The Arc of the Container: A Heroine’s Journey

“A strong container holds space for the soul to unfold.” —Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The Container is structured as a living journey across inner thresholds. Inspired by depth psychology, myth, and somatic, soul-led practices, this process reflects the arc of the Heroine’s Journey—a cyclical descent and return that centres embodiment, relational healing, and inner sovereignty.

Rather than rushing toward a singular, transcendent, or “peak” ceremony experience, the Heroine’s Journey invites inscendence: a gradual turning inward towards what is ready to be met. By slowing down, listening, and honouring the body’s process, The Container holds space for the inner journey to unfold with presence and care. In this space, resilience, trust, and safety are nurtured from within, allowing one’s inner healer to emerge and meaningful change to take root in embodied, sustainable ways.

Through preparation, ceremony, and integration, The Container supports inner transformation through grounded pacing, nervous system attunement, and relational support. Each phase holds a distinct function, inviting participants into deeper relationship with themselves, their bodies, and their inner knowing.

—The 5 Initiatory Stages of the Journey—  

1. The Held Container

2. The Threshold

3. The Portal

4. The Remembrance

5. The Return

Below, each stage of the journey is explored more fully, offering a map of how this Held Heroine’s Journey unfolds.

We will begin here:

1. The Held Container

The Container is the largest holding circle, an 8-month, trauma-informed framework designed to support deep inner work while cultivating self-trust and presence. Through this process women are guided through Preparation, Ceremony, and Integration. 

This is not a journey where participants are “taken” somewhere. Rather, in this Held Heroine’s Journey, women are accompanied as they learn to meet themselves more fully, cultivating trust in their own inner guidance while also being held in the process by facilitators and one another.

The structure of The Container will begin with six weekly live Zoom sessions on Monday evenings, where we will engage in group practices and sharing circles. After this, sessions will shift into a bi-weekly rhythm, complemented by guided at-home practices that include Yoga Nidra, meditation, breathwork, somatic inquiry and written reflection. These practices are an integral part of the container, helping participants build a foundation for embodiment, discovery, and inner healing.

“The psyches and souls of women also have their own cycles and seasons of doing and solitude, running and staying, being involved and being removed, questing and resting, creating and incubating, being of the world and returning to the soul‑place.”

—Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Begin the journey

2. The Threshold

The journey then begins at The Threshold, a process of preparation and attunement. This is where we begin to orient ourselves to what is present and to what is quietly calling us inwards. Here, we prepare our intention and learn how to work more closely with our inner healer through the levels of body, mind and soul, as well as in relationship.

As we dive deeper into self-awareness and somatic inquiry, we are invited to approach our own inner thresholds. By slowing down, listening with curiosity and compassion, and honouring all parts of ourselves, we begin to notice old patterns and learn how to cross these thresholds without force, allowing new possibilities and greater agency to emerge.

This phase focuses on:

  • cultivating somatic awareness and deepening self-inquiry

  • strengthening a felt sense of trust and safety through inner resourcing

  • clarifying intentions and engaging your inner healer

  • listening to and caring for your nervous system while attuning to the support of the container

  • practicing presence and witnessing alongside other women in the container

cross the threshold

Sileuta by Ana Mendieta

“The first step toward growth is the willingness to cross the threshold of your own fear.” —Michael Meade

The Portal

August 6-9, 2026 Ceremony Retreat Weekend

“A door opens not to escape, but to remember who you are.” —Joseph Campbell

Our retreat weekend marks the Portal, a deeper encounter with one’s inner healer within the medicine space. Here, the preparation of the previous months meets direct experience. Ceremony serves as a threshold moment—an invitation to meet what is ready to be seen, to be held, and to release what no longer aligns with who you are becoming.

The ceremony is not the destination, but a turning point: a moment of presence, transformation, and choice that ripples outward into the integration to come.

What’s included in the Retreat Weekend?

  • 3 Nights of Accommodations

  • Full Retreat Weekend (including Group Medicine Ceremony)

  • Organic Meals 

  • Hot Tub

  • Sauna and Cold Plunge

What’s not included?

  • Travel to and from the retreat

  • Optional massage and energy work sessions

  • Additional 1:1 preparation or integration support (available as a separate fee)

The Space

Our ceremony weekend will be held at a private retreat centre located just 15 minutes west of Edmonton, AB.

—Retreat Itinerary—

Thurs. August 6

4pm - Check-in

6pm - Welcome Dinner

8pm - Opening Circle

Free time - Optional sauna, fire, hot tub 

Fri. August 7

8:30am - Yoga

10am - Breakfast  

11am–2:30pm - Free time (light lunch, optional bodywork/energy sessions, nature walks, journaling)  

3pm - Breathwork Ceremony, Cacao & Soundbath  

6:30 - Dinner 

8pm - Yoga Nidra

9pm - Circle around the Fire

Sat. August 8 (Ceremony Day)

9am - Light breakfast 

Journaling

11am - Group Medicine Ceremony

Dinner

Integration Evening: optional sauna, hot tub, fire

Sun. August 9

Silent morning

9am - Slow Flow Yoga

10:30am - Brunch 

Check-out of rooms

12pm - Closing Circle

(*This is a general outline and may be subject to change)

4. The Remembrance

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
— Carl Jung

Integration is 80% of the medicine experience, and is where the journey deepens. In the four months following ceremony, women are supported in digesting their experiences, listening to the guidance of their inner-healer, and applying insights into lived experience and embodied change. This phase honours the nervous system’s capacity for integration and neuroplasticity, allowing new pathways of safety, choice, and responsiveness to form over time.

Rather than rushing to interpret or resolve, Remembrance invites a slow weaving where meaning emerges through the body, relationship, and daily life.

This phase emphasizes:

  • grounding experiences in the body and nervous system

  • supporting neuroplasticity to encourage lasting, embodied change

  • weaving insights into real-life contexts and relationships

  • exploring subconscious material and learning to work with its symbolic language, understanding that insight emerges through metaphor, image, and felt meaning rather than literal interpretation

  • strengthening self-regulation, reflection, and inner resourcing

  • deepening relationship with one’s inner healer

  • allowing meaning to emerge organically, over time

Remembrance is not about returning to who you were. It is about remembering who you are beneath adaptation, protection, and forgetting.

“The soul speaks in images long before it speaks in words.”
— Michael Meade

Spiral Getty by Robert Smithson

5. The Return

The final stage of the journey is the Return: the practice of bringing what has been remembered back into living relationship with the world. This is not an ending, but a maturation, where insight becomes orientation, and inner knowing begins to guide daily life.

Oftentimes, we cannot assess the impact of a journey for months, if not years, after it has taken place. The Return supports women in carrying their medicine forward with discernment, groundedness, and self-trust. It is a time of learning how to live what has been revealed, while honouring the cyclical nature of growth and change.

The Return invites:

  • integration without urgency or pressure to resolve

  • honouring cycles, seasons, and ongoing becoming

  • deepening relationship with one’s inner authority

  • living with greater alignment, choice, and sovereignty

This phase emphasizes an increased capacity to hold oneself without reliance on the Container, while still remaining in relationship with community. As the year turns, from December through March, women are invited to carry the work forward in their own time—integrating through lived experience with optional spaces for peer connection and continued resourcing along the way.

A final sharing circle in March 2027 will offer space to reflect on what has shifted, how the medicine is being lived, and what support may be needed moving forward. Individual 1:1 support will also be available during this final period with your facilitators as an optional, additional offering.

The Return is learning how to live what has been remembered.

“The work of the soul is to return from what is hidden and bring back what has been learned into the world.” —Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Roots by Frida Kahlo

I'm ready

Frequently Asked Questions

  • If you are interested in joining us and want to reserve your space, register for The Container and pay the deposit online. We will then reach out to schedule an intake call with you. If for any reason The Container isn’t the right fit after the intake, your deposit will be refunded.

  • The total cost of the 8-month containerand retreat is $4440.00.

    This includes everything except:

    • Travel to and from the retreat

    • Bodywork sessions at the retreat (opitional)

    • Optional 1:1 preparation and integration (available at additional cost)

  • Yes, we have monthly payment plans available. Payments would be made in instalments of $555/month for 8 months.

  • While we encourage consistent participation, we understand that life happens. In the event that you miss a session, recordings will be made available for review, and we will provide guidance for staying in rhythm with the container. If you expect to be away or unavailable for any dates, please contact your facilitators ahead of time to discuss.

  • Participants should feel called to deeper inner work and be ready to engage with somatic and reflective practices. We will discuss any health, medical, or mental health considerations during the intake call to ensure a safe and supportive experience.

  • The Container is designed as an 8-month journey, beginning with weekly 2-hour Zoom sessions for the first six weeks, then moving to a bi-weekly rhythm for the remainder of the program. Between live sessions, participants engage with at-home practices such as Yoga Nidra, meditation, breathwork, somatic inquiry, and reflective journaling.

    On average, these at-home practices take 1-2 hours of dedicated time per week and are an integral part of The Container. This is where much of the preparation and integration takes place. The more you lean in, the more you will get out of the process.

    If you feel called to go deeper, an additional Resource Library will be available for you to explore throughout the journey. This will include additional references, podcasts, book recommendations, playlists, and other tools to support body, mind, and soul.

  • Not at all. The Container is designed to meet you where you are. Practices will be guided and accessible for all levels, and the emphasis is on your personal process rather than “performance.”

  • Yes. The Container is complementary to ongoing therapy, coaching, or other personal development work. We will also discuss any considerations during your intake call to ensure your journey is held safely alongside any existing support.

  • The Container is designed to hold both new and experienced participants. The first six weeks focus on preparation, building trust, and establishing comfort within the group. Everyone is invited to move at their own pace, learning how to hold themselves while also being held by the facilitators and the group.

    • April 13

    • April 20

    • April 27

    • May 4

    • May 11

    • May 18

    • May 25 (Optional)

    • June 1

    • June 15

    • June 29

    • July 13

    • July 27

    • August 17

    • August 24

    • August 31

    • Sept 14

    • Sept 28

    • Oct 13 (Tuesday*)

    • Oct 19

    • November 2

    • November 16

    • November 23

    • November 30

    • March 2027: Final Integration Call

Still have questions about whether The Container is the right fit for you? Contact Us.

~

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  • A strong container is not rushed into being; it is shaped slowly by attention, care, and the willingness to remain present with what arises.

  • "Healing is not about becoming who you are not. It is about remembering who you are."

    —Toko-pa Turner

  • Depth requires a place to land—somewhere the soul is not hurried, fixed, or improved, but accompanied.