After a significant loss in your life, isolation, confusion, anxiety, and depression can set in. Grief can be transformed through the application of mindful practices and body movement to realize acceptance, compassion, and inner strength toward greater resilience.

Come together to learn the healing practices of mindful awareness and movement, including tai chi, qi gong, and yoga postures that can easily be practiced on your own.

Tending to your grieving heart, you can find peace and live life fully once again.

Yoga for Resilience

Future classes will be scheduled. Please email info@spiritwoods.org to join this class.

Challenges in our lives often require physical and emotional stamina that drain our ability to cope. Yet, physical and emotional stamina are the natural elements of resilience needed to manage setbacks, as well as to live life fully.

The seven classes of Yoga for Resilience will take you on a journey through the seven chakras. You will learn how to open, energize, and balance these major energy centers in your body. Through the practice of specific yoga poses with corresponding breath techniques, you will more readily address daily stressors, restore resilience, and create a more harmonious state between your mind, body, and spirit. Each session will close with a brief grounding meditation to carry with you throughout the week.

All levels of fitness and experience are welcome. Please wear comfortable clothing.

Meditation in Movement

Future classes will be scheduled. Please email info@spiritwoods.org to join this class.

Exploring Ourselves and Our Relationship Through the Enneagram

Future classes will be scheduled. Please email info@spiritwoods.org to join this class.

Advanced Mindfulness for Couples Class – Level II

Future classes will be scheduled. Please email info@spiritwoods.org to join this class.

Prerequisite: Mindfulness for Couples Level I

As you gain greater unity and understanding in your relationship through engaging in Wise Mind practices you learned in Level I, you can move toward establishing a deeper connection with one another in Level II.

Advance your skills to allow you to manage distress in a healthy way, maintain your connection with one another while asking for what you need. Build self-respect while giving to your partner what he or she needs, and manage your feelings to cope with situations through acceptance strategies of things you cannot change.

We’ll use education, role play and class discussion to:

• Revisit skills to manage feelings and to better cope with situational stress;
• Learn how to manage distress in a healthy way when you are not able to control a situation; and
• Implement three interpersonal skills to help you be more effective in how you respond and more aware of how your behavior affects others so that positive change can happen.

We keep the groups small – a maximum of four couples per class – so that there is plenty of time and space for all to engage in the process. We currently have room for 2 more couples. Sign up now to ensure your place in the class. We look forward to working with you in creating the closeness and connection you desire and deserve!

Finding Life Balance With Mindfulness and T’ai Chi

Future classes will be scheduled. Please email info@spiritwoods.org to join this class.

This course uniquely combines specific Mindfulness practices with traditional T’ai Chi movements. Using a gentle Sun-style form that is safe, easy to learn, and suitable for most every fitness level, Finding Life Balance With Mindfulness and T’ai Chi highlights the mind-body connection.

Integrating therapeutic mindfulness practices with physical movement has been shown to reduce stress, the pain associated with many chronic illnesses, and protect against cognitive decline and even dementia.

Mindfulness As you learn and incorporate the practices of mindfulness, you can experience the benefits of staying mindfully in the moment while engaging your “Wise Mind” that still, small voice within or gut feeling. As a result, you may increase your ability to:

• participate fully in what is going on around you;
• avoid being hijacked by thoughts or emotions that block your happiness;
• maintain connection with your body to help identify your true feelings;
• maintain healthy relationships; and
• accept the things that are simply yours to let go of.

T’ai Chi Mindfulness will be integrated with t’ai chi movements – a mind/body/spirit exercise that has been described as “meditation in motion”. T’ai chi consists of a series of whole-body movements performed in a slow, focused manner accompanied by deep breathing. When performed regularly, t’ai chi allows us to cultivate the qi or life energy within us to flow smoothly and powerfully throughout the body. The resulting benefits of ta’i chi include:

• increased energy and stamina;
• improved flexibility, balance, strength and agility;
• enhanced sleep quality;
• strengthened immune system and lower blood pressure;
• decreased stress, anxiety and depression; and
• reduced risk of falls in older adults.

To participate fully one must be able to stand and walk without assistance. The physical exertion level is similar to walking.

Just Between You and Me

Future classes will be scheduled. Please email info@spiritwoods.org to join this class.

Just Between You and Me will offer specific mindfulness practices in the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of ourselves and in a relationship with our partner. Through movement, education, class discussion and the sharing of what you are experiencing, you will learn the benefits of staying mindfullly in the moment and engaging your Wise Mind.

Healing Through Contemplative Consciousness:
A Sharing Of The Heart

Future classes will be scheduled. Please email info@spiritwoods.org to join this class.

Dr Mary leads an evening class.

Selected Past Programs…

Mindful Body Awareness in Action: a Practical Introduction to the Alexander Technique

Four Saturdays (April 22 – May 13, 2023)
10:00 am – noon

At SpiritWoods Wellness Center in Stillwater, MN
10480 Perkins Ave. N.

For over 100 years the Alexander Technique has helped people develop skills for being more mindful in their bodies. This four-week class is a practical introduction to the Alexander Technique. Through exploratory activities, games, and discussion you will:

• Understand how your postural and movement habits may be getting in your way, and how to change them
• Explore why how you think is instrumental to how you move
• Learn new ways to be more comfortable in your body
• Begin developing simple self-care skills for a lifetime

This class is designed for those with no prior experience with the Alexander Technique — but anyone with any level of experience is welcome to attend. Some work will be done on the floor. Participants are encouraged to bring a floor mat, but we also have mats if you don’t have your own.

Class led by Lauren Hill, AmSAT-certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.

Cost: $240 (class materials included) — register here
No refunds for cancelations after April 15, 2023

Mid-Winter Reflections

Sunday, January 22, 2023
3:00 – 7:30 pm
At SpiritWoods Wellness Center in Stillwater, MN
10480 Perkins Ave. N.

We gather to undo aloneness in the dawning of new light.Return to your natural state of wellbeing where time slows down among tall trees, flowing water, and lit wooded trails.

Find peace as you reunite with your core truth, and re-imagine a future filled with new intentions.

As we begin with a social gathering, delicious food, and beverages, enjoy instrumental sounds of the traditional dulcimer performed by folk musician Paul Imholte (also known as Stringman), heard throughout the evening.

The ways of the labyrinth, chair yoga, and soul collage guide your journey to a mindful walk through a lit wooded trail.

To learn more about Paul Imholte, click here

After which, you will receive supportive reflection, clearing of internal space, and community building in the closing ceremony.

Letting Go. Letting Be. Letting In.

This event is led by healing and wellness professionals
Dr. Mary Freitag, Psy. D., L.P.
Susan Swanson, BA, MDiv
Bradley Conley, MA, LAMFT

Fee: $95.00 (group and hardship rates available) [ event is full ]

Cancellations received 24 hours or less prior to the event will be refunded, less 20%.

Earn five CEUs* when you attend Relief & Restoration: A Nature Immersion Retreat for Professionals

Saturday, October 1 (9:00 am – 2:00 pm) at SpiritWoods Wellness Center in Stillwater, MN

Sorry, this retreat is sold out!
Please email info@spiritwoods.org to express interest in our next Nature Immersion Retreat for Professionals

The demands of our world today have many healthcare and mental health professionals longing for respite from the prolonged stress that leads to compassion fatigue, grief and loss, and burnout. Irritability, disrupted sleep, feeling overwhelmed, and loss of interest are all common responses to life’s incessant demands.

Many physicians are beginning to prescribe time outdoors as part of treatment for their patients. Canada has recently formed their first national nature-prescription program given nature’s proven health benefits. At SpiritWoods we will explore some practical ways to integrate more green time into our lives.

The beauty of SpiritWoods, a place where time slows down, will immerse us in Nature. Trees reach toward the sky as we walk the labyrinth in quiet solitude. Here one’s thoughts can roam freely as we experience forest bathing on the wooded trail. With its tall trees and flowing brook, here lies a place for you to rest, reflect, and know that beauty can be found everywhere, especially in your heart.

This retreat will focus on relief and restoration as you immerse in the beauty of Nature. We will be led by David Motzenbecker, one of the global “Top Ten” ANFT Certified Forest Therapy Guides, incorporating Japan’s Shinto philosophy mindful of the sacred essence in all that surrounds us.

Teachings of Ecotherapy and neuroscience will inform right-brain healing exercises. These exercises will include body movement and mindfulness practices such as yoga led by certified yoga instructor, Rachael Huyck, MSW, LISW.

In the spirit of undoing aloneness that has settled in after lengthy separations, an informal gathering two weeks following will include tea/coffee and snacks as we discuss the ways in which we put these practices into daily use.

The all-weather Nature Studio at SpiritWoods will provide us with a safe, comfortable space for connecting, as we learn about and incorporate the science of Right Brain Healing. Instructors are Dr. Mary Freitag (drmaryfreitag.com) and Jessie Cylkowski, MSW, LICSW (hopeandoutreach.com).

A light lunch is provided. Participants must be able to get up and down from the yoga mats (provided for your use). Please wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes. Please email info@spiritwoods.org with questions.

Fee: $125.00

This retreat is full, but another is being planned. Please email info@spiritwoods.org if you are interested in the next retreat!

* CEUs offered through MN Board of Psychology and MN Board of Social Work

Nature Journaling

Saturday, September 17 (10:00 am – 3:00 pm) at SpiritWoods Wellness Center in Stillwater, MN

Many mental health professionals recommend mindfulness and exercise, especially in the outdoors, to manage stress and improve health. But it took the COVID-19 pandemic and a global slowdown for many people around the world to discover nature journaling—writing, drawing, painting and chronicling their observations about the natural world—as a pathway to mindfulness.

There are many ways to do nature journaling and everyone’s journal will be different. In this course, you will improve your skills at writing, drawing, and seeing relationships and connections you may not have noticed before. Nature journalers report decreased stress and isolation, more focused attention, more curiosity, and a greater capacity for joy and wonder.

Course activities are drawn from the work of naturalist-authors John Muir Laws, Roseann Hanson, Melinda Nakagawa, and Amy Tan. Topics will include How to Get Started in Nature Journaling, Your Brain on Nature Journaling, How to Become a Master of Field Arts, Art Supplies, Nature Journaling Communities, and Resources.

The all-weather Nature Studio at SpiritWoods will provide us with a safe, comfortable space for connecting as we learn about and incorporate the science of Right Brain Healing.

The course instructors are Dr. Mary Freitag, an integrative psychologist who incorporates experiential mind-body therapies, mindfulness, and neuroscience insight into her compassionate clinical work, and Dr. Jenny Marsh, a nurse and psychologist, who reconnected with her childhood love of nature and art through online nature journaling during the pandemic.

Course supplies and tools will be provided, or bring your own. Upon registration, course leaders will provide a list of suggested items you may already have at home.

Fee: $95 — Lunch is provided.

To participate fully one must be able to sit, stand and walk without assistance. The physical exertion level is like walking. Please email info@spiritwoods.org with questions.

The Minnesota Labyrinth Network 2022

Members of the Minnesota Labyrinth Network again gathered at SpiritWoods to meet in the new Nature Studio, walk the labyrinth, and share their latest thoughts about how to enrich the experience for themselves and others.

The Minnesota Labyrinth Network 2020

Labyrinth enthusiasts and professionals gathered at SpiritWoods to share ideas and exchange best practices on how to enrich the labyrinth experience for others.