Dawn Gabriel on How to Create a Soul Care Retreat | FP 129

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On this therapist podcast, Dawn Gabriel talks about how to create a soul care retreat.

Are you looking for a retreat that specifically caters to the needs of therapists? What is the experience like of being in a retreat setting with only other therapists as guests? What are some tips on creating a retreat from scratch?

In this podcast episode, Whitney Owens speaks with Dawn Gabriel about how to create a soul care retreat.

Podcast Sponsor: Therapy Notes

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You’ll notice the difference from the first day you sign up for a trial. They offer live phone support 7 days a week, so when you have questions, you can quickly reach someone who can help, and you are never wasting your time looking for answers.

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Use promo code ‘JOE’ to get three free months to try out TherapyNotes, no strings attached, and remember, telehealth is included with every subscription free. Make 2022 the best year yet with TherapyNotes.

Meet Dawn Gabriel

A photo of Dawn Gabriel is captured. She is the host of the Faith Fringes podcast, and the founder of Authentic Connections Counseling Center. Dawn is featured on Faith in Practice, a therapist podcast.

Dawn Gabriel is the founder and CEO of Authentic Connections Counseling Center and the host of the Faith Fringes podcast.

Dawn creates an engaging space for fellow clinicians and healers to look deeper into their spirituality and faith. She has about 20 years of diverse experience in the clinical mental health world and currently focuses on helping therapists engage their spirituality in new ways in order to cultivate a deeper and authentic connection with God.

Dawn hosts Soul Care Retreats that are exclusively for therapists. She believes that therapists need their own sacred place to slow down and let go of all that they hold in order to continue their transformative work with others.

Find out more about Authentic Connections Counseling Center and the Faith Fringes podcast.

Connect with Dawn on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

FREEBIE: Sign up for Dawn’s free Spiritual Reflections journaling workbook

The first person to message Dawn on social media will receive a Swig Water Bottle (with Faith Fringes Soul Care Retreat logo)

In This Podcast

  • The soul care retreat experience
  • Tips on creating a retreat
  • Dawn’s advice to Christian counselors

The soul care retreat experience

Dawn’s soul care retreat was structured specifically for therapists.

That was very important to me, to have a place for [only] therapists because … you just need people who understand you in an instant, and it made it easier [for participants] to let down [their guard] and to let go. (Dawn Gabriel)

The participants were mostly group practice owners but they were all therapists. It is important to have a space where therapists can go to relax and be taken care of because they do most of the caretaking in their professions.

Therefore, going into a space that is dedicated to serving them and their needs is incredibly healing and soothing.

Tips on creating a retreat

1 – Build an audience first: work on creating an audience first before you sell a product or a service.

It’s not something you can just create … unless you have a network of people and an audience that is going to be interested, and they know you. (Dawn Gabriel)

Get to know your clientele and what their needs are and then create a product that solves those needs.

2 – Work with your passions: create a retreat that is based on what you are most passionate about so that you are not solely focused on making money.

Work with your passions so that you will enjoy the retreat and be inspired to make it the best it can be.

3 – Find a physical space that works: look for an environment to have your retreat in that supports its principles and objective. If your goal is to have guests relax, then host your retreat in a relaxing environment.

Dawn’s advice to Christian counselors

Your spirituality can intersect with your business in a healthy way. Your business and spirituality can be more purposeful if you let them.

Useful links mentioned in this episode:

Check out these additional resources:

Meet Whitney Owens

Photo of Christian therapist Whitney Owens. Whitney helps other christian counselors grow faith based private practices!Whitney is a licensed professional counselor and owns a growing group practice in Savannah, Georgia. Along with a wealth of experience managing a practice, she also has an extensive history working in a variety of clinical and religious settings, allowing her to specialize in consulting for faith-based practices and those wanting to connect with religious organizations.

Knowing the pains and difficulties surrounding building a private practice, she started this podcast to help clinicians start, grow, and scale a faith-based practice. She has learned how to start and grow a successful practice that adheres to her own faith and values. And as a private practice consultant, she has helped many clinicians do the same.

Visit her website and listen to her podcast here. Connect on Instagram or join the Faith in Practice Facebook group. Email her at [email protected]

Thanks For Listening!

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Podcast Transcription

[WHITNEY OWENS]
Welcome to the Faith in Practice podcast. I’m your host Whitney Owens recording live from Savannah, Georgia. I’m a licensed professional counselor, group practice owner, and private practice consultant. Each week through personal story or amazing interviews, I will help you learn how to start, grow and scale your practice from a faith-based perspective. I will show you how to have an awesome faith-based practice without being cheesy or fake. You too can have a successful practice, make lots of money, and be true to yourself.

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to listen to the Faith in Practice podcast. Is this is your first time listening? Yes, I’m so excited that you have found the show and hope that it helps you as you’re on your own journey in starting and growing your faith-based practice. If you’ve been listening for a while, thank you. You’re the reason I keep doing this.

So I appreciate hanging out with you today. I have the pleasure of going to Disney World in Universal Studios last week. I will admit that all my friends talked about Disney being like the most magical place on earth. I was like, ah-ah and I just was not that type of personality and I’ve bought in a good bit. So because I have a group practice, I was able to save up for this trip and I also had some other connections that made it happen. My family went down to Disney and it made me think how Disney World is an analogy from my business. Yes, I did find an analogy for this.

So as I was there, it’s hard to pick out what you want to do. There’s just so many fun things to do, and you’re trying to figure out what’s best for your kids and which rides do you want to wait in line for and which rides do you not and which ones are going to be the most fun and all that stuff. Then even when I’m on a certain ride, like it’s hard not to think about what ride do I want to do next. Like you’re already planning for the next thing while you’re doing something. It just made me, I mean, I’m sure it’s an analogy to life too, but it made me think about my business. I feel like I always have all these ideas floating around in my head, like I could do this or I could do this and I can get more clients this way I can meet needs this way.

Sometimes we’re so busy thinking about the next thing or there’s so many options that we just don’t enjoy the thing that we’re doing. So I found myself working on mindfulness while at Disney, instead of thinking about the next thing or thinking about the ride I’m not on or what I missed out on just enjoying this moment of my children laughing or feeling the wind in my face on a roller coaster and knowing that I can’t ride them all and that’s okay and I’m going to enjoy this moment that I’m in. But I will also say I’m already planning my next trip. Can’t wait to get back there. The kids had a wonderful time. So there’s your analogy for Disney and business.

I am excited about today’s interview getting to share with Dawn Gabriel with you. This is her third time coming on the show. So to tell you a little bit about her, we met back in, oh goodness, it might have been like 2010. It could have been sooner than that. I think it was 2010 when I was living out in Colorado. I was working at a psychiatric hospital. I remember this so clearly and I parked my car at the Chick-fil-A because I am from the south. If you move and you find a Chick-fil-A somewhere else you feel like you’re at home. So I loved going to Chick-fil-A. It felt like home.

I was walking inside and she was walking out. She looked familiar because I knew she’d worked at the hospital and she saw my purse and she commented on how cute my purse was. Then we realized that we worked together and she was like, oh my gosh, we got to have lunch. Dawn’s just the most friendly person. I was like, really? I thought she was so cool. She was a licensed therapist and I’m like just a new little grad girl working on my hours. I was like, wow. So we went to lunch and we became friends and she eventually became my clinical supervisor while I was out in Colorado. Then when I got back to Georgia, we just stayed in touch and now she’s doing some amazing things, not only in her group practice, but also with soul care.

I just admire her so much and I’m excited about the work she’s doing and being able to share that with you guys. She will be at the Faith and Practice conference. That’s going to be April 21st through the 24th. Thrilled about this event. Not only is it going to be amazing because Florida has great, or actually it’s in Georgia, I’m sorry. And Georgia has great weather in April at the beach, but it’s going to be a hundred faith-based practice owners killing it in their business. We’re going to talk about how do we integrate faith appropriately? How do we do that in our sessions? How do we do that in our business? We’re also going to learn really practical steps, things we can do in session. Then we also going to have yoga on the beach. It’s going to be really cool.

We’d love for you to come. I have some amazing speakers. If I start listing, them out I’m going to miss some of them, but a lot of people that have come on the show, including Dawn, Jessica Tappana, Gordon Brewer, Joe Sanok, Alison Pidgin, LaToya Smith, William Hempfield, Cindy Brock. I could go on and on. Erin and Nathan are also going to be, from Shrink Think. We have some great sponsors as well. Julie from Green Oak Accounting will be there. She’s also speaking. Jane Carter, Daniel fava, like I just, I know there’s more, but I just feel super honored for the caliber of speakers.

I don’t say that to put myself above anyone else. I say it because you all better get yourselves down to Jekyll Island. So if you want tickets to that event, you can go to practiceofthepractice.com/faithinpracticeconference. I can’t promise that they’re still on sale at the time of this recording, because we are selling them actively right now, but you should go check them out if you’re thinking about coming to the event. If you have questions, shoot me an email, [email protected].

All right. So we’re going to jump into this episode. Let me tell you, read the bio here about my girl, Dawn. She is the founder and CEO of Authentic Connections Counseling and the Faith Fringes podcast. Dawn creates engaging space for clinicians and healers to look deep into their spirituality and faith. She has 20 years of diverse experience in the mental health world and currently focuses on helping therapists engage their spirituality in new ways in order to cultivate a deeper and authentic connection to God.

She has sole care retreats that are exclusively for therapists and she believes that we need our own sacred space to slow down and let go of all that we hold in in order to continue our transformative work. She is a Chai and wine connoisseur, a hiking enthusiast, a wife and a mother of two boys who all love living and adventuring in Colorado. Oh, it’s wonderful. I am so excited to share this with you and you will learn all about soul care retreats, which are so needed. So this is episode number 129 with Dawn Gabriel, how to create a soul care retreat.
[WHITNEY]
Hello and welcome to the faith and practice podcast. I have my dear friend Dawn Gabriel here with me today. This is her second appearance, I believe on the podcast. So glad to have her. If you want to go back and listen to the previous interview, I think it was in my first 10 episodes I interviewed you about your practice and now you’re doing so much more. In fact, I actually think this is the third time. This is the third time. Here we go. All right. We talked last time about Faith Fringes and the work you were doing on soul care and then today we’re going to talk about your most recent venture with your soul care retreat. So I’m excited because I like bringing people on the show so that I can learn things and grow and so I get to have you here today. So thanks for coming on the show.
[DAWN GABRIEL]
Thanks Whitney. It’s always so fun talking with you.
[WHITNEY]
Yes, indeed. In fact, it was hard for us to get started recording because we were talking so much. All right, so let’s chat about the retreat, because I’m anxious to hear. You had a retreat in January of 2022 in Colorado, one of my favorite places. So tell me all about it.
[DAWN]
Oh my gosh. I don’t even know where to begin, except that it was amazing. I did, it was actually a beta test. I offered it to people I knew, close circles I knew and then opened it up to a few other people. So I had 10 therapists and we had this retreat in Colorado. It was this small retreat center nestled in a forest and you could see Pike’s peak. It was beautiful scenery and yes, it was in January. So it was great to start the year off and we actually got snowed in it. The first Friday that we were starting, we were going to do a hike, but we ended up getting snowed in. People had to like take three hours to drive an hour to get there. I mean, but it ended up being beautiful. Like, I don’t know if you love snow, but sometimes when it snows, everything just seems more peaceful and it just set the retreat up so well to just be nestled in. We had fireplaces, we had three hot tubs. It was just awesome.
[WHITNEY]
Oh wow. I love that. In fact, that’s one of the things I miss right now the most about Colorado, is I’m down here with no snow. My friends are sending me pictures and it is so peaceful and it does; it makes you want to settle down and honestly do soul care work.
[DAWN]
Yes, it totally set it up. I didn’t even think. I looked out in the morning, I sent my husband a picture in the morning and I was like, and I actually went hiking out in the snow and I was like, I feel like I’m in Narnia. It’s so beautiful. It was just so quiet, especially if you have kids. There was no sounds. I almost couldn’t sleep because it was so quiet.
[WHITNEY]
Definitely. I understand that feeling. So let’s talk about what was it like, if I had been there, what would I have experienced and seen throughout the weekend?
[DAWN]
I had people who were coming, the attendees, I would say eight out of the 10 were group practice owners. So it was, I didn’t mean to, but it was just specialized. Then the other two were therapists, so it was all therapists and that was very important to me to have a place for all therapists because I feel like you need that space. Number one, you just need people who understand you in an instant and it made it easier to let down and let go. Number two, we’re just so used to helping, being in a helping profession but then on top of that you had group practice owners. It was just a whole nother, it was just a layer upon layer of stuff we needed to understand about one another and just let down.

So all of the participants said, and this is what you would’ve experienced is I put so much time into the schedule being open. So there was a lot of downtime, which is unusual. Even though we call them retreats, a lot of conferences, a lot of retreats pack in the hours where you leave exhausted. You might be invigorated but you’re exhausted when you leave. It’s a good exhaustion, but you’re still exhausted. So this one I made, like we had two to three hours of nothing planned and I told them if you want to sleep, sleep, if you want to connect with someone, connect with someone.

The main point was to connect with God, I created space and exercises and exponential activities for people to connect with God. So they could choose to do that and sometimes sleeping was the most spiritual thing they could do and just being alone. They could be outside, they could be inside. So there was a lot of downtime, which you think, oh, that would be great, that’s awesome, I want that. But Whitney, let me tell you, a lot of the people had a hard time even saying, I need that. Even though they did know they need it, they had a hard time committing to that, but once they got there, it’s exactly what they needed. I don’t know if that makes sense.
[WHITNEY]
Oh, it totally makes sense. I know this is different, but I went to Slow Down School. You’ve heard a lot about Slow Down School, which is the Practice of the Practice retreat right outside Traverse City in Michigan and yes, you’re forced to slow down for three days before you even do anything. It was so invigorating and because I actually relaxed and it’s, you’re making me remember, Joe always told me a story that John Clark, I think I’m getting the right person, so I apologize if it wasn’t him, but he ended up watching Game of Thrones in his room. Now I’m going to feel bad if I’m messing up a name of who it was. But someone watched Game of Thrones for days in their bed, just relaxing because for them, that’s what slow down meant. So it’s really cool to see the different ways that people slow down. It sounds like you had a lot of opportunities if it was hiking or a hot tub, because I’d definitely slow down in a hot tub or sleeping, like different things people could do.
[DAWN]
Yes. It was hard because I feel like, especially with group practice owners, it’s hard for achievers and people who are used to running and hustling. It’s hard for us to slow down. There’s some fear there, like subconsciously or consciously but it’s so needed. It was beautiful to watch everyone relax and just feel peaceful. I set up a lot of exercises to help that, too, because I knew, I mean I was speaking to myself there too. I knew that we all needed it.
[WHITNEY]
Yes, definitely. Well, I get a lot of questions from people on how do I create a retreat, a soul care retreat or just a retreat. I mean therapists who are thinking about creating retreats for potential clients or just people they know or spiritual retreats. So I’d love if you have a couple of tips on what do you think is really important for people when they’re considering planning a spiritual retreat?
[DAWN]
This might be a question before that question. I want to say, I feel like, or not a question answer before that question. I feel like you’d need to have an audience first, which I know Whitney, you talk about a lot in Group Practice Boss of creating an audience before you market a product. So I had spent almost a year creating my podcast, which I felt was leading up to the retreat. That’s why I think the retreat was able to be filled so fast. So I just want to say that first of all because it’s not something you can just create and say, I’m going to do this unless you have a network of people and an audience that is going to be interested and they know you.

Because a lot of the people who are signing up, I was shocked, but they signed up within like 12 to 24 hours. It was sold out. I think that’s because I spent a year, people knew me and knew what I was about. So I just want to say that first, but then when you’re past that point, I think when you’re doing a retreat, I think you need to know what you’re really passionate about and that you could do it without getting paid almost because it does take a lot of planning. You have to find a space that works. I think the space is super important, especially if it’s a slowing down in a spiritual retreat. Like for me, I connect a lot in nature and in beauty. That’s how I connect to God so I wanted to make sure the space lended itself to that.

Then also the space needs to be the amenities, like the hot tubs, the hiking. You can see Pike’s peak where we were at. It was gorgeous. I mean, I didn’t plan for the snow, but that was a bonus but even without the snow, we were in the woods. It was quiet and there was only 22 rooms and we took up half of them. So I think it was important and the feel, it just felt comforting and spiritual. It felt sacred there. So I do feel like that’s important. You got to look at the space.

Then I would say the second thing is really knowing, and this is something I didn’t expect, when you say spiritual Whitney, I don’t know what comes up in your mind, but I know we have similar backgrounds in faith, but spiritual means a lot to different people. So as I was talking to people in marketing this, I had to do some interviews or not interviews, I would just say maybe pre-consulting calls or something like that, where I was talking to people and I needed to let them know this is what I mean. When I’m saying spiritual, how does that impact you and are you okay with that?

It was awesome. I don’t know if you know, Whitney, but I ended up, it ended up being an interfaith retreat because I had two Mormons, one Buddhist, some Christian and then some had some religious abuse in their background from Christianity. So that was a lot to look into and hold space for but I think it was important for me to work through all that before I got to the retreat and know exactly how to talk about it. I know I’m saying a lot. Those are the first two tips or three tips I would say for right no. I can keep going
[WHITNEY]
Oh no, that’s so good. I think, really just thinking about the types of people that are coming and how do you, not that you’re meeting their soul needs necessarily because they will find that on their own, but like how can you help facilitate that maybe, or take them to that next level of doing that work is what I’m hearing.
[DAWN]
Yes. That was, Whitney on a real level, honest level. I had to do a lot of my own work in the midst of this with my own spiritual director, because what a lot of stuff that would come up is I have to over plan this. I had to have like a PowerPoint presentation. I have to like bring it because these people coming are amazing. A lot of it was no, this retreat is to offer sacred space for people to connect with God. There’s an element that has nothing to do with me and I need to get out of the way I need to work on my own stuff so I can create this space for them and really trust that God’s going to show up in their life; that it’s really out of my control. That was my own issues.
[WHITNEY]
I love that. That’s so important.
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[WHITNEY OWENS]
So what would you say are some of the things that people did walk away from, the beta testers on this soul care retreat?
[DAWN]
I think one of my favorite things at the end, just feeling the community of other therapists was so helpful, but at the end there was at least three or four that said, oh my gosh, I’ve been on retreats before, even spiritual retreats, but this has been so welcoming and open and non-judgmental, and it was very healing for me on a spiritual level. Everyone said, I feel so peaceful. I feel so calm. Especially with where we’re at now, post pandemic or whatever you want to call it, when have you been able to say that in the last couple years? When have you said, I feel so peaceful and so calm?
[WHITNEY]
It’s been a while.
[DAWN]
Everyone said that, all 12 of us said that. That was the number one thing. I was like, wow. But to me, I think it was just really important that there was some healing there.
[WHITNEY]
I love that. So you’re planning on doing a few more of these, correct?
[DAWN]
Oh yes.
[WHITNEY]
Tell me about that.
[DAWN]
I’m pretty passionate. So I actually have a few things in the works. I’m planning on offering like soul care days here in Castle Rock. I’m also planning on offering soul care groups where people who want to jump in once a month and I will offer intentional space once a month to just check in and do some spiritually guided exercises. But I’m also going to be offering two more retreats this year, at least two more this year. One is May 27th through the 29th, again, here in Colorado, the same place. It’s the hideaway in conference center in Colorado Springs, which, it’s actually more monument by the way, for people who know where you’re at. Then the other one is September 23rd through the 25th. So I have two more retreats just for therapists alone.
[WHITNEY]
Oh, I love that. That’s awesome. If you want to get that information, you can obviously go to the show notes or to faithfringes.com, where you can learn more about Dawn, retreats or podcast, things like that. I know before we got on air, we were talking a little bit about some consulting you’re going to be doing. You want to talk about that?
[DAWN]
Sure. I have started to do some consulting where I just feel like it’s really important for therapists who are running group practices and want spirituality. I mean, very similar to you, Whitney. I love your work in Faith in Practice. I think it’s amazing. Just places to unpack what they’re working on with a spiritual lens. I think it’s important when we are, when I’m looking for consultants, it’s really hard to find someone outside of you and me Whitney, or doing what we’re doing. But I would say I definitely am loving just talking with people and just asking, “Where are you experiencing God in this and how does that impact your personal life? How does it impact your business?” I just love it with all, I just feel like I’m going on seven years running a group practice now, but 20 years being a therapist. I feel like I’ve been through a lot of it. I love just sitting with therapists. I feel like they’re my people and we need each other right now. So that’s part of my consulting.
[WHITNEY]
Well, thank you for your kind words, Dawn. I always feel like I enjoy my work with you as well when we get to talk and in that and always learning something and yes, I mean, running a business definitely makes you deal with your stuff. Being a therapist makes you deal with your stuff. So why would we not bring that work, the sole care work into consulting? Plus that’s the actual thing that’s going to make us better at our jobs, not like the marketing and the intake calls and all that stuff.
[DAWN]
Who we are as a person.
[WHITNEY]
That’s right. Our practice is an extension of us. If we’re not doing well, your practice probably ain’t doing well.
[DAWN]
Yes. Actually, I would say this real quick, another thing I’m developing within, it’s called the therapist matrix and I actually presented it on the retreat. It’s talking about how we can maybe look like we’re doing well as a therapist, but personally we’re not doing well. Or we may be doing well personally, but not as a therapist. There’s this whole therapist matrix we have to look at. Half of it is, and most of it is looking at our soul. So I do feel like that’s what it’s really about and business brings it all up anyway. So, you might as well have that someone talk through the things with.
[WHITNEY]
Oh yes, that’s awesome. So Dawn’s going to be at the Faith in Practice conference, which is April 21st through the 24th. To get more information on that you can know the practiceofthepractice.com/faithinpracticeconference. Tickets have already gone on sale while we’re recording this. So I can’t promise if they’ll still be available when you hear this episode, but definitely go and check that out. If you’re thinking you’d like to come, it’s going to be on Jekyll Island and Dawn’s going to be one of our speakers doing some soul care work. I don’t know if you’ve put it together yet or not, or anything you want to share about what you’re going to be doing at the conference?
[DAWN]
I’m going to be talking about soul care. We’re going to look at why self-care just isn’t cutting it anymore, especially for people who have that spiritual lens on their values in life. Then we’re going to do a lot of experiential activities. So they’re going to actually experience some of the activities I do on my retreats and also what I do in my consulting. We’re just going to do a lot of exponential stuff.
[WHITNEY]
Oh gosh. I’m so excited about it. Of course, excited to see you. Now, I’m trying to think of when’s the last time I saw you. It’s been a very, it was, I think, I don’t know.
[DAWN]
I don’t either. No, it was, do you remember? Oh my gosh, Whitney. We were at that little bakery across through my office in Castle Rock and my had my son and he threw up.
[WHITNEY]
Yes, yes. My husband had my kids and went to that cool park in Castle Rock with the outdoor stuff. Yes, that was, oh my gosh, that was even started doing consulting.
[DAWN]
It was before your, you were just starting your group practice, I think. Oh my gosh. How many years?
[WHITNEY]
A long time ago. Oh my gosh.
[DAWN]
I can’t wait to see you.
[WHITNEY]
Yes, indeed. It’s been way too long. Gosh. Well, I am really excited about the conference, having you and some, I just feel like, I just feel really honored with the caliber of speakers that are going to be at this conference. Really honored.
[DAWN]
Yes. It’s going to be amazing. I’m sorry, I’m excited, I feel like I keep telling everyone, this is first of many conferences. This is like, there’s nothing else around. I mean, you can go to ACC, whatever the Christian Association of Counselors are, but it’s so boring. This is way more intimate, like crazy good speakers. It’s going to be the best. I can’t wait.
[WHITNEY]
Thank you. Well, I appreciate you saying that and I feel the exact same way and really getting closer now. So I’ve putting things together and hearing you chat today has really been making me think about the conference and the importance with the retreat and a conference is what do you want people to take away? Just the same way you said with the soul care conference, at least with the Faith in Practice conference, even though it’s going to be a little bit more business focused, wanting it to be a place where therapists do feel that freedom to retreat, if they need to retreat like being right on the beach. If you need to go grab one of the bikes and go for a bike ride on the beach, or you just want to lay on the beach and say, forget the speakers, I’m just going to lay here, it’s okay; providing that space for people. If you want to just sleep in your room, just sleep in your room.
[DAWN]
I love it. You have, but the community, there is going to be, I mean, I’m going to have like FOMO with the community, but also one alone time. I don’t know. It’s going to be awesome either way. It’s beautiful. The pictures are beautiful at least.
[WHITNEY]
Thank you. Well, I’m a beach snob because I’m down here in the south, so I’ve been to lots of beaches and man, Jekyll Island, Jekyll Island’s interesting because it’s a long beach and part of it is Driftwood Beach, which has like really cool trees that you can climb on. I’ve taken my kids there. It’s you have to look up some pictures, Driftwood Beach. But then the other side of the beach is just beautiful. It’s really long too, like lots of beach areas. Sometimes beaches are too short, but it’s got a lot of beach area and it’s right in front of the hotel. The only access to this part of the beach is from the hotel. So it’s going to be to be fantastic. They have chairs and stuff there. So don’t worry, Dawn, you don’t have to pack a chair.
[DAWN]
My husband is super jealous that he’s like, why can’t me and the kids come?
[WHITNEY]
Actually, they can come if you want to bring them. Several other speakers and sponsors are bringing their family and their kids and grandparents. So anyway, just a thought.
[DAWN]
Okay. I’ll work it up?
[WHITNEY]
Well cool. Okay, so I want to just point out that you have a free gift for the audience today, a spiritual reflections journal workbook as a giveaway, and you can get that at the Faith Fringes website. Oh, I didn’t see this part till now, but the first person to message Dawn on social media, you will give them a sweet water bottle with a Faith Fringes soul care retreat logo on it.
[DAWN]
Yes. It’s very nice by the way.
[WHITNEY]
Cool. So check out Faith Fringes on social media. Then Dawn, I’m going to ask you what I ask every person that comes on the show, what do you believe every Christian counselor needs to know?
[DAWN]
Ooh, I remember what I said last time, but I’m going to change it this time. I believe they need to know that their spirituality can intersect with their business more than they thought of before and to really sit with that and wrestle with that. It’s a growing thing and how much more purposeful it can be when you let those two intersect.
[WHITNEY]
That’s such good advice. I feel like it’s happens every day.
[DAWN]
If you let it. I feel like I’ve blocked it out for so long. Not knowingly, but I love just having, it feels more purposeful and peaceful when I let it intersect.
[WHITNEY]
That’s so important. Well, thank you Dawn, for coming on the show and I’m looking forward to seeing you in just a few weeks.
[DAWN]
Yes, you too Whitney.
[WHITNEY]
We want to thank our sponsor today, Therapy Notes. To get three months free head on over to the Therapy Notes website and put in promo code Joe [JOE]. Make 2022 the best year with Therapy Notes.

Thank you for listening to the Faith in Practice podcast. If you love this podcast, please rate and review on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. If you liked this episode and want to know more, check out the Practice of the Practice website. Also there, you can learn more about me, options for working together, such as individual and in group consulting, or just shoot me an email, [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.

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