The Saprea Retreat is a free, clinically informed four-day experience followed by a self-guided online course for adult women who were sexually abused at or before age 18. The retreat is led by our team of licensed therapists and case managers who are eager to help survivors heal. The retreat teaches survivors about the impacts of trauma, provides opportunities to apply healing tools, and builds a community of support. The subsequent online course builds upon that foundation for deeper understanding and application of healing principles.
*The Saprea Retreat is only available in English at this time.
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Meet the Team
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Our Focus at the Saprea Retreat
Saprea strives to provide a safe space for survivors to build a community of support while learning about the impacts of childhood trauma and applying healing strategies to help manage trauma symptoms. The Saprea Retreat has been carefully designed by a team of licensed clinical therapists to help you on your healing journey.
What to expect at retreat
Each day of retreat offers a variety of classes and activities that you can choose to participate in based on your needs. You will also have personal time to relax, reflect, and rejuvenate. Your individual healing journey is unique, and our goal is to provide support through education, experience, community, personal time, and guided online courses.
Sample retreat schedule
education: what you'll Learn
Learn about strategies you can use to heal and become acquainted with tools that can help you work through self-defeating behaviors and unhealthy habits. Our educational classes cover topics such as:
- Trauma and the Brain
- Creating Intentional Behaviors
- Coping Skills
- Understanding Shame and Resiliency
Experience: What you’ll do
Participate in a wide range of experiential activities designed to help you address the effects trauma has on your brain and body. These activities include:
- Yoga
- Kintsugi
- Art journaling
- Muay Thai
- Mindfulness
Community: Who Else Will Be On The Journey
The Saprea Retreat provides a safe space for you to develop trust, friendship, and community with fellow survivors. This sense of community can provide you with feelings of support, validation, and understanding that play an invaluable role in healing from trauma.
One of the primary ways we encourage community is through support groups. These support groups are available for survivors to participate in before attending the retreat, during the retreat, and after
returning home.
returning home.
Personal time: How you'll spend free time
During retreat, we want to make sure you have some personal time to relax and reflect on what you are learning at retreat. You may choose to spend this time by yourself, perhaps reading, resting, or practicing mindfulness exercises. You can also spend time creating connections with the other women in your group who are experiencing this healing journey.
Online Course: What You’ll Practice At Home
The retreat continues with an online course that you can access as you return home. This online course is an important continuation of your learning and provides additional support as you transition back to home life.
The online course features self-directed content for you to engage with wherever and whenever is convenient for you. This content is supplemented by live classes, which give you opportunities to connect and interact with other survivors.
The online course features self-directed content for you to engage with wherever and whenever is convenient for you. This content is supplemented by live classes, which give you opportunities to connect and interact with other survivors.
Log in to the online course
(You will receive access to the online course during the in-person portion of retreat.)
Who Can Participate in the Saprea Retreat?
The Saprea Retreat is designed for adult women who were sexually abused at or before age 18. However, the retreat is best suited to survivors who:
- Function well across multiple areas of their lives.
- Can safely live in a social environment for four days with a group of other survivors.
- Can abstain from drugs and alcohol for four days without withdrawals. Are still affected, often deeply, by their past.
- These effects can persist even amidst the achieved successes of raising a family, holding a job, and/or contributing to the community.
We created the Saprea Retreat because we saw various services for survivors in crisis, but virtually nothing for survivors who, years or decades later, still feel the effects of the abuse. If you have been managing the impacts of child sexual abuse but continue to find it difficult to cope, the Saprea Retreat may be for you.
However, the Saprea Retreat is not a crisis intervention program. We encourage women who are struggling with significant untreated mental health symptoms, active drug, and alcohol addiction, or homelessness to seek other professional help prior to applying.
However, the Saprea Retreat is not a crisis intervention program. We encourage women who are struggling with significant untreated mental health symptoms, active drug, and alcohol addiction, or homelessness to seek other professional help prior to applying.
Where is the Saprea Retreat?
The Saprea Retreat is hosted in Utah in a serene canyon in the Wasatch Mountain range of northern Utah. Here survivors will engage in learning practices as well as exercises to help them on their healing journey.
The exact location of the retreat is kept private for the safety and security of the survivors who attend. Once your application has been accepted you will receive the location details.
What Is the Cost to Attend?
Thanks to the generosity of our founders and donors, survivors participate in the Saprea Retreat for free (includes food, lodging, and services). Participants are responsible for travel to and from the pick-up locations for the in-person experience.
What Happened to The Haven Retreat?
In February 2022, The Younique Foundation, Finding Hope Support Groups and Defend Innocence rebranded and were renamed Saprea. In an effort to simplify our programs and services, we've opted to refer to our retreats and support groups by the Saprea name so that survivors, clinicians, and communities recognize the full scope of services that we offer. The content, quality, and empathy survivors experienced at the Haven Retreat are continued (and are nearly identical to) the Saprea Retreat.
Although we will have a new brand, our core values and focus will not change. We are pivoting to something greater and are hopeful our new brand will help us reach more survivors, more parents, more partners, and more communities.
—Shelaine Maxfield, Founder of Saprea
Who Is on the Saprea Retreat Team?
From the time you click Request an Application to the moment you arrive at the retreat location and then throughout the online course, our expert team of licensed therapists and case managers will guide you through your experience with kindness and empathy. You will interact with six different teams who are eager to help. Our staff adhere to high standards of confidentiality and are trained to comply with HIPAA.
meet the team
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How Does the Saprea Retreat Help Me Heal?
The retreat was one of the first educational programs of its kind made available to survivors of child sexual abuse. Prior to its launch in 2015, most child sexual abuse treatments were administered via individual or group therapy. Since then, more than 5,500 survivors have attended the retreat and benefited from the uplifting experiences it provides.
The Saprea Retreat has been studied by scholars at Brigham Young University and the University of Michigan, who published their findings in a peer-reviewed study. This study reported that survivors who attended the retreat experienced, on average:
These positive effects were shown to last for at least one year post-retreat participation.
Learn more about the study
What Past Participants Are Saying About The Saprea Retreat
More than 5,500 adult female survivors of child sexual abuse have participated in the Saprea Retreat. For some, participating in the retreat felt like their only hope for healing.
It gave me the opportunity to see myself in a completely different light... flawed and broken but not destroyed.
—Sareta, Survivor
Find Community, Support, and Healing at the Saprea Retreat
Apply to the Saprea Retreat