Everglades National Park Retreats
Our programs are shaped by landscapes.
Each one offers its own medicine. Each one supports a different kind of remembering. Some landscapes open us. Others ground us. All of them invite us into deeper relationship with ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
In each program location, we consider the ecosystems at play—mountains, desert, water, open spaces, forests, sky, dark sky—and how their unique characteristics can support your healing, integration, and belonging.
Healing with the land is not extractive. We enter with respect. We receive what’s offered. And we return care in turn.
This is relational healing—guided by the land, held by the seasons, and rooted in reciprocity.
Keep reading to explore the gifts of each landscapes you may encounter in Everglades and Biscayne National Parks.
Everglades + Biscayne National Parks
🌌 Dark Sky
You belong to something beautiful.
Beneath a canopy of stars, the noise fades and the vastness comes alive. Dark skies remind us how small we are and how held we’ve always been. Here, rest becomes reverence. Wonder becomes a way back to ourselves.
💧 Water
Let it move through you.
Water teaches us about flow, release, and resilience. Whether still or rushing, reflective or roaring, it shows us how to soften, how to change, and how to carry what matters without holding it all at once.
Returning in 2027!
This Stewardship + Adventure event in Everglades + Biscayne National Parks is a retreat facilitated in collaboration with Florida National Parks Association, the official nonprofit partner of Everglades + Biscayne National Parks.
Healing with the land through environmental stewardship.
Immersive adventures through a diverse and breathtaking landscape.
Guided self-discovery activities to help you reconnect with yourself.
Making memories with friends who feel like family.
📍The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida are among the earliest stewards of the Everglades and actively co-steward the land now known as Everglades National Park in partnership with the National Park Service. Curious about the history of the land where you work, live, and play? Native Land is a great starting point for additional research.
Florida National Parks Association
Mission Statement: The Florida National Parks Association (FNPA) is an official private nonprofit partner (501(c)(3)) of the National Park Service, dedicated to supporting stewardship, education, and the visitor experience across South Florida’s national parks. Since its founding in 1951 as the Everglades Natural History Association, FNPA has worked to protect and promote the unique natural and cultural resources of Biscayne, Dry Tortugas, and Everglades National Parks, as well as Big Cypress National Preserve. Through interpretive materials, educational programs, and fundraising, FNPA inspires public connection, understanding, and long-term support for over 2.5 million acres of public lands.
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Retreat Facilitators
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Sydney Williams is a speaker, author, consultant, and the founder of Hiking My Feelings—a nature-powered movement that transforms pain into purpose through storytelling, community, and time outdoors. Her work bridges personal healing and environmental stewardship, helping people reconnect with themselves and the land.
Through her firm, Wellness in the Wilderness Consulting, Sydney partners with public land agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations to design nature-based wellness programs that promote community health, staff well-being, and sustainable stewardship. Her offerings include curriculum development, field institute training, and leadership retreats, all grounded in trauma-informed facilitation and a deep respect for wild places.
With over 15 years in strategic communications—ranging from launching Oscar Mayer’s first social media presence to leading Fortune 500 campaigns—Sydney now advocates for equitable access to outdoor spaces and the well-being of those who protect them. Her work has been featured in BBC, Popular Science, Health Magazine, HuffPost, Psychology Today, U.S. News & World Report, and at events including SXSW and the Public Lands Alliance Convention.
She is a certified Wilderness First Responder, an educator at national park institutes, a founding member of the Outdoorist Oath, and was nominated for Woman of the Year by San Diego Magazine.
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Barry Williams went from high-rises to high altitudes—trading a tech career on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for a trailer in the backwoods of Maine after a single skydiving experience changed the trajectory of his life. Within 18 months of that first jump, he left the world of Fortune 100 clients behind to pursue instructor ratings in the skydiving industry, eventually building a 16-year career as a professional skydiver and mentor.
Originally from New Hampshire, Barry grew up hiking and backpacking in the White Mountains, where he also earned his Wilderness EMT certification. Today, he brings that same sense of adventure, adaptability, and calm under pressure to his work in our programs and retreats.
“What does Barry do around here?”
In short, everything that keeps the train on the tracks. Barry is the behind-the-scenes engine and on-the-ground support—co-leading hikes, facilitating retreats, producing video content, and ensuring participants feel safe, seen, and supported in the outdoors.
Inspired by the teachings of Bruce Lee, Alan Watts, and Jiddu Krishnamurti, Barry lives by the mantra “be like water.” Whether he’s cooking a soulful meal, dropping “Barryisms” that will blow your mind, or telling UFO stories around the campfire, Barry shows up with presence and purpose - and invites others to do the same.
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