RISE · a teen journey · 7 days · no phones · ages 14–18 · Costa Rica & Canada · April + July 2027
On day five you walk barefoot across a bed of burning coals. That's not even the part people talk about afterwards.
Why a week does what three years of school doesn't
Every culture on earth worked this out independently and built it into growing up. Ours swapped it for a driving test. It's a three-part shape, and it runs through the whole week, through each day, and through single hours inside a day.
I
From the known to the unknown
You leave family, school, phone, and the identity you perform every day. Teens let go of the familiar and comfortable as they enter a new world to discover who they are and what they carry hidden within them.
II
Facing challenges, receiving the gift
Through physical and psychological tests and adventures, teens face their fears, overcome limitations, discover creative capacities, open their hearts, and receive a gift they carry forth.
III
Back to the village
Teens are received with respect and celebration for their newfound self-awareness. They share their discoveries and are acknowledged for the gift they now carry into the world.
Seven days · tap a day
A temporary village where youth, mentors and leaders live together. Nature, culture, life force and community, woven through every day — and the arc bending from separation, through ordeal, to return.
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What you leave with
Improved self-confidence, the ability to listen to intuition, and a deeper understanding of their own unique gifts and identity.
Group communication skills, lasting friendships, and the experience of belonging to a community that truly sees and values them.
The courage to face fears, take responsibility for personal choices, and navigate challenges with creativity and inner strength.
Creative self-expression, teamwork skills, and a felt understanding of what it means to lead from the heart and serve others.
Don't take our word for it
"Before Teen Journey, I faced the same problems most teenagers face. I was trying to make sense of the world around me and felt very alone in the process. Being a teenager is scary, and transitioning from childhood to adulthood is not easy.
Being around people that saw the good in me enabled me to start to see it as well. The most important thing I have gained is the realisation that love is the only thing that should ever matter, and it's the only thing that is real."
Former participant
"I used to think that the essence of a man was being a warrior, impenetrable, and without weakness. Witnessing the displays of grief, I opened my own heart, sharing my story, my fears, and allowing my fortress of impenetrability to crumble.
The whole circle was in tears, yet the next morning no one seemed less manly after exposing their weaknesses. Since that impact I've learned that being a man is about finding strength within vulnerability."
Former participant
"It was an opportunity to get away from the daily hustle and bustle and try something different. I was too caught up in smoking pot and cigarettes every day to really be myself or enjoy life to its fullest.
It gave me a chance to step out of the box and really see myself for who I am. It allowed me to get involved in a network of positive people that wish to see growth and wellbeing for youth, and for that I am eternally grateful."
Former participant
This program grew out of Teen Journey, a decade of practice in British Columbia that reached hundreds of young people through 10-day summer camps, parent intensives, monthly gatherings, and pilgrimages to India and Peru.
For parents
As teens, young people are caught between wanting to belong and wanting to be independent. In that tension they must decide who they are and what course their life will take — and they do it in a world of information overload, job insecurity, and a growing sense of isolation.
Rites of passage are as old as humanity, and far older than a driver's licence or a first job. Done right, they ensure a healthy future for the individual and their community. Without them, teens tend to construct their own out of whatever is available to them — and those versions are rarely safe.
What your teen comes home with is not a certificate. It is a felt sense of their own capability, a group of people who saw them clearly, and the experience of having been publicly acknowledged by adults who are not you. That last one turns out to matter enormously.
"Show me your youth and I will show you the future of your nation."
Georges Vanier
A program in its own right · 2–3 days · runs in parallel
A youth program without a parent component is only half the work.
Your teen returns transformed — to the same house, the same patterns, the same unconscious dynamics. Without a parallel shift in the parents, the transformation struggles to take root. So while they are doing their week, you do yours.
Required
Every family enrolling a teen joins at least two group calls before and after the week. They prepare you to receive your child at the Return, and give you support with the realities of raising a teenager in modern society. This is part of enrolling, not an extra.
Optional
The full Parent Journey described here is a program in its own right, and it is your choice whether to take it. Parents who do report that the shift at home lands faster and holds longer.
The tools that worked for parenting a small child turn out to be completely ineffective for parenting a teenager. Once sweet and gentle, they now question who you truly are and everything you stand for. Most parents were never given real guidance for this moment — because they never received it themselves.
01
Recognise the guidance you yourself did not receive as a teen, and understand this transition well enough to support your child through it.
02
Examine the unconscious patterns from your own teenage years that shape the relationship today. New communication tools replace old reactive habits.
03
By awakening to what teens are going through — the fears, the searching, the courage — you move from trying to control to learning to witness.
04
The Return requires that family and community are ready to receive the teen — to honour the journey and celebrate who they are becoming. You prepare for, and stand in, that ceremony.
05
More than a parenting workshop. An invitation into a conscious, heart-centred community of adults working together to nurture a generation — and to take up your own role as an elder in it.
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
Kahlil Gibran · On Children
In these times of fragmented community and loss of village, there is a great deal to gain by removing ourselves from daily life so that we can strengthen, clarify and renew our purpose together.
ask about the parent journeyHow it's held
All activities are designed to be emotionally and physically safe, non-coercive, sensitive to individual needs, and supportive of each person's dignity. Nothing is compulsory. A teen can stand at the edge of the coals and choose not to walk — and that choice is honoured exactly as much as the walk.
The team is trained together — not just on logistics, but on emotional safety, non-violent communication, group dynamics and self-awareness. Every staff member has a care buddy. Emergency procedures and child safety protocols are established before anyone arrives.
Holds the emotional climate of every individual and the group as a whole. Facilitates the sharing circles.
Assigned to small groups, tracking every individual. People who went through their own struggle and come with fresh wisdom to pass on.
Oversees safety, scheduling, medical information, and emergency response.
Returning participants stepping into their first leadership role — proof, on site, of where this goes.
Get in touch
Dates, sites and tuition are still being confirmed. Send the form below and you will be the first to hear when registration opens, with no obligation either way.
Cohort one
April 2027
Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
Seven days, ages 14 to 18. We will email you the exact dates as soon as they are set.
Cohort two
July 2027
British Columbia, Canada
Seven days, ages 14 to 18. We will email you the exact dates as soon as they are set.
Two minutes. It puts you on the list and commits you to nothing.
A real conversation, not an interview. We want to hear from the young person themselves.
Dates, tuition and forms come to the list before they go anywhere else. Payment plans exist — ask.
What to bring, what to expect, and the parent orientation.
Received
We'll be in touch within two days to set up a conversation — with the teen, and with a parent. That call is where most of the real questions get answered.
email us directly tooQuestions
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