top of page

Our model of experiential, community-based recovery

is unique and rooted within:

1

Effective evidenced-based strategies for stress-recovery 

  • 82% of women veterans who participated in a Rooted Within retreat showed an improvement in the frequency of positive coping skills maintained over the          two-month survey period post retreat.*

Our program is founded on the work of respected leaders and experts in the field of trauma and mindfulness including David Berceli Ph.D., Tara Brach Ph.D., Anna Chitty, Janina Fischer Ph.D., Rick Hanson Ph.D., Ruth Lanius M.D. Ph.D., Peter Levine Ph.D., Pat Ogden Ph.D., Dr. Steven Porges, Robert Scaer M.D., Dan Siegel M.D., and Bessel van der Kolk M.D. among others. 

Sunrise on Nature

2

Cultivating inner strengths and skills

  • 85% of women veterans who participated in the retreat showed significant improvement in psychological well-being.*

Research has shown and our program has proven that building inner strengths, and learning and practicing skills to calm and regulate the nervous system are the groundwork for healing.  

We help women identify their emotional states and grow their feelings of ease and safety.

We support women to develop resources for stability and teach specific tools for self-regulation.

This also includes mindfulness meditation and yoga,  specifically designed for this population.

Wild Nature

3

Healing PTSD and stress at its neurobiological base

  • 81% of women veterans who participated in the retreat showed a statistically significant decrease in stress symptoms maintained  two months post-retreat in areas of overall stress, avoidance/numbing, in their relationships, and lifestyle.*

We educate participants about the neurobiological basis of PTSD and help veterans in their individual stress responses. We work with real-time experiences that mirror stress in life post-deployment. Therefore as they identify their stressors and practice staying in the moment, it also develops and instils at-home daily practices that support long-term healing.

Field of Flowers

4

Honoring individual needs

In our on-going outcome study, the highest degree of improvement in psychological symptoms were in Self Acceptance and Environmental Mastery (*maintained two-months post retreat).

 

 

 

We identify individual recovery, healing, and needs.

We respect each woman’s choices, journey of recovery, and empowerment.

With the support of facilitators and peers, each person develops an individual set of tools and strategies

to support and grow their capacity for self-compassion and self-acceptance.

Nature

5

Connection and

relationship building

  • 77% of women showed significant improvement specifically in                  self-acceptance, positive relationships,   and environmental mastery                    *at the two-months survey post-retreat.

 

Our retreats are designed to give women veterans an opportunity to build the confidence and skills to make changes in their relationships with themselves, others, and in the circumstances of their lives.

We model and practice healthy relationships that support the re-patterning and relearning of the social bonds necessary for integrating these experiences.  This is supported by a renewed sense of belonging within a community of mutually supportive, authentic and healthy relationships.

*Our Quantitiative and Qualitative Outcome Study (2011 - 2019) measured immediate and longer-term (two-month post-retreat) outcomes in psychological wellbeing, levels of stress, and PTSD related symptoms in female veterans who completed the six-day retreat described above with Rooted Within retreats (formerly known as Center-Point Retreats). Data was analyzed for both 2018 - 2019 specifically, and across the series of 18 retreats from 2011 - 2019.

bottom of page