Early Bird $365 before May 15th, $445 after

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.




Where Truth Meets Love, a Relateful Immersion, May 2026

Friday May 29th-31st, 2026 | Fri 6pm-9pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm

Greatwood Zen Center – 2631 Buckleigh Dr, Charlotte, NC

Facilitated by Valerie Daniel & James Dial

There is a place in connection where what is true and what is loving are the same. Where we can speak honestly without losing care, and with compassion without losing candor. Where authenticity and belonging are not in tension, but deepen each other.

You're invited to a two-and-a-half-day Relateful Immersion, where you will practice slowing down and exploring what’s unfolding between us in real time. Through the practice of Relatefulness, we won’t just talk about how to relate better, we will embody better relating.

We are grateful to have Valerie Daniel, Managing Director of The Relateful Company, traveling in from Texas to co-lead. She has been James’ primary mentor for the last eight years, shaping his development through a rare combination of loving acceptance and courageous directness. This event marks a unique opportunity to experience the powerful clarity, fierce love, and mutual respect they bring to their co-facilitation.

This journey of relational presence will be held at Greatwoods Zen, a vibrant Plum Village-style community center next door to Reedy Creek Park. Surrounded by nature and grounded in mindful practice, it offers a supportive environment for slowing down and connecting with more presence and care.

Why Come?

You might be someone who:

  • Longs for more authentic, nourishing relationships, where you can be yourself and stay connected
  • Desires more aliveness and realness in how you relate
  • Wants to connect deeply in a way that expands your sense of self, not diminishes it
  • Practices mindfulness and is curious how to “just be” in relationship
  • Is used to choosing between authenticity and compassion, and wonders what it feels like to live both 
  • Wants to set clear, compassionate boundaries and is tired of repeating painful patterns
  • Craves a space where playfulness and depth can coexist

This retreat is a chance to turn those longings into lived experience.

What we’ll explore

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

  • Slowing down enough to feel what’s actually here between us
  • Naming what’s happening as it happens, in body, heart, mind, and awareness
  • Trying on others’ experiences and updating our assumptions
  • Relaxing control and discovering what unfolds when we trust the moment
  • Practicing love and truth together, live in conversation

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

Transformation doesn’t come from effort, but from being with what’s already here. 

As Valerie says, “bring what you got, not what you think you’re supposed to have.”

What you might experience

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

  • A fuller sense of possibility and aliveness in connection
  • Feeling much more fully 'arrived' in themselves
  • A sense of feeling seen without needing to push past boundaries
  • More access to embodied, alive expression that carries into everyday life
  • Greater courage to shine and love without apology

Many people also experience, directly and in the body, what it’s like to move beyond the false tradeoffs they’ve carried about connection.

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. If there is care here, it will be because we bring it.
  • No enforced hierarchy of emotions.
    Beauty, awkwardness, boredom, and 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.
  • Expression without attunement.
    We value honest expression, and we also stay attentive to its impact on others. This is a space for mindful connection, not expression at any cost. Facilitators may pause or redirect moments that move away from relational presence.


🕰 Date & Times: May 29th-31st 2026, Friday 6-9PM, Sat & Sun 10AM-6PM

🗺️ Location: Greatwoods Zen Center, 2631 Buckleigh Drive, Charlotte NC, 28215

🍔 Food: We will break for a 90 min lunch around 1pm.

🙏 Price: $365 Early Bird until May 15th. $445 Full Price after May 15th. 

If cost is a barrier, reach out to [email protected] to discuss possible solutions.

🏨 Lodging: If you are wanting support in finding lodging, James can help connect you with other community members who may be open to you staying with them. Otherwise, there are many hotels and airbnb’s near the venue.

📩 Questions: [email protected]

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. 

Valerie Daniel serves as Managing Director of the Relateful Company, where she leads a thriving global organization of 48 facilitators ushering thousands of Relateful practitioners through a Leadership Academy, Coaching School, online practice platform, and in-person Studio. She integrates decades of corporate management experience with her spiritual practice to maintain a totally unique Relateful culture that embodies the values of truth, love and a full embrace of being human. In her free time, Valerie enjoys watching football and serves as a founding member of the Bramble Center, a nonprofit dedicated to researching collective awareness and cultivating cultures of wholeness.

 

If you’re curious to experience how James and Val lead together, 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.