Connecticut Retreats — Summer 2027

Come and slow down with us.

Two weekends in the summer of 2027, a small group of counselors, educators, clinicians, and caregivers will gather at a private location in Connecticut to read together, practice together, eat together, and walk together. We call these gatherings retreats, but they are really a form of paideia — formation through relationship, at a pace the rest of life rarely permits.

Some practices cannot be learned on a screen.

ASE work asks something more of us than concepts. It asks attention — the willingness to stay in the room when the conversation gets uncomfortable, the patience to let understanding arrive through relationship rather than lecture. Those capacities are shaped by time, place, and the company we keep. A long weekend in the woods is sometimes the shortest path to them.

These retreats are not conferences. There are no keynote speakers, no vendor tables, no continuing-education conveyor belt. Each weekend brings together no more than twenty participants, a practice leader who has been living inside ASE for a long time, and a daily rhythm of reading, dialogue, silence, movement, and meals. We keep groups small so that a real community of inquiry can form and so that no one can hide inside the crowd.

Participation is intended to deepen counseling and advocacy skills, but what it is most after is the changed relationship practitioners develop to their own work.

These retreats do not exist to confer a title or mark a stage of completion. They exist because genuine practice in ASE requires time, relationship, and the particular quality of attention that only develops in the company of others who take the same questions seriously. What participants carry home is not a credential but a changed relationship to their work — and a small group of people they can keep calling.

Two weekends, one shared rhythm.

Each retreat runs Friday through Sunday — three days and two nights — at a private location in Connecticut. Tuition is $1,800 per participant and includes all lodging, all meals, all materials, and local transportation from our designated pickup points. Each weekend is capped at twenty participants. Travel details, dietary accommodations, and mobility access are arranged individually after your seat is confirmed.

Educator–counselor focus

Late-June Weekend Retreat

June 25–27, 2027 · Friday–Sunday · Three days, two nights

A working retreat for school counselors, classroom teachers, and school leaders arriving at the close of the academic year with cases, questions, and stuck places to work through. We bring current practice situations and leave with revised plans and a small cohort of colleagues we can keep calling. Paced for newcomers and returning practitioners alike.

Capacity: 20 participants · Tuition: $1,800 · Led by: Matthew Lemberger-Truelove

Contemplative weekend

Early-August Weekend Retreat

August 1–3, 2027 · Friday–Sunday · Three days, two nights

A weekend weighted toward silence, reading, and slow dialogue. We work from core ASE texts alongside the contemplative and philosophical traditions that have shaped the work — tsöpa, paideia, the long history of dialogical formation. Built to carry participants into the coming school year or clinical season, it closes with a full "designing your return" arc.

Capacity: 20 participants · Tuition: $1,800 · Led by: Matthew Lemberger-Truelove

Somewhere quiet, in the natural world.

Our retreats are held at a private location in Connecticut — a place of considerable natural beauty. Connecticut's landscape in late June and early August offers old forests, open water, stone-walled fields, and the particular quality of light and air that comes with being genuinely away from ordinary life. We choose settings where the land itself does some of the work.

Lodging, meals, and gathering spaces are all on site. Meals are prepared with care, working with local sources wherever possible, and we accommodate most dietary needs with advance notice. There is no pressure to be connected while you are here. This is on purpose.

We work to ensure the retreat is physically accessible; please let us know your mobility and sensory needs when you inquire and we will work with you on accommodations. No participant should feel they cannot come because of a physical or dietary requirement — we will figure it out.

Retreat questions.

Primarily for school counselors, classroom teachers, school and district leaders, clinical counselors, parents and caregivers, and civic or nonprofit practitioners who are drawn to a relational, environmental view of education and formation. No prior exposure to ASE is required for either retreat.

Yes. Each day begins in silence, and each weekend includes at least one extended silent period — typically Saturday evening through Sunday breakfast. The August retreat carries silence more deeply throughout. Participants who are new to contemplative practice are welcome; we provide gentle guidance and nobody is asked to do anything that feels forced.

Our kitchen team accommodates vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, kosher, halal, and most allergy-based diets with advance notice. Please note any restrictions on your inquiry form and we will follow up to confirm. Nobody should arrive worried about whether they will be fed well.

The property is accessible from New York City and Boston. We provide shuttle pickup from designated train and airport locations on the first day of each retreat; specific details are sent with your confirmation packet. Driving directions and parking information are included as well.

Nothing you can frame and hang on a wall. A retreat is not a training in the credentialing sense, and it does not authorize you to call yourself anything you couldn't call yourself before you arrived. What it offers is something harder to name and more durable: a changed relationship to your own practice, a small cohort of people who have been in the same room with the same questions, and a rhythm you can return to when the ordinary weeks pull you back toward speed and isolation. ASE holds that practice is never finished. The retreat is one point of deepening entry into a lifelong thing.

We can provide letters of participation for professional development purposes, and we are an approved provider for several state counselor-licensure CE systems. If you need documentation for a specific license or school district, please ask when you inquire and we will confirm what we can provide.

Yes — we reserve a small number of seats in each retreat for institutional cohorts, and we also offer custom on-site retreats at partner institutions. We have led group retreats for school counselor departments, graduate training programs, and a small number of nonprofits. Please contact us for institutional inquiries.

A $250 deposit holds your seat and is non-refundable past sixty days before the weekend. The remaining tuition is due thirty days before the start date. If you must cancel for an emergency, we work with you individually — nobody has ever been turned away from a future retreat because of a cancellation they could not avoid.

Tell us who you are.

Retreats are confirmed by conversation, not by clicking a "Buy" button. Share a little about yourself below and we will be in touch within a few days to talk through whether the retreat is a good match, answer questions, and — if it is — reserve your seat.

Come and slow down with us.