April 19, 2026 10am-5pm
Spiritual Reparenting
at Sanctuary Farm
8519 Pickards Meadow Rd, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Join meditation teachers Joanna John and Kerry Goldring for Spiritual Reparenting, a meditation retreat for inner child work and healing.
What is Spiritual Reparenting?
Spiritual Reparenting is a gentle, powerful meditation practice of meeting the parts of ourselves that learned to survive without enough support.
Throughout childhood—and later in life—we all experience moments that overwhelm our capacity to cope. When those moments aren’t met with enough love, protection, and guidance, they remain held in the body and psyche as stored hurts and traumas, shaping our subconscious beliefs about ourselves and the world and quietly organizing our reactions, relationships, and movement through life.
This work is not a critique of our parents or caregivers. Spiritual Reparenting simply acknowledges that no external parent can meet every need, and that the one most capable of helping our younger self through challenges is the adult self we are now.
In this work, we learn to turn toward those younger parts of ourselves with the presence, wisdom, and compassion we have now. Through meditation, imagery, somatic awareness, and the compassionate presence of a guide, we begin to form a trusting relationship between our adult self and younger self, offering what was missing so the burdens of the past no longer have to organize our present.
Rather than reliving the past, we revisit it differently—with love, protection, and guidance. By bringing our adult presence to those earlier experiences, stored meanings about who we are and what the world is like can transform, bringing a sense of relief or ease that flows directly into our current experience.
This offering is informed by the reparenting teachings of Stan Eisenstein.
Your Guides
Joanna John (she/her), Durham, NC
Joanna completed mindfulness meditation teacher training in 2023 through the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP), a two-year training founded by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She then pursued an additional year of study with Stan Eisenstein and Cynthia Wilcox, PhD, in Guided Embodied Inquiry for Individuals (GEII).
GEII is a one-on-one modality that supports psychological and spiritual healing through mindfulness meditation, drawing on complementary frameworks including Internal Family Systems, Buddhist philosophy, spiritual reparenting, and somatic approaches to emotional processing.
Joanna continues her study of GEII with Stan, her co-teacher Kerry, and a dedicated community of meditation teachers.
Joanna facilitates seasonal meditation retreats in the Triangle area and leads ongoing cyclical sanghas (meditation communities in the Buddhist tradition). As both a teacher and fellow practitioner, she is committed to her own continued growth and engages in ongoing professional development and personal practice. She regularly makes space for contemplative practice and writing, which are central to her life and work. Joanna practices engaged spirituality, a term inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, which refers to the active engagement of the heart and mindful awareness in service of the greater collective good.
Joanna is from Durham, North Carolina, where she currently lives with her husband, two sons, and their black lab mix, Tallulah. Outside of her teaching work, she is a homeschooling mother. Motherhood deeply informs and challenges her understanding of care, attunement, and compassionate presence.
Kerry Goldring (she/her), Portland, Oregon
Kerry is an ever-changing, every-growing cis woman navigating the wild, beautiful, and messy journey of being human. She has walked through her share of dark nights of the soul, and has been blessed with incredible opportunities for healing, transformation, and growth.
As a mindfulness mentor, Kerry offers trauma-sensitive mindfulness training, embodied inquiry, and psychedelic support. Her work is deeply rooted in her own journey toward wholeness and wellbeing. At the heart of her approach is trust - trust in our own inner healer. Kerry believes that we all already have everything we need to heal and grow. Her role is to guide, support, and hold space for others as they reconnect with their own innate wisdom and strength.
She is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher (following completion of the 2-year MMTCP training founded by Jack Kornfield and Tara Barch), an associate in Viktor Frankl's meaning centered therapy (Logotherapy), a trained LifeLine counselor and trained to facilitate expanded states of consciousness. She has studied Buddhist psychology, mindful self-compassion, and most recently Guided Embodied Individual Inquiry with Stan Eisenstein and Cynthia Wilcox Phd as well as IFS (Internal Family Systems) for trauma-sensitive mindfulness practitioners.
Kerry is committed to her professional development and personal growth and participates in various peer consultation groups as well as regularly attending meditation retreats and sacred plant medicine retreats.
Outside of work, Kerry loves travel, dance, vocal improv and is currently learning to play the handpan. She is also a proud crazy cat lady.
Lisa Keskitalo PT, DPT (she/her), Durham, NC
With over 10 years of experience in orthopedic, performing arts and pelvic health physical therapy, Lisa’s practice is grounded in her holistic approach to patient care.
She has developed advanced manual therapy skills through coursework with the Institute of Physical Art, the Barral Institute, and Herman and Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation. Lisa holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Long Island University – Brooklyn, a Bachelors of Science in Neuroscience from Tulane University and is trained in dry needling.
Prior to becoming a physical therapist, Lisa was a professional dancer with BalletMet, Hubbard Street 2 and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, among others. She has also taught ballet, modern and jazz throughout her dance career to all age levels.
Lisa’s practice draws from all of her professional and educational experiences to assist her patients in recovering from injury and returning to the activities they love. Lisa is currently practicing at Empower Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy in Chapel Hill.
What to expect
Our Spiritual Reparenting Meditation Retreat will be a day of connection and exploration—with self, each other, and the land— through guided meditations that lead participants through the reparenting process, land-based ritual, an inner-child altar, and large and small group sharing.
The day will also include periods of rest and integration through open-ended creative expression with watercolors and paper (participants are welcome to bring their own materials), movement and somatic processing with Dr. Keskitalo, a catered lunch, and time to walk and connect with the land.
This retreat offers a gentle introduction to the practice of Spiritual Reparenting. Participants will be introduced to ways of connecting with their inner child, explore how trust can be cultivated over time, practice tools for reparenting, as well as ways to continue engaging with this work beyond the retreat.
A catered lunch and guided audio recording of the Spiritual Reparenting meditation process are included.
To honor and preserve the introspective nature of this day, the majority of the retreat will be held in silence, with intentional openings for both small and large group sharing.
This event will be capped at 30 participants to preserve the container needed for deep inner work and connection.
The Land
We are grateful to hold our Spiritual Reparenting Retreat at Sanctuary Farm, an Earth Sanctuary and Learning Community dedicated to supporting a healed Human-Earth relationship. We believe that spending time on this land offers its own form of restorative medicine, enhancing the work of the retreat.
