Beyond Cancer: Moving Forward with Healing and Hope

Beyond Cancer: Moving Forward with Healing and Hope is a healing retreat for people living life after cancer treatment, held at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is a yoga-based recovery program for survivors of any cancer type or stage, whether treatment ended weeks, months, or years ago. No yoga experience is needed.

The program was developed by Lee Majewski at Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in India and draws on the therapeutic traditions of yoga. It is presented at Kripalu by Lee Majewski and Chen Rosner Orbach. It speaks to the aftereffects many survivors carry once treatment ends: exhaustion, pain, cognitive fog, anxiety, depression, and a sense of disconnection from who they used to be.

What to Expect

The retreat runs five nights, with a daily rhythm that combines gentle asana, breath regulation (pranayama), meditation, chanting, mudras, and Yoga Nidra, a deep guided relaxation. The aim is to rebuild what treatment often fragments: body awareness, emotional resilience, mental clarity, and a sense of meaning and purpose.

Alongside the practice, sessions cover the science of recovery, lifestyle factors in health, and the role of spirituality in healing, with the teachings grounded in current research. Participants learn guidelines for supporting health through diet, physical activity, sleep, and awareness of environmental toxins. They also study documented yogic practices for recovering from brain fog and restoring energy.

Each person leaves with a personal "Fridge List," a concrete and manageable plan of health-promoting habits to carry out over the five weeks after the retreat. The underlying idea is agency: that healing rests on your own daily choices and practices.

The program has been evaluated in peer-reviewed research showing significant improvements in anxiety, depression, mood, quality of life, and coping, with benefits sustained up to 12 months in those who continued their practice.

The days follow a steady shape. On the opening day, check-in begins at 2:00 pm, followed by a Kripalu Yoga class, dinner, and an evening program session from 7:30 to 9:00. On full days, a program session starts at 7:00 am, then a silent breakfast, a morning session from 9:00 to 11:30, lunch, an afternoon session from 1:30 to 4:00, yoga class, dinner, and an evening session. On the closing day, the morning sessions are followed by lunch and departure.

About Lee Majewski

Lee Majewski developed the Beyond Cancer program at Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in India. It is built to bring the therapeutic depth of yoga to people recovering from cancer treatment, helping them reconnect with body, breath, and sense of self.

About Chen Rosner Orbach

Chen Rosner Orbach co-presents the program alongside Lee Majewski.

The Setting

Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, offers accommodations that are intentionally simple, meant to help you unplug and feel grounded. Options include a private room for solitude, a shared double room, and dormitory-style lodging with shared facilities for those who want community. Rooms are ready by 4:00 pm, and a luggage room holds bags until then.

Three meals are served daily, with breakfast taken in silence. Guests have access to the Kripalu grounds and facilities.

Before You Go

Instruction is in English. All levels are welcome, and practices are adapted to the needs of cancer survivors in recovery.

Tuition includes more than ten daily yoga and movement classes, three nutritious meals a day, the educational sessions, the Fridge List, and access to the grounds. Accommodation is required and arranged separately. Healing Arts sessions and items from the Kripalu Shop and Cafe are available for purchase, and airport transportation is not included.

On the day of departure, room check-out is at 10:00 am, and guests may stay on campus and take part in workshops until 2:00 pm. Times may vary, so the schedule given at check-in is the one to follow.