2013 Wildcat Wayside Trauma Retreat
By Charlton HallPosted onon

In 2013 we held an Ecospirituality for Trauma retreat at Wildcat Wayside hiking trail north of Greenville, South Carolina. Due to the sensitive nature of this event, photos of participants were limited to distant snapshots; however, the scenery was too beautiful not to share!

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Preparing for the journey…
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The journey begins…
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At the large falls, we ritually ‘bury’ our trauma events, but not their memory, to begin the healing path.
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One of the reasons we chose this site for a trauma retreat is the amount of tragedy that has occurred on this waterfall.
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The large falls at Wildcat Wayside. In spite of multiple warnings, every year someone dies trying to climb the falls.
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The trail follows the river
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Conquering the ‘hill’
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The trail has occasional obstacles, just as in life.
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One of the many creeks on the trail
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We used the rubble of a construction project on the trail to discuss how to ‘pick up the pieces’ of our own lives.
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This chimney was once a picnic shelter before a fire destroyed the building. Here we discussed how ‘fires’ happen in our lives, but at the core we can endure, like this chimney.
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There are several waterfalls along this short, 1-mile hike. We used each one as an opportunity for a brief meditation and an ecotherapy exercise.
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The entrance to Wildcat Wayside

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