Healing Retreats
What does the retreat involve?When can I come?
Where do I stay?
How long do people come for?
Does insurance cover any of this?
What if I start and don't like it or don't want to continue?
Who comes for the intensives? / Who will I see around the centre?
How much does it cost?
How do I get started?
The CEDRIC Centre offers highly successful intensive healing retreats to clients from all over the world. Your healing plan is created with your input regarding the services that are of most interest to you and our feedback about what would be most beneficial for your specific healing goals. Therefore, each intensive experience is unique to you!
The CEDRIC Centre has made a conscious choice not to become an inpatient facility. Meaning that our clients do not stay overnight at our centre. We made that choice because we wanted to offer our intensive healing clients a different experience than they would find in a 24 hour inpatient facility: Namely a safe and supported experience of independence and a blossoming trust in your own ability to make honoring choices that are in alignment with your goals for life and relationship.
The experience of having your own private space for the evening provides you with the opportunity of introspection and of witnessing some of your old and new behavioural and thought patterns at work. This is key because the next day you return to your individual counselling experience and can use those life experiences from the night before to come to greater consciousness about what really triggers you to use food to cope; either through binging, restricting or purging.
The more intensively you can work with us while still remaining in a semi-natural environment (ie. on your own, responsible for your own choices) the more you will be able to work through pieces of healing that could otherwise impact your success upon returning home. This means that our semi-residential retreats provide you with the greatest opportunity for long term success upon returning home because in essence you have been on your own, making choices and becoming more and more conscious of the impact of those choices thus enabling you to experiment with new and more life-enhancing ways of responding to those underlying triggers.
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What does the retreat involve?
We create a healing plan just for you, so each retreat is different in terms of the services you will be experiencing. The duration and intensity of the treatments and the program on the whole will also vary depending on your specific needs.
Our intensive individual counselling forms the backbone of all healing plans at The CEDRIC Centre. Typically an intensive program will have an average of 3, two hour individual counselling sessions per week. Plus 2, two hour individual life-skills sessions.
From this base we build your plan which may include some or all of the following services:
* Group counselling
* Mindfulness and meditation training
* Reiki
* Zero balancing energy healing
* Massage
* Acupressure
* Yoga (private instruction and classes)
* Specialized fitness training (with our own medical exercise specialists)
* Art classes (specific to your healing journey – held at the home studio of one of Victoria’s leading artists)
* Homeopathic Medical Consultation and Treatment
* Psychiatric evaluation and treatment
* Nutritional Consultation
* In addition to the services listed above we are associated with many health care professionals in the community who upon request will offer their specialized services to our clients. Such services include: Ayurvedic Physician; Equestrian Therapy; Bioenergetics; Chiropractic; Holistic Nutrition; Pilates; Tai Chi and more.
You will likely work with us six days a week for 4 – 6 hours per day. The rest of the time can be spent at the centre in our library or as free time that you use to explore the city (everything is within a 10 – 15 minute walking distance!) and to begin experimenting with your new tools.
Each healing plan includes some sessions via telephone or internet before you arrive and a series of sessions after you head for home. The pre-sessions serve to create a greater sense of comfort in arriving for the intensive, and sets the stage for deeper work. The after-care sessions provide you with a sense of continuity and support as you integrate into “regular” life. This is the most challenging time for everyone and is also the most exciting as it provides the greatest opportunity for lasting healing. Continued individual support at this time is fundamental to overall lasting change.
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When can I come?
We require an average of two weeks notice to ensure that the practitioners whose services would be best suited to you are not already committed to other clients at that time. So, from the time you first contact us regarding your interest in a healing retreat you can come as early as two weeks thereafter.
During the period of time that you are waiting to attend our program you will have one or two sessions per week on the telephone or via the internet (msn or skype) with your primary support person, or team leader. This individual will be your main counselor when you arrive at the centre and would be the coordinator for the various healers who will be working with you.
The value of these pre-intensive sessions is that you begin immediately to heal your use of food to cope. You don’t have to wait to begin to heal! You also have a stronger sense of connection with your team leader and thus feel a greater sense of comfort coming to a new environment and working intensively.
The CEDRIC Centre is open year round so you can come and work with us at whatever time suits you best and prior to that you can be receiving the benefit of the individual sessions via telephone or e-mail.
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Where do I stay?
The CEDRIC Centre is in the heart of our beautiful downtown. There are numerous hotels within a block or two. Or, you may choose to stay in a bed and breakfast setting nearby.
Just let us know what you feel most comfortable with and we'll give you the contact information of our recommended accommodations. You can also track down some great deals for accommodation through www.expedia.ca.
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How long do people come for?
When you come to the centre to work with us for an intensive healing retreat we suggest that you stay for a period of three to six weeks. The required time to successfully attain your goals will vary depending on your needs and your ability to be away from day to day life for that period of time.
If you are able to stay for a longer period of time, that's wonderful! The more that you are able to immerse yourself in a new way of perceiving yourself and your relationship with food the easier it will be for you to sustain those changes throughout life's twists and turns.
When we have our initial assessment session (see below) we will discuss what is realistic for you in terms of duration of stay and what is necessary for your complete and lasting recovery. From that information we will create a healing plan that works for you. The purpose of an intensive plan is to create the opportunity for a shift in awareness and in behaviour. We can support that to happen for you in a variety of ways so let us know what your specific needs are and we'll create something that will work for you.
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Does insurance cover any of this?
Some of the services we offer are covered by some extended benefit plans, often a certain percentage of the counselling is covered. You would have to check with your benefits provider and ask them if they cover services provided by our practitioners. This will be easier for you when you’ve had an assessment and have a sense of what services your plan will entail.
Occasionally clients have had their services covered in full under the heading of Addictions Recovery. This again, depends on their specific insurance coverage.
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What if I start and don’t like it or don’t want to continue?
The whole purpose of coming to The CEDRIC Centre to work intensively is to heal your use of food to cope. What this really means is that, together we are going to be exploring the underlying thoughts, feelings and behaviours that lead you to use food to cope. This is not always a peaceful and pleasurable experience. It can be a little painful and vulnerable at times. So it’s natural at some point in your healing to question whether you’re really ready or if this program is really working or going to work. What is important is that you challenge yourself to stick with what felt right to you at the beginning. Because at the beginning you were motivated solely by your desire to be free of your disordered eating.
If, as you begin to get deeper into your healing, you suddenly begin to question whether you’re ready or whether this is the right method for you, you can guarantee that you’ve begun to see your food coping strategy lessen somewhat and it’s a little scary. Remember, as painful and harmful and debilitating as disordered eating is, it’s also been a constant focus and constant companion for many years. So, it’s natural to feel a little uncertainty and like you’re losing something as those patterns begin to shift to a more natural and free relationship with food.
Our role at the CEDRIC Centre is to ensure that your transition occurs at a pace that is right for you and that you uncover and establish some safe and life-enhancing thoughts, feelings and behaviours to replace those old disordered ones.
One of the things that we make sure we address with you when we first speak about creating a healing plan is your readiness for change. How ready are you to let go of using food to cope? We discuss this at length and we do not progress to creating a healing plan unless we believe that you are ready to get the greatest benefit out of an intensive at this time.
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Who comes for the intensives? / Who will I see around the centre?
We have women and men of all ages, shapes and sizes attending our intensives. Our specialty is the diet mentality! The diet mentality refers to a way of thinking about food that undermines your sense of trust in: what your body needs and feels; whether you’re hungry or full; and whether you are capable of making honoring choices based on signals from within and not from messages you’ve received from outside of yourself.
It doesn’t matter whether you cope with food through restriction; overeating; or purging. The underlying triggers and the healing process is the same.
So you’ll see men and women in their teens; 20’s; 30’s; 40’s; 50’s; and 60’s at The CEDRIC Centre all with the same goals and desires for a life free from food and body image focus.
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How much does it cost?
Because the cost of each program is directly related to the length of your program and the number and frequency of the services you access during your intensive, it is impossible to give a solid estimate of what your plan would cost.
Once we have discussed the particulars of your plan (in the initial information and assessment session) we will, within 24 hours, create a healing plan document which will outline the cost of your proposed plan.
How do I get started?
First you arrange an initial information and assessment session. This can take place on the phone, via e-mail or in person. From that session your individualized healing plan will be created for you to review. You can then get a sense of the fee for your program and the variety and frequency of the services you'll be taking part in.
Once we hear back from you with any changes and your acceptance of the healing plan we'll begin to schedule your sessions in anticipation of your joining us on your specified dates.
Click here to request an initial information and assessment session.
Note: Please Note, this session is one hour in duration and the fee is $125.00 Can.
If you have some questions that have not been answered by the above information, please call or e-mail the centre and we will be happy to meet that need.
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Healing once and for all.
If your goal for your life is to be free from the 24/7 thoughts of food and body image, an intensive healing plan at The CEDRIC Centre is the solution. You will experience such a strong sense of clarity and understanding of the cause of your stressful relationship with food and what you can do to resolve it that, with the new tools and skills you develop in your work with us, you simply will no longer choose to use food to cope. It will truly become a choice. And You will have the power.
Click here to contact us and design your Intensive Healing Retreat experience today.
