Marie Garlock, PhD: Mobilizer. Educator. Co-creator.

Retreats

Retreats, support circles, and ceremonies/events help develop practical meditation skills, cultivate creative rejuvenation practices, and mark important passages in our lives.

Welcoming, skillful leadership invites participants to fully inhabit travels across life's clarifying thresholds of birth, marriage, dying, illness, and pursuits of healthwellness, and quality of life through them all. My leadership approach for retreats focuses on a “pentad of well-being” that encompasses our physical, mental, social, spiritual, and emotional wellness.

Timing

  • Retreats are day-long, half-day, or over the course of a weekend

  • Hosted ceremonies are for several hours at a time

Leadership

  • Partnership between Marie and existing groups' leadership or clergy is always welcome!

Locations

  • Events can be held at sites chosen by host organizations.

  • Access to day or night use at a site in central NC (labyrinth, walking trails, indoor use but no overnights) and overnight use in western NC (4 bedrooms, 4 double beds, 6 single beds, 1 crib, for up to 14 individuals).

Background

  • Retreat events and leadership emerged out of my participation in a Cancer Centers' "Chronic Stress Management Group" and a will to respond to the needs and requests from colleagues, mentors, and my own family and friends for time and space devoted to quiet and embodied rejuvenation while facing life stresses or health challenges.

  • Hosted ceremonies emerged out of friends' and colleagues' requests to design and lead events unique to their life transitions and communities of care. I’ve hosted:

  • 2 birthing circles for couples and individuals who are parents-to-be

  • 3 weddings across traditions

  • 4 cancer support group day-long retreats

  • 8 rituals to promote quality of life in the death/dying process (family, individual, and community-specific for persons facing advanced cancers and other illnesses; many with collaborator Rev. Stacy Grove, an interfaith chaplain and experienced sound healing musician)


Sample Formats

Retreat for Cancer Patients, Health Providers, Caregivers

Day and weekend long retreats are offered for current and former patients, caregivers, and health providers who face cancer personally and professionally, as well as for people who have lost loved ones. Retreat incorporates resources for:

  • mindfulness meditation and body-centering through breath, visualization and simple movement

  • tea rituals, a devotional library hour (art, meditation, interfaith or inspirational texts), and labyrinth walking

  • writing in nature and accessible nature hikes for persons experiencing fatigue, physical pain, and with mobility differences

  • photography, multimedia visual art, and collage as meditation practice

  • dance and movement indoors or outdoors to embody individual and collective prayer

Past retreats have been held for groups of up to 12 participants, on commission. Commissioned by Well of Mercy Monastery (Harmony, NC): Wellness and Wisdom Body Wednesday: A Day-long InterPlay Retreat for Women's Spiritual Discernment (June 2016). Created for Cancer Centers of NC, Rex, Duke, and UNC Hospital System Patient and Caregiver Participants, with co-facilitator Harding Birkhead, RN, BSN, M.Div (all in Hillsborough, NC): Space, Peace, Breath (January 2014), and Filling the Well: Compassion for Self and Others (June 2014) and Cultivating Clarity: Self-care and Restoration (July 2015).

 

Events, Ceremonies, and Support Circles

Circle events and ceremonies are held for curated community groups experiencing significant transitions--such as birth, marriage, death--or seeking in-depth education and dialogue on a particular subject. These include evening events, day-long and weekend retreats on specific themes.

 

Cancer Support and Meditation Group Programming

Please inquire if interested in joining an ongoing meditation and cancer support group for current and former patients, family members and caregivers. The group is focused on chronic stress reduction for persons undergoing or recovering from treatments, managing caregiving, or going through grief. It meets in Raleigh/Cary, NC area. All are welcome.