Twin Eagles Girls Coming of Age Program
Thursday April 26 - Sunday April 29, 2018
Scotia House Retreat Center, Newport, WA
for Girls ages 13 - 16
The journey from childhood to adolescence is a dramatic time of development. Just like the fledgling bird that leaves the nest, the Girls Coming of Age Program is an opportunity for girls to expand their wings and begin to take flight. It's a crossing. A place where two roads meet. Those two roads are where your daughter was once a child and is now emerging into adolescence.
This program is a coming of age ritual that has been taking place since humans have been on the planet. These types of traditions are common throughout the world and across cultures. It's a unique blueprint that stands apart from every day ordinary life and at the same time, brings new depth, understanding and meaning to it.
What is a Rite of Passage?
A Rite of Passage is a ritual that signifies stepping from one life status or developmental stage into another. This important event helps girls form the milestones needed for the process of maturation. It helps them internalize the transition and essentially offers them stability in the midst of all the changes they're experiencing. It is the springboard that girls need in order to step towards their journey into the often difficult teenage years of adolescence. A Rite of Passage makes the difference between embarking on the adolescent years with consciousness and intention over the potential blur of just letting it happen.
In these complicated times, the vast majority of young people in our modern culture don't have formal events to mark this very important period in their lives. This gap has occurred because modern culture has lengthened childhood and coupled adolescence with it, transitioning both of them directly into adulthood in one fell swoop.
In the Twin Eagles Girls Coming of Age Program girls are given the opportunity to pause and see this transition for what it really is, cultivate personal compassion, self-awareness and understanding of what they're going through, and be given guidance, support and inner strength to step into or continue their adolescence deliberately, with conscious determination and bravery.
Nature is the context and the container for this experience because it is in the solitude of nature that girls can reflect and receive insight on their personal story and begin to more deeply answer the lifelong questions, "Who am I and what are my gifts?"
Qualities Cultivated ~ The True Curriculum
There are many qualities we consciously cultivate and promote in the Girls Coming of Age Program. Fostering these values is the passage and the curriculum. It is the fullness of the journey for them to awaken to their life stage and development. These are but a few of the myriad qualities and character traits that are nurtured in the Girls Coming of Age program:
- Pushing oneself to new heights
- Courageously facing challenges
- Learning how to take healthy risks
- Cultivating personal reflection
- Gathering resourcefulness
- Finding strength and purpose
- Learning how to adapt to change
- Strengthening the muscles of motivation
- Cultivating mindfulness and self-awareness
- Discovering potential and gifts within
- Developing conscious communication skills and impulse control
- Creating an honest, positive and healthy approach to the body
- Developing awareness of emotions and how to effectively express them
Through practices and practical learning sessions, exercises and potent immersion experiences in nature girls will encounter themselves in new ways that will call them forward into owning this life stage and living it to the fullest.
Signs of Readiness
A chain reaction of signs often begin with increasing hormone production which precedes the brain rearranging connections and establishing new patterns of thinking. Then follow physical and emotional changes.
Acne may appear, breasts are developing, the menstrual cycle may have started, the body is growing (ex. feet, hands, height), anxieties surface, a myriad of emotions are experienced, the feeling of wanting to be alone, asking for more privileges and/or responsibility, social interactions are increasingly important, the need to "fit in" with peers and/or social groups is felt, focusing on physical appearance, individuating from the core family unit, and developing interests in romantic interactions/relationships are all examples of signs of readiness.
Parent Participation
Parents are to participate at the start of the program (2 - 3 hours upon drop off) and on the last day of the program (10 am to 5 pm). There will be extra educational offerings and tasks given to both parents and girls prior to the start of the program. Mentoring and support is offered to help prepare parents and daughters for this special event.
Dates & Times
This program includes one group conference call for parents and one group conference call for girls. Call information will be given upon enrollment. The Twin Eagles Girls Coming of Age program begins on Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 3 pm for both parents and their daughters. Parents will stay on Thursday for 2 - 3 hours and then depart for the weekend. Parents return on Sunday at 10 am to reunite with their daughters, and the program ends on Sunday, April 29, 2018 by 5 pm.
Your Guide
Jeannine Tidwell has been mentoring people of all ages for over two decades. She leads programs, community events, and offers personal coaching to people in mentoring, leadership, personal growth and vision. She offers programs for girls, young women and women. She's been guiding Rites of Passage for young women for many years.
Accommodations
This program will be held at Scotia House Retreat Center in Newport, Washington. Scotia House is a beautiful, quaint retreat center situated on 60 acres, located about one hour west of Sandpoint, Idaho and one hour north of Spokane, Washington. Indoor activities will take place in the large lodge, while outdoor activities will be happening in the forests and meadows on site. There will be both indoor lodging with beds and outdoor camping as part of this experience.
Travel
Each family is responsible for all travel to and from the program location. Carpooling is encouraged, and we're happy to help coordinate by sharing contact information of interested families.
Group Size
To support a powerful experience, we've limited registration to just seven girls. This will help support a balanced experience for everyone.
Cost
We are offering this full weekend at $550 for both parents and their daughters. The cost is all-inclusive, covering all materials, accommodations and some meals.
Personal Invitation
If your daughter is feeling it's time to gain new privileges and responsibility or they've been feeling and sensing the desire to step out into the world more, then this opportunity is for them. If they're already taking on new responsibilities or privileges but never had a passage to walk through to acknowledge it, then this is the opportunity. If they're ready for an adventure that will help them discover more about who they are and the dreams they have for themselves in this new life stage, then this Rite of Passage is the perfect fit.
The Rite of Passage is a chance to give blessing to your daughter to be guided through this transformational experience that will help her successfully navigate the changes and rapids of this life stage and further a foundation for the rest of her life.
We welcome you into an age-old rite that has been taking place on the planet for time immemorial. This experience will give you and your daughter a powerful story together and a greater sense of knowing who you are as parents to your daughter as a young woman discovering her potential.
This is an opportunity for your daughter to transform the gifts of childhood into the resilience of adolescence. It's about cultivating an honorable response to all the complexity, confusion and challenge of the teenage years. When we are able to stand with integrity in a new life stage, we are able to face our own vulnerability and beauty, our strength and wholeness.
Returning to the Journey
The opportunity to return to the Girls Coming of Age weekend for a second and third year is a chance to deepen the journey and renew the experience. Many young women returning quickly realize that there is more growth and learning for them to discover. Returning to the Rite of Passage is crucial, for teens are living in a culture that is elaborately designed to train them in distractions. The return to the Rite of Passage cuts through all that quickly and brings young women back to their own source of wisdom and strength.
Year 2 - Girls Coming of Age
This is truly the "chop wood, carry water" phase of the passage. After having gone through the first year ritual young women are now guided on a much deeper journey than they previously thought possible. Through an immersion experience they discover the subtleties of their lives and find where the gifts of their first year passage have been embodied and come to life. This is the ripening of the fruit.
They are also guided to dig deeper and with true grit, face hidden internal obstacles, envision solutions and take home greater meaning for practice. With reflections and guided mentoring, they are called forward to see their growth and accomplishments. This is a chance for them to renew themselves to the goals, discoveries and defining moments they had in their passage the first time.
Year 3 - Girls Coming of Age
The Year 3 experience champions leadership and mentoring. Here young women are now able to articulate their experience with confidence and surety that they were still integrating in the Year 2 experience. They've gained enough perspective of the journey that they can not only look back and harvest the fruits of their passage but also offer that meaning and their gifts to the first and second year initiates.
The Year 3 young women stand as an inspiration and catalyst for other young women just embarking on the journey. Their leadership experience emerges through their presence, a powerful voice, emerging creative ideas and action.
Cost
The cost for either the Year 2 or the Year 3 experience is $450, which covers both parents and daughters. The cost is all-inclusive, covering all materials, accommodations and some meals. Arrival and departure times are the same as the first year.
To Register
Registration is currently open for Twin Eagles Girls Coming of Age Program.
If you prefer to pay by check, click here to download an application packet (pdf) and apply by US Mail.
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