The JOY Retreat:

💫WHO: A small group of supportive *women of all ages, from all backgrounds, and walks of life interested in creativity and community. We have space for 10 folks!

*We welcome all women, including trans women, femme, non-binary, and gender-expansive folks who feel at home in a female-centered space.

🎭 WHAT: A 3 Day drama therapy and expressive arts retreat for women-aligned folks. ‘THE JOY RETREAT’ will use creative, reflective, and expressive tools to explore what joy means to you and the ways we might cultivate, access, practice, and sustain joy in these uncertain times.

We consider joy not as a ‘treat’ or ‘extra’, but as a lifeforce, a birthright, responsibility, tool, and path forward.

🏜️ WHERE: New Mexico’s High Desert, just minutes from downtown Santa Fe, or, The City Different. We'll gather at a beautiful artist’s studio in downtown Santa Fe for transformative group work and shift spaces for joyful, communal meals.

🌿WHEN: May 8th - May 10th (Mother’s Day Weekend). Programming starts at 3:00 pm on Friday, the 8th, and ends at 4pm on Sunday, the 10th. Out of town attendees are welcome (and encouraged!) to extend their stay on either end to explore Santa Fe and nearby areas.

See Daily Schedule Here

We’re not going to mince words: we are living in some dark times. This inquiry into how creativity and joy can be healing resources feels like a necessary conversation and invitation.

We want to explore how to FIND, CLAIM, and EXPRESS JOY. Here’s our thinking on how that can work, even in challenging times.

1. Grounding in Joy Amid Complexity: We recognize joy not as bypassing the world’s violence, fear, or oppression, but as a nuanced act of agency in a sometimes bleak landscape.

2. Sparks of Joy as Practice: Rather than seeking wholesale joy, we cultivate small sparks—moments of whimsy, sensory noticing, and non-productive delights. These sparks fuel a deeper ember of joy and movement.

3. Joy as Responsibility: After discovering how we access joy, we ask: What is our accountability? Whether to ourselves, family, or community, joy becomes a tool—to co-regulate, sustain, and offer presence even amid scarcity.

4. Joy as Ongoing Practice: This isn’t just a four-day escape, but a chance to truly pause and re-set. We encourage participants to integrate joy practices into daily life—sparking, kindling, sustaining—as a way of fostering resilience and connection.

You don’t need to know exactly what this looks like yet, or even feel it. We’ll support each other in figuring this out together!

• We believe joy is a birthright and all of us hold creativity in our bones! This retreat is about taking intentional time in a very special natural setting to tap into the part of you that is grounded, creative, connected, and inspired.

• As licensed Creative Arts Therapists, we believe that creativity is simply another ‘way in’ to understanding ourselves and others. This retreat is intended to be inspiring and encourage self-reflection. You do not need to do, make, produce, or be anything!

• We are going to explore the practice of joy both collectively and individually, using our senses and faculties. This might look like reflective journaling sessions, expressive memory workshops, Hero’s journey challenges, guided gentle movement and breathwork, and solo time in nature, noticing what feeds you. Joy and creativity can show up in a shared meal, a laugh between friends, a kind word of encouragement, and moments of simply being present. This is enough.

We heard the feedback about expensive, all-inclusive retreats and adjusted to make our offering affordable and accessible!

💫 COST: You have multiple options to join us for 1, 2 or all 3 retreat days.

Friday, May 8th, 3-8pm

FIND JOY - Drama therapy workshop + welcome dinner - $449

Saturday, May 9th, 10am-4pm

CLAIM JOY - Talisman (jewelry-making) workshop with reflective prompts explored in nature, includes materials and take-home object. - $549

Sunday, May 10th, 10am-4pm

Embodied Creative and Expressive arts therapy workshop + brunch - $449

Bundle the Retreat! $1149

Payment Plans!

6 payments of $253 / 13 payments of $122

Pricing does not include accommodations, so you are free to find your own if you are staying out of town, or live locally!

🪶 WHAT IS INCLUDED: The retreat days include intensive creative arts therapy workshops, jewelry-making workshops, all materials, and a daily meal.

Due to the intimate nature of these retreats, we are not able to offer full refunds should something arise between registration and the retreat date, except within 48 hours of registration (you will receive a full refund within this window)

If you need to cancel before April 15th, we can offer a 50% refund. After April 15th, we can apply 50% of the cost to a future retreat. Payment plans must be honored within the 3 and 6 month timeframes.

If you are traveling, we strongly recommend travel insurance for this reason, and we will not be responsible for the loss of travel credits in the case of a cancellation.