Are You Ready...

• To Get a New Perspective on Your Relationship and Yourself as a Partner?
• To Reconnect with Your Vitality?
• To Know What is Truly Important to You?
• To Seek Vision or Direction?  And Explore How This Fits with Your Partner's?
• To Mark a Transition in Your Life?

Bring the joys and challenges of relationship to a sanctuary in the wilderness. Is your relationship at a point of transition:  Readying to marry? To start a family? Launching children into the world? Considering separation or divorce? 

Or perhaps you’re longing to deepen your intimacy? To rebalance time spent together and time spent apart? The Couple's Quest is a fabulous opportunity to explore oneself in relationship and to deepen your capacity for intimacy. Come to reconnect with your partner and with what is beautiful and alive both in them and in yourself. Learn to dance with your beloved and still walk in your own truth.

The Couples Quest takes place in the Inyo Mtns. during the longest days of summer.  In the Paiute language, Inyo means "Dwelling Place of Great Spirit". Here you will find gentle, mountain meadows, climb to panoramic vistas and explore sweet-scented forests with your partner and on your own.  Together with one or two other couples you will participate in the powerful ceremony of a wilderness quest. The trip includes all the components of a quest with the added opportunities afforded by sharing such a journey with your partner. 

As you may imagine, the quest is a powerful opportunity to explore your patterns of merging and separating in relationship, and to be deeply witnessed in a sacred way by your partner.  You may anticipate that any of the joys or difficulties of your relationship might come to surface during the course of the journey. That these arise and can be held by the wilderness and by your guide and fellow questers is part of how the healing and growth happen. The presence of other couples also offers you support and new resources not found in other quest settings. You will become one another's teacher and inspiration as you traverse the mysterious, touching and sometimes challenging terrain of partnership. Maximum group size is 3 couples.

"We gained so much insight into one another's process as well as respect for each other’s needs for space and connection.  Our dialogues have been much more honest since the quest.”
– Amanda, 30, social worker

"It was a very private time for us, one that really helped us take back some of what the world swept away from us, a time that brought us both even closer together."
– Todd, 41, art teacher

The first third of the trip is spent in preparation. Here you will become more clear on what has called you and your partner to the quest and on how you might explore, heal and learn in the coming days. Modes of inquiry include storytelling, creative expression, council practice, ceremony and living close to the earth. Following this period of preparation, you’ll walk alone into the desert mountains as our ancestors from many cultures have done. Alone in the wilderness you will make the journey that only you can take yourself on, discovering the awesome magic and power of turning to the earth with the needs, yearnings, fears and dreams of your life. After this period of solo time, you’ll return to the sanctuary of our small group where you’ll spend the next few days understanding more deeply the teachings nature has offered you and how they fit into your life.

THE DETAILS

The quest has three phases:

Preparation: A time to become acquainted with your guides and fellow questers as we utilize 3 full days to cover such topics as:  No trace camping & natural history of the Inyo Mtns.; safety and survival procedures; teachings of the four directions; exploration of your reasons for questing; and, creating your own ceremonies for growth, healing and celebration. On the third day of the journey you'll begin fasting and find a power spot on the land in which you will spend your time of solitude.

Threshold: As you have removed yourself further from your regular, daily life and from your partner, you are now prepared to take the last step out of your "normal" life and consciousness and into the sacred realm of the quest. You will spend 3 days and nights living alone without contact with other people. Most questers choose to fast during this time.

Reincorporation: On the fourth morning of your solo you will return to base camp to be greeted by your guides and fellow questers.  After celebrating we will begin the challenging process of gradually returning to  “normal” life – eating, being with others, cars, etc. – and most importantly, we will work together to help you make meaning of your alone time in the wilderness. Each quester will have a chance to share her/his experiences with the group and will be assisted in a myriad of ways in bringing the many facets of the quest back into daily life.

When: Saturday, June 24th, 10 am - Sunday, July 2nd, 2006, 1 pm.  *Please Note: Most questers choose to arrive on the night of June 23rd so they can acquaint themselves with the area and not rush into the start of the quest the next morning.

Where: The trip will begin and end in the Inyo National Forest (a 7 hour drive from the Bay Area). Our quest site is quite beautiful and remote.  The nearest services may be found 45 minutes away in the small town of Lee Vining (all the usual tourist amenities, along with stunning views of Mono Lake and Yosemite NP). All permits and camping fees are paid by Wilderness Reflections. Note: Cars driving through Yosemite NP en route must pay the park entrance fee.

What you need to provide: Personal camping gear; share in carpooling costs/vehicles. Ability to carry a 30-40 lb. pack. No prior camping experience needed.

GUIDE FOR THE COUPLES QUEST

Dave Talamo, MFT is founder of Wilderness Reflections, a therapeutic wilderness program dedicated to helping adolescents and adults turn to nature to meet the challenges and needs of their lives.  He has over 20 years of experience guiding wilderness trips and trained in wilderness quest guiding with Steven Foster and Meredith Little.  He has led quests for ten years and has been certified as a Wilderness First Responder since 1988.

Comments from Couples Quest participants