In person. In nature. Together. It’s what I love best. Tactile. Shared physical experience. Individual awakening held in and fed by the communal. For the self. For the collective. We are social animals who heal in connection, relationally. What does it mean to retreat? We take pause from the rhythms of daily life to create the conditions for deeper insight and growth. It’s an ancient practice and we need it more than ever in our modern world.
THIS FALL
Let’s gather side by side.
We are living in a time of ample possibility. Chaos. Movement. Innovation. What is being born? Modernity has distracted us from a deep watery well of life force. People are inspired but overwhelmed, even despondent. When we enter the relational field with focus, we tune our physiology, mythopoetic vision and mammalian nature to a channel that flows.
This retreat is no fluff and it's PLAYFUL to the max.
It's immersive and intimate and generative. You won't be reading a novel by the pond for four days. You'll be actively becoming.
It's about restructuring your embodiment.
With your soul-self. Alongside others. For this era.
This retreat is a place of practice.
The stakes are low: new people, limited time, it's an away game.
The communal support is high: over-flowing, abundant, intentional.
That combination is gold for real shifts that can integrate back home.
"The laughter. The silly sensation feelings of what it is to be here. It’s magical. Molly’s retreats feel like you are in a swirl... but in a very safe and subversive, rebellious and tingly kind of way." – Jess Miller
“I felt instantly connected to every person here which feels magical. Being on retreat with Molly feels warm and safe. Absolutely safe. Which is a gift. I don’t think that’s something every facilitator can create. It feels natural and unforced for her. I can be exactly who I am here. This experience has radically changed my life. I have made friends who feel like soul mates. I feel like I’m falling in love with people.”
– Naomi Gottlieb-Miller
“Molly is incredibly intentional. She’s telling a story as she facilitates. I love the natural pacing she brings to the entire experience. The community and authenticity and safety she’s created has been deeply impactful. It’s mystical, almost like we’ve lost track of time and space. It’s hard to put into words!" – Britta Shiels
Who Is This Retreat For?
Women and gender non-conforming people.
Ages 18 + (always multi-generational)
Change-makers, leaders, consciousness-raisers, space-creators, parents, educators, artists, seekers, activists, therapists, healing arts practitioners, internal and external terrain adventurers, the curious, anyone oriented toward human potential.
You cannot 'become' yourself in isolation.
This era requires our togetherness.
Relational is more than a buzz word.
It's a lived experience. It goes beyond your attachment style or your wounding. It isn't about curating the perfect set of easy friendships or a 'safe' non-triggering environment or exiting stage left the second something isn't ideal. It's about the ground you stand on, the place you live, the people you see everyday, what you contribute, what you receive, what you disagree on, where you come together, where you say No, where you say Yes, and becoming adept at navigating the totality, even the messy parts.
Many of us have lost that art.
Group-work and being in person is the time-tested way of weaving our future together.
At this retreat, you will...
experience comfort and discomfort
witness and be witnessed
align to your particular wildness
step into your archetype role for this era
bask in the ventral vagal state
learn how to work with your nervous system
unstick outdated maladaptive self-stories
ignite cellular narrative change
renegotiate your relationship to technology
deepen your capacity for joy and challenge
awaken the creatrix
Guarantee: This retreat will be way more than a cool thing you did once. I make sure of that. Everything that happens at this retreat is in service to and intended for you and your community back home.
What Will We Do?
Behold images from my retreats: in b/w because they are in the past and we are looking to the future.
I hope to give you a felt-sense of my vibe, our vibe, the togetherness.
No stock images. These are real people and I could tell you all of their names, but I won't! It's a sort of mystery school.
We mammal together. We stretch and celebrate the possibility within you. Your vitality! Becoming more YOU.
How are the story you’ve told yourself about yourself and your nervous system deeply intertwined? You can loosen it all and find a new fluidity that feels like renewed life-blood. We give our attention to pace, ultradian rhythms, speaking out loud the language of sensation, asking for boundary or closeness, reaping and sowing, separating from social media to some self-chosen degree, invoking titration and tasting edges, being serious and silly together. Our senses will be centered. You can expect ample times outdoors, exploration, night walks, movement, making and a heart-centered, kick-ass dynamic group of people. Lots of writing, working with personal and collective mythology, embodiment exercises, dyads/triads and full group processing in a holding container of discernment, respect, care and awareness of the larger holding force beyond us.
I will invite each of us (me included) to track how we take care of our mammal selves in a group setting like this? Being physically together is imperative for discovering our growing edges. What patterns arise? What are you negotiating in real time? Where do you disassociate, over-ride, under-share or over-share, track too much or too little? All held in a curious and compassionate spirit of adventure.
Our Daily Rhythm
This is a 4-night retreat: 3 full days + 2 half days.
September 16th, 5pm arrival, 6pm workshop start
September 17th-19th, retreat time
September 20th, 12pm departure
Our morning session is deep work followed by a 2-hour long break for lunch, exploration, rest, and connection. We gather back for an outdoors session in the afternoon. We break and then weave back for dinner and a short, winding-down integration.
*Plenty of workshop time.
*Plenty of rest and solo time.
About Knoll Farm
I choose Knoll Farm for many reasons. Vermont is a soothing, rolling hills landscape accessible to most cities on the North East Coast. I attended a young leaders retreat here in my 20's and was struck by their values-aligned mission to support group work and host conversations of all types. Knoll Farm is also a working farm of Icelandic sheep and blueberries. Their tie to the land is earnest, very real and not glossy or performative.
Cozy.
Connected.
Holding.
“This retreat has been very safe, a container where I can let my voice speak what it wants to speak and be myself. I don’t have that in my daily life. I feel held by a circle of women who are also imperfect and healing and evolving and curious about the next step. They want to break out and make changes and grow. I want to be around these kinds of people. When I am with them, I feel alive!” – Rachel Schmidt
"Being in space and time with Molly feels so big, so potent. 24 hours feels like a lifetime. It feels like medicine. She has helped me understand more about myself than 17 therapists! Her authenticity, warmth and generosity make me feel safe being a human." – Amy Baumgarten
INVESTMENT
Space is limited, so jump in if you are called.
$2,595
**Early Bird $2,495
good until April 4th
code: early2026
or
Payment plan 5 x $539
*If you need a more extended payment plan, please ask. All payments must be final by August 31.
Includes tuition, yurt lodging, + organic, locally-sourced meals (*does not include travel costs)
The lodging will all be shared in a forest glade atop a large large meadow with a gorgeous communal cob bathhouse with showers, toilets, private changing rooms, centrally located fire pit and a wood-fired hot tub!. There are 12 yurts with options: your own, shared with another person, shared with 3 others. Some have electricity, others use a kerosene lamp. It's first come first served. When you sign up, we will send you a map and options and then you choose! If you would like to share a yurt with someone in particular, please ask us by emailing retreats@mollycaromay.com
**THERE IS ONE FULL SCHOLARSHIP AVAILABLE**
Please be in your discernment and integrity about whether this description fits you. This scholarship is about access. Are you someone who would likely never dream of attending a retreat because it isn't possible financially, even if you were to plan ahead and budget? Are you a member of a systematically disenfranchised or minoritized/marginalized group? Please email retreats@mollycaromay.com to share why this retreat in particular attracts your attention and how a scholarship would support your attendance. (The scholarship covers all lodging, food and tuition).
Who is your guide?
MOLLY CARO MAY
I grew up moving from country to country and that foundation embedded in me a curiosity about and respect for everyone. I’ve created, taught and facilitated personal story workshops for 14+ years—as space-maker, mineral-adder, listener, weaver, circle tender and playful spark-plug. People tell me I sometimes speak in sounds instead of words. It's true. I'm the author of two books and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, born of a 3-year study of trauma resolution and nervous system resilience. There's more, of course. Blending soma and story is my deep delight! It has given me the most traction in my own life and I've witnessed its lasting power with those in my classes. Retreats are my soul song. I live for being a mammal alongside other mammals, in the flesh, where we can sense-into each other. My everyday life involves "the wild" not as an idea but as a lived experienced in my backyard and based on how I shape my day. The tactile life is for me and, on retreat, we get to GATHER and play. I've hosted retreats in Oregon, New York, Montana, New Mexico, California, and early tis summer in Europe. I trust in the orchestration beyond me that brings a group together. I'm here for it. I'm here for you, for us, for the shared evolution.
with big heart support from Saadia Khalid
I’m a biracial Pakistani-American educator, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY/Lenapehoking. I am a mother of two daughters who make my world spin, partnered with a tender tender of plants, daughter of a Punjabi immigrant poet and a steadfast Southern-Italian-Brooklynite, the spiritual descendant of an 11th Century Sufi saint, and the middle strand in a braid of sisters. I grew up straddling cultures and continents, always feeling like I existed in the “between places.” What I quickly came to find was that the between places are full of incredible stories. I’ve spent my life and my career tending the seeds of my own stories and creating spaces for others to tell theirs. As an educator for over 16 years, I’ve worked with children, young adults, and adults in many different contexts and capacities, inside and outside of traditional classroom spaces, and always, always in co-creation. I believe that learning can and should be liberatory and that liberation happens in community. I believe in abolition. I am in a committed relationship with hope. I am fiercely tender. I laugh and cry copiously. I love enormously. I live for stories. And I am so honored and elated to co-create these spaces with all of you.
Refund Policy
This is your investment. When we commit, we set some growth in motion. Sit with it now. Is this what you want? Your body will tell you. That isn't just a saying or idea. It's real deal. Are you leaning forward or back?
If you need to cancel for any reason and we can find someone to take your spot, then you will be fully refunded fully minus a $200 processing fee. If we can't find someone to take your spot but YOU can find someone, same as above. If no one fills your spot, there is no refund. This policy includes payment plans. If you have started a payment plan and cancel, without someone replacing your spot, your payments are still due. If the retreat has to be cancelled due to unforeseen pandemic or climate issues, participants' tuition will be credited to future retreat dates.