Retreats

Women working in the healthcare professions have unique recovery needs.

The SHE RECOVERS Return to Self Retreat Program – led by recovery coaches who are themselves healthcare professionals – provides opportunities for one-on-one coaching and introspective work. The Return to Self program invites participants to explore themes such as Self-Reflection, Self-Regulation and Self-Advocacy, while also inviting attendees to rest and engage in holistic recovery practices. These 5 day/4 night retreats allow professionals in recovery to take a much needed, dedicated pause in their lives while providing a dedicated opportunity to connect with women with similar professional experiences. Activities to explore and integrate recovery concepts include group coaching, gentle movement and meditation, outdoor and nature walks and hikes. Enjoy healthy, delicious food and alcohol-free beverages to nourish daily activities.

Angel Valley, Sedona is a sacred retreat community for healing, transformation and empowerment.

Angel Valley Sedona (Arizona) with its awe-inspiring beauty, peace and quiet, pristine hillsides and soothing creeks, is one of the most visited spiritual centers in North America. Our healing journey will take place in a setting of labyrinths, vortex circles, as well as angel, water, and medicine wheels. This retreat – masterfully designed to support and enhance your recovery capital for years to come – will take place over five days and four nights. You will be guided by trauma-informed practitioners through an intentional program of meditation, embodied movement (trauma-informed yoga and conscious dance), coaching, sharing circles and ceremony. Walking and hiking, solo time, group sessions and vegetarian meals are all a part of this very special recovery retreat.

A retreat experience for healing and radical self-care.

Our seven-day Playa Secreto, Mexico retreat is truly a sacred pause, a time to embrace your healing while being guided through a program intended to support your individualized pathway & patchwork of recovery. Trauma-informed yoga led twice a day by SHE RECOVERS Trauma-Informed Yoga teachers, sharing circles facilitated by professional SHE RECOVERS Recovery Coaches in the evenings, and shared mealtimes featuring fresh, nutritious, and Mayan-inspired dishes are included in the healing activities scheduled during the week. Spend the rest of your soul-recovery time beach walking, swimming in the beautiful Caribbean Sea or pool, resting, reading or journaling. Participate at your own leisure in other creative activities or spend healing time connecting with and supporting other like-hearted/like-minded women in recovery.

Salt Spring Island, British Columbia (Canada) is home to our popular west coast recovery retreat program.

Our farm retreats provide a unique opportunity for recovering women to focus on their wellness, spiritual and personal development. As with our other signature retreats, this program will be led by trauma-informed practitioners (coaches and yoga teachers) to support and enhance your recovery capital for years to come. Outside of twice-daily trauma-informed yoga and coach-led sharing circles, you are invited to spend healing time reading, journaling, resting or enjoying the large perennial gardens and water features, perfect for reflection and inspiration. If you want to be a bit more active, take a guided farm tour, or head off farm to hike in nature or swim in a nearby lake; explore the nearby market and many quaint shops and cafes that call this island wonderland home.

Shelly Dimitrijevic

Shelly Dimitrijevic’s professional and philanthropic activities have always focused on improving the lives of others. She began her nursing career at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis and went on to become a LifeFlight nurse specializing in neonatal, pediatric, and cardiovascular intensive care.

Shelly has been involved with numerous charities focusing on children and education including the Charlee and the Chocolate Factory gala, The Venus Orbit, Design For A Cure, Jackson Memorial, and Impact Oasis. In 2010 she founded the Lotus program, a program that focused on educating parents on the nutritional needs of children and basic child development. Shelly also served on the Frost Science Museum gala committee for 7 years before Co-Chairing the event in 2015.

After a diagnosis of Celiac disease and subsequently receiving Certification as a Nutritional Consultant, Shelly recognized that topically applied products have an effect on her Celiac Disease and overall health. She turned her focus to developing skincare that was free of toxic and hormone-disrupting ingredients.

Since she lost her only sibling in 2012 Shelly has been determined to find a way to contribute to the recovery community in a way that can make a great impact and ensure that others have the resources necessary when they are struggling.

Shelly’s substantial contributions to SHE RECOVERS of both time and resources have been instrumental and deeply appreciated.

Kirsten Newquist

As a result of being introduced to SHE RECOVERS through retreats and meet-ups, Kirsten will be starting her yoga teacher training in the fall. These retreats also led her to become more deeply involved with SHE RECOVERS in a volunteer capacity. Kirsten was instrumental in setting up some of the Foundation’s grassroots groups and currently volunteers her time helping SHE RECOVERS Foundation to design and implement the Volunteer Chapter Network.

Kirsten and her husband recently moved from Southern California to Roswell, Georgia to be closer to Kirsten’s sister and two young nieces. When she isn’t spending time being an aunt, you can find Kirsten hanging out with their rescue Labrador or exploring their new state.

Mary Beth O’Connor

Mary Beth is a founding member of SHE RECOVERS Support for Legal Professionals and is active at the local level with SHE RECOVERS in the Bay Area. Mary Beth has been living a sober life in recovery for over 26 years. She also has a history of trauma and abuse, from which she’s worked hard to recover as well. 6 years into her recovery, Mary Beth attended Berkeley Law. She worked at a large firm in Silicon Valley, then litigated class actions for the federal government. In 2014 Mary Beth was appointed an Administrative Law Judge. She recently retired, so she could devote her time to completing her writing and being more active in the recovery community.

She regularly speaks on behalf of LifeRing and develops relationships with organizations supportive of the multiple pathways approach. In August 2020, Mary Beth had an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, I Beat Addiction without God, where she described building a personal recovery plan by combining ideas from LifeRing, Women for Sobriety, and Narcotics Anonymous. In November 2020 she had an op-ed published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, I was a federal judge, and I support Safehouse. Here’s why. She is currently working on a full-length memoir.

Taryn Strong

Taryn Strong is a founder of SHE RECOVERS® Foundation as well as a trauma-informed yoga instructor, recovery coach, aromatherapist, and herbalist (and daughter to Mama Dawn). Taryn has developed a unique yoga retreat program and led over 40 yoga for recovery retreats since 2012. She is also the host of the SHE RECOVERS Podcast and most recently created and taught the inaugural trauma-informed SHE RECOVERS Yoga Teacher Training Program. Operating from a trauma-informed lens and a firm believer in anti-oppressive practices, Taryn brings an empathic and invitational approach to healing – empowering women to find and follow individualized pathways and patchworks of recovery.

Taryn’s courageous vulnerability and passion for recovering out-loud has made her an influential voice in the global recovery movement – smashing the stigma often associated with substance use and mental health issues. Taryn creates and lives with her beloved and two dogs within the ancestral and unceded traditional territory of the Hul’qumi’num and SENĆOŦEN speaking peoples (Saltspring Island).

Susan Carter

Susan is an architect of hope and healing with over 30 years of experience in providing executive-level leadership to heart-centered teams in the non-profit realm. Since joining SHE RECOVERS® Foundation as Executive Director in April 2020, Susan continues to weave her experience with her passion to help other women receive what she has been so graciously given – long-term recovery from substance use disorder, body image issues, codependency, perfectionism, and moral injury.

Susan’s work in the treatment industry quickly revealed how stigma kept women struggling with mental health issues and addiction from seeking help, and the lack of resources available to them once they did. Having served as a founding employee of Susan G. Komen for the Cure for 20 years, playing an integral role in creating the global grassroots movement that changed the way breast cancer is talked about and treated, she felt called to utilize that experience to do the same for women struggling with mental health and substance use disorders.

Celebrating more than 27 years of continuous sobriety, Susan is a Certified Peer Support Worker (CPSW) in the state of New Mexico to provide resources and peer support to those in or seeking recovery. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her fur family of four, Alex, Chaco, Bodhi, and Gracie.

Dawn Nickel

Dawn Nickel, Founder of SHE RECOVERS® Foundation, is a thought leader in the women’s recovery sphere as well as an accomplished leader, dedicated researcher, and visionary in the recovery moment. She holds a Ph.D. in health care policy with extensive experience in researching and writing about women experiencing substance use disorders, mental health challenges, and intimate partner violence. Dawn started her own journey of recovery from a substance use disorder and domestic violence in 1987. She is also in recovery from anxiety, grief, trauma, overworking, and cancer. Dawn’s tell-it-like-it-is wisdom has created a ripple effect where you will often hear her quotes “the shit you did is just the shit you did – it’s not who you are” and “recovering from all the things” resonating throughout many recovery realms.

Currently working on her first book, Dawn is living proof that in a world where all women in or seeking recovery are celebrated, supported, and deemed essential to healthy communities – anything is possible. She is fondly referred to as Mama Dawn in the SHE RECOVERS Community and to her daughters Taryn and Ashley. Dawn lives, works, and plays with her beloved grandchildren on the traditional territories of the Lkwungen speaking peoples on Vancouver Island.