Smith Farm Center Programs

Retreats

Smith Farm Center offers two retreat options for adults living with cancer and their caregivers: Cancer Help Program Residential Retreats and Living Well with Cancer Day Retreats. Both retreats are modeled after the internationally recognized Commonweal Cancer Help Program- featured in Bill Moyer's PBS series Healing and the Mind. The retreats are designed for adults and caregivers who are seeking physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing as they live with cancer and other serious illness. Cancer Help Program Retreats are weeklong residential retreats offered five times each year at a lodge setting in rural Maryland. Living Well Retreats are offered on Saturdays as daylong retreats throughout the year at our Washington, DC City Center.

Periodically, we also offer a variety of focused retreats specifically designed for the unique needs experienced by: couples, long-term caregivers and healthcare professionals. Contact us for more details about dates and times for these special retreats.

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Cancer Help Program (CHP) Weeklong Residential Retreats
Hallowood Retreat Center | Comus, MD | Application Required | Scholarships Available
2008 | JUL 21-27 | OCT 20-26 | DEC 8-14

Nestled in a lodge setting amidst the rolling hills just beyond Washington DC, participants and caregivers explore, educate, nourish, renew and reclaim their inner resources for healing. These weeklong residential retreats—designed in partnership with the internationally recognized Commonweal Cancer Help program developed by Dr. Michael Lerner and Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen—offer a spectacular year-round environment for integration, reflection and healing transformation. Modeled after the internationally recognized Commonweal Cancer Help Program— featured in Bill Moyer's PBS series Healing and the Mind— CHP retreats are designed for adults and caregivers who are seeking physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing as they live with cancer.

The integrated schedule provides daily support sessions led by a psychotherapist— along with massage, yoga, meditation, deep relaxation, imagery work, creativity sessions, and a gourmet vegetarian diet. The retreats also facilitate discussions on making choices in complementary and conventional cancer therapies along with issues surrounding pain, suffering and end of life.

These retreats have consistently provided many with deeply satisfying, transformational experiences along their journey.

Living Well With Cancer Daylong Retreats
Smith Farm City Center | 1632 U Street NW | Washington, DC 20009
Sat March 15 | 9:30AM-4PM | $15 includes materials & vegetarian lunch
Application Required | Scholarships available

Living Well with Cancer Daylong Retreats provide similar benefits to the CHP retreats— without the weeklong impact on your schedule. These concentrated Saturday retreats held at the Smith Farm City Center strengthen your innate healing mechanisms as you learn to balance mainstream medical treatment with your own desire to live a healthier, more fulfilling life. The integrated schedule provides support sessions, yoga, meditation, deep relaxation, imagery work, creativity sessions, a gourmet vegetarian meal and discussions on choices among complementary and conventional cancer therapies. These Saturday retreats— easily accessible to residents of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia— allow you to easily integrate the programs into your weekly schedule.

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Smith Farm Center Programs & Workshops

Click here to download a current workshop and program calendar.

All programs (except CHP Retreats) take place at out City Center in Washington, DC, unless otherwise noted | Directions
We offer scholarship assitance for our programs on a needs basis, whenever possible.

Smith Farm Center offers a dynamic variety of programs, workshops and events that foster healing, nurture creativity and the healing process; educate healthcare professionals; healing arts gallery exhibitions; and hospital artist-in-residence programs that integrate medical, spiritual, and creative resources for adults coping with cancer and other serious illness.

Following is a representative sampling of the workshops, programs and support groups available through Smith Farm Center. Call 202-483-8600 or e-mail heal@SmithFarm.com with questions or to register.             

We offer scholarship assistance for our programs on a needs basis, whenever possible.

Mind/Body Stress Reduction Series
Tue/Series | 11:30AM-12:45PM | With Corrin Bennett | $25 /series or $10 per session

These gentle sessions are .designed for adults living with cancer and their caregivers integrate mind/body work in the healing process. We encourage you to wear simple, loose fitting clothes. Beginners and other levels welcome. We ask that you commit to as many sessions as possible to generate a stable, supportive group.

Gentle Yoga for Stress Reduction Series
Learn simple, effective yoga techniques tailored to reduce stress and bring balance to body, mind, and spirit that can be easily integrated into your everyday routine.

Relaxation Sessions for Reducing Stress Series
Create a greater sense of well being and increased energy through progressive relaxation techniques that aid the body and mind in becoming calm, peaceful, and refreshed.

Meditation to Relieve Stress Series
Learn basic meditation practices- taught in clear language- for your everyday routine to generate proven healing benefits of meditative practice. With Corrin Bennett

Easy Movement and Breathing to Ease Stress Series
Focus on fun, easy movement and breathing practices that help discharge stress and re-balance body and mind.

Helping to Heal through Movement
Use movement, music, guided imagery, props, writing and humor to assist your healing process in a supportive nurturing environment. Strengthen the physical and emotional self with the body/mind connection while learning self-help skills for coping during recovery. Be prepared to have fun! Wear loose clothing.

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Nutrition and Cooking Series
Attend one or all sessions | Free | Includes a light meal | Day and Evening Classes

Our cooking and nutrition series, in partnership with Whole Foods Market, provides a rich learning experience, along with a delicious sampling of healthy dishes. You are welcome to attend one session or the entire series. We do ask that you register for the sessions you will be attending, as they tend to fill quickly.

Experience live instruction, demonstration, and delicious sampling of healthy alternative dishes along with a variety of cancer-related nutrition topics at each class. These courses are offered throughout the year. Feel free to drop in for any or all of the sessions. The sessions ends with a delicious meal shared by all.

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Art-In-Process programs use a variety of creative media that foster healing. Previous art experience is not needed in order to benefit from arts and creativity programs. We ask that you commit to as many sessions as possible to generate a stable, supportive group. Classes are designed for a range of skills and you need not consider yourself an artist to attend. Beginners are always welcome.

Most of the classes have a nominal fee for materials. Following are several of the classes offered throughout the year.

Creative Sampler Series
With Savneet Talwar | Thu/Series | 6:30PM-8:30PM | $10 Materials fee

Explore several creative practices from Smith Farm Center arts programs that unlock innate creative potential and promote inner listening and self-awareness. Visual art techniques will re-awaken the joy of putting color to paper and celebrating memory. Therapeutic, body-based practices- such as breathing, music and movement, along with guided imagery and meditation- will draw individuals into the creative play of images and open the way to expression and exploration of life's mysteries.

Creative Journey Series
With Savneet Talwar | Thu/Series | 6:30PM-8:30PM | $10 Materials fee

Explore spontaneous art making with a variety of materials in a creative dialogue. As a group we will create a supportive space to release potential for spontaneous expression shared in the form of "creative witnessing."

Painting the Inner Image Series
With Savneet Talwar | Thu/Series | 6:30PM-8:30PM | $10 Materials fee

Learn a spontaneous method of painting in a creative process that connects with our rich source of inner images. The process will focus on the encounter with struggles and creative blocks as they emerge- in ways that deepen our relationship to the creative process in our lives.

Discovering Retablos Series
With Darien Reece | Thu/Series | 6:30PM-8:30PM | $10 Materials fee

Learn to celebrate the events of their life using this form of folk art common in Latino border communities. The page-sized paintings- usually on tin or board- provide opportunities for creative reflection and honoring memory.

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Stories Under the Table* Telling Our Story
Come on a healing journey with "Auntie Oye'." Using humor, music, communal listening, celebration, and the ancient art of spoken story- participants will open themselves and their caregivers to the healing process. The event is celebrated with a delicious meal.

Body Stories
With Irene Borger | Daylong event | 9:30AM-4PM | $25

Explore a simple process for writing. They will learn from their own stories of hope, despair, pain, laughter, and healing as Irene guides, teaches, and inspires. The workshop is for accomplished writers and novices alike.

Writing Toward Healing Series
With Georgia Robertson | Wed/Series | 6:30PM-8:30PM | $25

Participants will learn to listen- to themselves- to hear their "wants" as they become more intentional in day-to-day living. Writing, poetry, art, music, guided imagery, talking, and listening will nourish the seeds of intention and motivation. In the safety of the group, participants will find new energy for connecting with their own creativity and learn to thrive in the face of challenges.

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Healing Words of Wisdom Book Club
Healing Words of Wisdom opens readers to new, intriguing, and inspirational viewpoints from well-known authors and newcomers alike. Books are selected for their illumination of a particular aspect of living with cancer: whether it be advice copping with cancer; a poet's expression of her struggle with disease; a guide to working with complementary therapies; or an exploration of spiritual growth through illness. Participants engage in facilitated book discussions related to the process of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing from cancer. In their simplicity and intent, words can heal the innermost reaches of our hearts and spirit. Those of us living with cancer often turn to the written word to find support, comfort, answers, and hope.

Members are encouraged to share their favorites with the group. You are welcome at any of our book club gatherings, as your time and interest call you to attend! We enjoy lively conversations over lunch in a welcoming space that offers confidentiality and camaraderie. We welcome you to participate regardless of whether you have read the current book selection, as we believe you can still benefit from our discussion and we can benefit from your perspective!

With Carole O'Toole | Free | Bring a brown bag lunch | Drinks provided | Tue | Noon-1:30PM | Call 202-483-8600 for upcoming dates and titles.

Prvious Healing Wisdom Book Club Book Selections:

“Loving Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness” by Sharon Salzberg
A leading spiritual teacher and founder of the insight meditation Society in Massachusetts, Salzberg provides valuable insight on realizing deeper connections to others and liberating your joy.

 “ My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge and Belonging”
by Rachel Naomi Remen
A collection of simple but powerful stories that convey profound life lessons. A book to return to time and again to affirm the spiritual dimensions of healing.

“No Death/No Fear” by Thich Nhat Hanh
The author, a teacher. poet, and activist, examines our concepts of death and reveals the myths and illusions that imprison us, showing the reader a way to live without fear.

“Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphor” by Susan Sontag
Revisit Sontag’s classic work – now combined with her more recent essay on AIDS- regarding the metaphors and myths surrounding life-threatening illnesses and how these add to patients’ pain and inaction.

Couples Workshop Series
With Dodi Christiano | Mon/Series | 6:30PM-8:30PM |$160 per couple for series | Scholarships Available| Call 202-483-8600 for details and upcoming dates.

Couples learn to cope with ongoing stresses and concerns generated by their encounter with cancer. Learn from others on a similar journey for opportunities to reconnect with your partner, learn strategies to re-establish communication, and cope with your unique concerns as a couple. Workshops are also open to couples that have not attended the retreat. Couples enhance the group experience by committing to attend all four sessions.

Parting Gifts: Ethical and Living Wills
With Shanti Norris & Carole O'Toole | Sat | 9:30AM-12:30PM | Free

Participants reflect upon and clarify the messages they wish to leave their family, friends, and loved ones. They will learn to articulate their values, beliefs, and the legacy they wish to leave behind- and then learn how to use written, visual, audio, video, and the Five wishes Foundation Advance Directive guide to communicate their wishes. Materials will be provided to complete these projects at home.

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Smith Farm Center offers a range of programs and resources that support, educate, and renew practicing and teaching physicians and other health professionals. Programs include weekend workshops, talk/discussions and one-day seminars. We seek to help these mainstream practitioners refocus on enlisting patients' own capacities for healing, on lifting and serving the spirit while striving to cure the body, and on rediscovering renewal and deeper meaning in their own lives and work.

Previous workshops and retreats include:
Dr. Michael Lerner, PhD, MD Lectures and workshops for medical professionals.
Dr. Lerner is Smith Farm Center President and Founder and President of Commonweal. He is the author of Choices In Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer.

Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, MD In The Service of Life: Recovering the Soul of Medicine and Reclaiming the Soul of the Health Profession
Dr. Remen, an associate professor at the University of California (San Francisco) School of Medicine, is author of the award-winning bestseller Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal and has developed the CME-accredited curriculum at the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (ISHI) at Commonweal.

Savneet Talwar, MA, ATR-BC Healing the Healer creative workshops for healthcare professionals.
Ms. Talwar, formerly Assistant Director of the Art Therapy Program at George Washington University. She serves as an artist, consultant, and educator. Contact our office at 202.483.8600 about upcoming medical professional events.

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Smith Farm Center Alumni Support

Smith Farm Center works to provide ongoing support resources for alumni of our various programs. The Alumni Weekend is specifically designed for previous CHP participants.

Spring 2007 Alumni Event with Michael Lerner and and Naomi Rachel Remen
Check back for more information.

 

Of all of the voices associated with Smith Farm Center, those of our alumni speak the most profoundly.

Week-long Cancer Help Program Participants

"I have been healed by love"-P

"Thank you again, for such a wonderful experience at Smith Farm. Whenever I get scared, I think of all of you around me in the healing circle. It was such a life-changing event. I am truly blessed to have met all of you." -MG

"The retreat earlier this month was so beautiful and healing. The transformational effect on me and the 7 other participants seemed quite miraculous, though I know you and your incredible staff worked hard to design a program, which would have exactly those results. I feel honored to have been there, to have been under the loving guidance of you all....My enormous thanks to you for everything."-C

"I attended the Smith Farm Retreat in May 2001 and found it to be one of the best, if not the very best, week of my life. I do not know if I would have continued the healing process without your excellent program and staff. Each one was a joy to meet and each brought professionalism and caring that soothed my soul. If ever my mind, spirit and body were in harmony, it was that week." -MF (from a letter received in August, 2004)

One-Day Retreat Participants

"I felt I was not alone in my battle....this workshop has taught me that it is ok to be vulnerable and to cry." -BP

"The most valuable experience was sharing - telling my story and listening to stories of others. Knowing that there are professional people who recognize the value of mind/body/spirit healing and are offering their wisdom and compassion to the rest of us." -CE

"The environment is calm. I love the light....Thank you. I needed this day." -JM

"I am more prepared to deal with the next challenges of my illness" -BE

"The most valuable experience was just being here - finding the courage to listen to myself and look at what was going on inside - what I haven't been dealing with." -TA

Writing, Storytelling and Creativity Workshops

"I found the two workshops I attended last week incredibly useful, much more so than I had anticipated. You got my engine going. Thanks again for making great things happen." -LF

"I felt as though I could write or say anything. Irene is an extraordinary listener. She pulls thread from fabric....I'm hoping to listen to myself more. This helps. The most valuable experience was the opportunity to put words to some painful experiences." -RK

"This was a wonderful way to reconnect with my inner self and move forward with my work in ways I hadn't considered." -KL

"The most valuable experience was being able to express my feelings. Learning from others about how to cope with difficulties-learning their stories." -GD

Hospital Artist-in-Residence Programs

"Meeting you was one of the best things in my life; painting has been liberating for me, I look forward to our weekly sessions."

"Because of your interest, energy and effort my creative spirits and reenergized life force are soaring. I've created new works and am searching for additional answers to my health problems and new ways of healing."

"Thank you for bringing the sunshine to my cloudy world through your dance performance."

"Gee! I have traveled to Africa and Europe without leaving my hospital bed, without a passport or luggage. Thank you for the exciting stories!"

"Each time that I look at the world poster-size postcards that I made, I feel peaceful. The pictures of water on the beach relax me. They are coming home with me."

Healing Arts Gallery Displays

"My husband had what we anticipated was a 2 hour, but actually was a 5 hour, surgery at the Washington Hospital Center a little over 2 weeks ago. We spent 9 days on floor 2 NW and as he gradually was able to get around we walked up and down the corridors there. I must tell you that your photographs, which lined the many halls around 2 NW brightened our stay there. We used to collect photographs so maybe that's why we stopped frequently to look at everything. I understand it is only a temporary exhibit but in our opinion the hospital should consider not only making it permanent but adding photographs in other areas. They are a real lift for the patient (and the caregiver)." -AK

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Click here to download a calendar.

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Most Smith Farm Center programs require advance registration.
If you have not pre-registered for an event-call 202-483-8600 before coming to make certain space is available.

To Apply for a Cancer Help Program (CHP) Residential Retreat
Call 202-483-8600 to request a CHP Retreat Application packet.

To Register for a Living Well With Cancer Retreat or a Smith Farm Center Program, or Workshop
Call Darien Reece at 202-483-8600 or e-mail heal@SmithFarm.com

To reserve your space-pay by check or MasterCard/VISA
Scholarships are available for most programs

 

Smith Farm City Center
1632 U St NW
Washington, DC 20009
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By Metro
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The Smith Farm City Center is a 15-minute walk from both the Metro Red and Green Lines.

Red Line |Dupont Circle Station | Exit station | Walk east (right) on P St | Turn Left on New Hampshire and walk to 17th St | Turn North (left) on 17th St | Turn East (right) on U St | Walk 20 feet | Look for our bright yellow door (under Companions Pets red canopy) on your right just after 17th St

Green Line | U Street/Cardozo Station | Take the 13th St exit | Walk West on U St 3.5 long blocks | Look for our bright yellow door (under Companions Pets red canopy) on your left just before 17th St

By Auto Click here for Google map.

From Maryland | Drive South on Connecticut Ave | Turn East (left) onto T St and go 0.1 mi then bear left unto Florida Ave and go 0.2 mi| Bear East (Right) on U St and go 0.2 mi | Look for our bright yellow door (under Companions Pets red canopy) on your right just after 17th St | See parking info below

From Virginia | Take 14th Street Bridge (from 395) or Roosevelt Bridge (from 66) to 14th St (RT 1) | Turn North (left) on 14th St and go approximately 2.1 mi | Turn West (left) on U St and go 2.5 blocks | Look for our bright yellow door (under Companions Pets red canopy) on your left just before 17th St | See parking info below

Parking | Smith Farm City Center has use of a local parking lot for most evening and weekend events. Parking instructions will be included with your registration. On-street, two-hour metered parking on U St and two-hour, non-metered parking in the surrounding neighborhood is often available

Hallowood Retreat & Conference Center--This location is for CHP Retreats Only.
Detailed directions will be included with your acceptance packet.

7300 Banner Rd
Comus, MD 20842-8010
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By Auto
From Washington DC Area Click here for Google map.

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Retreats | Workshops | Health | Nutrition | Creativity | Support Groups | Artist-in-Residence Programs | Gallery

Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts is a Washington DC-based, non-denominational, 501(c)3 nonprofit. We welcome people of all races and religious traditions. Smith Farm Center has been awarded the Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation Virginia Kelly Award for Excellence in Cancer Survivorship in 1997 and 1998, the 2004 Innovations Award by the Washington Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center and has been designated as a Catalogue for Philanthropy Charity. Smith Farm Center provides scholarship assistance for our programs on a needs basis, whenever possible.