Building sustainable, humanizing care practices for complex relationships
Whether you’re supporting loved ones, working professionally, organizing in community, or learning to care for yourself, this retreat is an invitation to move beyond knowing what care should look like—and begin practicing care in ways that are relational, sustainable, and deeply human.
2.5 days of practical workshops, real case consultation, honest conversation, and intentional practice.
Quick Navigation
- Becoming Care
- Who is CareFull Practices For?
- Care Consultation Labs and More!
- Retreat Schedule
- Pricing Tiers
- Frequently Asked Questions
- About Our Facilitator
Pricing
Cost: Sliding Scale, $395 – $745
- Learn More
- Includes:
- 2.5 days of education, connection, consultation, and collaboration
- 3 months of guided Becoming the Care You Want to Witness:
- Subscription to our private CareFull Practices cohort channel in the Stubborn Survivors Discord community
- Weekly practice prompts
- Monthly drop-in hours
- 30% off discounted consultations
- Scholarship applications due November 1, 2026
- Scholarships awarded based on available funds
- Community Supported tier deadline: November 15, 2026, or until sold out.
- Registration ends January 31, 2027
Location
Hosted at New City Center for Healing Justice in the Powderhorn neighborhood of South Minneapolis, MN:
3104 16th Ave S
Minneapolis MN 55407
Building is wheelchair accessible and includes an elevator as well as gender-neutral bathrooms. Sessions will include slides and paper handouts; we will not be able to provide an ASL interpreter or ALDs. There will be breaks as well as light refreshments available. Masks strongly encouraged. If you have specific accessibility concerns to discuss prior to registration, please email info@strongeruwellness.com.
Beyond training: Becoming the care we want to witness
Care trainings typically teach us principles.
Or they teach us techniques.
Many teach us what not to do.
Few teach us how to tap into our deeper humanity when care care feels complex, scary, or uncertain.
What happens when:
- there isn’t a clear right answer?
- someone feels unsupported?
- your own fears become part of the interaction?
- grief changes your ability to stay present?
- you’ve caused harm?
- you’re exhausted?
- your values feel in conflict with reality?
- no “good” or “right” option appears possible?
CareFull Practices invites you to Become the Care You Want to Witness in the World
We recognize how painful, and possibly panicky, it can be to shed the idea of a perfect answer.
Mutually vulnerable care practices are a journey of meeting ourselves, recognizing the humanity in others, and grappling with all of the unknowns and lost ideals in between.
Becoming relational while our minds race or freeze, while our bodies tense or squirm, is an art.
Together, we weave this artful dance of becoming care — one intentional practice at a time.
Who CareFull Practices Is For
This retreat is designed for people who sense something is missing from care.
People who are ready to relinquish formulas and rediscover vulnerable, human relationships.
People who are looking for practical ways to embody humanity when care feels overwhelming.
People who are leaning into becoming the change you want to witness — choosing relationship over outcome.
You might be:
- Peer supporters
- Crisis responders
- Therapists and clinicians
- Social workers
- Healthcare professionals
- Somatic coaches
- Physical / occupational / exercise practitioners
- Community organizers
- Mutual aid volunteers
- Disability advocates
- Family members / partners
- Friends supporting loved ones
- People learning to ask for or give care in embodied ways
Whether your care is formal or informal, professional or personal, you’ll spend the weekend developing practices that help care become more sustainable.
Why CareFull Practices?
Most of us were taught to grasp for the right answer.
The right intervention.
The right words.
The right framework.
The right outcome.
Over time, such perfectionism has burned us out and sanitized humanity out of care.
People are wonderfully, painfully complex.
We’re messy.
Our needs change.
Our values collide.
Sometimes the thing our heart tells us we most need isn’t accessible.
CareFull Practices honors that grief and invites you to ask this question:
Who would we become if we stopped doing care and started becoming care?
Over 2.5 days, we’ll invite you to deepen relationships and reflect on
- What is the narrative that I am bringing about care?
- What fears are shaping my responses?
- What kind of care is this person actually asking for?
- How do I embody care and remain relational when things feel overwhelming?
- Who am I becoming through this practice?
Leave the weekend clearer about who you are becoming and how you want to practice care.
Throughout the Retreat, We’ll Explore:
Deconstructing Care Narratives
Discover how your communities, trauma history, fears, and internalized messages shape the way you give and receive care.
Humanizing Care in Complex Situations
Practice becoming curious about how your support is experienced by others, how to recognize their sacred vulnerability, and how to align your care to their lived realities – even when realities and values collide.
Practical Skills for Difficult Conversations
Learn approaches that help you remain embodied through uncertainty, conflict, crisis, grief, and complexity.
Fear, Urgency, and Saviorism
Recognize how your own nervous systems influence care—and how to respond intentionally rather than reactively.
Harm, Accountability, and Repair
Practice reconnecting and repairing ruptures after mistakes happen, instead of disappearing into shame or defensiveness.
Care Consultation Labs
Bring your own nuanced or values-conflicting scenarios.
Together we’ll thoughtfully explore assumptions, fears, possibilities, and approaches within a collaborative learning environment.
Becoming the Care We Want to Witness
Develop your own ongoing CareFull Practice, including reflection, sustainability, grief practices, mentorship, consultation, and continued growth after the retreat.
What You’ll Gain
CareFull Practices will send you back into your communities with:
- a clearer understanding of the care practitioner you’re becoming, no matter how new or far along you are into your care journey
- practical tools for navigating complexity
- increased comfort sitting with uncertainty
- greater awareness of the narratives shaping your care
- approaches for supporting people without coercion
- practices for working with fear, grief, and urgency
- a personal CareFull Practice you can continue developing long after the retreat
- relationships with others committed to practicing care intentionally
Learning Environment
CareFull Practices is built around curiosity, relationship, mutual vulnerability, and making aligned choices.
Together we’ll practice:
- Making space for our vulnerability
- Choosing relationship over certainty
- Grieving what old narratives taught us about care
- Reclaiming those narratives with intention
- Holding competing truths without rushing toward resolution
- Surrendering the need to be right
- Remaining present when needs, values, or realities differ
- Noticing fear, urgency, and saviorism and pausing to realign
- Responding without coercion or pathologizing
- Prioritizing humanity, dignity, and agency
- Exploring mistakes honestly and practicing repair
We move humbly, relinquishing the need for certainty and committing to practicing care–together.
Retreat Schedule
The retreat moves intentionally from embracing, deconstructing, and reclaiming our care narratives, to developing and implementing skills through consultation and reflection, and ends by working with you to create your own sustainable CareFull Practice.
Thursday Evening: Connection and Collaboration (5:00 PM – 9:00 PM)
- Opening Circle
- CareFull Practices Overview
- Break
- Workshop 1: Care Narratives
- Closing Reflections
Friday: Developing Practice (9:00 AM – 6:00 PM)
- Opening Check-in
- Workshop 1: Deconstructing and Reclaiming Care Narratives
- Break
- Workshop 2: Holding Mutually Vulnerable Spaces
- Lunch
- Care Consultation Labs
- Break
- Workshop 3: Fear, Urgency, Saviorism
- Break
- Closing Reflections
Saturday: Implementing Skills & Building Sustainability (9:00 AM – 6:00 PM)
- Opening Check-in
- Workshop 1: Grief, Rage, and Finding Inspiration
- Break
- Workshop 2: Harm and Repair
- Lunch
- Care Consultation Labs
- Break
- Workshop 3: Become the Care You Want to Witness
- Break
- Closing Reflections
Location
Hosted at New City Center for Healing Justice in the Powderhorn neighborhood of South Minneapolis, MN:
3104 16th Ave S
Minneapolis MN 55407
Pricing Tiers
Retreat seats include:
- 2.5 days of connecting, reflecting, learning, and embodying
- 3 months of guided Becoming the Care You Want to Witness:
- Subscription to our private CareFull Practices cohort channel in the Stubborn Survivors Discord community
- Weekly practice prompts
- Monthly drop-in hours
- 30% off discounted consultations
- Registration deadline: January 31, 2027
If you are unsure what tier to choose, we invite you to review the Green Bottle method.
Community Support Tier
- $395
- Community Supported tier deadline: November 15, 2026, or until sold out.
Sustaining Tier
- $495
- At-cost participation
Community Sponsor Tier
- $745
- At-cost + sponsor our scholarship-funded and community support tier attendees
Professional Tier
- $695
- For those receiving employer reimbursement or professional development funding
- Help us to support our scholarship-funded and community support tier attendees
Scholarships
- Scholarship applications due November 1, 2026
- Scholarships are awarded based on available funds
Payment Plans
- 3 month to 6 month payment plans are available
- Please email info@strongeruwellness.com for more information
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need professional experience?
No. Many participants are community caregivers, family members, advocates, or people wanting to deepen their own care practices.
Will we discuss real situations?
Yes. Participants will have opportunities to bring real care situations into consultation labs where we’ll explore approaches collaboratively.
Is this only about crisis work?
No. While we may use crisis support examples to demonstrate complexity and invite participants to examine their natural urgencies, discomforts, and fears, the practices apply broadly to relationships, community care, advocacy, professional work, and everyday life.
Is this a therapy retreat?
No. This is an educational retreat focused on developing care practices. While meaningful reflection often occurs, the retreat is not a substitute for therapy.
What makes this different from other care trainings?
CareFull Practices emphasizes developing reflective practitioners who can navigate complexity, uncertainty, and diverse human experiences with greater intention. This retreat de-centers universality in care and invites participants to relationally examine who they are and who they’re caring for within unique and nuanced moments.
Is lodging included in the registration fee?
No. Lodging is not included in the retreat ticket.
Our venue is a short 10-minute drive from downtown Minneapolis. You will find many excellent hotel and rental options there.
Public transit from downtown takes about 20 minutes to the venue.
Will lunch or meals be provided?
No. Lunch is not included in your retreat registration.
We will provide complimentary snacks and refreshing beverages throughout the day.
The Powderhorn neighborhood has fantastic local food options. Many great restaurants are within a 5-minute walk of the venue.
About Our Facilitator: Ryder Fox, M.S.
CareFull Practices grew out of decades spent alongside people navigating chronic illness, intense pain, crisis, grief, disability, suicidality, community organizing, advocacy, and the complicated realities of caring for one another.
Ryder Fox has developed community-based care practices through coaching, education, consultation, team-building, and providing individual medical exercise, crisis, and peer support through Stronger U and THRIVE Lifeline.
Ryder’s work envisions beyond formulas and invites people to become reflective practitioners—continually examining assumptions, practicing new ways of relating, and building care that is sustainable, humanizing, and deeply embodied.
Disclaimer
While we believe that affirming coaching and consultations can be transformative, Stronger U does not purport to prevent, cure, or treat any mental health, medical disease, injury, or physical condition. While our coaches are highly skilled and qualified, they do not provide licensed therapy, treatment (clinical or otherwise) or diagnoses. We coach members and clients through holistic wellness practices, which are not a substitute for counseling, psychotherapy, medical or mental healthcare, substance abuse treatment, or any other professional advice offered by qualified medical or legal professionals.
If you are in need of immediate support, various non-carceral options may be found at this link.