Rest, Reset, and Reconnect at Grownup Camp Sept. 19-20th
Care work can ask a lot from the people who do it. Teaching, healing, guiding, supporting, and holding space for others often means giving the best parts of yourself away, one day at a time. Grownup Camp offers a different kind of pause: an overnight retreat where adults can rest, reflect, make, move, laugh, and come back to themselves.
Coming up Sept. 19-20 (with an early-bird arrival option on Sept. 18th) Groundswell Grownup Camp is a rustic retreat tucked away in Timberhill Park. It is open to anyone, with special care and intention for folks in helping, healing, and teaching professions.
A retreat built around pausing, processing, and playing
The heart of Grownup Camp is simple and needed: Pause, Process, and Play.
Those three words matter because burnout is rarely solved by one long nap or one quiet evening. Rest helps, but so does expression. So does movement. So does being around people who understand what it feels like to care deeply and feel tired at the same time. Grownup Camp creates room for all of that.
This experience is led by a thoughtfully curated dream team with different forms of training and care:
An art therapist
A music therapist
A recreational therapist
A somatic coach
That mix shapes the retreat into something more than a getaway. It allows participants several ways to reconnect with the body, imagination, voice, and sense of whimsy. Some people process best through words. Others need rhythm, color, nature, or quiet. We make space for all of those entry points.
Why helping professionals need their own kind of rest
People in helping roles often know the language of self-care. They may even teach it, model it, or encourage it every week. Living it can be harder.
A teacher may spend the school year noticing everyone else’s needs before their own. A therapist may carry the emotional weight of session after session. A healthcare worker, coach, caregiver, counselor, social worker, or mentor may move through the day with steady competence, then realize later that their own nervous system has been waiting to exhale.
That is why a camp like this can feel different from a regular weekend away. It is designed for people who are used to showing up for others. Anyone who has been reminding themselves to "practice what they preach" in terms of self-care. The goal is not to fix anyone. It's to notice what has been pushed down, honor what has been heavy, and remember what still feels alive.
Sometimes the most restorative thing is stepping away from the role where everyone needs something from you.
This is a chance to be a whole person, not just the helper, healer, teacher, organizer, or steady one.
What makes Grownup Camp different from other retreats
Grownup Camp is intentionally rustic. That matters. A setting with treehouses and bare-bones cabins invites a different pace. It pulls attention away from constant updates, polished spaces, and the pressure to perform. Timberhill Park offers a tucked-away backdrop where people can feel grounded by trees, open air, shared meals, simple rituals, and time that does not need to be maximized.
There is also something meaningful about calling it “camp.”
Camp suggests permission. Permission to be a little less guarded. Permission to try something without being good at it. Permission to move, make sound, sit by yourself, giggle with strangers, or remember a version of yourself that existed before responsibility took up so much room.
To play is to be human. Play can help soften stress. It can reconnect people with curiosity. It can remind the body that joy is not something to earn after all the work is done.
Who Grownup Camp is for
Grownup Camp is open to anyone over 18, but it has been created with particular care for people whose work centers other people’s growth, health, learning, or well-being.
That may include:
Teachers and school staff
Therapists and counselors
Healthcare workers
Bodyworkers and healing practitioners
Social workers and advocates
Coaches, mentors, and group facilitators
Caregivers and community helpers
Nonprofit employees
Anyone feeling the need to reset before burnout deepens
You do not need to arrive with a perfect reason. You do not need to be at a breaking point. In fact, part of the purpose is to step away before burnout becomes the loudest thing in the room. If the phrase “I just need a minute” has become a regular part of your inner dialogue, this retreat may be that minute, stretched into something more spacious.
The lowest pay what you can rate is available for just one more week. We understand that in the caring, helping and teaching fields, we are not compensated based on the amount of work and energy we put in. Since we'd like to make this retreat as accessible as possible for all, we came up with the sliding scale listed above. (We do need to know our final camper count in order to meal prep!)
Mark the dates: September 19-20. Pack your water bottle for an overnight rustic retreat. Bring curiosity, comfy clothes, and the willingness to let someone else hold the container for a change.
A night in Timberhill Park will not erase every stressor waiting back home, but it can offer a real pause. It can help you process what has been building. It can bring play back into your body. It can remind you that your care matters, and so does your own renewal.
Come back to why you started
Grownup Camp is more than a weekend event title. It is an invitation to step out of constant output and back into relationship with yourself. The work of helping, healing, and teaching can be deeply meaningful. It can also be exhausting. Both can be true.
A night in Timberhill Park will not erase every stressor waiting back home, but it can offer a real pause. It can help you process what has been building. It can bring play back into your body. It can remind you that your care matters, and so does your own renewal.
Please reach out if you have any questions at all. If you feel the tug, listen to it.
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