Mindfulness on Land and Water with Sea Kayaking 2-Day Retreat

Name: Mindfulness on Land and Water with Sea Kayaking 2-Day Retreat
Start: 2025-08-15T10:00:00-07:00
End: 2025-08-16T16:00:00-07:00
Location: 7400 Gallagher Cove Rd NW, Olympia, WA 98502-9683, United States

Schedule

Fri, 15 Aug, 2025 at 10:00 am to Sat, 16 Aug, 2025 at 04:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

7400 Gallagher Cove Rd NW, Olympia, WA 98502-9683, United States | Olympia, WA

This workshop is for colleagues ready to experience new ways of learning and healing in the present moment by taking the practice of mindfulness into the forest and onto the water. You’re invited to come to ONE, a nature-based retreat center for health care professionals on the beautiful South Salish Sea outside Olympia, WA. During this unique professional development workshop, we will combine mindfulness and nature therapy to learn about and experience nature’s powerful healing! Day one of the workshop is about learning how chronic stress undermines health and well-being, often leading to mental health conditions like panic disorder, depression, and anxiety. You’ll learn how to identify “indicator lights” of chronic stress for yourself and clients and then experience simple, nature-based mindfulness practices designed to relax, center, deeply ground oneself in the present moment through the portals of our senses. You’ll learn why and how to use these nature-based mindfulness interventions in your daily life and practice teaching them to clients as well.
Outside in nature, through discussion and shared resources, you’ll learn how stress plays a key role in illness and disease (physical and mental) and how to identify stress reactions in your body, mind, and soul. In the forest, gardens, and meadows at ONE, we’ll teach you simple, research-based ways to decrease symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety and prevent panic attacks, like how to pull the ripcord on the parasympathetic nervous system, bringing yourself back to center whenever and wherever stress shows up. Learning diaphragmatic breathing not only calms the body down but also improves neurological processing and emotional regulation skills, enhances immune system functioning, and improves sleep quality. We’ll help you develop the language of mindfulness and nature therapy and explore ways of integrating these practices into your work with clients. In the evening, we’ll share dinner and enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the land and water in the good company of colleagues. Doesn’t an evening campfire with s’mores sound lovely too?
After a nourishing breakfast on Day Two of the workshop, we will head to beautiful Gallagher Cove for sea kayaking 101 skills training. We’ll teach you mindful kayaking, an invitation to practice non-striving on the water. “There is no place to go, and no place be. This is it, right here, right now.” Together, we’ll enjoy a slow, gentle paddle while “field testing” our newfound skills for stress management. By paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, we’ll learn how to navigate the stress of unpleasant emotions, body sensations, and distorted thinking by choosing new ways of being through the practice of mindfulness. And won’t it be fun to also cultivate mindfulness by noticing the awe and wonder of beauty all around us in nature, in community with colleagues? After all, noticing the pleasant is a practice too and one that serves us very well. Following lunch (bring your own), we’ll have time to process the lived experiences of mindfulness on water and explore ways to integrate and expand the practice of mindfulness into clinical work with clients. The day will end with a closing ceremony with tea made from gifts of the land at ONE.
Whether you’re new to mindfulness or have years of experience, you’re welcome at ONE. Whether you’re an avid paddler or have no experience but feel called from the South Salish Sea, we got you! Gallagher Cove is a protected, beautiful place to learn and grow. We’ll provide thorough instruction focused on safety as well as all the equipment needed (sea kayak, personal flotation device, paddle). We invite you to camp on the land before and/or after the workshop to really drop in and enjoy mindfulness on land and water.
Learning Objectives:
In this workshop, you will
- Learn what mindfulness is and how to practice it for yourself so you can teach your clients.
- Understand the research-based benefits of integrating Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBI) in clinical practice.
- Understand the research-based benefits of integrating nature therapy in clinical practice.
- Explore the language, concepts, and phenomena of mindfulness and nature therapy.
- Learn about the Autonomic Nervous System and the important functions of both the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic response.
- Learn ways to experience and teach diaphragmatic breathing.
- Learn how to connect the dots between CBT thinking errors and the Autonomic Nervous System.
- Understand the mind/body relationship between chronic stress & mental health conditions, including stress/depression/anxiety/panic attacks
- Learn common symptoms stress reactions (behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physical)
- Learn simple nature-based mindfulness practices to activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Learn emotional regulation skills.
- Learn ways to integrate mindfulness in nature into clinical practice.
Presented by: Dr. Brenda Butterfield, EdD, MSW, LMHC and Heidi Knadel, MA, LMHC
Lodging Options: We invite you to spend the night on either or both Thursday and Friday. Camping for $30/night is available as well as one spot in the Sweet Sauna House for $85/night (the Sweet Sauna House sleeps two – would be great for two friends/colleagues to share!). $40 covers dinner on Friday night and breakfast on Saturday morning (Gluten-free, vegetarian, dairy-free provided). When you register, you can choose a lodging option or you can join us just during the day on Friday and Saturday. For any questions regarding lodging and/or food, please email the ONE Center at [email protected].
Continuing Education Credit Hours: 12 CEs
$398.00 for workshop alone
$468.00 for camping one night and meals
$498.00 for camping two nights and meals