The People You’ll Meet
A Retreat Shaped by Many
A retreat is shaped by many people. Some you’ll spend hours talking with. Some you’ll practise alongside. Some you’ll meet around the dining table. Others you may barely notice — preparing spaces, tending the land, or making sure something is there when it’s needed. Each brings something different. Together, they create the environment in which the week can simply unfold.
The Founders
Roots is held by four founders, each bringing different experiences, skills and perspectives. What connects us is not that we see everything in the same way. It is a shared belief in what can happen when people are given time, space and the right environment to reconnect with themselves, with others and with the world around them. We each play a different part. Some of those roles you’ll see during your stay. Others happen quietly in the background. Together, we are part of what holds it all together.
Meet the Founders
Each founder brings something unique to Roots. Together they create the experience our guests will come to know.
J.P.
She tends to watch and take things in before stepping forward. She enjoys bringing people together and seeing where a connection might lead, with a natural openness to variety, spontaneity and plans that emerge along the way. She is comfortable allowing things to develop in their own time rather than needing to decide too quickly what they should become.
L.R.S.
He naturally looks for patterns and connections, often seeing things from an angle that others might not have considered. He brings that curiosity and creativity to Roots, with a preference for things that feel thoughtful without becoming over-designed. He would rather have one real conversation than ten polite ones — and enjoys the moments when a conversation opens up a different way of seeing something.
M.D.
He has a natural way of bringing people together, often with humour and a sense of calm that others notice around him. When something captures his interest, he can disappear into it completely and lose track of time along the way. He cares about getting things right — sometimes enough to overthink them — and brings that same attention to the people and experiences around him.
C.M.
She brings energy, humour and an instinct for making things simpler when they become more complicated than they need to be. She prefers a meaningful conversation to small talk, and people often find they can simply be themselves around her. When the energy dips, she is often the person who brings it back — usually with a little laughter along the way.
The People of the Place
Roots could not exist here without the people who know these places as home. Throughout the week, you’ll meet people from the communities around us — people who care for the land, prepare food, tend spaces, share knowledge and help make everyday life possible. Some will be part of your experience throughout the week. Others you may meet only briefly. Their presence is part of what makes Roots belong to the place in which it happens.
Indigenous Partners
We work in relationship with Indigenous practitioners and communities whose traditions have been carried across generations. During your time with us, some of these relationships may become part of your experience through ceremony, conversation and time shared together. We don’t try to speak for those traditions here. They are better encountered through the people who carry them.
People Who Join the Journey
Alongside the team, different practitioners and teachers may join us during the week. They bring practices, perspectives and skills that complement the wider experience — from movement and breath to creative work, conversation and other ways of exploring. Who joins us may change from one retreat to another. We like it that way. It allows each gathering to have something of its own character, while everything remains held within the wider Roots approach.
The People Behind the Everyday
Not every important part of a retreat happens in ceremony or practice. There are meals to prepare, fires to tend, spaces to care for, journeys to coordinate and countless small things that happen quietly throughout the week. Behind them are people. Some you’ll come to know. Others may remain almost invisible. Together, they create something simple but important: the feeling that things are taken care of, without you having to think about them.
The People Beside You
And then there are the people who arrive alongside you. They will come with different lives, different reasons for being here and different ways of experiencing the week. You may share meals, conversations, silence, laughter and moments none of you could have planned. Some connections may last beyond Roots. Others may belong entirely to these few days. There is no expectation that everyone becomes close. Only the opportunity to share something for a while.
And Then, There’s You
The people around you are part of the experience. But Roots begins with something more personal — whether this feels like the right place and the right time for you.
Remember · Respect · Return.