Serenity Retreat 2023 for Women Grieving a Loss from the Opioid Crisis

Thank you for your interest in our second Serenity Retreat!  ❤️ My name is Rhonda Miller, but I am best known here because I am Ben‘s (and Alex’s) mom. My journey began when my youngest son, Ben, was just 16, struggling with fitting in and finding his place in this world. Like many teens, he experimented, but when he was introduced to opioids, he was pulled into a horrific addiction he was unable to control. Throughout eight years, I lived the roller coaster of hope and grief. I had very little support through those painful years; few could understand what I could not even understand. On August 1, 2016, one week before his 24th birthday, we tragically lost our precious Ben. The devastation (and the many secondary losses) have been very difficult to navigate alone.

Two years later, my family and I founded a nonprofit, Speak Up for Ben, Inc. to speak out and educate regarding the dangers of opioid use, and to offer support to those struggling and to their families. With the aid of Northampton County, we opened OASIS to help families throughout all the stages of grief experienced when a loved one lives with a substance use condition— and to offer compassionate support to families who lost their loved one. This retreat is an extension of the grief support we offer.  While serving our families, I have obtained  professional  training to best  support our grief recovery. I have been credentialed by world renowned grief expert David Kessler as a Certified Grief Educator, and by the Grief Recovery Institute as a Certified Grief Recovery Method Specialist. Combined with my lived experience, these trainings have aided me tremendously in my mission to support our many grieving families. 

This retreat will be facilitated by your peers—bereaved women  who have lived experience in learning how to cope by finding meaning in building a new life. We are not clinicians, but sister travelers on this grief journey..... Surrounded by God’s love, and the friendship, support, and care of one another,  we learn we can gently restore our serenity, with every new day, …. We welcome you to join us… as we come together to love and heal, heart to heart. 💔❤️‍🩹 ❤️