Motherless Daughters 4-Day
Early Mother Loss Retreat
Dec 11 - 14, 2026
Guest House Retreat Center
Chester, Connecticut
NOTE: These retreats are for daughters who were up to age 25 at time of loss.
!
Have you ever felt like:
A piece of you got stuck in the past when your mom died?
You’ve never grieved your mother fully, properly, or at all?
Other women know something you never got to learn?
You’re just a big kid cosplaying in an adult’s body?
You want to feel closer to your mom, but don’t know how to start?
You’re not alone.
In our recent retreat survey, 88.5% of motherless daughters shared they grew up in families where their families rarely (or never) talked about their mother’s death or their grief. No one helped them learn how to feel, how to stay connected with their moms, or how to make sense of what happened to their mom and to them.
If this is part of your story — we understand.
A Motherless Daughters Retreat is a 4 day/3 night experience of laughter, tears, healing, and deep connection with other women who’ll “get” you.
Most motherless daughters have never had the experience of sitting in a room composed exclusively of women who understand their innermost challenges, triumphs, and fears. You’ll find that at a Motherless Daughters Retreat.
In our recent survey, only 14% of motherless daughters said they felt supported in their grief as children, and only 21% said they grew up in families that talked openly about emotions.
When support and emotional language were missing early on, it can feel groundbreaking to enter a space where understanding is the norm—not the exception.
At this retreat, you’ll uncover links between your past and your present and learn ways to start releasing the coping patterns you developed long ago, especially ones that may no longer be serving you.
You’ll also learn new ways to reconnect with your mom after her death, stay connected, and continue to honor her life and the relationship you shared.
Most of all, you’ll join a group that supports you long after the retreat ends. Our retreat groups stay in touch for years beyond their weekend together, continuing to lift each other up through all of life’s moments, large and small.
Past participants describe these retreats as life-changing.
We hope you’ll be able to say the same. ❤️
NOTE: All retreat participants must be 18 years or older now. At least 2 years must have passed since the death of your mother to qualify you for a retreat.
*Motherless Daughters welcomes all female-identified and daughter-identified participants.
Registration is for double room occupancy, with the option to upgrade to a single. For double rooms, we match you based on age of loss, cause of loss and current age now. We have a 99.9% success rate of making great roommate connections!
WHAT CAN I HOPE TO GAIN FROM THIS RETREAT?
A Motherless Daughters Retreat acknowledges the complexity of early mother loss.
After years — or decades — of feeling alone with your loss, you’ll enter a room where you’ll be listened to and understood. Your story will be held gently and carefully.
You’ll find validation and normalization — both for what you went through when you were younger, and also for how the ripple effects show up in your adult life today.
You’ll become part of an intimate, intergenerational group of up to 24 retreat sisters, all of whom were up to age 25 when they experienced the death of a mom. Retreat groups will split into younger (0-17) and older (18-25) age groups for some of the activities.
You’ll meet women who faced (and still face) many of the same challenges you did — some of whom will have histories very similar to yours..
You’ll work directly with Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters, all weekend, plus a licensed therapist with both professional and personal experience in the mother loss field.
You’ll be guided through a series of activities and discussions to help you reflect on the past, ground yourself in the present, and set new intentions and goals for the future. (We’d love to tell you exactly what these activities will be, but each retreat is custom-designed — we don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. Everything we do will be carefully selected to meet the unique needs of your retreat group!)
VIEW THE SCHEDULE
Click HERE for a SAMPLE schedule.
The schedule is subject to change.
YOUR RETREAT FEE:
Double Occupancy Room:
$1995 per person
Includes 3 nights lodging and all meals
We’ll match you with a great roommate!
Single Room Upgrade:
$2390 per person
Includes 3 nights lodging and all meals
👉 Select “Single Room Upgrade” at checkout
To register either pay in full now
OR
pay a $100 deposit now plus your first installment of $658.34 for a double room/$795.29 for a single room (charged one day after signup)
Two additional, equal installments will be billed on
October 1, and November 1.
(4% service charge for installments applies. Please note that your first payment will occur in two charges: Your $100 deposit upon registration, and then your first installment 1 day later.)
Please note: Your retreat free does not include transportation to and from Guest House.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
Single or double room accommodations for 3 nights in a cozy, antique-filled room with en-suite bathroom;
For double accommodations, you’ll be paired with a carefully matched roommate. Roommate pairs are based on:
Age at time of loss
Cause of loss
Current age
Nine healthy meals from Friday dinner through Monday lunch (we can accommodate food allergies and sensitivities);
Coffee and tea 24 hours a day;
Customized activities based on your group’s specific needs;
Group yoga class;
All workshop materials;
A special gift bag upon arrival;
Access to a private WhatsApp group for pre- and post-retreat support;
Access to a private web page where all info and prep work is posted (no hunting for past emails!);
A pre-retreat Zoom call with the group;
A follow-up group Zoom call;
Priority access to future retreats and other offers;
A lifetime 10% discount on weekly Motherless Daughters Community Calls.
PLEASE NOTE: At least two years need to have passed since the time of your mother’s death to best meet your bereavement needs. Participants must have been up to and including age 25 when they experienced the death of their mother.
CANCELLATION POLICY:
Up to 60 days prior to start date: fully refundable minus your non-refundable $100 registration fee.
Up to 30 days prior the start date: 50% refundable after the non-refundable $100 registration fee.
Less than 30 days from the start date: non-refundable.
We suggest you purchase travel insurance when you book airline tickets to avoid flight cancellation fees.
Organizers reserve the right to cancel the retreat up to 21 days before start date if minimum enrollment has not been achieved. You would then receive a 100% refund, including the $100 registration fee.
WHERE YOU’LL BE CONNECTING, EATING & RESTING:
Guest House in Chester, CT
Guest House is situated on 12 wooded acres in the scenic
Connecticut River Valley between Boston and New York.
We’ve been holding our East Coast retreats here since 2017.
We love partnering with this beautifully renovated country inn that offers
a meeting space, housing, and dining all on one site!
“I didn’t really understand the impact this weekend would have on me until we were about a day and a half into it. I can’t really explain it, but for me, it was a magical experience. I guess a more grown up word would be “transformative”.”
“The opportunity to talk about mother loss with a group of women that really understand was amazing and the support that I continue to feel many weeks after the retreat is wonderful. I just wish I had done this sooner!”
Further retreat questions? Please send an email to info@hopeedelman.com
Meet Your Co-Facilitators
Hope Edelman
The bestselling author of Motherless Daughters, Motherless Mothers, and The AfterGrief, Hope is widely considered one of the world's foremost experts on early mother loss. She has been working with bereaved daughters for 30 years and knows the experience from the inside, having lost her mother, Marcia, to breast cancer when she was seventeen.
In 2016 Hope co-founded Motherless Daughters Retreats, which has now served more than 500 women at 26 retreats in the US and UK. As the founder and CEO of Motherlessdaughters.com she brings psychoeducation and support to thousands of women every year, both in person and online.
Hope’s articles and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Parade, CNN.com, Glamour, Real Simple,Writer’s Digest, and more. She speaks at bereavement and writing conferences worldwide.
She is a certified life coach and a Certified Trauma Support Services Provider, with additional training in Narrative Therapy and Family Constellation work, Hope splits her time between Los Angeles and San Miguel de Allende,
Gina Moffa
Gina Moffa, LCSW is a licensed grief and trauma therapist in private practice in New York City with over twenty-two years of experience helping people navigate loss, grief, trauma, and the complex emotional terrain of their closest relationships. Over the course of her career, Gina has worked with countless individuals in nonprofits, hospitals, and private practice settings, bringing her clinical expertise and deep compassion to some of the hardest moments of people’s lives.
Driven by a commitment to making grief less debilitating and more understood, Gina wrote her award-winning first book, Moving On Doesn’t Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss, published by Hachette in 2023. The book established her as a trusted and accessible voice in the grief space, and opened doors to a national and international conversation about what we are allowed to lose and allowed to mourn. Since its publication, Gina has been quoted in Forbes, TIME, the New York Times, and USA Today, and has been interviewed on grief multiple times on NPR and NBC News. She speaks at national and international organizations with the singular intention of helping to create a more grief-literate society.
Her forthcoming second book, What Happened to Our Friendship? A Therapist’s Guide to Healing, Growing and Reclaiming Yourself After a Friendship Ends, builds on that mission by addressing one of the most universal and least acknowledged griefs: the rupture and loss of a close friendship.
She has spent two decades in the room with some of the hardest human experiences. Her goal has never changed: to make people feel less alone in them.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A Motherless Daughter Retreat is a powerful and often life-changing event. We've compiled this detailed FAQ to answer common questions participants have before and after registration. If your question is not covered here, please contact us at info@hopeedelman.com.