From Rahmah
A Gathering for Women Who Know — and Are Ready to Build What Comes Next
A three-day residential retreat for women survivors, advocates, organizers, and policy professionals who are done explaining themselves — and ready to build something together from a place of generative power, not extraction.
If you have survived abuse, done the policy work, held other people's stories while carrying your own — and felt that the rooms meant to help you couldn't actually hold you — this retreat was built for you.
You will leave with
A clear personal and political throughline
A defined next step you can act on immediately
A network you will actually stay in relationship with
Investment: $1,200 · Lodging & meals included
Rahmah — divine compassion
Be witnessed — not fixed, not advised, not managed
Name the full chain — from trauma to policy to power
Leave with a network of women who understand your terrain
Not a trauma conference. Not a wellness weekend.
From Rahmah is a three-day immersive gathering for women who already understand the terrain — survivors, advocates, organizers, policy professionals, and healers — who are ready to build something together from a place of generative power, not extraction.
This is not a retreat to step away from the world — it is a space to return to it differently.
The systems that extract from working people and the dynamics that trap people in abusive relationships are connected — operating through similar patterns of power, extraction, and control. This retreat names that — and builds from a different place.
What is built from Rahmah endures. What comes from aggression only feeds the cycle.
"The room she needed didn't exist. So she built it."
Rahmah — from Arabic, meaning divine compassion. The kind of mercy that doesn't diminish you, that doesn't ask you to earn it. The counter-force to every system that has tried to take from you without giving back.
Three Days. One Arc.
Arrival & Naming
Grounding & RecognitionYou arrive carrying everything. The professional armor. The survival habits. The exhaustion of code-switching between lived experience and institutional credibility. The first day is about putting it down.
- Opening ritual — we are not at work right now
- Story circles — witness, not advice
- Long shared meal, no agenda
- Network building — organically, not strategically
The Framework & The Work
Intellectual & Political HeartWe name the full chain: colonialism, intergenerational trauma, intimate harm, extraction economy. Survivor-advocates, policy researchers, and organizers sit in the same room — in real conversation, not separate tracks.
- Anchor keynote conversation
- Fishbowl: advocates, policy, organizers together
- Small group artifact-building sessions
- Body-based somatic practice — not as wellness, but as leadership infrastructure
Integration & Commitment
The Most Important DayThe shortest day. The most important one. Each woman names one concrete commitment — to herself, to her community, to this network. We build the structure that keeps this gathering alive.
- Commitments named aloud — to self, community, network
- Network map and follow-through structure
- Closing circle — something read aloud, something marked
- The retreat produces a real artifact you take home
Not just an experience.
A set of tools you use the next day.
A clear throughline
A clear articulation of your lived experience, professional work, and purpose — without fragmentation.
One concrete commitment
A defined next step you are ready to execute immediately — named aloud, witnessed by the room.
A real network
A mapped network of women you can call, build with, and rely on — not just a contact list.
Language for what you have lived
Words for what you carry that you no longer have to explain or translate to be understood.
A recalibrated nervous system
Not as self-care — as capacity for leadership. Women cannot think clearly about systems if their bodies are still in survival mode.
You may not have a single word for what you carry.
"If you have ever felt that the rooms meant to help you couldn't actually hold you — this retreat was designed with you in mind."
Women of all faiths, backgrounds, and identities are welcome. The environment is grounded, substance-free, and built for deep work and real rest.
This room is designed for women who already have language, experience, or proximity to this work — and are ready to go deeper.
This is not a first-come, first-served registration. We review every application personally. We are building a room — and we want to make sure it is the right one for you and for everyone in it.
Ihssane
Hasnaoui
Her work spans federal financial oversight, political organizing, and survivor-centered advocacy at the intersection of systems and lived experience.
Ihssane Hasnaoui has spent her career at the intersection of policy, advocacy, and personal reckoning. As a former federal financial oversight professional, she has seen from the inside how institutions designed to protect people can replicate the very harm they are meant to heal.
She ran for Congress in Massachusetts's Fourth District because she believed in the power of democratic institutions — and she stepped back because she believed in the power of speaking a fuller truth outside that container. The campaign gave credibility. The withdrawal gave freedom. This retreat is where both become useful.
She designed From Rahmah because the room she needed didn't exist. A room that could hold the policy knowledge, the lived experience, the spiritual grounding, the organizing instinct — without asking her to leave any part of it at the door.
Now it does.
A room built to hold you fully.
$1,200
Lodging and meals included. Three days, two nights.
Because of the intentional and limited nature of this gathering, all payments are non-refundable. We ask that you accept your spot only if you are truly ready to commit — to yourself, to the other women in the room, and to the work. If a genuine emergency arises, reach out — we will handle it with care.
Apply to Attend-
Location
Massachusetts — venue announced upon booking
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Dates
Summer 2025 — confirmed with venue shortly
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Format
Residential — lodging and all meals included
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Capacity
Up to 40 women — curated by application
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Contact
What is built from Rahmah endures.
What comes from aggression only feeds the cycle.
Come build something that lasts.
Apply to Attend