Now Booking: Fall Mini Retreat
Alderroot Healing & Renewal
Winter Solstice Gathering 2026
Celebrate the season together and honor the light's return
~in ritual, song, and deep relaxation with reiki
Sunday December 20, 1:00-3:00pm
at the Yoga Refuge (7831 SE Stark)
Open to all. $45-$75 (sliding scale)
We'll gather to honor the shortest day of the year and to welcome the return of the sun. This event is gentle and spacious so that we can drop in and really notice and honor seasonal change, and celebrate our connection with this beautiful earth.
We'll spend the first hour in simple ritual, with nourishing seasonal tea, connecting to each other and to the season with song and sensory celebration. During the second hour we'll honor our need for seasonal slowness and gentleness with deep relaxation and reiki healing.
Come to connect with others and with yourself. Honor the changing season through ritual & relationship and relax into what the light may bring.
Meet your Facilitator
Dr. Heather Burns
Heather is an eco-spiritual coach, facilitator, writer, and forest therapy guide. She is professor emerita of Portland State University, where she taught graduate courses on topics of eco-spiritual teaching and learning, sustainability education, and spiritual leadership. She designs and facilitates transformative eco-spiritual experiences that invite whole person learning, authentic relationships, and real connection with each other and the living earth. Heather is also a reiki master, and the creative director of Alderroot Healing and Renewal.
You can read more about Heather here.
"I carried the rest and peace I experienced in our Solstice reiki session into the holidays like a little votive candle to remind me to be present to myself, my loved ones, and the simple joys of the season. I believe this was a gift to offer myself and others and I look forward to more sessions with Alderroot Healing & Renewal in seasons to come!"
-Brooke H.
"This was a very peaceful gathering with lovely purpose and people. I really enjoyed the rest/Reiki, the tea, plums, and chocolate. And, being with others in celebration."
-Anna
"I was so nourished by the deep peacefulness, presence, and connectedness that we were able to experience with the gift of this time. Everything felt like a channel of support and deeper contact with my own being, and other gentle hearts and the earth."
-Brooke K.
"Heather is extremely gifted at holding intentional, meaningful space. This gathering was delightfully connective and soothing!"
-Nora