CHRISTINA MARIE
I’m so excited to welcome you to a place that has become a second home, a spiritual home that has shaped my life. I know the land here will bless you in the same ways it has me - I feel called to introduce you to this land. So, WHO am I? I am Christina Marie, your guide on this journey. I am a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker trained at the University of Chicago. I am yoga trained in an eco-based multidimensional, mindfulness practice in Costa Rica which is what brought me here to Tiskita and this land.
I consider myself grounded in my spirituality and healing work - and most importantly trauma informed. In addition to providing over 12 years of individual psychotherapy, I am evolving with the ever changing world to support individuals through coaching and mentorship. A practice that integrates mindfulness, somatic body-mind practices, parts work, soulful creative spirituality and nature. I reclaim the identity of a witch for empowerment of all oppressed and wrongfully condemned women; it also fits my creative-soul, nature based practices. I dislike spiritual bypassing, misappropriation, and dogmatic beliefs.
This retreat is an extension and evolution of my healing modalities. This is NOT a therapy retreat - but my therapeutic education and wisdom never leaves me. Rather, this falls under my mentorship/yoga/meditation practice where I have led moon circles for over 4 years, assisted with a month-long yoga training, and began my own retreats as well as being a participant of mulitple retreats.
You can learn more about me on my website: Christina Marie Sprayberry
And my IG which lends to my Mentorship/Coaching: Christina Marie Sprayberry
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT ME
Some testimonials that people have given me from my yoga/meditation/mentorship:
“Christina is genuine, compassionate and open-minded. She listens without judging, and helps others find answers within themselves and the world around them. She has a deep connection to the earth and its elements, and brings this beauty to her work.”
“Christina’s North Star is driven by her kindness & compassion for helping others heal internal wounds thru meditation & self care. She creates a safe space for self expression & is a great listener. Her drive to help others find comfort especially during the covid-19 crisis is strong as she offers to teach and share her practice through guided meditation. I’ve learned from her to be more compassionate towards myself & others thru this very difficult time.”
“Christina is one of the most thoughtful, curious, kind, innovative, brave, funny, and wonderfully herself people I know. She has done and continues to grow and learn and explore. I admire her greatly and am so glad she is in the world. She cares so much and is such a great human.”
CELIA NEUSTADT
Celia is a compassionate healing guide. Her mission is to help others connect with their inner truth. She weaves together psycho-somatic practices with ancient wisdom. As a healer of this time, she sees the ways modernity has disconnected us from ourselves, one another and Mother Earth. After over a decade of study and practice, she teaches others how to heal this core trauma and reconnect with themselves through her Five-Body Focus: Erotic, Emotional, Primal, Ancestral and Spiritual.
She specializes in working with those who have found the limits of traditional therapy or Western Medicine. She recently moved to the Hudson Valley from Costa Rica with her dog, Lady, who supports her in this work. Outside of work hours, you can find Celia immersed in nature: talking to plants, running trails, perusing the local farmers markets, sharing poetry with friends, tinkering with her alembic and dancing under the stars.
She has trained extensively in the following modalities: Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, Family Constellation, Yoga, Ayurveda, Existential Kink and Tantra.
She bows to her teachers in gratitude to pass on what she’s learned. More at www.skymoonandme.com
Celia will be documenting the retreat as a trauma aware mindful photographer.
You will also have the opportunity to schedule 1:1 with Celia for
Cultivate Safety in the Body: Somatic Support
Somatic support sessions weave together Somatic Experiencing, Parts Work, and mindfulness practices to heal deep-seeded trauma without reliving it. These sessions are intended for those who want to learn how to connect with their body in a safe, gentle and compassionate way. Over the course of six sessions, you will learn how to regulate your nervous system, move from an activated state to calm, release stored trauma and tension, process stuck emotions, and self soothe.
SASHA FELINE
Sasha has joined all the Restore & Rewild Retreats and is now in the role to assist and support this journey. If you have questions, shed be happy to talk about the retreat from the perspective of a participant herself.
Sasha is creative, compassionate, thoughtful and brings multifaceted skills to restore & rewild.
She knows the journey - and here for you.
THE INVITATION
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer