Inner Compass: Nature Immersion & Earth Skills for Women

Carve out time for yourself. Unplug from daily routines, retreat from work and family responsibilities. Share adventurous, inspiring, empowering, and uniquely fulfilling experiences in wild and enchanted natural locations.

Outside among boulders, tucked alongside a bubbling stream on a beautiful piece of land in the foothills of the Shawangunk Ridge, the woods will be our teacher.

Sharing connectedness with other women is inherent within our human blueprint. Way back into our deep ancestry, women have gathered to create, share resources, offer support, and take action. As our modern culture has slowly eliminated this cooperation and support from our daily lives, we women hunger for it.

As we navigate our lives – striving for balance between responsibilities of work and the needs of family and loved ones – we often lose ourselves and one another in the process.

Together, we will establish deeper connections with self, nature and creativity, through earth-based skills and mindfulness practices. We’ll foster self-reliance and cultivate courage through learning ancestral skills, including procuring water, shelter, fire and food, and practicing herbalism, self-care, and making useful crafts.

Our minds, bodies and spirits will be uplifted through shared adventures, intimate conversations, empowering challenges, remembering forgotten stories, and singing beautiful, powerful songs. All of this will be led by able and inspired instructors, and held in a basket of rich female fellowship. We will support you as you exceed what you thought you were capable of, at a nourishing and self-chosen pace.

Our schedule will include a rhythm of once a month meetings, including day programs and overnights from October through May.

Whether you are just beginning to deeply know yourself, or are well acquainted with the depths of your being, this program will support and strengthen personal resilience, nature awareness, inner confidence, inner balance, and self-reliance. Discover new connections to self and others in our widening community.

We welcome you back to yourself, and into a nourishing and spirited community of women.

Meet the instructors:

Stephanie Hertel

A certified herbalist and seasoned grower for 5 years, Stephanie offers her gifts as a therapeutic and medicinal garden consultant. She is currently creating and implementing a horticulture therapy program for the Anderson center for autism. Through her love of teaching herbalism, homesteading skills, and other ancient healing techniques, she strives to give others the tools necessary to lead a happy and healthy life. Her passion for making herbal products, natural crafts, and wild harvesting medicinal and edible plants are highlighted in her offerings as a wilderness educator. Stephanie’s excitement towards life blended with her easy going personality create a refreshing environment, ideal for exploring ones own connection to nature, themselves, and their community.

Rebekah Mindel

Experiences in nature as a child informed my life long quest to nurture this great connection with the land. Previously, I was a farm manager with aster b flowers, a small floral design studio and flower farm in Essex, Massachusetts. At Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in New York, I learned and taught agricultural skills from amazing mentors as a Flower and Herb Apprentice Farmer. Most Recently I am developing Meadow Wilds, a business venture in flower farming, botanicals and floral design in New Paltz, NY.

Trained as an Early Childhood Educator from Bank Street College of Education in New York City, I have been a teacher for young children for over seven years. Fascinated by preserving farm and nature-based education, I enjoy educating adults and youth in and outside of the classroom. I wrote my master’s thesis on the values and connections between farming and education. I enjoy working with adults and youth, cultivating reverence while out in the woods, learning new skills and ways of being while nurturing the love of the land.