Smith Farm Center Retreats & Programs

Smith Farm Center’s retreats and programs offer choices in healing, provide emotional support, enhance living, and complement mainstream medical care. Our facilitators include noted experts in the health field, and we focus on time-tested techniques such as health supportive diet and nutrition, exercise and stress reduction.  We also offer an on-site public library focused on cancer and integrative care.

Click here to download a current calendar. To register, call 202.483.8600 or email heal@smithfarm.com.

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. 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.

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.

Cancer Help Program (CHP) Weeklong Residential Retreats
Hallowood Retreat Center | Comus, MD | Application Required | Scholarships Available
Call 202-483-8600 or email heal@smithfarm.com for details

2008 | DEC 8-14
2009 MAR 16-22 | JUL 20-26 | SEPT 21-27 | DEC 12-14

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 Moyers’ 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.

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Living Well With Cancer Daylong Retreats
Smith Farm City Center | 1632 U Street NW | Washington, DC 20009
2009 | Saturday | JAN 31| 9:30AM-4PM | $15 includes materials & vegetarian lunch
Application Required | Scholarships available
Call 202-483-8600 or email heal@smithfarm.com for details

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

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

Click here to download a current workshop and program calendar.

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.

Gentle Yoga for Stress Reduction Series
Tuesday Series | NOV 4, 11, 18 and DEC 2, 9, 16 | 10:15AM-11:30PM
With Corrin Bennett | $25/series or $10 per session

Wednesday Series | NOV 5, 13, 19 and DEC 2, 9, 16 | 5:30-6:45PM
With Kim Weeks | $25/series or $10 per session

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.

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. All levels welcome.

Meditation to Relieve Stress Series
Mondays | NOV 10, 17, 24 | 5:30-6:30PM | With Shanti Norris
$10 each class or $25 for the series

Learn basic meditation practices- taught in clear language- for your everyday routine to generate proven healing benefits of meditative practice.  For beginners or the experienced.

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Our cooking and nutrition series provides a rich learning experience, along with a delicious sampling of healthy dishes. Experience live instruction, demonstration, and a variety of cancer-related nutrition topics at each class. These courses are offered throughout the year. You are welcome to attend one session or the entire series. We do ask that you register for the sessions you would like to attend as they tend to fill quickly.

Healthy Cooking for the Holidays with Daemon Jones, MD
Thursdays | Nov 6, 13, 20 | 1-2:30PM | FREE

As winter and the holidays approach, we gather with family and friends to give thanks, tell stories and nurture each other with the food we remember from childhood.  The preparation and sharing of favorite family dishes remind us of home and roots.  In this class we will learn healthy alternatives to comfort foods and new recipes that may become family favorites.  Dr. Jones is a Naturopathic Physician, gourmet chef and author of Daelicious! Recipes for Vibrant Living.

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The Lorton Prison Arts Project with Mia Choumenkovitch
Thursday | OCT 30 | 5:30PM |Free
CEUs available

Founder of The Lorton Prison Arts Project, Mia Choumenkovitch, will discuss her experiences with the Lorton inmates’ exposure to the power of painting and drawing and how their art-making transformed their lives and their experience of being incarcerated.

Screening: Living Yoga: The Life and Teachings of Swami Satchidananda
Thursday | NOV 20 | 5:30-8:00PM | FREE

This film is about the birth of modern yoga movement and its impact on the worls – how the ancient teachings were brought to the West and of the far-reaching effects yoga has had on society.  This story, told for the first time on film, informs, entertains and provokes self-inquiry.  Corrin Bennett, MA, well known practitioner, teacher and counselor, will guide us in a meditation session and answer questions.

Screening: Healing Words: Poerty and Medicine | A PBS video
Thursday | DEC 18 | 5:30-8:00PM | FREE

This film is about the healing art of writing poetry as experienced by cancer patients and clinical staff at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL. These sessions were facilitate by John Fox, poet, founder of the Institute for Poetic Medicine in Palo Alto, CA and author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making and others.  Poet Ade Moreau will share her experiences working as a Smith Farm Artist-In-Residence at local hospitals and lead us in a short experiential writing exercise.

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.  Classes are designed for a range of skills and you need not consider yourself an artist to attend. Beginners are always welcome.

Healing Through Words With Irene Borger
Fri Oct 3 | 10AM-3:30PM

Whether you write regularly or have never written anything, this workshop will make you feel like you were born to write.  Learn from participants stories of hope, despair, pain, laughter, and healing as Irene guides, teaches, and inspires. The workshop is for accomplished writers and novices alike.

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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.

For upcoming programs, please visit this page again.

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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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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
Click here for Google map.

By Metro
Click here for Metro map.
Click here for Google map.


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 new gallery, The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, 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
Click here for Google map.

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.