5.0
Verified
Silent retreat w Jayne
Amazing. Transformative. I’m still processing. The nature, the food, Menla is so amazing. The experience with the group, our facilitator m, was deeply healing.
Softening Into Ourselves: Nourishing Spirit, Deepening Connection
Cameron's Staff Pick
Top Rated
Softening Into Ourselves: Nourishing Spirit, Deepening Connection
4.8364 reviews
375 Panterkill Road PO Box 70 Phoenicia, NY 12464 United States
November 9 - 12, 2026
About this Retreat
Sue Lembeck-Edens brings warmth, wisdom, and more than three decades of experience to her work as an educator, facilitator, and guide in body-mind practices. A Licensed Massage Therapist, Dance/Movement Therapist, and yoga instructor, Sue’s teaching is grounded, imaginative, and enlivening. Her approach emphasizes integration, curiosity, and collaboration, drawing on Eastern healing traditions, Five Element Theory, anatomy, and kinesiology.
As co-founder of Three of Cups Retreats, Sue creates thoughtful, creative, and deeply nourishing experiences that help women explore their authentic selves through mindful movement, creative arts, and community. Sue lives near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Rachel Mefferd is an acupuncturist, dance-movement therapist, and lifelong student of the body’s wisdom. For more than two and a half decades, she has guided people toward greater balance, resilience, and connection through the practices of Chinese medicine, therapeutic movement, and compassionate inquiry.
As co-founder of Three of Cups Retreats, Rachel creates spaces where women can slow down, listen deeply to themselves, and reconnect with what matters most. Her retreats weave together movement, creativity, nature, meaningful conversation, and restorative stillness, inviting participants to fully engage and discover the wisdom that emerges when they gather in community. She lives in Claremont California in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains.
Details of this retreat
Much of our lives ask us to lean forward—to respond, manage, and care for others. This retreat offers a different rhythm. Together, we will practice leaning back into support, cultivating receptivity and trusting stillness. We will explore what becomes possible when we shift from effort to presence, from yang to yin, and from holding ourselves up to allowing ourselves to be softly held.
Mindful movement, dance and art will be the central pathways into this exploration. As we dance, we will notice the gestures, patterns, and rhythmic qualities of expression that naturally draw us. What actions feel familiar? Which ones feel dynamic and enlivening? We will also gently explore aspects of ourselves that may have been hidden, neglected, or pushed aside in service of who we felt we needed to be. With curiosity rather than judgment, we will welcome these forgotten parts back into relationship.
Through guided inquiry, we will begin to recognize the stories our bodies have been telling and the possibilities they have yet to express. Together, we will discover “our dance not done”—the impulses, and expressions that may have been interrupted or left waiting for a more welcoming moment. We will create space for these unfinished dances to emerge and unfold. Written reflections and art explorations will help us anchor our discoveries, weaving embodied experience into awareness and insight.
Our Women’s Circle will provide a sacred space for witnessing and being witnessed. A place for stories, dreams, longings, and discoveries to be shared as we practice deep listening, remembering the healing that emerges when we gather in community and speak from the heart.
Schedule:
Monday, November 9
3 - 6 pm Arrive & Check-in
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Welcome, The Art of Softening; Bon Fire
Tuesday, November 10
7:30 am “Greet the Day” Labyrinth Walking Meditation
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Meeting Ourselves with Curiosity, Qi Motion, Art & Writing Explorations
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 5 pm Weaving Connection; Somatic Movement, Yoga and Reflections
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Making Sacred Objects That Hold Our Stories
Wednesday, November 11
7:30 am “Greet the Day” Cycadean Rhythms
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 - 12 pm Listening within; finding the rhythms that move us
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 pm Discovering the Dance Not Yet Done and Journaling
4 - 6 pm Sharing Our Voices Listening Circle
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Healing Sound Bath
Thursday, November 12
7 - 11 am Check out of rooms
7:30 am Closing Circle
8 - 9 am Breakfast
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch & Departure
*Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Mindful movement, dance and art will be the central pathways into this exploration. As we dance, we will notice the gestures, patterns, and rhythmic qualities of expression that naturally draw us. What actions feel familiar? Which ones feel dynamic and enlivening? We will also gently explore aspects of ourselves that may have been hidden, neglected, or pushed aside in service of who we felt we needed to be. With curiosity rather than judgment, we will welcome these forgotten parts back into relationship.
Through guided inquiry, we will begin to recognize the stories our bodies have been telling and the possibilities they have yet to express. Together, we will discover “our dance not done”—the impulses, and expressions that may have been interrupted or left waiting for a more welcoming moment. We will create space for these unfinished dances to emerge and unfold. Written reflections and art explorations will help us anchor our discoveries, weaving embodied experience into awareness and insight.
Our Women’s Circle will provide a sacred space for witnessing and being witnessed. A place for stories, dreams, longings, and discoveries to be shared as we practice deep listening, remembering the healing that emerges when we gather in community and speak from the heart.
Schedule:
Monday, November 9
3 - 6 pm Arrive & Check-in
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Welcome, The Art of Softening; Bon Fire
Tuesday, November 10
7:30 am “Greet the Day” Labyrinth Walking Meditation
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 12 pm Meeting Ourselves with Curiosity, Qi Motion, Art & Writing Explorations
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 - 5 pm Weaving Connection; Somatic Movement, Yoga and Reflections
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Making Sacred Objects That Hold Our Stories
Wednesday, November 11
7:30 am “Greet the Day” Cycadean Rhythms
8 - 9 am Breakfast
9:30 - 12 pm Listening within; finding the rhythms that move us
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch
2 pm Discovering the Dance Not Yet Done and Journaling
4 - 6 pm Sharing Our Voices Listening Circle
6 - 7 pm Dinner
7:30 - 9 pm Healing Sound Bath
Thursday, November 12
7 - 11 am Check out of rooms
7:30 am Closing Circle
8 - 9 am Breakfast
12:30 - 1:30 pm Lunch & Departure
*Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Getting Here
Menla, 375 Panterkill Road PO Box 70 Phoenicia, NY 12464 United States
Accommodation
Deluxe Queen
Deluxe Queen Room with Queen Bed and Private Bathroom
Free Phone and Hi-Speed Wifi Internet Access Available
Air Conditioning
All Rooms in Lhasa are Handicap-Accessible, Including Four Rooms with Wheelchair Accessible Showers.
Deluxe Queen Rooms are Available in Lhasa Inn and Kathmandu House
* Please note that rates include meals and accommodations
Deluxe Double (Shared Room)
Deluxe Double Room with Two Full Size Beds and Private Bathroom
Free Phone and Hi-Speed Wifi Internet Access Available
Air Conditioning
All Rooms in Lhasa are Handicap-Accessible, Including Four Rooms with Wheelchair Accessible Showers.
Deluxe Double Rooms with Private Bathrooms are Located in the Lhasa Inn
* Please note rates include meals and accommodations.
This booking is for one bed in a double shared room: We May Assign You a Roommate if You Do Not Register with One.
Customer Reviews
Verified
5.0
Verified
Cultivating Joy
Led by Jayne Gumpel, this retreat was a combination of guided meditation, forest bathing and making art. It created a loving atmosphere to go inside in a safe space. Jayne’s mantra is the group is the medicine and by the end of the retreat that became perfectly clear.
5.0
Verified
Fantastic stay and retreat experience!
I was so impressed with the quality of my stay at Menla! The natural beauty that surrounds the campus is rejuvenating and peaceful! The food was exquisite and lovingly prepared! My room was beautiful and very clean. My retreat with Banafsheh was top-notch! Highly recommend Menla for your next retreat!
5.0
Verified
aa hidden gem that will inspire you for what life used to be , great air, food, water, shelter, and great people!!
I just wish I knew about this place years and years ago. It is a piece of Paradise
with love to all of you at Menla
God bless Robert Thurman for what he created!!
with love to all of you at Menla
God bless Robert Thurman for what he created!!
5.0
Verified
This place, this space, this experience
I am a man of the ear,th my love for this amazing planet and our connection to her is without lines, borders, walls. I am so pleased to experience the beautiful space that is Menla. Equally as beautiful is the staff that serviced our work.
