Dr. Stéphanie Marchal is a registered psychologist working in Victoria. Her practice focuses on relationships, attachment, trans-generational trauma and transitions/transformations. She is a wilderness personal guide, and studied with Animas Valley Institute and Francis Weller among others. She works with people toward recovering their wholeness, uncovering their gifts, and applying these in their lives and for the good of their community. She has experienced wilderness as a powerful ally in these tasks.
She is personally interested in supporting deep and courageous transformations driven by the participants. One of Stephanie's focus is to support the weaving of authentic experiences and visions with the person's embodied life. She's a firm supporter of people's authentic voices and helps them be heard. She uses dream images, guided journeys and somatic practices to help clarify the thread to deep experience, and support integration and manifestation.
Some of Stéphanie's integration work is brought into psychedelic-assisted therapy as she is legally trained to support the use of psilocybin, MDMA and Ketamine.
Visit Stéphanie's page: www.SacredWeaving.org
Sarah Frizelle is a counselor in private practice in Victoria BC who offers wholistic counselling to individuals, couples and families. She has worked with individuals in roles of educator, psychotherapist and wilderness guide for over 25 years, sometimes combining all three roles in nature-based therapy or eco-psychology with individuals and groups.
Sarah works to support positive personal, family and cultural level changes. She embraces transformative learning and is dedicated to unleash the creative gifts and potential of people to heal and transform, in support of creativity, collaboration and innovation.
Details of this retreat
Based on Bill Plotkin’s work,Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche, this 4-day intensive is an experiential exploration of our human psyche, its capacity to strengthen inner ressources while being in deep relationship with the natural world.
Gatherings will be held on multiple areas of this gorgeous land and in a beautiful yurt, and invitations to wanders on the land will be given. Art, movement, deep imagination will be part of integrating the experiences made on the land. This retreat is deeply transformative and informative.
It is for people who:
- are looking for more authentic relationships with self and others
- want to fall in love or refall in love with the natural world
- feel at a crossroad, or more stuck than they wish for, or excited to open new doors
- want a pause, an introspective time
- need to reflect, grieve, or find missing parts of themselves
- want to learn about an amazing model for wholing/healing
In this intensive, we will work with Bill Plotkin's Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche. We will access what we call the four facets of the Self, or dimensions of human wholeness, as well as the four sets of fragmented or wounded personalities that are formed early in life. We will uncover the depths and potentials that our psyche holds, cultivate them and integrate them into our life.
Bill Plotkin is the founder of Animas Valley Institute, and author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psych & Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche. This intensive will use practices and models directly taught by Bill to Stéphanie and Sarah, while adding aspects of healing and land connection practices that the retreat teachers have been developing over their years as guides and therapists, including relationship to Ancestors and community.
Schedule
Nature walks
Breakfast
Dream work and poetry readings
Nature wanders
Council
Movement practices
Deep imagination exercises
Note: Schedule is approximate and may change
Getting Here
Cedar Song, 119 Ross Durrance Road, Victoria, BC, Canada
Accommodation
Participants will stay in a beautiful camping area, with access to a log house, its bathroom, kitchen and stone patio. The retreat center is 54 acres of meadows and forest, nestled between provincial parks. Groves of healthy forest of arbutus, cedars, fir and big leaf maples will set the stage for the work.
Venue & Amenities
A/C in Rooms
Free Wifi
Spa
Sauna
Pool
Towels
Free Parking
Kitchen
Tour Assistance
Hot Tub
Coffee/Tea
Cafe
Restaurant
Fitness Center
Yoga Studio
Housekeeping
Bicycles For Rent
This 54 acre lot in the Highlands is bordered by hundreds more acres of park land (Mt Work and Gowlland Tod) including lake, ocean and mountain access all directly from the property.Just 25 minutes from Victoria, it’s home to beautiful forests of Cedars, Arbutus, Fir and Maple; mossy bluffs with ocean views, a seasonal creek and waterfall; Ravens, Wrens and Cooper's Hawks.
Meals
Menu Types
Vegan
Vegetarian
Pescetarian
Ayurvedic
Includes Meat
Organic
Gluten Free
Dairy Free
Nut Free
What's Included
Camping in a beautiful setting
Indoor meeting space in gorgeous log cabin
5 days of activities to understand the map of the psyche and apply it to your life
Check-ins with the guides
Snacks and some meals
Customer Reviews
4.88 out of 5.0 average rating
5.0
Verified
Nourishing program, facilitators, and land
The Cedar Song Center is in gorgeous, varied land that is tended with care: a perfect place for the nature-based explorations of land and psyche. I recently attended the Wild Mind Immersion, led by Stephanie Marchal and Sarah Frizelle.
Remembering, I'm nourished by the care, humour, wisdom and experience of the facilitators, as well as the gifts and camaraderie brought by the participants. The land held us in discovering how aspects of ourselves connect with the wild, providing mythically rich spots for soul encounters.
The childrens' nature school taking place elsewhere on the land felt supportive as well, as I reckon the land is glad to sense human little ones running around joyfully. I feel a kinship with the land, the hosts, and the work being done there.
I attended a ReWilding Immersion here in August, 2023. I sought out this experience to address a lack of connection I felt with the natural world, and could not have anticipated how much more I would get from this retreat.
I connected with my wholeness, called upon and honed my deep inner knowing, expressed long-held and largely unconscious feelings, and left feeling more aligned, healed and connected to myself and the more-than-human world.
Stephanie and Sarah were such incredible guides and facilitators, sharing their knowledge and gifts generously. They walked the perfect line of giving us space, freedom and trust to explore our own processes, while always being present if support was needed.
The land itself is incredible, with a variety of trees and plants and creatures to connect with. Pease Lake is a short walk away, and I enjoyed a few peaceful swims. The house was used to prepare our meals and held some of our gatherings. It all felt 10/10 perfect to me.
5.0
Verified
Deep listener
My experience of Stephanie is that she is a compassionate and deep listener who asks skillful questions to gently nudge and deepen a person's understanding of themselves. She also has a sense of humour, and is down to earth.
5.0
Verified
Very compassionate, caring and easy to talk to
Sarah has a gift of deep listening and reflecting back one's strengths, grief, love and longing in an easy, gentle, compassionate way. She is at home with the language of magic and mystery, and welcomes the journey into dark and scary places in search of lost treasures.
4.0
Verified
Gorgeous space!
Cedar Song is a beautiful space surrounded by nature. The kitchen is well stocked for all food prep, the bathrooms and showers are fine, and the big room is spacious, and beautifully adorned with elements of nature. There are different meeting places around the property, a large deck to dine on, and paths in multiple directions to wander onto the land.
Verified
