Gather & Ground presents Glow & Ground: A Gentle Return to Yourself, Inside and Out is a restorative mini-retreat designed to help you pause, breathe, and reconnect with what steadies you. Through gentle practices, reflection, and guided experiences in nature, you’ll be invited to tend your nervous system and return to the parts of yourself that know how to rest, reset, and respond with care. Drawing on EMDR-informed resourcing techniques, you’ll learn simple grounding and bilateral practices you can carry with you long after the retreat ends. A nourishing facial — soothing to skin and spirit alike — offers a moment of pure tending, a reminder that care can be received as well as practiced. This is an opportunity to slow down, feel supported, and remember what it feels like to stand on solid ground again.
Meet The Facilitators
Anne Sheppard is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and an Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) certified therapist. She earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016. With experience in a variety of settings including holistic residential mental health, the school system, community health, in-patient psychiatry, and through creation of her own
private practice, she cultivates spaces where individuals heal at their own pace. She wholeheartedly believes in the efficacy of EMDR to help people move beyond shame and release patterns of being and doing that no longer serve them. By harnessing the importance of emotional safety, she facilitates nervous system regulation with compassion. Driven to bring the benefits of EMDR to her community, she engages
clients in a deliberate appreciative self-inquiry to identify and excavate maladaptive beliefs that allows for a reclaiming of the right to a joyful life.
Caroline Schultz is a licensed NC esthetician who offers restorative facials in her beautiful hometown of Hendersonville. She combines her passion for skincare with her knowledge of holistic wellness to create a full spectrum esthetic experience. Caroline’s journey into esthetics began in 2017 at The Aveda Institute Los Angeles. What initially started as an effort to understand her own skin condition quickly blossomed into a deep love for this field. Caroline aims to educate, inspire, and nurture her clients through this practice. Attaining a yoga teacher certification has further enriched Caroline’s approach to esthetics and selfcare, enabling her clients to feel grounded, rejuvenated & glowing from the inside out. Caroline is so excited and honored for the opportunity to bring her craft to Kanuga Conference Center!
Aimée Bostwick is a spiritual director whose work is rooted in The Episcopal Church and shaped by interspiritual, embodied practices. She holds a Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation from the Seminary of the Southwest, with additional formation in forest bathing, interfaith and interspiritual chaplaincy through the Order of Hildegard, and yoga (200-hour YTT completed). She serves Kanuga as Senior Advisor for Program Innovation, cultivating experiences that invite connection to self, community, the natural world, and the Sacred.
Rates:
Inn – Single Room – $680
Guest House – Single Room – $660
Cottage – Single Room- $640
Commuter (all meals) – $430
Early Arrival on Thursday, August 20th – $180
Friday, August 21st, 2026
4pm – 6pm – Check-in – Lobby
5pm – 5:30pm – Kanuga Newcomer Orientation – Fireplace Lounge
6:30pm – Gather Round the Fire: Welcome & Community Gathering – Fireplace Lounge
7:30pm – 8:30pm – Evening Experiences (Night Hike, Stargazing, Meditation)
Saturday, August 22nd, 2026
7am – High Tea Hike (optional)
7:30am – 9am – Breakfast – Dining Hall
9:30am – Opening Reflection/Meditation
11:30pm – 1pm – Lunch – Dining Hall
1pm – 4:30pm – Sabbath Processing Time (Art, Hiking, Napping, Journaling)
4:30pm – Group Gathering
5:30pm – Farm to Table Dinner – Lakefront Pavillion
7:30pm – Evening Community Activity – 2nd Floor Inn Lounge
Sunday, August 23rd, 2026
7am – Yoga
7:30am – 9am – Breakfast – Dining Hall
9:15am – Closing Forest Bathing Session – St Francis Chapel
11:30am – Lunch – Dining Hall
Retreat guests may choose between will stay in Kanuga’s Historic Inn rooms, a single room in our lovely guest houses or a single room in our quaint cottages. You can view pictures of the accommodations here.
Meals are included in the program fee. We serve three meals a day, buffet-style in our dining room. Please let us know of any dietary restrictions when completing your online registration.
- Breakfast: 7:30-9 a.m.
- Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
- Supper: 5:30-7 p.m.
Gather & Ground | Packing List
Kanuga has been a gathering place for a very long time. Our hope is that you feel truly comfortable here—comfortable enough to soften, to rest, and to fully receive this experience. We invite you to see this time as a season of preparation: preparation through grounding, remembering, and nourishing your body and soul.
In honoring Kanuga as a place of gathering, we do so with gratitude for those who first knew this land as a place to come together, and with care for how we gather here now.
To help you feel most at home during your time at Kanuga, we suggest bringing the following:
A journal and a favorite pen
A yoga mat and any props you enjoy using
Comfy, casual clothes for movement and rest
A water bottle
A book to read during quiet moments
A reusable tea cup (we’ll have plenty of tea!)
A seat cushion if you enjoy sitting on the floor
Bring what helps you settle in, slow down, and feel supported. Everything else can be gathered here.