Inner Journeys
Teen Rite of Passage
Come spend two weeks of your summer at the foot of Mt Mansfield exploring the land and your inner landscape. Have fun with friends, move your body, calm your mind and
explore the great outdoors.
The teenage years can be very confusing but there are many simple, time-tested traditions to help us find our center and clarify our vision. What makes us happy and feel good?
What sort of culture do we want to create and be a part of? Let's deep into the
mystery to find some pearls of wisdom.
July 19 – August 2, 2026
Overnight Retreat
Ages 14 – 19​
NorthernShire, Underhill VT
Sliding Scale: $1650 – 1950
Scholarships available
You will get the chance to share deeply with a small group of peers, learn mindfulness meditation and yoga, and play games including capture the flag with foam swords and lots of other wild fun!
Our retreats include a variety of activities to choose from including improvisational theater, creative writing, dancing, dream interpretation, wilderness skills, handcraft arts, cooking, and more.
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Daily Meditation
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Small Group Sharing
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Breathwork
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Wilderness Solo
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Medicine Circle
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Trance Dance
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Gender Workshops
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Exploring the Land
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Ceremonies
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Shamanic Journeying
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Bardic Circle
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Field Games
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Cuddle Piles
Featured ​Activities​​
Rites of Passage
94% of cultures worldwide and throughout history have provided their adolescents with a Rite of Passage experience to help, not only celebrate their move from childhood to adulthood, but to create the non-ordinary state change that is necessary for this maturation. Using wisdom from other cultures, we've created an updated, modern version of this process, complete with the necessary 'threshold' experiences that allow this healing and growth.
Nature Immersion
While all of our retreats help connect teens to the natural world, Inner Journeys particularly supports this process through daily Sit Spots and a Wilderness Solo. Teens spend much of their time in the woods, learning traditional living skills and meditation techniques based in nature awareness. After having been given the necessary tools, the teens spend up to 24 hours alone in the woods with only mentors checking in at intervals, followed by a community steam lodge. Both of these activities will help induce a transformational state of consciousness.
Breathwork
During Breathwork, we use a therapeutic modality that uses full and deep breathing as a means of healing and transformation. An energy charge is created in the body, and as the energy disperses, it serves to release, or to cleanse blockages, both physical and emotional. Possible experiences include resolution and release of current problems and unresolved childhood wounds, birth memories, past life remembrances, encounters with archetypes (gods and goddesses etc.), nature identification (i.e. the experience of being a tiger or a mountain), transcendence of time or space, and direct experiences of the primordial vibration in the form of inner light or music, and deep peace.
The process is gentle, safe, and loving, and most people have a deep, moving, and transformational experience. Breathwork is also quite healthy for the body. Breathers are fully conscious and in control throughout their experience. Breathwork has been shown to help with stress and anxiety management, chronic tension, respiratory problems, trauma and PTSD, emotional release, weight and body issues, relationship and birth issues, and self esteem, and frequently can provide a direct spiritual experience.
