Embodied Recovery

Welcome

Trauma Informed Embodied Recovery

Trauma, including developmental or attachment can leave unseen marks we carry.  Other mental health, relational issues, substance use or abuse or simply life stress and complications leave marks our bodies carry too.

In recovery, we find our inner self, an autonomous—which means whole—place untouched.  This is a place of limitless resource and potential, and recovery begins here, inside us.  Body first is a philosophy informed by what we now understand about the connection of the brain and body and trauma.  Trauma-informed embodied recovery aims to recover agency in the body and mental, emotional and spiritual awareness in your inner life.  In modern mental health, agency and resiliency are key.  

The Delmarva Free School believes the body’s attachment to the natural environment for whole bodied recovery is important, too. 

Come visit our outdoor sanctuary, our forest “classroom”, cozy “sacred space” tent, and other quiet, sacred places we tend. 

 About the Free School

We are located in Wicomico County on the lower shore of Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula. Our sanctuary includes 9 acres at the edge of a few thousand wild acres of conservation forests, known as Chesapeake Forests.  Our sacred spaces and outdoor classroom is centered in our circle of  150 year old tulip poplars.  We also offer a four season tent for small group gatherings. 

Our habitat was once a part of the Great Cypress Swamp.  Our community is actively working to improve this bald cypress micro-region with a variety of green infrastructure practices.  This ecozone is a bio-regional marker of the cultural south, critical headwaters of the Pocomoke river, and an integral part of the lower Chesapeake watershed.  We are grateful and proud to offer chances to connect with and educate individuals, family and community about our natural world, local resources and mental and overall embodied health here.  We offer a simple slow down in a busy world. 

Join us, with the support of our partners, as we install an acre and a half perennial pollinator meadow and a native food forest with mindful sacred corners.

The Delmarva Free School practices a pay-it-forward model. Attempting to be mindful of access and as economically inclusive as possible, we consider ourselves a member-based recovery co-op.  Pay it forward/full paying direct service members supplement our sliding scale and scholarship direct service memberships.  Priority for sliding scale and scholarships are reserved case by case.  We are an LGBTQ+ safe community.   We offer community events that are open to the general public and welcome anyone interested in what we are doing to stop by.  Becoming a Friend of the Free School with out receiving direct services is that easy.

More About Us

We are a committed intentional land use community.  DFS takes seriously the honor of being but stewards of the earth while we are here.  We are located on the lower shore of Delmarva, and acknowledge the legacy of Pocomoke, Algonquin and other native ancestors, and African and Black ancestry historically responsible for tending this Land. As a primarily white organization in this geographic location we take responsibility to be thoughtfully, proactively Anti-Racist, Pro-Black, and Pro-People of Color and to co-create spaces where this perspective is actively embodied.  This is an ecopsychological perspective grounded in in place-making and sacred embodiment.

We take a proactive stance as a creator of safe sacred spaces: as reflected in the Extended Vision Statement portion of our Bylaws, safe sacred spaces honors all individuals indiscriminate of class, race, age, ability, gender/non binary, sex/sexuality, heritage, religious affiliation or none as sacred and sovereign.

All direct service members receive discounted or free options for all Free School events.  Become a direct service member by scheduling an intake. 

All of our community events are open to the general public.  

Text Kelly on the Free School line at 443 493 3985 to learn more or set up a visit or intake, or email Kelly@thedelmarvafreeschool.com

Improving Community Green Spaces here at the Free School has been made possible in coordination with the Chesapeake Bay Trust through initiatives with Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake and the Lower Shore Land Trust.  Funding provided by Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region III.