Win a free registration for a professional retreat
Whether you are early in your career or a seasoned clinician, retreat experiences offer space for reflection, learning, and community.
Research consistently shows that intentional rest, reflective learning, and peer support can reduce burnout and improve professional effectiveness.
Our retreats are intentionally designed for mental health professionals who want to rest, reconnect, and grow both personally and professionally. The winner will receive a standard retreat registration of $1,500, making this immersive experience more accessible.
The specific 2027 retreat destination will be announced soon, but all of our retreats take place in beautiful, restorative locations that support reflection, learning, and community.
Mental health professionals spend their careers holding space for others. Retreats provide the rare opportunity to step away from the day-to-day demands of clinical work and invest in your own wellbeing and professional sustainability.
The Scholarship Winner will receive
$1,500 for a 2027 TPCWS Professional Retreat
This credit can be applied toward any TPCWS retreat offered in 2027, regardless of location.
Typical retreat experiences include:
Continuing Education credits (NBCC & ASWB approved)
Small group learning and reflective dialogue
Experiential activities that support clinical growth
Wellness and restorative practices for helping professionals
Opportunities to connect with other clinicians in meaningful ways
Structured time for rest and restoration
Guided wellness activities designed for helping professionals
A Message from the Founder
As a Black counselor, supervisor, educator, and doctoral researcher, much of my work has focused on a question that many of us quietly carry:
How do we sustain ourselves while doing work that constantly asks us to sustain others?
During my doctoral research, I examined burnout among Black women working in community and social service professions, exploring how cultural expectations such as the Strong Black Woman schema, the pressure to be resilient, capable, self-sacrificing, and emotionally strong for others, can contribute to professional exhaustion and diminished well-being over time.
What my research confirmed is something many Black clinicians already know from lived experience:
The expectation to always be strong can come at a cost.
Black counselors often serve on the front lines of community care. We show up for clients navigating trauma, systemic inequities, and generational stress while also navigating many of those realities ourselves. At the same time, we are often called upon to mentor, advocate, educate, and represent within our professional spaces.
The work is meaningful.
But it can also be heavy.
I created these retreats because I believe that rest, reflection, and professional renewal should not be privileges reserved for a few, but that they should be accessible to the clinicians doing some of the most important work in our communities.
Professional retreats often provide transformative opportunities for connection, learning, and restoration. Yet many clinicians, especially those serving marginalized communities, are often unable to access these spaces due to financial barriers or systemic inequities within professional development opportunities.
This scholarship is one small step toward expanding access.
My hope is that this opportunity allows one clinician to step into a space where they can slow down, reconnect with their purpose, and prioritize their own wellbeing, not as an afterthought, but as an essential part of sustaining their work.
Because when clinicians are supported, the impact extends far beyond us. It reaches the clients, families, and communities we serve every day.
— Portia Gordon, PhD, LPC-S, RPT-S, ICST
Founder, Turning Point Counseling & Wellness Services
Why Retreats Matter for Mental Health Professionals
Our retreats are designed to support clinicians in:
Preventing burnout and compassion fatigue
Through education, reflection, and wellness practices that support long-term sustainability in the field.
Strengthening professional identity
Engaging with other clinicians who understand the complexities of this work fosters connection and shared learning.
Deepening clinical insight
Interactive trainings allow participants to integrate new ideas and approaches into their practice.
Restoring creativity and energy
When clinicians care for themselves, they return to their work with renewed clarity and purpose.
Invest in Yourself
As clinicians, we often encourage our clients to pause, reflect, and care for themselves.
This scholarship is an opportunity to practice what we preach.
Take a chance, enter the raffle, and you may find yourself joining a community of clinicians dedicated to rest, growth, and sustainable practice in 2027.