Having gone on retreat many times during my life, and annually during the last ten years, I have found this time to be extremely valuable in helping me to look at where I am in my life and discern how I am on the right path and where I may have deviated. An intentional retreat for helping one to receive clarity on specific areas of one's life is a powerful intentional tool for growth and spiritual maturity. In addition to the potential benefits of clarity, being in beautiful, quiet nature surroundings, and being nourished with good food and hospitality, allows one to renew one's vitality, and to step away from the habits and concerns of everyday life to enjoy focused time in exploring the heart's desires related to how we are living our lives.
(the first being in 2012) is to gather with like-minded and like-hearted Healing Touch students, practitioners and instructors to share in meaningful conversation about our self care and our HT practices, while also alternating with soulful quiet time to be open to revelations about one's life and practice. We will also enjoy musical soul food and healing experiences together.
SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS NEWSLETTER FOR PHOTOS, VIDEOS AND EVALS OF THE 2012 RETREAT.....
2014 Healing Touch Shadowcliff Retreat for Level 2 and Beyond



Two left photos of retreat by Tara Mglej; photo on right is of Kenneth Goff, Sound Healing Musician
This will be a low key, contemplative, but richly interactive time to learn via interaction and silence, with interested HT students and practitioners
(Level 2 and above) who want to explore the
topic of
“Balancing Self Care and Service: Supporting My Energy in Order to be the Best Person and Practitioner I Can Be”. The price is very affordable and includes everything ($550), the food is delicious and nutritious, the scenery is spectacular, the accommodations are cozy, the location is sacred to Healing Touch, and the company will be the BEST! There will be three (optional) sound healing
gong baths to raise your vibrational frequency, and time for joyful dancing and movement!
Click here for more information about the
2014 retreat.
Click here for an eight minute
film on the 2012 retreat, a
slideshow of the 2012 retreat and/or for a summary of
evaluations by attendees of the 2012 event.
Who is this retreat for?
The theme of this retreat is relevant to any HT Level 2 student or above who wants to explore her/his HT and personal self care practices in a safe, trusting, soulful, joyful and healing environment with like-hearted and like-minded others. While most will choose to attend our daily large and small group conversations and sharing, all the events are optional.There will be opportunities for group and 1:1 healing sessions, for sharing in music and singing, for sound healing experiences through three gong baths, meditation time, and opportunities for story-telling and good times.
You can stay an extra day if you like! Shadowcliff is offering anyone interested the option of staying an extra night (through June 18th) for those who might like an extra day of beauty, peace, alone time, nurturing and/or friendship. You can email Carl Sniffen (Carl@Shadowcliff.org) to reserve your extra day/night.
More about the cost of the retreat...
I have kept the cost low to keep it
affordable for those with limited income. Registrations for the retreat are flowing in. We are hoping to host 44 attendees, which is what we had in 2012. The $550 cost includes tuition, room and board, meals, three gong baths, taxes and tips.We can offer you a payment plan if needed.
The gong immersions are offered by Kenneth Goff, who will be offering a keynote presentation on gong immersion at the August Healing Touch Program Worldwide Conference held in Chicago.
Those interested in staying an extra day/night can set that up with Carl Sniffen, Shadowcliff's Retreat Director.
What were the 2012 Attendees' Evaluations like?
Click here to read the summary of evaluations from 2012 if you need any assurance about the quality or energy of what we will be co-creating at the 2014 retreat.
Click here to view the short video on the 2102 retreat or to view a
slideshow from the 2012 event. Click here to view a slideshow of my 2013 personal retreat to Shadowcliff with two HT friends, Kathy Osborn and Susie Rolando.
More questions?
Call or email Deb O'Sheerin at 303.447.3264 and DOHealingTouch@gmail.com. If you are interested in a
payment plan or have other questions about pricing or room arrangments, Deb can help you.
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Conscious Dying Institute: Rooted in Caring Science and in Alignment with Healing Touch Practices....An Organization to Know About!
(photo is of myself and Tarron Estes, Founder)

I had the honor of presenting a block on Healing Touch and the Chakra Spread intervention on February 20th at a five day workshop sponsored by the
Conscious Dying Institute, founded by
Tarron Estes in Boulder, Colorado. I have been involved in hospice nursing, home wakes and green funerals for many years, so I was thrilled about meeting Tarron and hearing about her noble and much needed work. Fortunately for me, she also happens to live just a mile away here in Boulder, CO! She is also a faculty member with the
Watson Caring Science Institute and her work is all in alignment with Caring Science and Dr. Jean Watson's work (which is one of the theoretical frameworks for the Healing Touch Program (HTP) curriculum). I believe that holistic practitioners and the Healing Touch community will want to be aware of the Conscious Dying Institute. Tarron will be writing an article or two for HTP's
Energy Magazine soon, so stay tuned!
I was able to attend two of the five workshop days and to hear three other presenters beyond Tarron including:
(1)
Major Brad Gallup,Retired Marine,Entrepreneur, Personal Leadership Mentor, Military Grief Facilitator, Sky Horse Equine Guided Educator, and founder of TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors - Grief support for families of those who have died serving their country): and
(2)
Karen Van Vuuren, friend, fellow Waldorf mom, and founder of
Natural Transitions, an organization based in Boulder, CO., which teaches communities how to create home wakes and to be your own funeral director; . Karen is also a filmmaker (produced and directed
Dying Wish) and the producer/director of
Go In Peace, a documentary on helping veterans come to peace with their traumas and military history before they die. This film features Deborah Grassman and Ed Tick, respected leaders in the field of PTSD (
Post
Traumatic
Stress
Disorder, which they refer to as
Post Terror Soul Distress). This one hour film created a steady stream of tears in myself and the other attendees, but they included tears of hope based on our intention that this film be seen by all vets, their families and all caretakers of our wonderful veterans. Interestingly, the majority of workshop attendees had fathers who served in World War II, including my dad, Frank Poznanski. See the link above to see a trailer and to learn about future viewing and spreading of this important film on healing.
In addition to meeting the other guest faculty at the workshop, I made some wonderful connections with nursing leaders in a large hospital system and with Kaiser Permanente. These amazing nurse leaders are active in caring science as well, and are interested in bringing more holistic care to their communities with both Conscious Dying and Healing Touch. It was very exciting to make another connection for Healing Touch Program with like-minded nurses who are facilitating the creation and strengthening of a culture of caring in their institutions.
While I know the readers of this newsletter tend to be focused on CONSCIOUS LIVING, I hope this article prompts you to also think about CONSCIOUS DYING if you haven't already. Tarron's work in this area is making significant impact already in many circles and is much needed in our health care systems and culture overall. If we contemplate our last days on Earth and eventual departure, and start practicing conscious dying as part of our daily practice, we will be prepared when our time comes for a peaceful letting go of our physical bodies which will support us and our loved ones in making a smooth and joyful transition to the Other Side of the Threshold.
Thank you for all that you do to Shine Your Light and Share Your Love! The World needs all of you who are willing to bring more Light, Love and Goodness to Planet Earth....
Cynthia
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SEE SLIDESHOW...Cynthia's Annual Visit to Shadowcliff Retreat Center, Sept 2013
Summary of my retreat at Shadowcliff Retreat Center in Grand Lake, CO. This is the place where Janet Mentgen had her initial inspiration to create Healing Touch. I visit there annually to renew my vocational commitment to Janet and to Healing Touch. I experienced my instructor training there in 1994 and a special welcoming ceremony from Janet as Program Director there in 2005. Please
click here to go to see the
slideshow of this year’s visit which was special because I finally was able to climb to
Cascade Falls. Along this path at a huge boulder, Janet had a vision of a spiritual being who told her she would be founding Healing Touch. A few years later in 1989, with diligent daily meditation and an inner circle of friends, Healing Touch was born! I hiked the eight miles up and back barefoot, to me, by
far the superior way of walking on and connecting to the healing energy of Mother Earth.
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Upcoming Boulder classes of Cynthia's: Level 3 - April 12th-13th;
Level 6 Instructor HTP Training - April 22-25;
Advanced Practice 1 & 2 - October 24-25, 2014.
Upcoming North American classes of Cynthia's: Level 3 - Albuquerque NM; Level 5 - Chicago
I’m happy to share that one of my favorite personal spiritual practices, body prayer, is experiencing a growing interest among holistic practitioners. Last spring, I offered a keynote presentation on body prayer at the
last August. The previous year, 44 attendees at my first HT Shadowcliff Retreat in Grand Lake, Colorado, practiced body prayer three times and rated the experience overall excellent and inspiring. This year, I am presenting a body prayer workshop at the
. Responses from participants indicate that some holistic practitioners strongly resonate with including body movements with their prayers to provide a more spiritually connected experience of integrating the mind, heart and body while engaged in Universal Prayers and gestures.
The way I teach Body Prayer is based on my twenty five years of study and practice in
, the teachings of spiritual science given by Rudolph Steiner (1861 - 1925). He founded the practice of
, Biodynamic Farming, Anthroposophical Medicine/Nursing, Architecture, Veil Painting, and water flow forms.
For a video introduction to understanding my perspective of body prayer, click here to view
, which provide both a theoretical orientation and a short practice video with five prayers. You can choose between hearing the prayers or tones or muting the voice to do body prayer in silence.