some healing work on their relationship to their inner children, and give their inner children time and attention. Participants make special inner child altar boxes as well as work with clay.

“Telling our Stories through Art”: a day retreat for women survivors of childhood sexual abuse or trauma. Participants make a storybook using simple art techniques to tell their stories and to share them as much as they want.

“Engaging our Grief through Art”: a day retreat for anyone who has experienced grief. Participants use collage and make masks to express their grief in a safe environment.

Other retreats as announced.

What participants say about these retreats at Rahamim:

“Very comfortable environment.”  “(I valued) the safety I felt and the welcoming of my (inner) little girl.” “You set up good boundaries…” “(I liked the) pampering of the inner child and recognizing she needs that.” “Being listened to and being believed (and) hearing the stories of others leaves a woman feeling not so alone.” “(I valued) sharing experiences with other women who have had similar hurts.”  “This workshop was great…very good at supporting each person and helping each person feel they were heard.” “The group dynamic was very valuable”

About “Finding the Holy”: “The retreat was a real watershed for me, the jumpstart to working on spiritual/theological issues that have plagued me for so long.” “I can’t thank you enough for this retreat. It has put many issues in perspective for me, and explained why I have had and still struggle with my relationship to God.”

These retreats are recommended for women who have done substantial therapy work on their childhood abuse, trauma or pain. Although the meditations are intended to be healing and therapeutic, these retreats are not designed to be therapy. Participants must have their therapist’s written concurrence in their decision to attend the retreats and their therapist’s assurance that she/he will be available to process anything that might come up during it. A licensed therapist is on call at all retreats.

Please see the EVENTS page for dates, times, and locations.