Northeast Teen Retreat
July 6th – 11th, 2023
Wisdom House in Litchfield, CT
Please review our COVID-19 Policy before applying.
Be loved + accepted for who you are
Mindfulness retreats provide young people with the rare opportunity to experience uninterrupted and genuine insight into their own life experience while connecting with their peers and mindfulness teachers in a welcoming and safe community. Come for the fun & friends. Stay for the calm & community.
Retreat details
Suggested Age
15 to 19 years
Cost
Sliding scale: 1% of annual household income, up to $2,500. Learn More.
Duration + Location
6 days, 5 nights at Wisdom House in Litchfield, CT
Application Deadline
June 22, midnight
Dates
Starts: July 6, 2023
Drop-off: 4:00 pm
Ends: July 11, 2023
Pick-up: 1:00 pm
COVID-19 Policy
Who’s teaching?

Zac Ispa-Landa

Zac Ispa-Landa has practiced and studied insight meditation, mindfulness, and other awareness practices for over 20 years. He’s deeply inspired by the role contemplative practices can play in supporting our individual and collective journey toward flourishing and sustainability. He became devoted to awareness practices in his early 20s and has spent thousands of hours in meditation and 100+ days on silent retreat.
At iBme, he has the joy of teaching Teen Retreats, Harvard Retreats, and the Mindfulness Teacher Training Program. He’s also a Senior Lecturer in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at University of Vermont, where he designs and teaches courses on environmental justice, beekeeping, environmental assessment, sustainability, and mindfulness. His work focuses on mentoring students in developing their capacity to create conditions for positive change in complex socio-ecological systems. He has many years of experience creating transformative education environments with a focus on contemplative practices, nature connection, and relationship. As an ecologist, beekeeper, meditator, and father, Zac has deep respect for interdependence, diversity, complexity, self-organization, gratitude, and the transformative power of awareness. He aspires towards embodied liberation, wisdom, and compassion in all domains of his life.
Zac lives in Winooski, Vermont with his partner, son, cat, and tens of thousands of honey bees.

Sara Shapouri

Sara Shapouri is an Iranian-American meditation and mindfulness instructor, artist, musician and lawyer. Sara’s experience with sharing mindfulness and meditation include curriculum development and instruction at Awake Youth Project, a program offering meditation and mentoring to teenagers in Brooklyn, and teaching meditation retreats with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. She has completed teacher training programs with the Interdependence Project in 2016 and with Inward Bound in 2018. She has also trained in conflict mediation with the New York Center for Interpersonal Development, completed the year-long caregiver training program at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care in 2015, and in 2019 finished the Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy in Complex Trauma training. Sara is currently participating in the Community Dharma Leaders Program through Spirit Rock and is also in the Dharmapala Training through Sacred Mountain Sangha. While she is currently retired from the practice of law, she remains committed to social justice, particularly issues related to human rights and children’s rights.

Josh Kehler

Bio coming soon!

Nina Bryce

Nina [she/her] supports people in cultivating embodied presence as a way of coming home to themselves. She is a mindfulness facilitator rooted in multiple lineages of meditative practice, including both stillness and movement. Starting with her spiritual roots in her Jewish-Buddhist upbringing in a family of meditators, through her teen years as a student and eventually teacher of yoga, and into her training in Buddhist spiritual care and secular mindfulness education, Nina is grateful for a life path that has allowed her to explore contemplative practice in many forms. Nina holds a Master of Divinity, focused in the Buddhist Ministry Initiative, from Harvard Divinity School. Through her graduate studies as an M.Div, she is trained in facilitation of multifaith contemplative practice, interfaith chaplaincy, and leading mindfulness programs in both religious and secular settings, ranging from teen camp at a monastery to the cancer floor of a hospital. Her formal meditation practice and teaching has been shaped most by the Insight Meditation tradition, in which she was raised and continues to practice, and by the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Nina is also trained as an RYT-200 yoga teacher in Vinyasa and Kundalini yoga, and her approach to leading mindful movement is informed by both yoga and modern dance. Nina is currently training as a non-denominational Spiritual Director with Still Harbor. She completed the iBme Mindfulness Teacher Training in 2018, and has been involved with iBme teen and college mindfulness retreats since 2014. She especially loves LGBTQIA+ mindfulness community, both as a participant & as a facilitator. As a Mindfulness Director with Mindfulness Director Initiative, she currently leads mindfulness programs at Harvard College. Nina is energized by working with young adults, because she believes that these years are ripe with potential for inquiry into core questions of who we are and how we relate to the world. She is inspired by the way that youth long for, and create, spaces where they can reflect honestly on their experiences, learn to take care of themselves and others, and build authentic, loving communities that support deep well-being and freedom.

Soroosh Vafapoor

Soroosh first encountered mindfulness while travelling in Thailand. Since then, he has spent time in different retreat settings all across the world, always looking for different ways and expressions of mindfulness practice. He believes that each individual can work to create their own understanding and practice of mindfulness through creative reflection and exploration of themselves. For Soroosh, mindfulness extends ‘beyond the mat’ and into the everyday activities and interactions that we sometimes take for granted. His knowledge of mindfulness and contemplative practice is complimented by his years of experience as an overseas experiential educator and as a community mediator. Soroosh currently works at an after school recreational facility for youth in Toronto. If you ask him nicely, he’ll teach you how to clap with one hand.

Jen Zehler

Bio coming soon!
What happens on retreat?
Meditation
Learn mindfulness practices such as breath & body awareness and mindful walking. Beginners (more than) welcome!
Workshops
Explore activities like painting, improv, journaling, and creative writing. Pick and choose what interests you, or lead a workshop yourself!
Dance Party
Dance without worrying about what other people think of you. We all have our unique ways of dancing (or not – you don’t have to dance either)!
Small Groups
Laugh in good company, take the opportunity to be 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 and learn how to tend to relationships, emotions, the challenges of our times, and more – it’s all about applying mindfulness to daily life.
Yoga
Move and release through guided daily yoga practice.
Hear from participants themselves
Being New on Retreat
Working with Stress
Fear of Being Yourself
Being Skeptical
Want more information?
Sign-up to get more details & reminders for this retreat.
Benefits of attending retreat
Feel More Connected
We’ll offer your teen tools to open their heart, deepen their sense of self-compassion, and connect more deeply with themselves – and with you!
Help Them Find Their People
Your teen will develop meaningful relationships in a community of peers and mindfulness teachers alike, where they’ll be accepted for who they are.
Take the Stress Off
You don’t have to provide for every aspect of your teen’s mental and emotional well-being. The mindulness practices your teen learns on retreat can offer additional support!
Peace of Mind
Worry less, knowing your teen will learn tools to compassionately and mindfully meet every moment of their life.
Forge 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, to make friends, to be yourself.
Find Your Center
Gain tools to deepen understanding of your inner life, and apply skills for navigating your thoughts and emotions.
Make Happiness Easier
Learn how to release tension, pain, and self-judgment through the practice of mindfulness.
Share Who You Are
Authentically share who you are with your peers in small groups, workshops, creative/art shows, during walks in the woods, and more.
