2026 Retreats
Casa Portal hosts a small number of seasonal retreats rooted in nature, rest, and curiosity.
Each retreat is designed for people who want to slow down, reconnect, and step out of everyday momentum.
Guests come from many places—some with retreat experience, many without.
Retreats at Casa Portal are intentionally accessible, with gentle rhythms, and space to arrive as you are.
Explore the retreats below to find the experience that resonates with you.
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Letting Go Into Love - Silent Retreat
A silent retreat with nature as the container.
Led by Surya-Chandra Das of Rolling Meadows Retreats, The Ease of Being is a four-day silent, phone-free retreat supported by gentle, accessible contemplative practices. Surya is a meditation teacher and founder of Rolling Meadows Retreats, with over 30 years of experience guiding silent retreats and contemplative practice. Their work is known for creating containers that feel safe, spacious, and humane—inviting participants into silence as a living relationship with presence, compassion, and love.
Silence is shared collectively, creating a quiet and supportive environment where attention can settle and awareness can deepen without pressure to speak or perform. This retreat invites a softer relationship with love through simplicity, stillness, and shared rhythm.
The experience includes guided meditation, yoga nidra, breathwork, and unstructured time in the natural landscape. Held at Casa Portal, days unfold slowly and simply, allowing participants to attune to the rhythm of the land and their own inner pacing.
date: july 1–5, 2026
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Women's Personal Retreat - Summer
The women’s only Personal Retreat Weekend at Casa Portal is an invitation to step into a different pace. Guests arrive individually and spend the weekend moving freely between solitude, shared presence, and the everyday rhythms of the farm.
There is no fixed schedule to follow. Instead, days are shaped by simple offerings and open time—allowing space for walking the trails, sitting by the pond, reading, resting, or simply being. Optional daily prompts, meditation, and gentle movement are available for those who want a bit of structure, but nothing is required.
Life on the farm is part of the experience. Guests are welcome—never expected—to join in with light, seasonal activities such as tending the gardens, harvesting what’s ready, spending time with the sheep, or helping with simple daily tasks. These moments offer an easy, grounding way to feel part of something shared.
Days and evenings tend to gather naturally—often around shared meals, the fire, or quiet common spaces. Meals are an integral part of the weekend, prepared with care and seasonality, helping shape the rhythm of the day and the feeling of being at home on the farm.
date: August 28-30
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Among the trees - Forest Bathing Retreat
Among the Trees is a four-day forest bathing and storytelling retreat held in the heart of fall.
Guided by certified forest therapy guide Tam Willey of Toadstool Walks, this retreat centers on slow, intentional time in the woods—through daily guided forest bathing walks, solo wanderings with gentle prompts, and evenings gathered by the fire for shared stories.
Forest bathing, also known as forest therapy, is a guided practice of sensory-based immersion in nature. Rather than hiking or achieving a destination, participants are invited to move slowly, notice what’s present, and engage the forest through sight, sound, touch, and breath. The practice supports nervous system regulation, presence, and a deepened relationship with the natural world.
Held on Casa Portal’s private woodland trails—quiet, undisturbed, and free from public paths—guests are able to fully settle into the rhythm of the land. Fall brings changing light, cooler air, and a forest in transition, offering a powerful seasonal backdrop for reflection and connection.
date: september 3-7, 2025
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The Ease of Being – Silent Retreat
A silent retreat with nature as the container.
Led by Surya-Chandra Das of Rolling Meadows Retreats, The Ease of Being is a four-day silent, phone-free retreat supported by gentle, accessible contemplative practices. Surya is a meditation teacher and founder of Rolling Meadows Retreats, with over 30 years of experience guiding silent retreats and contemplative practice. Their work is known for creating containers that feel safe, spacious, and humane—inviting participants into silence as a living relationship with presence, compassion, and love.
Silence is shared collectively, creating a quiet and supportive environment where attention can settle and awareness can deepen without pressure to speak or perform. This retreat invites a softer relationship with love through simplicity, stillness, and shared rhythm.
The experience includes guided meditation, yoga nidra, breathwork, and unstructured time in the natural landscape. Held at Casa Portal, days unfold slowly and simply, allowing participants to attune to the rhythm of the land and their own inner pacing.
date: september 9-13, 2026
Guides this Season
Meet the experienced teachers and facilitators guiding our retreats this year.
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Surya-Chandra Das
Surya is a meditation teacher with over 30 years of experience guiding silent retreats and contemplative practice. Founder of Rolling Meadows Retreats, his work draws from decades of training and long-term retreat practice across multiple traditions, offering silence as a relational, accessible, and deeply held experience.
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Tam Willey
Tam Willey is an ANFT-certified forest therapy guide and the founder of Toadstool Walks. Her work blends guided forest bathing, sensory awareness, and storytelling to help people slow down, listen deeply, and build meaningful relationships with the natural world. Tam leads walks rooted in presence, curiosity, and care for the land.
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Natalie Davis
Natalie Davis is an intuitive coach and creative facilitator with a background in design and embodied creative practice. Her work invites people to reconnect with their creative instincts, inner rhythm, and sense of meaning through curiosity, presence, and hands-on exploration.
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Maura Ambrose
Maura Ambrose is a fiber artist and natural dyer whose work centers on hand-stitched quilts and textiles made with materials grown from the land. Through her studio, Folk Fibers, she teaches traditional craft practices as a way to explore creativity, color, and connection through making.
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Melissa schneider
Melissa Schneider is the owner and steward of Casa Portal, She is a small-scale shepherdess tending a flock of heritage Navajo-Churro sheep and runs a wool and fiber line. She is a certified ANFT forest therapy guide and leads walks and retreats on the Casa Portal land.
