Recovery Camp ‘24
Schedule
When 2 things are listed at the same time, you can choose which one to go to!
Thursday February 29th, 2024
7:00 pm - Dinner (circle at 6:50)
8:15 pm - Opening Circle - Great Room
Gather to hear about all the exciting things in store, introduce ourselves and set our intentions for the retreat!
9:45 pm - Free Time/Hot Tub/Games
Friday March 1st, 2024
7:30 am - Yoga with Tim Cooley - Great Room
8:30 am - Breakfast
9:30 am - Community Assembly -(Mandatory) - Great Room
In this transformative experience, we will guide you through the art of asking for what you want. Through the powerful combination of embodiment, touch, and language, you'll have the opportunity to practice clear communication with others. We'll introduce you to the innovative 3-minute game, a tool designed to help you discern who is taking action and for whom. Through physical practice, we'll explore the profound impact of being in agreement with others, fostering feelings of safety, and connection. Join us as we embark on this mandatory journey together towards more fulfilling interactions and relationships.
11:15 am - Lodge Groups
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:30 pm - Recovery Theater Camp with Billy Ward - Temple
Something Dramatic! Something Emphatic! Something for Everyone - Recovery Tonight!” Participants will join in theater games, some familiar songs with recovery twists and some skit reading. Everything you’d want in a Recovery Theater Camp workshop!
1:30 pm - Finding Eros in Prayer with Rabbi David Dunn Bauer - Great Room
This is a clothes-on, pen-and-paper workshop. So much of 12 Step recovery focuses on a Higher Power, on God as we understand God. Historically, GBTQ men have been told to keep our erotic lives and our spiritual lives separate. Imagining a God who doesn’t understand us impedes our progress. I believe that our bodies and desires need to be part of our conversations with God, especially when we are engaged in transformative processes like recovery.
In the workshop:
We will hear from each other what our own innovations and experiments have been;
We will look at some ancient and modern thought- and writing-prompts; and
We will have opportunities to bless God who blessed us with our erotic desires and identities.
Note from David: I’m a Rabbi, and unsurprisingly, Judaism shapes my Queer theology. I will introduce a number of texts drawn from Jewish Biblical and liturgical sources. This workshop is for men of all faiths (or none). Please bring your theology, your sacred texts and your practices into the conversation. The practice of blessing is universal.
3:30 pm - The 4th Step with Andrew Kerivan - Temple
Join us for a transformative workshop where you'll not only navigate your 4th Step but also discover the power of choice in shaping your recovery journey. Embrace the support, insights, and resources that will empower you to take this crucial step with confidence and intention.
3:30 pm - Celebrating the Richness & Diversity of our Higher Powers with Scott Alexander - Great Room
In traditional recovery, the Steps suggest that we will become aware of a power greater than ourselves that can restore us. Secular recovery tends to interpret this in a way that suggests a discovery of community, professional assistance and healthy living, while neither accepting or rejecting traditional spiritual notions. For newcomers struggling with these concepts for the first time or long timers looking for new ways to help sponsees, this session will provide tangible insights. Participants will leave this experience having explored many different unique and authentic approaches to the concept of a Higher Power, and an opportunity to share their personal journey at the level of their own comfort.
5:30 pm - Free Time/Pop-Up Meetings
6:30 pm - Dinner (6:20 Circle)
8:00 pm - Recovery Jeopardy - Game Show Fun - Great Room
9:45 pm - Free Time/Hot Tub/Sauna/Games
Saturday March 2nd, 2024
7:30 am - Yoga with Tim Cooley - Great Room
8:30 am - Breakfast
9:45 am - Lodge Groups
11:00 am- Being Your Own Loving Parent: Finding and Nurturing Your Younger Self with Billy Ward - Temple
This workshop is for those who are aware that we grew up with, or have been affected by, trauma. It is also for those who have not yet discovered this connection. Our younger selves are longing to be nurtured and it is by nurturing our younger selves that we become our own loving parent today. You are encouraged to bring a picture or two of yourself from childhood, as well as paper and pen/pencil in order to help connect with your younger/inner one(s).
11:00 am - Sacred Hands with Jojo Bear - Great Room
In this offering we will be using slower touch as a way to not only regulate the nervous system but to cultivate a deeper sense of intimacy and eroticism. You do not need to be a masseur to touch someone mindfully. In this meditative touch practice folks will be partnered up and will be able to offer their sacred hands to one another for a scrumptious touch session. This is a great place for folks who are looking for slow, tender, sacred touch. Although this practice may be spicy at times, the practice and purpose is for the receiver to “feel the touch all over your body” and the giver just practices slowing down with their sacred hands.
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:45 pm - Wellness Recovery Planning with Dr. Noel Ramirez - Temple
In this workshop, participants will review critical frameworks that support daily recovery and resilience. As a community, we will review our recovery values and committed action and discuss the connection between our daily feelings, thoughts and environments and how they impact behaviors. At the end of the workshop, participants will craft their recovery tool kits to enhance their daily resilience.
1:45 pm - Bringing Prayer into Eros with Rabbi David Dunn Bauer - Great Room
This is a facilitated erotic massage workshop generating uniquely sacred and sexy intimate touch. At the start, we will all agree to respect the format of the workshop and to honor the boundaries that each individual man sets. Complete nakedness is suggested, but not required. Please show up freshly showered, un-perfumed (and un-deodorized). In my early years of sexual recovery, a lot of energy got spent praying not to have sex, praying to God to get me the hell out of there and get me home. When I started doing Body Electric workshops, things changed, and the 11th Step Prayer, “God, I pray I may be a channel for you to flow into the lives of others,” took on a new and exciting level of meaning. I thought a lot about how prayer could make my erotic life something of which I could be proud, a positive component of my recovery, and still fucking hot. It has revolutionized my personal sex life and my career as a Bodyworker.
In this workshop, I will present some prayer examples that I have honed over the years, and everyone who wishes can share prayers/practices that work for him in sexual and erotic situations. We will approach erotic massage as a glorious opportunity to support our brothers and to use our erotic desires in service of our Higher Powers.
3:30 pm - Reawakening The Boy Within with Jojo Bear - Great Room
Do you have that inner good boy that is always trying to please others? Does it happen so much that you are either in giver mode all the time or trying to please everyone to the point that you don’t even know what it is to play? Does the word PLAY mean some kind of work for you? Well, in this offering we will be dropping into an interactive and somatic experience engaging in play to wake up that good boy and get him alive again. We all have that inner child in us! Yes, we may have wounds that may have stunted us in many ways, however, in this workshop we will engage that playfulness and excitement and let go of the things that hold us back.This is a clothing optional, touch and experiential experience that is directed to cultivating that inner boy within us.
3:30 pm - The Secret Language of Fans with Dave Dietz & Jack Miller - Temple
In Victorian times, folding hand fans were used to communicate secret messages and in modern times by the queer community to express style and attitude on the dance floor. In this workshop, participants will decorate and personalize their own fans while learning some history and classic fan phrases. Then we’ll create a few phrases of our own and incorporate them into a fierce dance routine to be performed at the talent show.
5:15 pm - Grief in Recovery with Andrew Kerivan - Temple
Grief can manifest in various ways throughout our recovery, extending beyond what we are accustomed to, such as in the death of a loved one. It can be experienced in the absence of people we may no longer see due to our actions before recovery, the careers we lost, and the cascading consequences of our behaviors. Join us for this workshop where we will apply the principles of the 12 Steps to examine our grief, confront our losses, and heal—one step at a time
5:15 pm - Free Time/Pop-Up Meetings
6:30 pm - Dinner (6:20 Circle)
8:15 pm - Cabaret & Dance Party with David Dietz - Great Room
9:45 pm - Free Time/Hot Tub/Sauna/Games
Sunday March 3rd, 2024
7:30 am - Yoga with Tim Cooley- Great Room
8:30 am - Continental Breakfast
9:45 am - Lodge Groups
11:00 am - Closing Circle - Great Room
12:15 pm - Brunch & Farewells