5th Annual LTL Retreat
Sat/Sun May 3rd & 4th
Schedule
Saturday
8:30 - 9:00 Registration
9:00 - 9:15 Opeming Ritual
9:15 - 10:15 Keymote Address
15 minute break
10:30 - 11:45 Morning Sessions (1)
11:45 - 12:45 Lunch
12:45 - 2:00 Afternoon Sessions (2)
2:15 - 2:45 End of Day Ritual
Sunday
8:30 - 9:00 Coffee
9:00 - 10:15 Morning Sessions (3)
15 Minute break
10:30 - 11:45 Morning Session (4)
12:00 - 12:15 Closing Ritual
12:15 - 1:00 Goodbyes over lunch
- Workshops will be held both indoors & outdoors.
- Please wear close-toed shoes and dress accordingly.
- There will be water stations, so bring water a water bottle.
- Please bring a lawn chair.
After losing her beautiful son Randy to the fentanyl crisis in 2019, she and her life-long friend Shawn Nocher co-founded Love In the Trenches (LITT). The non-profit org is dedicated to lifting the shame, stigma, and pain of substance use disorder through community outreach, education, and compassionate peer support for families.
LITT offers peer-led intentional, informed support to bereaved parents as well as parents with children in addictive addiction. Additionally, LITT is present throughout Maryland as an Overdose Response Program that trained and distributed over 10,000 doses of life saving Narcan in 2024.
Kelly, we are so grateful for the work that you and your team are doing, and we look forward to hearing more about your journey and about LITT this May at our 5th Annual Retreat!
5th Annual Retreat Workshops
Our theme this year is a focus on growth through grief. We know that grief doesn’t ‘go away,’ and so we must choose to grow and live alongside grief. This year we will be focusing on continuing relationship with those who have died, as well as our community of support. We will explore ways to be connected through story, through finding a meaningful purpose in life after loss, and through developing a healthy connection with self.
Choose your top 6 workshops.
We will do our best to meet everyone’s requests. Workshops will be filled in the order that registrations are received.
Workshop 1: Grief & Imagery: Understanding your Unique Grief Journey through Metaphor
Led by Megan Kelly, LCSW-C
This workshop is an interactive exploration of imagery and metaphor as a way to understand your unique grief journey. We will play with using our right brains (creative/intuitive) to expand our understanding and relationship with grief, the world, and our loved ones. We are often imbalanced between the right brain (creative/intuitive) and the left brain (logical/analytical). Balance brings peace and understanding and a deeper self. This workshop will expand you and stretch your bounds of self, making more room for love, and for a continuing bond with your child.
Workshop 2: Meeting Our Selves through Equine Bonding
Led by Common Ground team
Horses possess a very strong grounding presence. Our nervous systems can coregulate with a horse, and this can be very healing for a nervous system with over-response to fight/flight/freeze/collapse response. Experience the self-expanding process of connecting with and building a bond with a horse. You will be guided by equine experts. No experience necessary. Note: This will be the same programming as last year.
Workshop 3: Stories as Continued Bonds; Using Story to deepen relationship
Led by Sheri Tydings, LCSW-C
This workshop will consider several forms of connections in order to create a deepened relationship with those who’ve died as well as with your supportive community. We will engage in a ‘story circle’, a sacred time of sharing, and we will support one another in sharing stories of your child, your experience with them, and the love that you still carry for them. We will bond through getting to know each other’s children through story, the most powerful agent of healing that is as old as language itself.
Workshop 4: Mindful Meandering; A Mindful Meeting of Self in the Woods
Led by Regina Flanigan LCPC, Certified Mindfulness Teacher
Join Regina on a meditative guided walk along a flat path in the woods. Learn a process of getting out of the head and into the soul through connecting with the earth and with self. Then spend a bit of time around the fire circle processing your experience. This is a gentle walk for all levels of walkers.
Workshop 5: The Quilt of Continuing Bonds Project
Led by Courtney Prahl and Krissy Benson
This workshop is a part of a bigger project in LTL being led by 3 local Frederick artists (one being our Whitney!). Participants will create a fabric square to be included in The Quilt of Continuing Bonds. The eventual finished quilt will be displayed in several locations throughout the year to raise awareness and to bring attention to the beautiful lives that have been lost. We will explore individual expression through the creation of personal symbols. Using stamp techniques, each participant will be led in creating a square for themselves and one for the quilt. No experience necessary! Just a heart that desires to express itself. Skilled artists will guide the way.
Workshop 6: React and Respond: Collaborative Community Art
Led by Whitney Dahlberg, LCPAT
This workshop is an organic experience. It will invite a deeper connection to fellow community members through art, and it will invite you to use your mind and soul to respond to some beautiful, grounding words. It is a process of responding to prompts on canvas (no artistic experience necessary!). Participants will be guided through prompts, and through a collaborative process of creating an art piece by working on a canvas, and then passing it to a co-creator. In the end, each participant will have an art piece that was developed by every co-creator in the experience.
Workshop 7: Paint by Number as a Method of Grounding
Created by Frederick MADE
This workshop is a space for contemplation and beautiful creation. Frederick MADE, a local artist collaboration has created a limited edition paint by number image exclusively for the Living Through Loss Annual Retreat. You will be set up overlooking the peaceful landscape, and be given all that you need to complete a paint-by-number canvas. This will be a time of community with other painters, and a time to still yourself through following along and creating a unique masterpiece. (Paint by number kits will not be for sale, they will only be available in this workshop)
Would you like to be a part of our photo gallery?
Are you familiar with our Abiding Love Virtual Photo Gallery? If not, you can check it out by clicking here. We’ve have received many requests from parents who would like to be included in the photo gallery. Fran Byrne, our photographer will be present on Sunday to take photos. If you are interested, check the box on the registration form below, and you will receive more information.
This year, we are requesting a $25 donation at registration. To make a donation, click here.
Registration ends 3/28/2025 at Midnight
Choose your top 6 workshops. We will do our best to meet everyone’s requests.
Workshops will be filled in the order that registrations are received.
Registration for the 5th Annual Retreat
We will process registrations in order of submission. When received, you will receive a confirmation email, with further instructions.
We look forward to seeing whoever is available to attend!
If you are interested in adding to our Abiding Love Story,
please submit your information below:
Abiding Love Story Photo Shoot Registrtion
You will receive an email confirming receipt and acceptance of your submission within 48 hours of completing this form. You will also receive a digital copy of your photo upon completion.
Please Note
You will also need to submit a photo of your child via email. It should be high resolution. and a clear headshot photo you wish us to use by sending it to our email address:
Please use your child's name as the subject to better identify your photo.