Retreats

A retreat may be one or several days long, and participants are encouraged to remain within that environment for the duration of the retreat. This permits the participant to temporarily focus exclusively on their recovery, not being distracted or interfered with by life’s day-to-day activity.

Participants have usually experienced a similar event, and quickly learn through interaction with each other that they are not alone. The retreat provides education about the physical, mental, and emotional effects of their situation with exercises and activities to assist the participants to take control of their reactions. There is a balance of physical activity, education, insight development and emotional release which occurs in the retreat environment. Participants report experiencing fun, joy, happiness, tears, grief, discovery, and sometimes sadness throughout the process of the retreat.

A participant leaves a retreat with increased knowledge of themselves, an increased sense of personal control, new coping skills and mechanisms, and new friends who understand their thoughts and feelings. A bond is formed between participants as they have had a similar experience, and have shared in the experience of the retreat.

(Duane facilitates a variety of retreats which have included working with parents of missing or murdered children, families of missing adults, children who have lost loved ones to homicide, and those grieving the death of a loved one.)