June – September 2010

SPECIAL EVENTS:
Exclusive Screening of the New PBS Special, The Science of Healing

PROGRAMS FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH CANCER AND ILLNESS:
Cancer Help Program Retreats

Stress Reduction Classes

Creativity Workshops

Nutrition Classes

Support & Resources

Young Adult Cancer Survivors (YACS)

PROGRAMS FOR EVERYONE:
Gallery Exhibitions

Wellness Works! Workshop Series

Lectures, Screenings & Conversations

DOWNLOADS:

Retreats & Programs

Our goal is to make programs accessible to everyone. Most of our events are free. For those that require a fee, scholarship assistance is available. For more information, call 202-483-8600 or email heal@smithfarm.com. (Download a copy of the Program Calendar)


PROGRAMS FOR PEOPLE LIVING
WITH CANCER AND ILLNESS

Our programs empower individuals, caregivers and healthcare professionals to improve their lives by offering emotional support, self-care resources and conventional and complementary choices in healing. Workshops and retreats led by experts focus on time-tested wellness techniques such as health-supportive nutrition, creative expression, personal reflection, stress reduction and other healthy choices that enhance emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing.

CANCER HELP PROGRAM RETREATS
Smith Farm Center offers a variety of retreat options for adults living with cancer and their caregivers. They are designed for adults and caregivers who are seeking physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing as they live with cancer and other serious illness. Application is required.  Please call 202-483-8600 or email heal@smithfarm.com for details.

“You have an understanding that you’re not alone in this experience but that you’re growing and improving your life by coming to the sessions.  And the scope of the program and the quality of the people, I don’t think it can be matched by anyone else in the Washington area.” – Retreat attendee

One-Day Retreats
Smith Farm’s U Street location | $15 per person, lunch provided
Saturday | September 18 | 9:00AM-4:00PM 

Extended Weekend Residential Retreats
Comus, MD
Thursday – Sunday | July 22-25
Monday – Sunday | October 4-10

The goal of the Cancer Help Program is to help participants engage in a richer, fuller life by providing empowering tools and knowledge in the context of community with others facing a cancer diagnosis.

NEWAllen Chapel AME Church, 2498 Alabama Ave SE, Washington, DC
Saturday, September 11 | 10AM-2:30PM
FREE

A free workshop inspiring African American District residents to lead healthier lives through stress reduction, exercise and nutrition. The event features DC Councilman Marion Barry and will include free lunch and childcare provided. A series of six workshops will follow on Saturdays in September and October.

Enjoy interactive with cooking demonstrations, samples, recipes, simple techniques to reduce stress and enjoyable physical activity. To register, please call (202) 889-7296. (Space is limited.)

Workshops are coordinated by Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts, in conjunction with Allen Chapel AME Church and Union Temple Baptist Church. This program is funded by grants from the DC Cancer Consortium; Department of Health, Government of the District of Columbia; and Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.

NEW  Local, Seasonal, Organic: 14^th & U St. Farmers’ Market
With Daemon Jones, ND
Saturdays | July 24 | August 14 | 9:30AM-12:00PM
FREE

Come and learn about local, seasonal and organic offerings and food preparation.  Begin the morning with a cooking demonstration and of prepared, seasonal produce available at area farmers’ markets. Then take a field trip to the nearby 14th and U Street farmers’ market where we will learn about seasonal delights offered by local vendors and shop confidently using what we learned from Dr. Dae. Each class will feature different recipes.

These programs are designed for people with illness and caregivers.  Science tells us that psychological stress can affect the immune system, the body’s defense against infection and disease, including cancer. Reducing stress benefits us physically, mentally and emotionally. These programs are designed for people with illness and caregivers.  Please contact us to register.

Gentle Morning Yoga
With Corrin Bennett
Mondays | 10:15AM-11:45AM

Gentle Evening Yoga
With Leah Barr
Wednesdays | 5:30PM-6:45PM

Learn various techniques to help reduce stress and balance mind, body and spirit.  Enjoy a greater sense of wellbeing and enhanced energy.  All levels welcome. Both classes: $10/session or $25/month

CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS

These programs are designed for people living with illness, their caregivers and professionals in the healthcare field. Crisis, illness, and loss often turn our attention to exploring deeper aspect of ourselves. The healing arts are one of the ways we can access our innate strength and internal wisdom. Our workshops unlock innate creative potential and promote inner listening and self-awareness through writing, art, music, poetry and movement. These programs are designed for people living with illness, their caregivers and professionals in the healthcare field.f the sculpted, paper vessel and guiding us as we make our own.  

Mandalas: Exploring Personal and Universal Experience 
With Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC and Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC

Mandalas for Meditation: Saturday | JULY 10 | 10AM-3PM | $45. In this in-depth workshop, we will create Mandalas using imagery, writing and meditative practice to explore personal and universal experience.  4.5 CECs available, $15 additional

Self/Others: Thursday | AUG 12 | 6:30PM-8:30PM | $25. In this evening workshop, we will explore the connection and relatedness between ourselves and others with the Mandalas we create. 2 CECs available, $10 additional

The practice of creating and meditating upon Mandalas is found in many diverse spiritual practices – it helps focus our attention, clears our mind allowing us to access deeper levels of consciousness as we work toward wholeness.  We will create Mandalas using imagery, writing and meditative practice to exploring personal and universal experience. You may attend one or both of these sessions.

NEW  Creating Altars to Honor Resilience
With Gioia Chilton, MA, ATR-BC and Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC
Saturday | SEPT 11 | 10AM-3PM | $45

In this workshop, we will explore challenges we have faced and honor the process that helped us survive and even thrive in the face of such adversities.  We will create personal altars using an inspiring collection of found objects and treasures to honor our resilience and perseverance.  Materials provided. 4.5 CECs available, $15 additional

NEW   SoulCollage® Studio: Kairos – The Gift of Timeless Time
With Barbara Black
Thursday | SEPT 16 | 6:00PM-9:00PM | $25/session

Come play with images, create unique collaged cards that tap into your intuitive wisdom and discover what gifts and meanings your creations have for you.  This session focuses on time: Living in a world of linear “Chronos” time – clocks, deadlines, daytimers, PDAs – we often yearn for a more spacious experience of time. “Kairos” is the timeframe of seasons, cycles, tides, nature and soul.  Come search for images that evoke in us a sense of Kairos -- the need to stop, slow down and savor the moments of our lives.  Materials provided. 

SUPPORT & RESOURCES

Let’s face it: for young adults with cancer, the experience of living with illness is different from those in other age groups. Our concerns and challenges are unique. YACS at Smith Farm will provide a forum for fellowship and meetings with creative and relevant topics ranging from integrative health and fertility choices to coping strategies, relationship issues, and everything in between. 

We welcome you to meet people who share a common bond and want to have fun, support each other and learn along the way.

These meet-ups are for people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are living with cancer, as well as the caregivers and friends who support them. We welcome survivors at all stages, including those who are pre-treatment/newly diagnosed, currently in treatment, or post-treatment (whether by a few days or a few years).

Meet-ups are usually the first Tuesday of each month in The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at SFC. Visit this page for frequent updates.

June 15: Intimacy and Cancer special event in coordination with the DC chapters of Life With Cancer, I'm Too Young for This, and YACS of DC (The Ulman Cancer Fund). Sage Bolty, Oncology Counselor at Life With Cancer, will be speaking to young survivors about managing sexual and intimate relationships in the context of a chronic illness.

JULY 6: The Winding Path: Labyrinth Walk

AUG 3: Mind-Body Techniques for Relaxation and Self-Care

SEPT 7: Drumming Celebration of Life & Spirit, Location TBDJune 15: Intimacy and Cancer special event in coordination with the DC chapters of Life With Cancer, I'm Too Young for This, and YACS of DC (The Ulman Cancer Fund). Sage Bolty, Oncology Counselor at Life With Cancer, will be speaking to young survivors about managing sexual and intimate relationships in the context of a chronic illness.

PROGRAMS FOR EVERYONE

The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery is a leader in its field as the first non-profit gallery dedicated to promoting the arts as a tool for healing.  Exhibitions and programs in the gallery are open to the public.  Visit www.smithfarm.com/gallery for more information on exhibitions.

Gallery Exhibitions
Visit www.smithfarm.com/gallery for more information on exhibitions.

Performances, Screenings & Conversations

Exclusive Screening of the New PBS Special,
The Science of Healing
Hosted by Author and Medical Researcher, Dr. Esther Sternberg
Thursday | June 17 | 6:30-8:30PM

Dr. Sternberg worked with Emmy award-winning film producer, Renard Cohen, to capture on film the role of environment and emotion in the healing process. The program addresses some critical questions: What is healing? Is there a mind/body connection? What happens in the brain when healing occurs? What role does emotion play? Sternberg investigates the brain’s role in healing and how we each take charge of our health by creating places of peace. Dr. Sternberg uses her own story of illness and recovery as a parallel to her investigation of what scientists are learning about the mind/body connection.

From Shaky Ground
New Readings by Kathleen Gonzales
Friday | July 23 | 6:30PM-8:30PM

Haitian native and playwright, Kathleen Gonzales will present readings from her new play-in-progress From Shaky Ground sharing stories of her friends and family who witnessed the January 12th earthquake, capturing their experiences of hope, pain and recovery. 

ALSO, FREE HAITIAN COFFEE TASTING: Joanna Axtmann of "Just Haiti" will be on-site, offering a free tasting of Haitian-grown coffee - both ground and whole bean, regular and dark.  Come learn about and support sustainable agriculture in Baraderes, Haiti.  

Our goal is to make programs accessible to everyone. Most of our events are free.  For those that require a fee, scholarship assistance is available.

H1N1 Prevention Policy at Smith Farm
To reduce the chance of H1N1 spreading to our participants and staff at Smith Farm, we ask that you not attend a program if you are feeling under the weather or experiencing flu-like symptoms as many of our participants have compromised immune systems. If you have any doubts about whether or not you should attend a program, please speak with or email Darien Reece at darien@smithfarm.com. Thank you for helping to support everyone’s wellness.

NBCC Provider #6327
*Smith Farm is an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider and may offer NBCC approved clock hours for events and programs that meet NBCC requirements. Processing fees may apply.  Events and programs for which NBCC approved clock hours will be awarded are identified in the Smith Farm calendar.