How the OM Retreat came to be…

On January 31st, 2020, Steph went on a journey to tour what she thought was a new “wedding venue.”
The moment she arrived at the front gate, she could feel a magnetic energy to the property. Something that felt goosepimple magical.
Layson, the co-owner of Obsidian Ridge, took her around the property to show her the layout for a wedding. Not even 10 minutes into the tour, Steph stopped him and asked:

“What is this place? It’s more than just a wedding venue…”

Layson went on to share how he had dreamed about this place. He shared parts of the journey, the struggles and triumphs, how he had worked with a shaman to help bring the dream to life, and how he had trucked in over 500 tons of stone from the Rocky Mountains. He explained how it all began with the Earth/Amphitheatre area and how the vision continued to expand from there.

Fast forward to February 2020, when Steph invited one of her best friends, Lynnett, to tour the land with her. Together, they had a vision of creating a wellness retreat, and Obsidian Ridge felt like the perfect place.

When Lynnett pulled up to the front gate, she too could feel the magic and energy Steph had experienced the first time she arrived. Everything seemed to be lining up.
Steph and Lynnett began co-creating a retreat that they imagined would be unlike anything they had experienced on the prairies of Alberta.

And then… COVID happened.

Their dream of creating a magical healing and wellness retreat came to a halt.

Fast forward two years.
Steph was in meditation during one of her Shamanic classes when the idea dropped in again.
The whisper from her guides — from Source — said:

“It is time.”

She sat with that message for a couple of days. Then, during a conversation with her friend and fellow Shamanic student, Tania, Steph shared the message. She shared the vision, the passion behind it and all of the universal nudges that seemed to be guiding her back toward creating this retreat.

A week or so later, Steph and Tania were on their way back out to Obsidian Ridge to tour the land and see the new developments.
Again, they pulled up to the front gate and instantly felt the magical energy of the land — full-body goose pimples.
On the way home, Tania asked to be part of the new vision and to co-create what would become the OM Retreat.

And now to really tie it all together…

On May 31st, 2022, Steph and Tania were sitting outside in Tania’s backyard doing a meditation with the intention of downloading the name of the retreat. During the guided meditation, Steph was directed to open her eyes to receive a message. When she did, she saw a young couple walking around a new plot of land, planning out their future home.

The message came in loud and clear:

“Welcome Home.”

And then another message came…

“hOMe.”

A few weeks earlier, Lynnett — who had no idea about this meditation or mastermind session — had shared something on her social media:

“Something that has become really important to me is ensuring my home is also my hOMe… a physical 3D replica of my inner OM. A space where I can exist freely. A space in which I am at peace with myself and everything in my universe. A space of forgiveness and unconditional love. A space where I can heal and grow. A space anchored by joy, love and abundance. A space where I am grounded. It is my sacred space.”

And so here we are.

Originally named Welcome Home – OM Retreat, and now simply known as OM Retreat, our first gathering was experienced in September 2022 at Obsidian Ridge.

It was filled with conscious souls ready and willing to learn more about themselves, deepen their connection to each other and all that is, and begin the journey hOMe.

In 2023, we collectively gathered on and blessed the sacred land at Lionsheart Wholeness Center in Legal, Alberta. This was a deeply healing year behind the scenes, as our original venue didn't work out and we were invited to make a last-minute pivot to this magical land. One of our favourite moments was experiencing an ecstatic dance under the stars — a moment that felt like pure freedom, aliveness and connection.

In 2024, for our third annual gathering, OM found its way to StoneHedge, located just 15 minutes southeast of Edmonton. There, we bathed in Mary Magdalene medicine, plunged into the pool between sacred ceremonies, walked across red-hot coals, danced under the stars and experienced moments of profound connection, healing and remembering.

In 2025, we returned to StoneHedge for our fourth gathering — deepening into the land, the ceremonies and the community that had begun to form around OM. We gathered around the fire, moved through ceremony, breath, sound, healing sauna experiences and sacred teachings, and continued discovering what happens when we allow ourselves to show up fully — not perfectly — together.

And in 2026, we returned to StoneHedge once again for our 5th annual OM Retreat.

Five years.

What began as an idea, a whisper, a download and a dream had become something we could actually stand inside of.

This year carried us through so many different experiences of what it means to come hOMe.

We opened our hearts through Horse Medicine, breathed together through Conscious Connected Breathwork, moved our bodies through Kundalini Yoga, and walked across fire in our Tombstone Fire Walk — meeting ourselves at the edge of fear and discovering what was waiting for us on the other side.
We gathered at the Womb Cave for a Creation Ceremony, were invited into a beautiful experience of trust, self-love and self-acceptance — including a trust walk that asked us to surrender some of our control, lean into one another and experience what it feels like to both give and receive support.
We explored acupuncture, subconscious clearing and sovereign reclaiming, gathered around in circle for a cOMmunity dinner where we intentionally broke bread together, and moved into an Inner Child Experience that invited us to bring more of ourselves hOMe.
On Sunday morning, we gathered with water and sacred smoke, before coming together one final time to integrate what the weekend had stirred, opened, released and remembered within us.

And woven throughout all of it were the moments that could never really be written onto a schedule.

The conversations between ceremonies. The laughter. The tears. The hugs. The people sitting around the fire. The moments of courage and vulnerability. The quiet time on the land. The unexpected connections. The people who arrived as strangers and somehow didn't feel quite so strange by the time they left.

Because OM has never really been about how many ceremonies we can fit into a weekend.

It is about what happens between and within them.

And perhaps most importantly, after five years, we continued learning what OM has always been about:

Coming hOMe.

Not to a physical place.
Not to a particular belief system.
Not to some perfected or “healed” version of ourselves.
But back hOMe to Self, Source & Oneness.

OM continues to evolve because the people who gather within it evolve. Each year is different. Each group brings its own medicine, its own energy, its own questions and its own wisdom.

It is a live, co-created container — shaped by the land, the facilitators, the ceremonies, the animals, the elements and every person courageous enough to say yes to being there.

And now, we prepare to gather again.

We invite you to walk with us as we return to our centre of heart and knowingness.

To remember our connection to ourselves, to one another, to the land and to something greater than ourselves.
To be curious.
To be courageous.
To show up exactly as we are.

And to see what becomes possible when we do.

WelcOMe HOMe.