Meditative Reparenting: Silent 5-Day Retreat

Meditative Reparenting is a silent meditation retreat for people who want to work with the old emotional tangles that keep them stuck. Led by Stan Eisenstein of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW), it runs five days at Claymont Retreat Center in Charles Town, West Virginia, and is also offered online by Zoom. It draws on insight meditation, Buddhist psychology and Western psychotherapy, and it qualifies as a prerequisite for MMTCP.

What to Expect

The retreat starts from a simple idea: unresolved events and messages from childhood, and from later life too, stay in us like thorns. New situations that echo them can feel threatening and leave us reacting in ways we later regret. Reparenting offers a way to go back to those moments and meet them differently, with the wise adult you are now attending to the younger self who needed help.

Over the five days you learn to use meditative imagery and body sensations to make contact with younger versions of yourself, to build a relationship in which they come to trust you, and then to guide them through difficult situations in a way that eases the tangle. The schedule combines talks on the stages of reparenting and on how to work with the practice safely, guided meditations, periods of unguided sitting and walking meditation, and group meetings with the teachers. The retreat is held in silence.

Past participants describe a welcoming, supportive container. They mention the clarity and systematic way Stan builds the teaching, and several note that the guidance covers not only making contact with the inner child but sustaining a relationship with that child over time. One participant, a longtime psychotherapist, found it a useful addition to her existing work.

About Stan Eisenstein

Stan Eisenstein is a mindfulness and meditation teacher whose work centers on mindfulness, embodiment, self-kindness, self-inquiry and inner guidance. He is a full teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, the organization founded by Tara Brach, and teaches full-time. His offerings include multi-week courses on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, self-inquiry, embodiment, cultivating the heart and the Four Noble Truths, as well as retreats, small group and private mentoring, and a daily guided phone meditation called Telesangha.

His teaching comes largely from his own life. He describes a hospital surgery at age two that left him feeling separate from the world, with a limited connection to his body and a fragile sense of self-worth, and he has spent decades working with that early experience.

The Setting

In person, the retreat takes place at Claymont Retreat Center in Charles Town, West Virginia. Rooms are in the Claymont Great Barn: simple shared rooms, plus a limited number of single rooms offered first-come, first-served. Bathrooms are shared. Sleeping rooms are on the second floor and there is no elevator, though help with bags is available. One accessible room and bathroom are on the first floor, near the meditation hall and dining hall. Meals are ovo-lacto vegetarian, and vegan, gluten-free and allergy needs can be noted at registration.

Those who prefer to take part from home can join online by Zoom.

Before You Go

This retreat suits people with some grounding in mindfulness, and reviewers describe the teaching as accessible to both newer and experienced meditators. The practice can feel destabilizing, especially during unguided periods, so a few cautions apply. If you are working with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, consult them about your readiness for an intensive practice. If you find it hard to identify emotions or feel them in your body, Stan recommends first building that foundation through his MBSR or Self-Inquiry course. A licensed psychotherapist is available onsite for consultation throughout the retreat, and Stan is open to a conversation with you or your therapist about suitability.

The retreat is taught in English. Fees cover room, meals and administrative costs, and scholarships are available through IMCW. In keeping with Buddhist tradition, the teachers and retreat managers receive no payment. Dana, the voluntary offering made at the end of the retreat, supports them and is tax-deductible.