The Sacred Rebuild- March 21st

A Retreat For Finding Healing and Safety after Spiritual Harm 

We begin where you are.
 If you've experienced harm in a spiritual or religious context—this retreat offers a grounded space to process, heal, and feel seen by others who understand the depth of this kind of pain..

The Sacred Rebuild is a trauma-informed, spiritually safe retreat designed for individuals healing from:

  • harmful belief systems 

  • church-related wounding

  • spiritual abuse

  • or simply the pain of being mistreated in sacred spaces

This retreat is not about fixing you or convincing you of anything—it's about offering a spacious environment to honor your story, your questions, and your pace.

  • We’ll offer a rhythm of reflective workshops, nervous system reset practices, optional group connection, and solo integration time. You are never required to speak, participate, share, or engage in anything that doesn’t feel right for you.

    All practices are:

    • Trauma-informed

    • Spiritually non-coercive

    • Somatically optional

    • Inclusive of where’ve you’re at in your faith journey

    Every activity is opt-in. Every moment. Even day-of.
     We will remind you often: You get to choose. Always.


  • This Retreat is For Men and Women 20 +who:

    • Have been harmed by a church, ministry, spiritual leader, or religious system

    • Feel cautious, curious, or conflicted about your faith

    • Felt silenced, shamed, or spiritually gaslit

    • You’re grieving the loss of a spiritual community or identity

    • Are deconstructing or reconstructing your belief systems 

    • No forced sharing

    • No theological debates

    • No pressure to return to any belief system

    • No “one-size-fits-all” healing path

    • No religious language unless clearly invited, and always with care

    • No group prayer or worship experiences 

    • Optional relaxation amenities such as massage, sauna and therapy pool

    • Solo time for journaling, creativity, or being in nature

    • Optional small group sharing, with strong safety agreements

    • A community of others who have been through similar harm—and are still seeking healing

    • A catered lunch along with drinks and snacks throughout the day 

  • This retreat will be held at Iron Bell Ministries, a peaceful property located in Louisville, KY. While Iron Bell serves as our venue for this event, it is not the host or organizer of the retreat. Iron Bell is a para-church organization—meaning it is not affiliated with any specific church or denomination. The space exists to support individuals and ministries across a wide range of backgrounds in a non-denominational setting. 


About the Retreat Schedule:

The day includes a rhythm of facilitator-led sessions introducing common themes—such as loss, identity shifts, trust, and breakout group options where you can explore those themes further through guided journaling, creative expression, or somatic practices.

You'll choose how (and if) you'd like to engage in each part of the day. Everything—from sessions to group work to rest—is completely opt-in, even the day of.

To support your nervous system throughout the retreat, we’ve included relaxation amenities like journaling stations, quiet spaces for rest, sauna, massage, and therapy pool. You are free to step away or take breaks whenever needed. There is no pressure to share or perform—only an invitation to be supported at your own pace.

  • 9:00–10:00 AM

    Slow Start: Easing In
    • Relaxation amenities
    • Solo journaling with guided prompts (headphones provided)
    • Quiet solo reflection time

    10:00–10:30 AM

    Session One: Naming the Harm & Holding Space
    • Understanding the spectrum of spiritual harm
    • Introducing shared language
    • Validating lived experiences
    • Creating safe, consent-based group culture

    10:30–11:20 AM

    Breakout Processing Groups – Choose What Feels Right
    • Creative Expression (Art therapy) — Led by Susan Jones
    • Guided Journaling + Group Discussion — Led by Channing Palazzo
    • Facilitating discussion: The Healing Spectrum: Finding Your Place in the Process— Led by Jenny Dedrick

    11:20–11:50 AM

    Session Two: Grieving the Losses
    We don’t just leave belief systems—we leave behind relationships, purpose, certainty, and entire frameworks that shaped how we saw ourselves, others, and God. This session honors the layered grief that comes with those losses.

    11:50 AM–12:45 PM

    Breakout Processing Groups – Choose What Resonates
    • Somatic Processing & Body Awareness — Led by Colleen Ramser
    • Guided Journaling + Group Discussion — Led by Channing Palazzo
    • Honoring What Was Lost a Sacred Release — Led by Jenny Dedrick

    12:45–1:45 PM

    Lunch (Provided)

    1:45–2:15 PM

    Session Three: Rebuilding
    “Rebuilding What’s True”

    2:15–3:15 PM

    Breakout Groups: The Rebuilding Journey
    • Who Am I Now? (Rebuilding identity post-harm) — Led byJenny Dedrick
    • Reclaiming What’s Real (“What is true, sacred, and beautiful for you now?”) — Led by Channing Palazzo

    3:15–4:15 PM

    Group Debrief + Integration
    • Final reflection prompts
    • Optional group sharing
    • Next steps and self-support

    4:15–5:15 PM (Optional)

    Relaxation Amenities + Gentle Landing
    • Quiet spaces for solo reflection
    • Journaling or rest
    • Say goodbye on your own time


  • Retreat Cost: Sliding Scale $150–$300

    We’re offering this retreat on a sliding scale of $150 to $300 to help make it more accessible while also covering the true cost of the experience.

    • $150 is the minimum amount required to attend.

    • If you’re able to pay more, your contribution helps offset costs for others and supports the sustainability of this offering.

    • Payment plans are available—we’re happy to work with you.

Retreats Hosts and Facilitators

  • Hi, I’m Jenny — My path into this work began long before I ever stepped into coaching. It began in the places where my faith and my wounds collided. I spent over 20 years serving and leading in the local church, navigating toxic leadership structures that slowly chipped away at my identity, confidence, and sense of belonging.

    As a woman with strong leadership gifting, discernment, and intuition, I often found myself pushed into roles that kept me small or quiet — not because of my capacity, but because of my gender. Over time, the mismatch between who God created me to be and what the system allowed me to express became deeply painful.

    In those years, I also found myself advocating for people who were falling through the cracks — women who weren’t protected, staff who were overwhelmed, families who were hurting. I gently tried to challenge injustice, to speak up for what was right, and to call leaders toward healthier, more Christ-like ways of operating. But too often, my voice was met with resistance.

    My body eventually bore the weight of it. Chronic stress built up in ways I couldn’t ignore. A health crisis forced me to stop long enough to recognize just how deeply I had been living in survival mode. By the end of my time in church leadership, I was depleted — worn thin, discouraged, and feeling like a misfit in the very environment I had tried so hard to serve faithfully.

    That collapse became the doorway to healing. What followed was a long season of deconstructing harmful beliefs, disentangling from performance-based spirituality, and slowly rediscovering God in a gentler, more truthful way. Through bodywork, nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and spiritual rebuilding, I began to reconnect with the parts of myself I had lost — my voice, my intuition, and my sense of sacred calling.

    Today, my work is centered on helping others do the same. I hold space for those who carry spiritual wounds in their bodies, emotional confusion in their hearts, and a longing to know God beyond the systems that hurt them. Through coaching, breathwork, retreats, and embodied practices, I help individuals settle their nervous systems, rebuild trust with themselves, and cultivate a life anchored in peace, presence, and authenticity.

    I’m a wife, a mom to a 13-year-old boy, a stepmom to three incredible young adults, and a grandmother. I’m honored to walk beside you at this retreat.

    Credentials

    • 6+ years as a holistic coach

    • Certified Primal Questions Coach

    • Certified Breathwork Instructor

    • Retreat Leader and Facilitator

    • Host of The Holistic Coaching Podcast & You’re Not Crazy Podcast

  • Hi.  I’m Channing.  I am a Licensed Therapist in private practice and have the privilege of coming alongside people from all walks of life on their healing journeys.  Unpacking layers of family of origin dysfunction, spiritual deconstruction and disillusionment, and the often the intersection of physical, emotional, spiritual and relational harm can be a lot to untangle, but it is beautiful, courageous and sacred work.  I’m honored to hold space for those who desire to continue moving forward in their healing journey of mind, body and spirit.   As I have worked with individuals and families across all different denominations and religious cultures, including those currently serving in ministry as well as those who have transitioned out of ministry or previous belief systems, I honor and respect the uniqueness of the healing journey.  It is not linear or a “one size fits all” and neither is this retreat.  

    In addition to clinical training and experience, much of my own journey has provided “personal training” through direct exposure and firsthand experiences with these issues as well.  Growing up in the church, attending Christian college, serving in church ministry and nonprofit ministry settings for many years, I have encountered a wide range of faith cultures and subcultures, denominational teachings, each with its own set of spiritually challenging dilemmas.  As I continued to unpack my own story while simultaneously studying family systems theory, attachment science and what healthy faith-integrated approaches to therapy look like, I began to examine and ask the hard questions about larger systemic issues and dynamics.  This led to painful but healthy unraveling, eye-opening discoveries, spiritual wandering and eventually slow reconstruction of my values, beliefs and sense of self.  I’m thankful to have been in the company of other honest, healthy, courageous individuals who were able to create space for me and walk alongside me, and my hope is to offer that same grace and safety to others.  

    Just as I have witnessed the spiritual, relational, emotional and physical impacts of various religious cultures and belief systems ranging from disappointing, to hurtful to extremely unhealthy and abusive, I have also experienced the healing, restorative power of healthy individuals, communities, leaders and organizations that are truly cultivating holistic well being and empowering people to thrive.  I have learned to embrace uncertainty, tolerate the discomfort of the unknowns, recognizing that healing is not a race and often happens one layer at a time, one season at a time.  

    We don’t have to stay stuck in painful cycles that keep us wounded, fearful and led by shame and self-doubt.  I believe there is hope, peace, freedom and redemption in many forms on the other side.  The outcome looks different for each person, but I trust that we will all end up where we need to be when we need to be there.  It is an honor to be a small part of encouraging and empowering you on your own journey.  

    Credentials:

    • Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist with over a decade of clinical experience

    • Trauma-informed therapist specializing in attachment wounds, spiritual trauma and recovery

    • Advanced training in attachment science and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

    • Retreat Co-Facilitator

  • Colleen Ramser, LPC, is an EMDR-certified, somatically trained therapist who specializes in

    trauma, with particular attention to spiritual trauma, complex trauma, and domestic abuse. Her

    work is shaped by a deep respect for the ways faith can both sustain and wound, and she is

    committed to creating spaces where healing, honesty, and safety come first.

    Colleen is a speaker, author, and podcaster who walks alongside the wounded as they navigate

    the intersection of trauma and faith at their own pace. She co-hosts Worthy: Celebrating the

    Value of Women with Elyse Fitzpatrick and has been featured on Christianity Today’s The Rise

    and Fall of Mars Hill and The Slow Work.

    As a survivor of trauma, Colleen brings a grounded, compassionate presence—one shaped by

    lived experience, humility, and hope that does not rush healing but honors the slow, faithful workof restoration.

  • Jeremy Barnett served in church and Christian organizational leadership for 10 years working with youth and adults.  He holds two Bachelors and two Masters degrees in the areas of Biblical Studies, Theological Studies, and Organizational Leadership.  His studies and teachings, which at first gained high praise and deep interest from the faith community, was later vilified with suspicion and fear when sacred dogmas were perceived to have been challenged.  Finding no community of faith to take refuge which both provided the infrastructure of community and ritual with true spiritual searching, questioning, investigation, and healing... he began working with others with similar experiences to imagine and create new and healthy pockets of spiritual connection and community.

    He now works as a Battalion Chief for the Scott County Fire Department while also coaching in the areas of leadership, social/emotional intelligence, and trauma-informed resiliency building.  He serves on the Scott County Critical Incident Team for emergency services and assists with organizational culture consultation.  He is married to the Executive Director of Justin's Place, a trauma-informed equine-assisted farm for kids, and together they are parents to 3 foster-adopted boys. 

  • Susan Jones is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor who specializes in trauma-informed, attachment-oriented care and Enneagram-integrated coaching. With a gentle, grounded presence, she walks with individuals who are healing from trauma, spiritual abuse, and the “hard places” in their stories.

    Drawing from her own journey of recovery, Susan offers a compassionate and deeply attuned approach that helps people find language for their experiences and reconnect with the parts of themselves that long to be seen and understood. She is the author of The Wholehearted Child and the creator of the Rooted Enneagram Framework, a trauma-informed model that weaves narrative therapy, attachment science, and the Harmony Triads into a pathway of restoration.

    Susan is known for her steady wisdom and her ability to help others soften the protective patterns shaped by fear, shame, and anger—creating space for authenticity, healing, and a renewed sense of inherent worth.

Register to Attend

To honor the emotional safety of all participants, we ask everyone to complete a short, confidential safety & intention form before registration is finalized. This helps us ensure the group is aligned, supportive, and that no one is retraumatized by someone connected to past harm.

Reserve the Right to Decline Participants :Because of the sensitivity of this space, we reserve the right to limit or redirect attendance to ensure the safety and emotional well-being of all participants. If for any reason we feel a retreat is not the right fit, we will follow up personally and provide alternate resources if appropriate.

This protects the integrity of the group without public shaming or defensiveness.

Only Jenny Dedrick and Channing Palazzo (retreat hosts) will see the submitted form below.