The Heartwork Center:
Place and Community

The Heartwork Center was founded in the millennial year 2000 as a non-profit education and retreat center dedicated to helping couples achieve harmonious relationships. Its guiding principles come from the work and teaching of Don and Martha Rosenthal, relationship counselors who have been working primarily with couples for over 13 years. The very existence of the Heartwork Center testifies to the power of Don and Martha's teaching and practice. The Center has its home in West Corinth, Vermont, where the Rosenthals have lived and taught for many years. The land it sits on belongs to the Lost Meadow Land Cooperative, a residential community whose members share ownership and management of over 600 acres. Current membership consists of five families (including Don and Martha) and is growing. Not coincidentally, all current members have done work with Don and Martha, and are committed to putting into practice the principles at the core of that work. Some members are actively involved in facilitating workshops, and in the Center's administration. In addition, the Coop is dedicated to values of community, sustainability, and right livelihood, a vibrant and nourishing environment for an institute like Heartwork to flourish.

Heartwork's facilities, at present, consist of two comfortably renovated 1820's farmhouses--the hilltop and valley house, a modest walk from each other. These serve both as residences and as workshop space. Each house contains private rooms for couples during workshops, common space for group activities, and an ample but cozy kitchen/dining area. The surrounding property (over 600 acres) features many walking trails, a combination of woods and scenic open meadows, and a lovely pond for swimming in summer. The property is at the end of a dead-end road, and is unusually pristine and secluded, even for Vermont.

In the future, the Center hopes to expand its work in a number of ways. We would like to diversify our offerings to include talks, study groups, and conferences, as well as workshops given by other presenters--all focused on the couple relationship. We especially hope to expand our physical facilities so that we can offer private couples' retreats, with simple but comfortable accommodations, privacy, and access to counseling--a refuge in which to practice the art of mature, conscious relationship in a supportive setting.

In today's world, simply to be in an intimate relationship is an exacting challenge, one for which most of us have received precious little preparation. Providing guidance in this vexed and subtle area seems like one of the more profound needs of our time. It has been truly said that the peace we yearn for in the world at large begins with the peace we attain in our own relationships, peace that in turn must come from our hearts. Heartwork is gratified to be taking this small step on the path toward peace; there is no better place to begin.