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2277
West 10th Avenue
Vancouver
BC
Canada
V6K 2J1
Tel: (604) 732-0633
Fax: (604) 732-0689
email:
info@callanish.org
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Callanish Society is
a small, grassroots non-profit organization dedicated to improving the
emotional and spiritual health of our communities by assisting families
with cancer, and their health care providers, to explore illness and/or
death openly and consciously. Weeklong retreats and ongoing support
programs are offered by a team of health care professionals and
volunteers who believe that communities can develop resilience in the
face of illness and healing, loss and death, by coming together in a
process of authentic dialogue and in an in-depth exploration of what it
means to heal emotionally and spiritually while living with, or dying
from, cancer.
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Link to Callanish Frequently Asked Questions
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History of the Callanish Society
The Callanish week-long retreat program was inspired by the
Commonweal Cancer Help Program in Bolinas, California under the
direction of Rachel Naomi Remen M.D. and Michael Lerner Ph.D. The
Commonweal program has been in existence for many years and was featured
in the first Bill Moyers series “Healing and the Mind”, in 1993.
Due to great interest in their program from around the world, Commonweal
designed a training program for health care professionals interested in
setting up similar retreat programs. In the spring of 1994, Janie Brown
(founder and present Executive Director of Callanish Society) attended
the first Commonweal Tradecraft workshop. With the support of the
Commonweal staff, and a team of local health care professionals, Janie
developed the first retreat program of this kind in Canada. |
“Having worked with people with cancer and their families for
over 20 years, it is clear that there are some individuals who
are seeking a more in-depth exploration of what it means to heal
fully, emotionally and spiritually, even when the body may be
sick. Some people approach their illness experience from the
perspective of learning, and an opportunity for growth and
healing at all levels. There are people, who have had cancer,
who are now physically well, who want to find ways to live more
healthily and fully. There are others who are seeking ways to
cultivate fearlessness in the face of death. The Callanish
weeklong retreat has been designed as a refuge, for deep
exploration of what it means to heal and to find peace of mind
and heart in the face of one of life’s greatest challenges”.
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Callanish Society became incorporated as a
non-profit society in May 1997 and received charitable status in
November 1997. In June 2004, Callanish-in-the-City came into
being, a retreat space in Vancouver, thanks to the gift of an anonymous
donor. |
Weeklong Retreats
The weeklong retreat has become the foundation program of
Callanish. The retreats are offered to individuals over eighteen years,
with cancer of any type, or stage. Participants are accepted from across
Canada. As space permits, a spouse or partner may attend as a full
participant. Applicants must complete the Participant Application
and Medical Application Forms (these will be mailed or e-mailed
after an initial phone conversation expressing interest in attending).
The retreat includes sessions such as: qigong, meditation, massage,
art, sound/music, nutritional and symptom management education, as well
as group work which emphasizes the development of resilience, through
open dialogue around issues such as fear, losses associated with cancer,
and mortality. The retreat process assists each person to explore what
healing means to them, rather than to impose an agenda prescribed by
professionals. Mindful attention to the group process of deep listening
and witnessing one another creates the safety for people to express
themselves honestly without censorship. The group is not a therapy
group; individuals choose to participate as fully as they wish.
The retreats are held out of the city in a quiet, natural environment
and great attention is paid to comfort and beauty of the physical space.
We believe people heal when they are tended to physically, emotionally
and spiritually.
The retreats are facilitated by a team of health care professionals (see
Retreat Facilitators) with extensive experience working with people with
cancer, and volunteers, who are committed to their own
emotional/spiritual work and who believe in the healing power of a
healthy community.
Evaluations from retreat participants and feedback from families have
consistently informed us that the retreat profoundly affects the
participants’ quality of life after retreat and enables many to face
life and/or death more peacefully and consciously (see Comments from
Evaluations)
The retreats are highly subsidized (cost $795 per week plus GST) and
scholarships are available for those without the financial means to
attend (thanks to the support of the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial
Foundation).
In 2003, we developed a second-level retreat for those who
had attended a previous retreat and who were palliative in their stage
of disease. The goal of these retreats is to enable participants to
address “unfinished business”, to face specific fears around dying, and
to learn ways to support children and loved ones through the process of
losing a loved one. Evaluations have informed us that this retreat
experience profoundly changes the dying experience for the whole family,
with more peace, acceptance, and healing in the process. These retreats
are held once a year. |
Callanish-in-the City
Ongoing support programs after the weeklong retreat provide
participants with follow-up support in the form of meditation,
relaxation, art therapy, music and other modalities in the new
“Callanish in the City” facility. Callanish also offers educational and
supportive retreat days for health care providers who work with people
who are living with/dying from, cancer. (see current
Programs)
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Our House Blessing
(written by Janie Brown for
the “opening” of the new Callanish-in-the-City space in August
2004)
May you hold sacred each and every precious life that
enters here
Keeping us safe that we may soften the edges of our hearts
To risk opening to one another in truth
May you fiercely protect us that we might have the courage to
express all aspects of our humanity:
Both the laughter and the tears
The fear and the hope
The despair and the faith
May your quiet presence help us to recognize and remember our
wholeness
No matter how much sickness there is in the body
May your light bring us clarity and show us the truth in ourselves
And may your fires help to transform the suffering that keeps us
from being free
May you show us the way to kindness and respect for one another
regardless of our differences
May you lovingly support us as we honour life
and as we cultivate fearlessness to look closely at the transition
of death
May your quiet grace help us to rest in the impermanent,
non-changing ever-present field of consciousness that is the river
of life, out of which each life arises and passes away
May we come home to ourselves in you |
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