Angel Faces Retreat Helps Burned and Traumatized Girls

On June 15-21 in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, the organization Angel Faces, a non-profit organization for adolescent girls with severe burns or trauma, will hold a retreat to help girls achieve their optimum potential and develop meaningful relationships for themselves, their families and their communities.

??"The retreat is only one small component," said Lesia Cartelli, Executive Director of Angel Faces. "We see the fruits of our labor when the girls go back home. We receive several calls and emails from the parents and medical centers about how confident and content their daughter/patient is since she has returned -- she joined a sports or academic team at school or now is going to prom, or interviewing for a first job, ending their social death."??

Cartelli has transformed her own pain into healing. She was burned in a natural gas explosion at her grandparent's home when she was nine years old, and said it took her years to deal with the trauma.

"I wanted the girls to have what I knew they needed, what I knew it took me 20, 30 years to fumble through to get to a good healing place. And I knew I could offer that to them," said Cartelli, who founded the organization in Encinitas, California, to help girls across the U.S.

The retreat will include workshops on healing, activities, and finding friendship with others who are in the same situation. Girls participate in intensive group sessions that include art, journaling and verbal expression.

Positive self-image is fostered through practice sessions on how to handle stares, teasing and unwanted questions. Girls also participate in goal setting exercises, daily yoga sessions, swimming, and hiking; experience therapeutic massages and facials; and have private consultations with a clinical corrective cosmetic professional on the application of corrective cosmetics for their specific needs.

Retreat components include positive methods for handling teasing and unwanted questions, setting healthy boundaries, setting goals, working with licensed psychotherapists for emotional healing, corrective cosmetics in a private consult from a trained professional, the importance of self care including therapeutic touch, skilled massages and facials, physical conditioning through yoga, and friendships.

Angel Faces is a retreat that focuses on the healing process within a holistic framework. Mind, heart, and spirit are all addressed. The end result is a new hope-filled start. Girls leave the retreat with skills and tools to create the life they want and to overcome the challenges of living with their burn/trauma injury.

Ongoing support is provided through Angels in Flight, a community support system for girls and their families to continue to provide and reinforce the skills and knowledge they learned, to achieve optimum potential. The monthly newsletter is supplemented with monthly webcam sessions, continued support and a private Facebook page.

"Angel Faces really changed my life," said 13-year-old Adriana on the website. "I feel more confident about leaving the house, going to the pool, meeting new people, going to water parks, and putting my hair up -- showing more of my scars and that I don't have an ear... I learned how to communicate with people when they ask, 'What happened to your?' This retreat will help me a lot. I really feel changed. Even my family and friends noticed. Thank you all so much for what you have done to help me in my life."