Reimagining Life: Facing Challenge, Change, and Loss

Reimagining Life: Facing Challenge, Change, and Loss is a healing retreat at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, led by Kate Doerge, USA TODAY bestselling author and certified grief coach. It is a weekend workshop for anyone moving through loss, change, uncertainty, a career transition, caregiving, or a season when life feels different than expected. Yoga, mindfulness, and somatic practice sit alongside the teaching.

What to Expect

Kate Doerge shares the personal lessons and practical tools that helped her through profound loss. She has reimagined the traditional Five Stages of Grief as Five Actions, steps a person can actively take to move through life's hardest moments rather than waiting for a stage to pass.

The program is interactive. Storytelling, movement, reflection, connection, and simple science-backed practices shape the sessions. Together, participants explore how to build resilience, protect their energy, find purpose, and keep reaching for joy and light, even alongside difficult circumstances.

The workshop takes its spirit from advice Kate's father gave her throughout her life: "You don't choose the cards you're dealt. You choose how you play them." The emphasis is on choice, on how we respond to what life puts in front of us and move forward with greater strength, connection, and purpose.

The retreat runs three days. The opening day begins with check-in at 2:00 pm, a Kripalu Yoga class from 4:45 to 6:00, dinner, and a first program session from 7:30 to 9:00 in the evening. The middle day starts with Kripalu Yoga at 6:30 am and a silent breakfast, followed by program sessions from 9:00 to 11:30 and again from 1:30 to 4:00, with lunch between them. Another yoga class and dinner close the day. On the final morning there is yoga, silent breakfast, and a program session from 9:00 to 11:00, then lunch and departure. Actual times may vary, and a schedule is provided at check-in.

About Kate Doerge

Kate Doerge is a USA TODAY bestselling author and a certified grief coach. Her work grows out of her own experience of profound loss, and it is her own reframing of the Five Stages of Grief into Five Actions that this workshop teaches.

The Setting

The retreat takes place on campus at Kripalu in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Accommodations are intentionally simple, meant to help you unplug and feel grounded. You can choose a private room, a quiet space for solitude and rest, or a shared dormitory room, community-style and suited to connection with others. Rooms are ready by 4:00 pm, and a luggage room is available if you arrive earlier. Three nutritious meals are served each day, with breakfasts taken in silence.

Before You Go

All levels are welcome. No prior experience with yoga, meditation, or grief work is required, and the program is offered in English.

Your stay includes the three days of programming with Kate Doerge, more than ten yoga classes daily, three meals a day, accommodation, and access to the Kripalu grounds and facilities. Healing Arts sessions and purchases from the Kripalu Shop and Cafe cost extra, and travel to and from the venue is not included.

On departure day, room check-out is at 10:00 am. You may stay on campus and take part in workshops until 2:00 pm.