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For Mothers Day weekend this year we invite you to join us for our Woman’s Hammam Retreat. The Hammam was a traditional bathing ritual of the ancient Middle East, known as the “bringer of warmth”. While our Hamman will not involve Turkish baths, it will heat you up after a long winter with a weekend of sensual pleasure, fun and comradarie.

This will be a mothers day girlfriends getaway like no other, with belly dance, palm reading,  massage and bodywork and, of course, a wonderful soak in the local Hot Springs. You will enjoy gourmet cooking from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon, plus henna hand painting and evenings of stories, poetry and laughter.

You will Receive:

• Gourmet Middle Eastern cooking
• Beautiful retreat accommodations
• Belly dance instruction and performance
• A forty minute palm reading session
• An hour long  Massage treatment. Your choice of deep tissue, relaxation, miofascial, or Hot Stone massage.
• Hot Springs Visit
• Morning yoga classes.
• Daily exercise forest walk
• Optional Henna art  hand painting
• A weekend full of laughter and enjoyment, with time to relax or join together with the gals.

Ohm Therapeutics™ is built on the understanding that musical tones assist healing, and that appropriate frequencies promote the flow of energy (Qi) in and around the body. As a result, the pathways for Qi are restored, energy blocks are removed, and health & wellness can be regained.

Learn how to incorporate sound into your healing practice with Ohm Therapeutics™. In this two-day class, Samantha Jennings will demonstrate therapeutic applications of the Ohm Tuning Forks and Tibetan Singing Bowls on

the body, including traditional acupuncture points, trigger & reflex points, bone, muscle & tendons to help tonify Qi, move stagnant energy & relieve pain.

You will learn to work with resonance using the Ohm Unison, Ohm Octave and High Frequency Ohm Tuning Forks. Because the body responds to vibration & the Ohm tone, directing the vibration with tuning forks in a therapeutic setting is an ideal complement to massage, acupressure, acupuncture, cranial sacral, polarity therapy, chiropractic & other bodywork methods.

Students will take home 1 comprehensive study guide for future reference. This course fulfills requirements for continuing education hours for Chinese Medicine Practitioners and is also applicable to massage therapists and anyone else interested in alternative healing modalities.  For persons  continuing on and taking Samantha’s Five Elements course on May 20-21 an additional discount of $200 is being offered for persons enrolling in both courses. In addition, persons living in Nelson  who do not wish to stay up at the Retreat Center can pay tuition only course fees.

Student attending this course will also need the following Course Requirements:
2 Mid Ohm Tuning Forks ~ $88
1 Low Ohm tuning Fork ~ $55
1 Practitioner Activator ~ $42
Sound Healing: Vibrational Healing with Ohm Tuning Forks, Book & DVD ~ $33
Course Tools must be pre-ordered with the instructor & pre-paid.

Total $218 + HST 26.16 = $244.16

Samantha Jennings is a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Sound Healer & Educator. She began studying Sound Healing with Marjorie de Muynck, creator of Ohm Therapeutics™ in 2000 and teaches in North America & internationally. Samantha incorporates Sound Healing into her practice of spiritually based acupuncture & acupressure, and offers instruction in Ohm Therapeutics & Classical Five Elements.

The two most commonly asked questions in life are : Who am I? and Why am I here?.

Our focus in this two day course will be using ancient Taoist Five Element theory to identify the Constitutional Type that is the expression of a primary energetic imbalance expressed through the personality. We will look at how our early life experiences create core beliefs which then shape the expression of our personality. Over time and with repeated experience we develop character strategies, the habits which define how we behave and how we see the world. This is the foundation of our “Constitutional Type”.

This class will focus on the elemental needs and the missing experiences that give rise to the constitutional type being expressed, and the pathways back to regain balance in the emotional realm. The course provides you with an opportunity to experience the teachings of this timeless wisdom giving you insight into the unique and ancient medical framework that shows the interconnectedness of our mental, emotional and physical states of being.

This is a good opportunity to explore the emotional and physical symptoms that accompany energy imbalances. The class is designed for the Oriental Medicine student,  massage or health practitioner and anyone interested in self-exploration and learning.

For persons who are also taking Samantha’s  Healing with Sound Forks level 1 course on May 18-19 an additional discount of $200 is being offered if you enroll for both courses.  For people living in Nelson tuition only pricing is available.

This course fulfills requirements for continuing education hours for practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine and will add new depth of understanding for anyone interested in  working in the helping professions, including counsellors, therapists and massage practitioners.

Samantha Jennings, Dr.TCM, R.Ac.

Samantha has been a practitioner of Oriental Medicine since 1983, having begun her training in Oriental Medicine in 1983, first practicing acupressure, and then graduating from the Canadian College of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine in 1993, where she was fortunate to have trained in Classical Five Element Acupuncture as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), including herbal training. Instructors included those from Professor J.R. Worsley’s College of Traditional Acupuncture, Lemington Spa, UK. Since then she has done post-graduate work with such notables as Lonny Jarrett (Massachusetts), Gye Bennett (Australia), and is currently a student of Dr. Jeffrey Yuen (NY). She is currently engaged in the study of plant affinities for the elements & organ systems and the use of essential oils on acupoints.

Samantha is also a graduate of the Academy of Botanical Medicine: California School of Herbal Studies, as well as having completed the two-year professional training in Hakomi: Body-Centered Psychotherapy, with mentorship from Jon Eisman, Senior Hakomi Trainer.

She has taught as a professor at her alma mater, CCAOM, as well as Oshio College of Herbology & Chinese Medicine (Victoria, BC), Christchurch College of Chinese Medicine (Christchurch, New Zealand), and has offered continuing education classes at Pacific Rim College (Victoria), NMAHA (Santa Fe, NM), as well as privately. She developed the Five Element Acupressure program as part of the B.Sc. in Integrated Health Studies at Northern New Mexico College, Espanola, NM, where she taught both Oriental Medicine and Western Herbology & Pharmacy.

Samantha began studying with Marjorie de Muynck, creator of Ohm Therapeutics™, in 1999 and is an international teacher of Sound Healing in North America & Australasia, representing Lemniscate Music.

Samantha’s specialties are Five Element spiritually-based acupuncture, acupressure and vibrational medicine. The application of Sound Healing is an integral part of her practice, which is now in Vancouver, B.C. She continues to travel the world to study with superlative teachers.

Samantha is a NCCAOM Approved PDA Provider (National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine) offering continuing education for acupuncturists and Oriental Bodywork Therapists across Canada, the US, and New Zealand.

Imagine freely loving who you are now.

Imagine being deeply grateful for everything that has ever happened to you. (Yes, everything)

Imagine living without the fear or insecurity of what anyone thinks of you. 

Can you imagine this? Or do the stories you believe tell you that this is impossible?

In this retreat, Tania and Shayla invite you to find out who you are without these stories, judgements and beliefs. How does this happen? It happens when we give these stories room to breathe, to move, to speak. So that we can investigate them, inquire into them, exactly as they appear. These beliefs that keep us in hiding, that create self judgement, shame, regret, and guilt–they can all be held up to the light of truth.

Inquiry itself is an act of courage and of love. It happens slowly, and it happens in the body. It really doesn’t matter how long you have believed in your own self judgements. How long you have struggled with anxiety, sorrow and regret. Who you really are, your natural state, is right here-undefended, tender and deeply alive.

This is possible right now: you can learn to courageously question the beliefs that have held you captive. Inquiry allows you to discover the living truth for yourself. The truth about you and the unconditional kindness of life.

Shayla and Tania are known for their capacity to create an atmosphere that is warm, friendly, intimate, and free. An open space in which each person is welcomed, heard and seen.  Both have experienced their most profound realizations while working with others. Which is why this way of being together is so sacred: it is where we meet in the love of truth and freedom.

This retreat includes:

This work is done with partners, in small groups, and in the main group.  All of the work we do is grounded in the body, in somatic experience.

“this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love”
–David Whyte

Total Cost for Participants:
For Master Bedroom with private bathroom: $1160
For private rooms in the house:  $1040
For shared private room (shared queen size bed): $890
For shared cabin: $940
For camping:  $860

Early bird discount: $50 off if you register by May 30, 2012

Join us this summer for a truly extraordinary  six day retreat adventure, our route will take us into the flower strewn majesty of the Selkirk mountains. Following old mining trails, sleeping in alpine cabins, and walking seldom visited ridge-lines.
In cultures around the world Mountains are considered sacred places. They are places of pilgrimage, domains of clarity and peace,  where the clear freshness of the air itself invites a stillness that we too can hold at our core. Beauty and adventure feed the spirit just as much as the precious moments we devote to our inner life. During out time together we will embrace both.

You will have the opportunity to deepen your meditation practice, to make this a contemplative journey back to yourself. For those who wish there will be mindfulness instruction and inquiry. You will be invited to step out of your comfort zone and unpack your deeper needs for quiet, beauty, and the nourishment of wild places.
Participants will need to carry a pack with  their sleeping bag, clothes and personal effects, and be able to hike in moderately difficult Mountain terrain. Due to the nature of this unique retreat we are limiting space to eight participants.

Testimonials from past participants of this retreat

“I got way more from this retreat adventure than I ever expected. A new world within myself which has opened up a new world outside of myself. Very Cool !!”  Denise M

“I thought a retreat was just a retreat, something to come back from and have fond memories of. But this experience has not been that way. You gave a wise and comfortable warming to my heart. The meditation gave me time to come down into myself and feel the difference being present makes. This practice is making life at home more full. The hiking in the Valhalla’s was world class”    Grant  W

Richard Klein  has spent his adult life in the Mountains of British Columbia. He is a life  and wellness coach who has studied mindfulness based stress reduction with Jon Kabbat-Zinn. Richard offers meditation instruction for many of the guest programs at Mountain Waters.  In the Fall of 2011 Richard spent six weeks traveling alone in Tibet, walking three different pilgrimage treks around sacred mountains in the Himalaya.

Heart Yoga Center and Gaiatri Yoga have joined to offer a 200-hour Yoga Alliance recognized teacher certification, divided into three 6-day courses. Level 1 is suitable both for yoga students who wish to become Registered Yoga Teachers and for those who simply want to deepen their practice. Please note prices are for meals and accommodation only.

Heart Yoga Center and Gaiatri Yoga’s Teacher Training/Yoga Studies course is composed of three six-day intensive courses. These are suitable both for yoga students who wish to become Registered Yoga Teachers with Yoga Alliance and for those who simply want to deepen their practice and understanding of yoga without necessarily wishing to teach yoga. This course is a profound integration of body, mind, heart and spirit, intended for yoga students of all levels who want to expand their experience of yoga as a spiritual practice and way of life. Upon completion of all three levels, students are eligible for certification and official registration with Yoga Alliance.

Set at the beautiful Mountain Water Retreat Centre, enhance your yoga experience with accommodations in the stunning retreat lodge, enjoy the numerous hiking trails leading into the 27,000 hectare West Arm Wilderness Park, and relax with gourmet meals and a hot tub.

Through an in-depth experiential investigation of our connection with the sacred energy of yoga, we will explore a wide range of topics, including:

• Yoga Practices – asana (physical postures), pranyama (breathing awareness), and meditation
• Yoga philosophy and psychology – Yoga Sutras, ethics, the body/mind connection
• Anatomy of the body and the asanas, as well as esoteric anatomy
• Teaching methodology- teaching and communication skills, assisting and adjusting, seeing and understanding bodies
• Therapeutic Yoga – yoga for injuries (back, knee, shoulder, neck, etc), medical issues, psychological issues (i.e., anxiety and depression)
• Yoga for a woman’s life cycle – yoga during menstrual cycle and menopause, prenatal and postnatal yoga
• Creating a daily practice
• Sequencing practice and classes
• Practicum – practice teaching and observing

Permaculture is a design system for creating dynamic and sustainable human environments. This course is for those who want to link the personal with the planetary, so as to lessen their ecological footprint and make sustainability a key part of their lives and legacy. With approximately 72 hours of classroom and hands-on instruction, this two-week intensive course will provide you with a tool box of skills that will allow you to design and implement living environments that are both regenerative and sustainable, in both rural and urban settings.

“Of all the courses we offer,” says Rob Avis, “this permaculture course is unique in that it is being offered in a beautiful retreat setting.”

There are expansive gardens, forests, ponds and the surrounding 27,000 hectare West Arm Wilderness Park to use as an outdoor classroom. Two Mandala-shaped teaching rooms, hot tubs, a stunning lodge, gourmet meals and walking trails leading into the park complement the natural setting, all just 2 kilometres away from Nelson, B.C

“The Verge Permaculture PDC is a comprehensive course with hands-on applications. It is fantastic! Rob Avis provides functional information that goes way beyond the garden to – building, growing & creating a good life. We walked out of the PDC with so many entrepreneurial & sustainable ideas & opportunities. I am so excited!” – Julie Budgen, Canmore, AB

This course will be inspiring and useful for individuals at all levels of experience – from backyard gardeners to professional farmers, and from design professionals to entrepreneurs interested in developing the knowledge and skills to create a whole systems approach to ecological living. Whatever your interest – gardening or farming, designing & building homes, urban and rural planning, eco-business or green living, permaculture design principles will empower you to make positive changes as an individual and in communities, towards creating a bright and sustainable future.

“I can’t express enough the value for all people to learn permaculture principles and Verge Permaculture made this learning fun, factual and provided a nurturing environment to do it in. I am leaving this PDC feeling overwhelmingly hopeful for the future of this messy world. Thanks so much for inspiring our class!” – Shauna Teare, Winlaw, BC

• Theory and principles of permaculture
• Eco-friendly house placement and design
• Energy conservation techniques for cold climates
• Renewable energy systems, feasibility, placement and design
• Recycling and waste management
• Organic food production
• Cold temperate food forest design based on Cdn. climatic conditions
• Water harvesting and management
• Grey water utilization and management
• Ecological pest control
• Drought-proofing
• Soil rehabilitation and erosion control
• Sustainable livestock management
• Aquaculture systems and design
• Catastrophe preparedness and prevention
• Windbreaks and fire control
• Additional Workshops will be included

Students will receive their own copy of Bill Mollison’s: Permaculture: A Designers Manual. Students who successfully complete the course will receive a Permaculture Design Certificate. Course completion is based upon attendance and a group presentation of a final design project. 

Instructor: Rob Avis

Rob Avis of Calgary-based Verge Permaculture is a highly active permaculturist and offers a wealth of knowledge and experience from around the world. He is a student of Geoff Lawton and the Bullock Brothers and has hands-on experience with numerous concepts including: strawbale buildings, earthships, low-energy homes, wind turbines and solar power & heating but also understands and emphasizes the importance of biological systems: soil, water-harvesting, landscape re-hydration, composting, growing food, grey water and biological waste-water treatment.

As a speaker for community events, non-profit groups and businesses, Rob is keen to share his passion and vision. He has been invited to guest lecture at the University of Calgary, taught workshops in partnership with the non-profit Green Calgary, and now teaches the full permaculture design certificate with courses planned across Western Canada.

When not teaching or consulting you’ll find Rob in the basement experimenting with ferments (baking bread & brewing beer) or foraging in the garden.

It is the inner world behind our eyes that holds the template out of which we manifest all that unfolds in our outer life. Join us on a three year learning adventure to the source of the truth and healing we each hold deep inside.

“Deep in your being you hold a vast reservoir of wisdom and knowledge that barely gets tapped as you live your busy life. Your inner world holds the rhythms of your psyche, the seeds of your destiny, and the flavor and fragrance of your unique self as it has been shaped and formed by the love of your Creator and the infinite wonder of creation. In short, your inner being holds your truth. This is the treasure that resides, hidden, within you. With love and coaxing, you can bring this treasure forward into your everyday life through the practice of deep imagery.” Jenny Garrison, Imagery in You; Mining for Treasure in Your Inner World

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. ” Albert Einstein

The Mystery School is a mentored, small group, three year journey of self-exploration focusing on the archetypal map of the Tarot and Tree of Life symbols. Guided visualization, meditations, movement, mandala art, journal writing, collages, masks, self-created rituals and ceremonies, and other creative inner work will support you to meet the archetypes active in your inner life. Step by step you are initiated into more profound layers of your uniqueness and its knowledge. You move naturally into a deeper awareness and appreciation of ‘healthy relationship’ to your self, others, and life. An authentic celebration of Self in the diversity and unity of all life is a natural outcome.

Two central themes of The Mystery School are “making the ordinary, extraordinary and the extraordinary, ordinary” and “It is never too late to have a happy childhood”. We recognize that space, time and personal attention is necessary to nurture the deep awakening possible within you. This is about maturing the sacred within you. For this purpose, The Mystery School takes place in 12 weeks of ‘workshop/celebrations’, over the three year period. Each class group is small, limited to 10 people so that we are able to meet your individual needs and create with the help of all participants a powerful community of support and transformation.

This is the second level of a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training / Yoga Immersion started in September 2012 at Mountain Waters Retreat in Nelson BC. This course is designed primarily for those who are now or are considering becoming yoga teachers, but is also appropriate for yoga students wishing to deepen their experience and practice of yoga without necessarily planning to teach yoga.

This level 2 training will once again be taught by master teachers Karuna and Paul Erikson of the Heart Yoga Center. The Heart Yoga center is a Registered Yoga School with the internationally recognized organization Yoga alliance, and follows their standards and recommendations. This course is a six day intensive with a  final six day level 3  module offered in September 15-20, 2013. All levels will be held at the Mountain Waters. Certification of completion of this level two course will be presented on Saturday May 11 at the end of the six-day training. Upon completion of all three levels, students are certified by Heart Yoga Center at the 200 hour level, and may become Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT 200) with Yoga Alliance.

Karuna Erickson is a devoted yoga teacher as well as a psychotherapist, practicing in both fields since 1970. The focus of her work is the integration of body, mind, heart, and spirit. She is the director of the Heart Yoga Center, a registered yoga teacher training school with the Yoga Alliance. She has trained yoga teachers for over 20 years. She teaches yoga internationally, interweaving Sufi poetry and Buddhist practices of mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation. She leads annual retreats in Costa Rica, Canada, and Bali.

Who are we “taking ourselves to be” as we move through our days, years, life? How do these habitual views inhibit directly sensing our true nature? This heart opening and thought provoking weekend retreat is an opportunity to inquire into the reality of who you are in each given moment.

Diane will lead mindful yoga practices designed to open the body’s energetic channels. This embodied presence is the necessary container for the meditation and inquiry practices which Dori will lead. Periods of intentional silence will be woven into the weekend to connect deeply within.

To listen to, and watch Diane and Dori describe the Awakening True Nature retreat please click on the following link.

Diane Sherman is a passionate teacher who intuitively guides her students towards their own edge while encouraging them to deeply listen to their inner wisdom. Whether teaching a restorative class, a more physically demanding practice, or working one-on-one with a student, Diane is committed to inspiring her students to drop into the present moment as completely as possible. Her classes weave together her knowledge of Ayurveda, asana, breath work, meditation, yin and yang yoga. Diane is a curious, inquisitive person with a passion for living well, she is fiercely committed to her own evolution and encourages that in her friends, family and students.

Diane has been blessed with amazing teachers along the way. Her primary influences have been Donald Moyer, Sarah Powers and Scott Blossom. From them she learned a combination of precise alignment, yin yoga, sitting meditation and Ayurvedic principals. She also studied Ayurveda at Mount Madonna Institute and has a diploma in Ayurvedic Lifestyle Counseling. She is deeply grateful to her teachers and all they have shared along the way as well as their own dedication to their paths. Other inspirations to Diane are Pema Chodron, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Dori Langevin, PsyD loves sharing the radical teachings and practices of the Buddha that empower us to live with wakefulness, compassion and wisdom in the midst of our messy, yet radiant lives.

She considers herself a devotee of the Great Mother and grounds her teaching in embodied presence. Dori has trained with Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield and Tsultrim Allione and has been teaching since 2003.

This retreat is now full. Spaces are still available in our September Healing with Addictions retreat

This six day experiential seminar will examine the sources of addiction in our individual histories and in our culture, and connect us with the inner wholeness which is the final and only answer to addictive drives. Participants are supported to experience genuine self acceptance, and move forward in their lives in healthier, more authentic ways.

How we define addictions:

An addiction is “any behaviour that we engage in on an ongoing basis that causes harm to ourselves or the people that we care about. Behaviours that we are unable to stop.” This definition is a big tent that many of us can find a place within.
Addictions are self-destructive patterns of thought and behavior,that are rife throughout our society. From the respectable compulsions of the professional workaholic to the disease-inducing habits of the street junkie. All addictions originate from a place of deep-seated emotional pain and an unbearable sense of spiritual loss.

This retreat is for:

Participants who are currently struggling with addictions in their lives as well as counsellors, therapists and support workers addressing addictions in a professional capacity. This retreat is not meant for active substance users. It’s intended to be a source of rich personal learning and renewal for all participants.

This groundbreaking seminar incorporates:

• the brain science of addiction
• guided self-exploration
• body healing techniques
• spiritual work
• shamanic medicinal practices
• indigenous teachings

Included in the program are three shamanic healing journeys plus a facilitated group process designed to help participants integrate the full benefit of their experience. Organic, gourmet meals and accommodations are provided in a secluded mountain retreat facilty.

Additionally, there will be indigenous Medicine Wheel teachings focusing on being in the “right relationship” with what is often referred to as the “hungry ghost” of addiction.

The retreat will be led by Dr Duncan Grady and supported by a team of gifted health practitioners.

DUNCAN GRADY is a psychotherapist and teacher with over 30 years in the field of addictions with a post doctorate degree in Creation Spirituality. He was raised in the Siksika/Sauk Blackfeet indigenous tradition.  Duncan is a longtime Buddhist practitioner, who teaches meditation and mindfulness retreats integrating western, eastern and native traditions and approaches to the healing of addiction. He has taught at UCS/Naropa University and throughout North America and Europe. He currently teaches at Selkirk College in British Columbia and works as a psychotherapist and hospice trainer using western and non-western approaches to health, well-being, and end-of-life transition.

SOI BARI has been working with Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicines for the past 10 years.  During this time he has apprenticed and learned from Shipibo Curanderos from the Peruvian Amazon in the practice known as Vegetalismo.  Soi Bari has a Masters in Integral Counseling Psychology, is trained as Medical Qigong Practitioner and lives on the West Coast of Canada where he leads retreats and has a private practice as a psychotherapist.  His passion and focus over the past number of years has been in supporting ways to integrate complementary healing modalities.

HEATHER FLORCITA has been supporting and assisting Soi Bari with his ceremony work for the last 4 years.  She continues to train in the Peruvian Amazon in the practice of Vegetalismo.  Heather practices Reiki and Medical Qigong. Her passion for life is expressed in her love of music and as the owner and creator of Café Bliss, a raw food restaurant in Victoria.

JEN DAVIS has studied indigenous healing practices in Peru and Mexico with three different teachers. She will also be leading a traditional shamanistic healing ceremony. Jen’s work is primarily focused upon the treatment of addictions and other emotional imbalances. Jen has been working with Plant Medicine for the past 12 years.

RICHARD KLEIN is a life coach and aquatic therapist. Richard runs Mountain Waters Retreats and hosts the Addictions Retreat on a yearly basis. For this retreat, he will be providing meditation and body awareness instruction as well as leading nature immersion exercises.