The Deeper Well “Re-Membering the Healer’s Spirit” retreats are set in the tranquil, nature steeped setting of Three Rivers, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills. This three-day workshop was originally designed as a retreat to support and renew health care professionals experiencing burnout, but is also a great fit for artists, writers, and anyone wanting to delve deeper into areas of discomfort in their busy lives and reconnect with the source of their creativity and well-being.

The home base for the retreat is the instructor’s home located at the base of Case Mountain, tucked into Salt Creek Canyon, in Three Rivers. Wildflower meadows and blue oak woodland surround the structure. The natural mountain setting plays an intergral part in the personal unfoldment and organic discovery encouraged in the retreat.

Each retreat is limited to eight persons to allow for a more intimate experience.  It includes individual reading assignments, some creative projects including mandala-making as a contemplative exercise, gathering together for group sharing, and a meditative walk among the Giant Sequoia trees at Crescent Meadow in Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park. If snow has closed the road to the meadow, an alternate site with a shorter walk will be chosen, along with time spent in nature at lower elevations.

Retreat Objectives
1. To present the participant with an opportunity to engage job burnout, or life burnout, as a creative process, one that is dynamic, organic and inherently healthy.
2. To provide foundational information about origins and stages of burnout, both from the individual’s perspective and within a broader professional perspective.
3. To allow for a retreat setting, in a natural environment, to encourage the participant to read, journal, and discuss a diverse range of ideas, approaches and bases of knowledge about many aspects of healing.
4. To offer practical ways to experience burnout transformation.
5. To support the person in this experiential exploration in ways that are compatible within a holistic healing philosophy.
6. To nurture what happens without judgment, preconceived ideas or pressure. To allow for a natural enfoldment of the person’s own process, one that intertwines within the person’s professional practice.
7. To serve and support the person’s re-membering of spirit, enhancing the dignity of the human spirit and bringing healing and authenticity to the world.

The retreat offers 24 hours of Continuing Education for California and Nevada nurses via California Nursing Board Provider #13161.

About the Instructor:
Elsah Cort, RN, CMT, graduated from the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1969. She has worked in many fields of nursing, including psychiatric nursing, operating room, pediatrics, ICU, hemodialysis, and recently seven years in home health. She has been teaching The Deeper Well retreats since 2005. Through her teaching and writing, she is now dedicating her professional work to the care of nurses and others, who have job burnout.

She has lived in Three Rivers since 1977, with a personal history of coming to visit family here since the 1950's. She also is a collage artist, who organizes the Three Rivers Artists’ Biennial Studio Tour.

Elsah additionally teaches a Craniosacral Work Primer workshop as part of The Deeper Well. She has been practicing craniosacral work since 1997. She has completed the curriculum in Visionary Craniosacral Work with The Milne Institute and studied with Charles Ridley (Biodynamic Craniosacral Work) and with The Upledger Institute.

Seasons Open: Retreats are offered throughout the year. See website for schedule.

Please do not bring pets to the retreat.