A RETREAT FOR PROTECTIVE MOTHERS
You have been reading the signs all along.
This is three days with people who already know that.
A therapeutic retreat for protective mothers navigating coercive control, trauma bonds, and what it is doing to their children.
Nov 4–6, 2026 | Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health | Stockbridge, MA
THIS IS NOT A GENERAL HEALING RETREAT.
It was built for the mother whose child came home from a visit and said something so scripted it knocked the wind out of her. For the mother who has been told her protectiveness is the problem.
For the mother who is still trying to explain to a therapist, a lawyer, or a custody evaluator exactly what kind of harm this is, and why it doesn't stop after you leave. For the mother who already knows what the predatory parent is doing to her child's sense of safety and attachment, and cannot get the people around her to see it.
If you have been fighting to be believed while also fighting for your children, this is a place where you don't have to fight for either.
What makes this different
Trauma bond retreats exist. What is rare is a space that holds your trauma bond and what is happening to your children inside the same room, with the same level of clinical precision and care.
Your healing and your child's experience are not separate. This retreat treats them accordingly.
- A framework for understanding malicious fracturing of attachment. What the predatory parent has done to your child's relationship with you, explained without the softening the system usually applies to it
- Language you can bring back to a therapist, a custody evaluator, or a guardian ad litem. Precise and built to hold up under scrutiny
- Three days with other mothers who did not need you to explain yourself from the beginning, because they have lived the same Thursday nights after custody exchanges
- Time that belongs entirely to you, in your own body, in a beautiful place, being cared for by people who understand that this too is part of protecting your child
Your Guides
Dr. Christine Cocchiola
DSW, LCSW | Clinician | Researcher | TEDx Speaker | Protective Mother
Dr. Christine Cocchiola has spent more than four decades working alongside survivors of coercive control. She is the creator of The Protective Parenting Program, the author of FRAMED: Women in the Family Court Underworld, and the author of the children's book Every Moment of Everyday.
She also lived this from the inside.
Christine spent 27 years in a coercively controlling relationship before she understood what it was. She watched her own children navigate what a predatory parent does to a child's sense of self, safety, and attachment to their protective mother. She has sat with the knowledge that the system did not see it, that the people around her did not see it, and that she kept going anyway.
She did not build this work from a safe professional distance. She built it because she needed it and it did not exist. That is what she brings into this retreat: not just the clinical framework, not just the research. The knowledge that comes from having stood exactly where you are standing.
At the retreat, Christine will work with you to:
- Understand malicious fracturing of attachment which is what the predatory parent has done deliberately to your child's relationship with you, and why the child's behavior that has been worrying you.
- Recognize survival alignment in your child and understand what it is not: it is not parental alienation, it is not a reflection of your parenting, and it is not permanent
- Build practical, evidence-based strategies for protecting your child and rebuilding connection inside whatever family court situation you are currently navigating
- Leave with court-safe language that accurately names what is happening to your child and holds up in the rooms where these decisions get made
Dr. Nadine Macaluso
LMFT, PhD | Author of Run Like Hell
Dr. Nadine Macaluso brings decades of clinical experience alongside her own lived experience with trauma bonds. At the retreat, she will help you understand how trauma bonds form, why they are so hard to break, and how to begin moving through them — not by pushing harder, but by understanding what your own body has been doing to keep you alive.
Together, Christine and Nadine hold the full picture: the impact on you, and the impact on your children.
What You'll Leave With
01 — A clear understanding of malicious fracturing of attachment — named accurately, not softened — and what the research says you can do to begin rebuilding your child's safety with you
02 — Court-safe language for what is actually happening to your child. The kind that holds up when a GAL or evaluator pushes back, because it is grounded in evidence and called what it is
03 — Three days with other mothers who already knew what a Thursday night after a custody exchange feels like. You will not have had to explain yourself once
04 —The experience of having been in your own body, in a beautiful place, cared for. Your clarity is your child's safety. This is part of the work
Logistics
Dates: May 6–8, 2026
Location: Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, 57 Interlaken Road, Stockbridge, MA 01262
Format: Residential (on-site lodging available) or commuter
Commuter registration: Call Kripalu directly at 413-448-3500
Pricing and lodging: Full details on the retreat registration page
Three days. Two expert clinicians. One room full of women who understand what you have been living through.
The retreat page includes the full schedule, pricing and lodging options