Early Bird $340 before Jan 1st, $400 after

$340.00/each
Change payment method

(click to read in larger window)

Welcome & Terms of Service

Our practices involve looking at and being intimate with the structures of one’s personal reality, including how we make sense of experience, individually and collectively. Carrying over assumptions from other practices can lead to misunderstandings. Read over the following statements to determine whether or not our practice will be a good fit for you.

Self-Responsibility
We see you as a free agent capable of honest self-assessment and responsible choice. This is an invitation to take responsibility for yourself and your experience, including a willingness to set and maintain appropriate boundaries. By attending our events you take responsibility for your own safety and comfort, choosing to leave the practice or participate in any given moment. 

Not Psychotherapy
We do not follow a therapeutic model of diagnosis and treatment. Our method is educational. Our emphasis is relating. Our facilitators and coaches are guides. Our practices are practices of connection and meditation whose aim is to reveal more presence. We do not prescribe choices or actions. We are not psychotherapists; we do not see you as being in a therapeutic relationship with our facilitators. Participants are welcome to speak and explore developmental intentions such as “getting somewhere,” growing, and evolving, but we do not presume these are the drivers of experience. We work in the present moment, assuming wholeness moving to greater wholeness. 

The Expectations of Leadership
Our facilitators act in service of better relating through bringing more presence to what’s happening in the here and now. This may not follow typical expectations of a “group leader,” such as telling people the “right way” to act or making sure everyone gets along. We include the internal experiences of the leaders as part of the process. We invite you to listen to your own inner direction for leadership, and consider others’ responses as feedback to you in the context of the moment.

Is this Right for You?
Our workshops can be intense. We explore the unknown, the volatile, the ambiguous, as well as welcome emotions many deem as “negative” or “inappropriate” such as feelings of inadequacy, anger, sexuality, and joy. We often explore multiple sides of seeming opposites at once, and believe this can reveal an underlying unity of the immediacy of experience. We see bringing awareness to intense feelings as distinct from acting upon these feelings—we may ask you to pause or leave if we determine certain expressions risk leaving the practice of relational presence.

If the above description of our workshops sounds potentially overwhelming or destabilizing for you, if you have mental illness or significant emotional challenges that you feel may be exacerbated by this type of transformational environment, or if you are not sure that you can be self-directed in taking care of your needs during the event, then we advise you not to enroll. Finally, you must be at least 18 years old to attend.

By participating you acknowledge that you have read and agree to abide by these Terms of Service.




Wonder: Charlotte Relateful Retreat, January 2026

January 16–18, 2026 | Sacred Roots, Charlotte, NC

Experience wonder in connection

How often do you experience wonder and ease in your relationships?

A quiet reverence, where you let yourself bask in the beauty that is radiating out from life. Relaxed, letting things go better by trying less.

This retreat is an invitation into that kind of presence.

Over three days together, we’ll explore Relatefulness — a living practice of awareness and connection that invites truth, love, and presence into our relationships. It’s not about performing or fixing. It’s about noticing what’s already happening between us and letting that change us.

Why come

You might be someone who:

  • Longs for more authentic, nourishing connection, even in relationships that already feel “good.”

  • Practices mindfulness or personal growth, but wants to live those insights in relationship.

  • Wants to feel more embodied, and yearns to integrate awareness with alive expression.

  • Craves a space where growth and comfort can coexist, where transformation happens through gentleness, not striving.

This retreat is a chance to turn those longings into lived experience — to rest in wonder, be seen in truth, and feel your natural impact on others.

What we’ll explore

Across large-group sessions, small groups, and pairs, we’ll play in the field of connection:

  • Bringing language to what’s happening right now — in body, heart, mind, and awareness.

  • Sinking into our experience in connection, letting ourselves feel the aliveness that is already here.

  • Trying on others’ experiences and updating our assumptions.

  • Relaxing control and cultivating trust in what unfolds naturally.

  • Practicing love and truth in real time

You’ll be invited to stay close to your own experience — no one is asked to perform, share beyond their truth, or “break through.” 

Transformation arises not from effort, but from being with what’s already alive.

What you might experience

While each person’s journey is unique, past participants often leave with:

  • More access to inner states of awe and wonder in connection.

  • A sense of being much more fully 'arrived' in themselves.

  • A sense of feeling deeply seen.

  • More access to embodied, alive expression that carries into everyday life.

  • More courage to shine and love without apology.

As James says, “You’ll definitely get love — I can’t guarantee you’ll receive it. But it will be here.”

What Not to Expect

This is not a therapy session or group healing experience, although healing can occur.
 It’s a group exploration of truth, love, and awareness, created by the people who are present.

Here’s what not to expect:

  • No “safe space” guarantees.
     We aim for brave space — where safety grows from honesty and genuine care, not from rules that protect us from feeling.
     As Michael says, “If there is care here, it will be because we bring it.”

  • No enforced hierarchy of emotions.
     Beauty, awkwardness, boredom, joy — all are welcome.
     Each experience has worth, and none automatically justify themselves as more important.

  • No promise of comfort, but plenty of nourishment.
     We oscillate between challenge and ease — both are nutrients in this living practice.


🕰 Dates & Times: January 16–18 2026, Friday 6pm-9pm, Saturday & Sunday 10am-6pm

🏡 Location: Sacred Roots Cabin, 5801 Simpson Rd, Charlotte, NC, 28216

🍔 Food: We will break for a 90 min lunch around 1pm. You’re welcome to bring food or visit a restaurant in the area.

📩 Questions: [email protected]


Your facilitators

Michael Blas is a senior facilitator at the Relateful Company known for his tender depth, expressive confidence, and willingness to start loving first. He has led innumerable Relateful sessions all around the world, and has been integrally involved in the training, coaching, and certifying of hundreds of facilitators. He also has a Masters Degree in Psychology with a concentration in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

James Dial is the steward of Relateful Charlotte, devoted to building local spaces of real connection where presence and growth intertwine. He is known for his warm, earnest, heartfelt presence. He is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Talent and Organizational Development.

For seven years, Michael has been a mentor and friend to James — their co-leadership is born of genuine friendship, mutual learning, and shared devotion to living love and truth in everyday life.

Together, they invite you into intimacy with the unfolding we-space that is already happening, even as you read this right now.

If you’re curious to see how they relate, watch our Youtube Videos here.


A final invitation

You don’t need to prepare.
You don’t need to know how to be more present, loving, or truthful.

Just come as you are — and let the practice meet you there.
This is the simple courageous choice we lean into again and again, which has blessed us with more aliveness, intimacy, and nourishment in our lives and connections.

We hope to see you there.


By participating in this event you agree to the Sacred Roots Event Waiver: https://www.sacredrootsnc.com/event-waiver