Fall Institute Retreat

Description

The 4th Annual Fall Institute Retreat at
the Center for Conscious Living & Dying

Friday, October 23 ~
Sunday, October 25

Asheville, North Carolina

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The Institute for the Study of Birth, Breath, and Death
& The Center for Conscious Living & Dying
invite you to a nourishing 2026 Fall Institute Retreat!

Join us for meditation, ritual, song, silence,
healing, laughter, hope, reflection, education, & restoration.

Registration is limited to 40 spaces.
Sign up now to reserve you spot!

Fall in the Blue Ridge Mountains is gorgeous!!!

We will begin at 7pm on Friday, October 23 and conclude at 1pm on Sunday, October 25.

The 2026 Fall Institute Retreat will be held 15 minutes from Asheville, NC
at the Center for Conscious Living & Dying, located at: 83 Sanctuary Road, Swannanoa, NC 28778.

*All participants are responsible for their own lodging, food, accommodations, and childcare.
Here are local accommodation suggestions to consider.

Confirmed speakers/presenters at the Fall Institute Retreat are listed below.
A full itinerary will be posted here in the summer.

Aditi Sethi, MD ~ (she/her) is a hospice and palliative care physician, end-of-life doula, and Executive Director of the Center for Conscious Living and Dying. Featured in the forthcoming film The Last Ecstatic Days, Aditi is an emerging and important voice for shifting our culture’s understanding and approach to dying, death, and bereavement care. As a child under the guidance of her parents (Kapil and Ranjit Sethi) and grandparents from India, Aditi studied devotional music from the Sikh and Hindu traditions.

Her other music pursuits include playing music with her husband, Jay Brown, a musician and hospice music therapist. Aditi and Jay recently formed a group called The Appalucians, with Angie Heimann and Cas Sochaki. Releasing their first CD “Bright Hills” in 2018, the Appalucians play music from the mountains of Western North Carolina, featuring spirited songwriting, tight harmonies, and a lovely layered interplay between dobro, guitars, harp, bass, and banjo. Aditi and Jay are the parents of three amazing children. Learn more here.

Center for Conscious Living and Dying (CCLD), an organization in partnership with the Institute. CCLD is working to reclaim, practice, and share a timeless wisdom: community support in end of life transitions. The Center for Conscious Living and Dying (CCLD) is organizing and training a diverse group of volunteer caregivers who will provide free non-medical end of life care as well as education on options to supplement support for the emotional and spiritual needs of families facing this universal experience.

Saskia Meckman (she/her) has been a Registered Yoga Teacher, since 2003. She was first introduced to yoga in 1994, on a whim, thanks to her brother. Over the years, she has studied, received certifications, and attended workshops and conferences with a wide variety of yoga instructors, influencing both her life and her teachings. Saskia holds certifications in Kripalu Yoga, Prenatal Yoga, Radiant Child Yoga, Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) Yoga, and Yin Yoga. Over the years, she has studied meditation and mindfulness, weaving these practices into her Mindful Yin Yoga class.

Born in the US to an Ecuadorean mother and a Dutch/Austrian/Danish father, Saskia grew up in Europe from the age of 5 years old. She attended school, learning the languages and experiencing first-hand the cultures in France, Germany, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands for the following 14 years until she returned to the US for college.

Saskia has spent the past 25 years training and coaching global executives and their families relocating internationally, assisting them in creating smooth transitions – taking yoga off the mat and into daily life. She holds a BS from Tufts University, MA in Child Psychology and Education with a minor in Dance and a Masters in Intercultural and International Management with a focus on HR and Training from School for International Training (SIT), VT. She now uses all these experiences to coach women going through all transitions in life.