Residential retreats to support rest, renewal and deepening your work in the world
Beginning Summer 2026 |Health and Healing retreats at Sun Heart Farm offer opportunities for deep nourishment from the natural world, anthroposphical therapeutic supports and individualized organic/biodynamic meals over the course of 1-3 days. Retreats can be utilized as opportunities to support one's health and connect oneself and one's inner work more deeply. Retreats are an ideal experience for those experiencing burnout, or working through a big life transition. They offer support for those wishing to work with life questions, biographical themes or a health process such as chronic illness, more deeply. Retreats can also provide space for working more deeply on one's artistic or other creative projects or endeavors. A retreat's constellation of restorative, health-bringing supports alongside space for solitude in nature and more is collaboratively discerned prior to your retreat.More about retreats…trying diff language
Sun Heart Farm retreats are an opportunity to slow down, step out of everyday life, reconnect and access nourishment for body, soul and spirit. Beyond nutrients, vitamins, and other common supports, true nutrition includes non-material substances and forces. As a primary bridge between an individual and the world, nutrition encompasses everything we take in: food, the water, air, and warmth around us, sensory impressions, as well as cosmic and soul-spiritual aspects of our environment and our own inner lives. The retreat form allows us to enter into this wide array of nourishment more deeply.
“Maybe a quote or two somewhere”
“For we human beings are not confined to a dull, dreamy, half-life, but are destined to develop a free, fully conscious unfolding of our whole being. ”
At this time, retreats are mostly offered for one individual at a time. However, contact us if you are interested in one of our developing offerings -
Retreats for caregivers that live with their care recipients (e.g. an elderly person, a chronically ill person, a person with disabilities, one’s own child or a foster child) who come along for respite care in a separate space on the farm.
Family retreats for parents and children together.
Couples retreats.
Small group retreats.
We welcome donations to support retreats for those of limited means. You can donate here.
Retreat description
❋ Nourishment in NatureWhy are you offering these retreats? What inspired the offerings of these retreats?
I am forever grateful for the deep nourishment and support I have received in body, soul and spirit through both anthroposophical therapeutic offerings and from different retreat experiences in which I have participated over the last twenty years. These retreat experiences range from long-form group retreats focused on inner development, health and healing through the Inner Work Path in the 2010s, to solo silent retreats of varying lengths over multiple decades of my life, to more recent experiences of small group retreats in Ireland in connection to EduCareDo’s Inner Development for World Development course.
With regards to anthroposophic medicine and its various therapies, particularly with regard to external applications such as therapeutic footbaths, compresses and baths, these offerings have played and continue to play a monumental role in my individual health journey, and on all levels of my growth and development.
As an anthroposophical health practitioner I also carry tremendous gratitude for the healing gifts that these modalities have brought to my clients over the past ten years and I am inspired to create a context for deeper and more potent rest, renewal, health and healing for individuals through the retreat form.
Our times are certainly ones of increasing challenges, and connecting to the streams of health, healing and inner guidance are also being increasingly challenged. I was first inspired to offer these retreats seven years ago and it is finally time for them to come to fruition. I believe that retreats of this kind are and will become even more needed to help support us to heal, to help us strengthen, fortify and develop ourselves; to continually align with and grow in our capacities to serve love in freedom.
❋ Individualized Nutrition❋ Therapeutic Supports❋ Space for Quiet Reflection
Location
A retreat also offers ample time to experience the nourishment of the natural world at Sun Heart Farm, a 100-acre educational and therapeutic farm in New York's Hudson Valley, a landscape filled with fields, forest, a pond and stream, gardens, chickens, cows and bunnies. At the farm’s edge an almost two mile public access railtrail runs the length of the farm providing easy walking in the beauty of nature in all seasons.
Accommodation
In collaboration with Earth Stream Tiny Houses the accommodations offer their own harmony and health-giving forces to the retreat experience. The tiny house is situated in a private setting with views of the woods and stream, just a ten minute walk from the main farm buildings. Measuring just 6 x 12 the tiny house is designed for warm-weather living, has an RV full bed, micro kitchenette, and a dinette area. A stand alone outhouse accompanies the tiny house.
Location
A retreat also offers ample time to experience the nourishment of the natural world at Sun Heart Farm, a 100-acre educational and therapeutic farm in New York's Hudson Valley, a landscape filled with fields, forest, a pond and stream, gardens, chickens, cows and bunnies. At the farm’s edge an almost two mile public access railtrail runs the length of the farm providing easy walking in the beauty of nature in all seasons.
Meals
In collaboration with retreat chef, Anthony Mecca, an individualized menu of health-bringing organic/biodynamic meals is developed to best nourish and serve the retreat participant. Healthy snacks and teas are also served throughout the day.
i’ll start taking some pictures of the beautiful dinner plates he makes…and maybe some veggie photos from the album? A nice tea pot brewing i can do that too
Retreat offerings
Through collaborative conversation, a unique blend of offerings emerges to support a participant’s time on retreat. Offerings are facilitated by retreat holder, Sarah Mecca, unless otherwise noted. Some individuals choose to participate silently in their retreat and offerings are chosen accordingly.
Footbaths & CompressesOil Dispersion bathsOil Dispersion Bath Therapy is used as a complementary therpy in anthroposophic medicine to harmonize body warmth and thereby stimulate the body’s own processes towards maintaining health and is useful for promoting deeper sleep, calming the nervous system, warming the metabolism, supporting recovery alongside other treatments for a variety of illnesses and more. Each experience is followed by a period of rest.
Nutritional and other therapeutic bathsA nutritional bath is a potent therapeutic bath useful to support recovery from fatigue or illness. Other baths utilizing a variety of plant substances are also available. Each experience is followed by a period of rest.
Health ConsultationsAn opportunity to explore health and illness, and how we can perceive and support our health by understanding the meaningfulness of illness, our constitutional tendencies, anthroposophic-homeopathic remedies to support health and well-being.
These external applications support healthy development, as well as to prevent and treat illness at any stage of life. Plants and other natural remedies are applied over the skin to specific organs and body parts to bring balance and harmony through the body’s own healing capacity. Each experience is followed by a period of rest.
Nutrition Consultations
with Anthony MeccaNutrition consultations provide an opportunity for participants to help explore and inform or strengthen healthy, individualized food choices to best support their nutritional needs following a retreat.
Healing Conversation A healing conversation space provides an opportunity to go deeper into particular aspects of biographical events, life questions and challenges towards strengthening one's relationship to health, well-being, inner development and our work in the world.
Healing through Working with the Earth
with Anthony MeccaEngaging our will can activate strengthening and health-bringing forces in us. Explore healing through gentle garden work alongside an experienced biodynamic farmer. Learn about…
Plant Observation
with Anthony MeccaThe spiritual scientific insights behind biodynamics agriculture bring health and renewal to the relationships between our everyday acts in the world and the life of the earth. Building and strengthening these relationships both inwardly and outwardly, through practical engagement, can bring healing impulses to both earth and self.
Additional OfferingsWe collaborate with other local anthroposophical health practitioners and therapists to offer therapeutic eurythmy, art therapy, rhythmical einreibung and rhymical massage upon request. Guided instruction and experiences in the arts - painting, singing, drawing and more are also available.
Breakfast
Oil Dispersion Bath & Rest
Space for Quiet Reflection
Lunch
Chamomile Compress
Snack
Healing Conversation
Dinner
Space for Quiet Reflection
Daily Rhythm
Each day carries a harmonious, balancing rhythm of regular meal times, therapeutic offerings, rest and space for solitude in your retreat space and out on the land. Here are some examples of daily retreat rhythms
Breakfast
Nutrition Consultation
Footbath & Rest
Lunch
Yarrow Compress & Rest
Health Consultation
Dinner
Plant Observation
Breakfast
Health Consultation
Space for Quiet Reflection
Lunch
Nutritional Bath & Rest
Therapeutic Eurythmy
Dinner
Artistic Exploration
Breakfast
Gardening
Lavender Bath
Lunch
Art Therapy
Healing Conversation
Dinner
Campfire/Night Sky Observation
Breakfast
Space for Individual Work
Lunch
Oil Dispersion Bath
Rhythmical Massage
Dinner
Space for Individual Work
Day and 1-3 night Retreats options
Day Retreat
A day retreat runs from 8am to 5pm and include breakfast, lunch and 2-3 therapeutic retreat offerings. A day retreat is a perfect was to find rest and renewal without the commitment of a longer stay. Some find recurrent day retreats supportive throughout the year on a seasonal or monthly basis.
1-Night Retreat
These retreat begin at 10am and include 2-4 therapeutic retreat offerings each day and end on the second day with lunch.
2-Night Retreat
2 night retreats begin at 10am and include 2-4 therapeutic retreat offerings each day and end on the third day with lunch.
3-Night Retreat
3 night retreats begin at 10am and include 2-4 therapeutic retreat offerings each day and end on the third day with lunch.
Retreat costs
Day Retreats………...
1-Night Retreats…….
2-Night Retreats…….
3-Night Retreats……..
We strive to keep retreats accessible. Payment plans are available. Something about limited scholarships or something.
How It Works-
A short conversation with retreat holder, Sarah Mecca, to ask questions and find out more.
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Choose the length and dates for your retreats. 2026 retreats are available in August and September between Fridays and Sundays.
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After booking, we will set a time for a pre-retreat call with retreat holder, Sarah Mecca to learn more about your intentions for the retreat and discern your retreat offerings.
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This call provides space for retreat chef, Anthony Mecca, to answer any questions you have and to help him understand your nutritional needs and intentions towards creating nourishing meals and snacks for your retreat.
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We look forward to welcoming you at Sun Heart Farm!
Schedule an initial Conversation
Other Related Offerings
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WELLNESS DAYS
FOUNDER
With a vision for building something meaningful, our founder brings a blend of big-picture thinking and hands-on experience.
They set the tone for everything we do. -
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Health and Healing Consultations
SALES MANAGER
Focused, approachable, and driven by results, our sales manager is all about building strong relationships. They help connect people to the right solutions—with clarity and care. -
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Therapeutic Baths and Compresses
MARKETING DIRECTOR
Creative and strategic in equal measure, our marketing director brings fresh ideas to every campaign. They turn insights into action and help our message resonate with the right audience. -
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School for Spiritual Agriculture
Developing Relationships between Nature, Human Beings and the Spirit
other resources for supporting well-being, inner development, and deepening our work in the world, wherever you are
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Offers ways of engaging with esoteric studies. At the foundation of this schooling, which enlivens both ancient and modern practices, is the understanding of the evolution of consciousness.
But I want it to link to www.innerworkpath.com -
Offers self-directed distance-learning courses based on the principal ideas of Rudolf Steiner. Participants can begin any time and work at their own pace.
www.educaredo.org
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Offers programs. workshops and resources that support health and well-being for parents, students, teachers and others in community life.
www.developingtheself.org