Registration Closed: Michigan Teen Retreat
July 20th – 25th, 2022
Weber Center in Adrian, MI
Please review our COVID-19 Policy before applying.
Be loved + accepted for who you are
Welcome to a community where there’s no performance, no backlash + no negativity – you just get to be YOU. Come explore, express yourself, and learn tools to compassionately guide yourself through difficult situations in your life.
What will I learn?
Handle stress + anxiety
Learn how to calm yourself down and relax when you’re in high-stress situations. Gain tools that you can apply to school, sleep, relationships + life in general!
Find self-love
Stop trying to “fit in” and get comfortable in your own skin. This is a safe space where people love being themselves and want to support you!
Navigate difficult emotions
Learn how to unpack and unravel difficult emotions. Be kinder to yourself + understand how your mind works. Gain tools to get yourself unstuck when you feel overwhelmed.
Who’s teaching?
Our world-class teachers allow you to be fully flawed and authentic – just like them! We’re here to support you, every step of the way.

Mark Wax

Mark Wax is deeply grateful to be working with iBme. Mark has been practicing meditative arts for 20+ years, and is a passionate student/practitioner/devotee of several culturally rooted wisdom traditions. He has worked for Yoga International, The Himalayan Institute, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He has had the privilege to spend many months of his life on silent meditation retreats as well as 5+ years deepening his practice through living in spiritually-centered communities. He has multiple certificates as a yoga teacher and an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist.
Mark has worn many hats at iBme since first mentoring on a retreat in 2015. He participated in the first cohort of iBme’s Teacher Training and currently helps lead retreats and other programming as well as serves on the Teachers Advisory Council and a few other committees inside of iBme’s collaborative leadership system.
Mark currently lives in Northern New Mexico and spends his free time learning music and language, connecting to the natural world, supporting grassroots activism for heart-centered systemic change, and writing poems that sometimes come out pretty good if he may say so…

Ofosu Jones-Quartey

Ofosu Jones-Quartey is a meditation teacher and musician from the Washington DC area. He has been teaching mindfulness and meditation to young people and adults since 2004. He is currently the male voice on the Balance meditation app and he teaches meditation and mindfulness classes and retreats around the country when travel is possible and virtually when it is not. Ofosu has taught and led retreats at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, The Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, Brooklyn Zen Center, Cleveland Insight and more.Ofosu is also an accomplished hip hop artist and author. He recently released an album entitled “In This Moment” and has performed at the Kennedy Center in support of the project. His live events are considered a hip-hop and meditation experience and he is a member of the DC Chapter of the Recording Academy. Ofosu’s children’s book “You Are Enough” is currently available on Amazon, a follow up children’s book will be released in Fall of 2022.Ofosu’s philosophy is that everyone is deserving of their own love and compassion and that inner work is the way in which we begin to change the world for the better. All of the work he does in the world is meant to support this idea. Ofosu currently lives in Rockville, Maryland with his wife and their four children.

Cara Lai

Cara Lai started meditating over ten years ago, and began sitting long retreats regularly in 2011. Most of her practice has been in the IMS/Spirit Rock tradition, although she has explored many other avenues of self-discovery. She seeks to find freedom through her own intuitive process, however that may vary from the ways we normally think about Buddhism, and to help others do the same. Nature, intuition, and the body are all integral to her teaching. She teaches for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education and works as a mindfulness-based psychotherapist, artist, and occasional wilderness guide. She has a Masters in Social Work from the University of Vermont; and in the past has worked in a therapeutic high school, an adoption agency, and various outdoor education settings. In 2020 she will complete the Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program. In her spare time she enjoys walking and watching plants grow.

Tanzanite Msola

Tanzanite has a long-term interest and passion in supporting young people academically, emotionally, and helping them achieve a creative outlet. Tanzanite has spent the past 6 years in Massachusetts working with young people from all different cultural and economic background, with all levels of ability and disability. Now, as a recent transplant to NYC, Tanzanite currently assists with the Awake Youth Project at the Brooklyn Zen Center. Tanzanite was introduced to meditation at a young age by attending the Insight Meditation Society’s (IMS) Family and Teen Retreats. As Tanzanite leaned into ‘adulthood’ she returned as a staff volunteer for IMS Teen Retreats and for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) Teen Retreats. Tanzanite has found it truly rewarding and a privilege to witness the positive effects of hands-on projects, building a personal connection, and understanding that each moment is a learning experience through mindfulness. Tanzanite is excited to continue chillin and growing with the iBme family.

Kiki Williams

Kiki Williams (she/they) is a black, queer, interdisciplinary teacher, meditator, yogi, and dancer. She is both a movement and mindfulness-enthusiast, weaving together these modalities to support a fully-embodied approach to both individual and collective healing.
After spending 9 beautiful years in Brooklyn, NY, Kiki now lives in Oakland, CA. She is propelled by the belief that all people have the innate right to thrive, experience unmitigated joy, and to be free, beginning with the freedom we each have the capacity to feel in and through our own bodies. Much of her own practice comes out of weekly hiking trips with her family during childhood, where she was introduced to a quiet and connection with the earth that she would only later come to understand as a profound source of wisdom and deeply necessary for healing. Her earth-based practices lead her to receive her 200-hr YTT with Greenhouse Holistic (Brooklyn, NY) in 2014, children’s yoga certification with Bent On Learning (New York, NY) in 2015, and a 300-hr YTT with Abhaya Yoga (Brooklyn, NY) in 2019. In Kiki’s classes you’ll find an authenticity of presence in the form of story-telling, making mistakes, laughing together about it, and care and attention to everyone in the room. She draws from her dance background, various yoga traditions, and her practice of Buddhism and meditation to craft classes that engage the body, quiet the mind, and soften the heart.
Suggested Age
15 to 19 years
Cost
Sliding scale.
Learn More.
Duration
6 days, 5 nights
Application Deadline
July 13, midnight
Dates
Starts: July 20, 2022
Drop-off: 4:00 pm
Ends: July 25, 2022
Pick-up: 1:00pm
COVID-19 Policy

What happens on retreat?
Meditation
Learn mindfulness practices such as breath + body awareness + mindful walking. Beginners welcome!
Workshops
Explore activities like painting, improv, and writing poetry. Pick + choose what interests you, or lead a workshop yourself!
Dance Party
Dance + get weird without worrying about what other people think of you at our online dance party.
Small Groups
Laugh, get vulnerable and play games like “sweet seat” to connect more deeply with a small group of teens.
Wisdom Talks
Cuddle up with a blanket! Listen to talks about relationships, emotions + applying mindfulness to daily life.
Yoga
Move + release through guided daily yoga practice.

“iBme helped me grow to be the kind of person who I am, which is a person who’s calm and centered and has the skills to just breathe in moments where it feels like I’m not able to breathe and life is going by so fast.”
– Betye A.N., teen
Why go on retreat?
Feel More Connected
We’ll offer your teen tools to open their heart + connect more deeply with themselves – and with you!
Help Them Find Their Tribe
Let your teen develop meaningful relationships in a community where they’ll be accepted for who they are.
Take the stress off
You don’t have to provide for every aspect of your kid’s mental + emotional well-being. Let us do the work!
Peace of Mind
Worry less, knowing your teen has a support system.
Make Meaningful Relationships
You always have a friend at iBme! Connect with people in a safe, welcoming space where you don’t have to “fit in” to be loved.
Find Your Center
Gain tools to calm yourself down, even in high-stress situations.
Make Happiness Easier
Learn how to release tension, pain + self-judgment so you can feel light inside.
Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin
Love + accept yourself exactly as you are.
Want more information?
Sign-up to get more details & reminders for our next retreat.
Is iBme for me?
This retreat is for you if you…
- Want to connect deeply with other caring, playful people. Dorks welcome!
- Are interested in knowing yourself more deeply
- Are willing to try something new
This retreat is not for you if you…
- Your parents are forcing you to come
- You’re struggling with serious mental health issues
- You’re doing this instead of going to therapy

“I used to struggle a lot with who I was and trying to fit in. iBme helped me become a lot more accepting not only of myself, but of others. Everybody’s so accepting and caring – really open and willing to share. You always have a friend at iBme.”
– Nikita M., Teen Retreat Alumni