Remembering The Great Love - 2026
You are already loved, right now, in the exact mess of being human
The you who is tired of pretending the system works, who has questions she is not supposed to ask, who feels the pull toward a larger life but cannot quite name it yet.
Nine women, twelve months, a residential retreat in the French countryside, and a year of learning to live from love rather than striving toward it.
Who this is for:
You know there's a Better Way
You have been in those rooms where everyone around you seems fine with how things are: churches, boardrooms, therapy offices, family dinners. You are not fine with it. You feel the dissonance. You are paying attention because something in you knows there is a larger way to live.
You have probably started pulling away from a faith system that got too small, a way of working that asks you to leave your values at the door, a version of success that belongs to someone else's story.
Leaving the old world behind can feel incredibly lonely, even before you can name what you are walking toward.
You can leave it all behind and still belong somewhere. That is what Remembering The Great Love is about.
Some women are ready when the hunger for a truer way of being has gotten louder than the fear of losing what is familiar, when the dissenting, the doubting, the questioning has led them to the edge of a threshold they know they want to cross. Women who are brave enough to let a small world die so a larger, more loving one can be born.
Who this is NOT for: Those who are still looking for someone to fix them, or who want a program that tells them what to believe, will find a better home elsewhere.
Remembering The Great Love begins with being willing to know that you are already whole.
A 12-month journey of spiritual deconstruction and divine reclamation.
I'm Christi Byerly. I'm not just an MCC coach and author of Holy Rebellion. I'm a woman who has walked the labyrinthine journey out of crazyland. I'll lead this intimate program with a circle of nine women from across the faith spectrum.
Whether you are inside a tradition and asking hard questions, have left religion behind entirely, or are somewhere in between, you are welcome here. All that is required is the hunger for a truer way of being.
The year begins with a five-day residential retreat at a former Cognac estate in the south of France, and continues with monthly group witnessing circles, deep 1:1 sessions with me, and daily practices woven into ordinary life.
Women in this program remember The Great Love. And once you remember it, you can return to it again and again, until it's steady.
The Mythological Architecture of the Journey
The year is divided into four Seasons of Emergence
The Retreat, September 2026
Crossing the threshold | Arriving
The labyrinth begins at the entrance. Five days in the French countryside where nine women step across the threshold together for the first time, arriving not as strangers but as the beginning of a pilgrimage.
Here, the journey inward starts, the community becomes real, and you discover what it feels like to be held while you do the deepest work of your life.
Months 1 - 4
The Inward Path | Purgation (Releasing)
This phase is about walking away from the "Crazyland" of striving. In spiritual traditions, this is the Principle and Foundation, knowing you are created in love.
Identifying the false self and the systems that built it. Learning to drop the certainties, the shames, and the scripts that were never truly yours.
Months 5–8
The Center | Illumination (Receiving)
In the center of the labyrinth, there is nowhere to go. You simply sit and allow yourself to inhabit your inner alignment.
Sitting held in divine love, asking, "What is the big dream you want to dream through me?", you'll find your fierceness and embrace your divine nature.
Months 9–12
The Outward Path | Integrating
Now, the walk back out. We aren't the same people who entered. This is Radiant Leadership.
Bringing the light you found in the center back out into the world. Living from love rather than striving toward it, and discovering what becomes possible when you do.
A year of being witnessed, accompanied, and loved through the hardest and most liberating period of your life.
The Retreat:
Five days in the French countryside to arrive, exhale, and go deeper than you have probably allowed yourself to go in a very long time. The place where the journey begins and the community becomes real. Yviers, France. September 24–29, 2026
Monthly witnessing circles:
A circle where you can bring the whole of your month: what shifted, what challenged you, what is quietly asking for attention, and be witnessed by women who understand.
1:1 sessions with Christi (up to 10 across the year):
Private time with Christi to navigate the specific terrain of your own transition, at the moments when you most need someone who already knows your story.
Journal prompts and daily practice guides:
Weekly invitations to pay closer attention to your own life, and to notice where The Great Love is already moving through it.
WhatsApp access to Christi:
Because remembering The Great Love is not always a gentle process. You'll have direct access to me across the year, for the hard nights, the unexpected breakthroughs, and every moment in between where you need to know you are not walking alone.
Five days where everything you have been moving toward finally has a place to land. And where it all begins.
The French Retreat sits in Yviers, deep in the Charente, in the Cognac and Bordeaux wine country of southwest France. In late September, the vines are turning gold, the vendange is beginning, and the land carries a quality of fullness: a harvest that has been pulsing all year is finally being gathered in.
I chose this setting deliberately. Founded by Emma Pruen, a Systemic and Family Constellations facilitator, shamanic practitioner, and Hoffman graduate, the estate was created with the intention to hold the deepest emotional work. A walled courtyard, a vaulted group room, an outdoor yoga deck facing the rising sun, and a swimming pool. A place that holds you while you do what The Great Love is inviting you to.
Meals are the heart of the week.
Everything is cooked from local ingredients by the retreat's award-winning kitchen and served family-style around a shared table: tagines, tarts, crumbles, wine. All dietary needs are catered for, and tea, coffee, and fruit are available throughout the day.
Getting there: Our retreat center is 40 minutes from the Angoulême TGV station, which is two hours from Paris by high-speed train. Bordeaux Merignac airport is 75 minutes away, with daily direct flights from London Gatwick and connections from across Europe and North America. Bergerac airport is 85 minutes away, served by Ryanair from several UK and European cities. Transfers from both airports can be arranged.
Transfers from the Chalais train station are included, along with all your meals and accommodation for your stay.
Imagine waking up, twelve months from now, and noticing that something fundamental has shifted.
You are not striving in the same way. The version of success you were exhausted by no longer has the same pull. You find yourself telling your story differently, with a kind of warmth toward the woman who lived it.
You are not finished. There's no graduation ceremony from the human experience. But you are, unmistakably, more yourself than you have ever been. And once you remember The Great Love, you cannot unknow it.
What Becomes Possible
The anger that used to frighten you becomes a compass for justice.
The questions that once made you feel like an outsider become the most important things about you.
Where there was shame, a radiant confidence begins to grow.
Where there was disconnection from your body, a willingness to listen to what it knows.
Where you once measured yourself by individual achievement, you find yourself part of something much larger and more loving.
You are not finished. There's no certificate of achievement. But you are, unmistakably, more yourself than you have ever been.
I partner with you from the conviction that you are already whole.
You may have heard of my work as a Master Certified Coach, the founder of Awaken Coach Institute, or the author of Holy Rebellion. If so, you'll know that I've spent decades unlearning the rules I was handed in my high-demand, high-achievement previous environments, and finding out what love looks and feels like when it is not conditional.
Each conversation I have is intentionally kind, loving, and mutually seeing. I teach at the edges of my own learning, as a fellow pilgrim on this journey of life. I am held in The Great Love, just as you are.
In this space, every woman in the community becomes aware of what's possible and what's wanting to happen through us.
I now work exclusively in community. This program is the only way to work with me in private coaching across 2026 and 2027.
For women who have been longing for a new way of being, The Great Love is holding us in September.
What to expect with Christi (yes, me)
Love-Based, Not Achievement-Based
Trust the Path, Not Just Yourself
We Grow Up Together
You're not here to earn your worth. You're here to remember you're already held by Love itself. That's the foundation of everything we do.
I spent years not trusting myself. Still do sometimes. But I've learned the Path is trustworthy even when I'm not sure I am. No wrong turns, only pattern.
I'm not the expert who has it figured out. I'm further along the path in some ways, brand new in others. We grow up together, all of us held by the same Love.
Love Does the Work
Embodied, Not Just Intellectual
Maximum 9 Women
My job isn't to transform you. It's to witness Love transforming you. To help you trust it. To stay present with what's unfolding. That's it.
This isn't about learning concepts. It's about becoming more alive in your body, your relationships, your life. We practice this through movement, breath, presence, not just talking.
Non-negotiable. Transformation happens in intimacy, not crowds.
Your investment in Remembering The Great Love
The full 12-month program, including the five-day residential retreat in France, is $12,000 USD / €10,300 EUR.
You can begin by booking your Threshold Call. At $465 USD / €400 EUR, it is a 90-minute conversation with Christi that will leave you clearer about where you are, what you are ready to release, and what is calling you forward. When you choose to join the program, that investment is credited in full against your deposit of $2,600 USD / €2,250 EUR.
From there, you can secure your place on the year-long journey into The Great Love and choose how you pay the remaining balance across the year. Payment plans are available at no additional cost, so the investment can work for your life.
A year from now, the question will not be what this cost. It will be what became possible because you said yes.
Your First Step: The Threshold Call
You have probably been standing at this edge for a while. Something in you already knows it is time.
The Threshold Call is a 90-minute conversation with me where you can finally say out loud what has been quietly asking for your attention. What you are leaving behind. What is calling you forward. What The Great Love might be wanting to do through you.
Women who book a Threshold Call are women who feel the pull toward a larger, more loving life and are ready to take the first step into it. The call is where that step begins.
When you join the program, your $497 USD / €420 EUR is credited in full against your deposit. And whatever you decide, you will leave the call knowing something you did not know when you arrived.
Through the process of writing Holy Rebellion, I revisited major threshold moments of my own journey.
I pondered the times when I knew I was being called to be more brave and more loving, but I wasn't ready to recognize the reality I was participating in. When the truth I was sensing contradicted everything I'd been taught. When I needed someone to witness what was unfolding in me without trying to fix it or rush it. It all took embarrassingly longer than I would have imagined.
I remembered sitting in my spiritual director's office in Kenya, unable to articulate what was shifting. I just knew the container I'd been living in no longer fit. She didn't try to solve me. She sat with me. She asked questions I couldn't have asked myself, inviting me to notice my self-blaming posture and to recognize my worth. Her presence allowed me to trust what was shifting, even when I was afraid to speak.
That time together changed everything. Not because she told me what to do, but because she witnessed what was true.
Years later, I find myself in that same role. Sitting with leaders, coaches, and seekers who are at their own thresholds. I know what is needed. It's not about strategies, or fixing things, or rushing to feel better.
You need to be seen in this moment. You need permission to trust the path beneath your feet, even when your feet shake. You're longing for someone who's walked the winding path to say: What you're sensing is real. The Path is trustworthy. You don't have to have it figured out.
You deserve to be witnessed in a bigger context. You deserve spiritual accompaniment through the threshold. You deserve someone who won't rush you, but just enter the holiness of loving presence while you name what's calling.
— Christi
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Remembering The Great Love faith-based?
You will find your faith in the power of Love expanding as we go.
I'm not affiliated with any denomination. You don't need to be a member of any faith tradition. This work is deeply spiritual. We'll recognize the movement of Love (capital L), trust, the sacred, and what wants to unfold in you.
If you're deconstructing from high-demand religion, you'll find a home here. If you've never been religious but are spiritually curious, you're welcome. If you practice from any contemplative tradition, that's honored.
What I ask: willingness to engage depth, complexity, and mystery.
What if I'm not spiritual enough?
There's no bar to clear. You don't need to meditate daily or know the Enneagram or have your life together.
You need to be willing to tell the truth as you experience it. Be open to not-knowing. Curious about what Love (however you understand it) might be inviting. Be willing to be in relationship with others doing the same.
That's it.
How is this different from coach certification?
VIP Journey: Personal and spiritual transformation. You're here for you.
Coach Certification: Professional training. You're here to learn to serve others.
Both share the same love-based philosophy. Both are intimate 9 to 12-person circles. But the focus is different.
Some people do VIP first, then realize: "I want to offer this to others." That's when certification makes sense. Some do both simultaneously. Some only ever do VIP.
What if I can't commit to 12 months?
This work takes time. Transformation doesn't happen in a weekend workshop. The intimacy of the circle builds over months. You're with people who've seen you at your edge, and that's when the real work becomes possible.
If 12 months feels impossible right now, start with The Threshold Session. We'll discern timing together.
What happens if the retreat does not go ahead?
Remembering The Great Love is an intimate journey for up to nine women. We need six women to step forward for the retreat in France to run. We are committed to being transparent with you about that from the outset.
In the event that we do not reach six confirmed enrollments, we will refund every Remembering The Great Love payment made in full. Your Threshold Session was a complete journey in itself. That investment stands, as does everything that surfaced between you in that time.
As a gesture of care for everyone who said yes to this journey, I will also offer each participant an additional 60-minute session, a chance to be held and accompanied as you discern what comes next. If you enrolled before the end of June 2026 and have already received your bonus session, that additional session will not apply.
We will communicate clearly and promptly if the minimum number is not reached, and we will honor every commitment made to you with the same care we bring to everything at Awaken.
What's the time investment?
Live gatherings: One 90-minute witnessing circle per month. 12 each year.
1:1 coaching: One session per month. I set aside a generous 90 minutes. Up to 10 each year
Journaling prompts: 15-20 min per week
Plan on several hours per month of structured time to be held in our strong container. You can add whatever personal practice calls to you. We recommend 20 minutes in silence, preferably in nature with no phones, per day.
How do I know if I'm ready?
Readiness is a myth. You never feel fully ready for the work that will transform you, but you'll find yourself willing.
If you're asking the question, you're already on the path.
When you take your next step with a Deep Alignment Session, we'll discern together what's wanting to happen.
What is the total investment in Remembering The Great Love?
The full investment is $12,000 USD, which covers the complete twelve-month journey including the France retreat, up to ten 90-minute 1:1 sessions with Christi, twelve monthly group witnessing circles, unlimited WhatsApp access, and your weekly journal prompts and daily practice guides across the year.
Your full €400 / $465 Threshold Session investment is credited toward your enrollment deposit.
Is there an early enrollment incentive?
For those who enroll before the end of June 2026, Christi is offering one additional 60-minute coaching session as a gift. An extra opportunity to deepen and prepare before the retreat begins in France. Sessions are available across a limited number of dates in July and August, working around Christi's summer schedule. Available dates will be confirmed with you on enrollment.
What happens if I need to withdraw from the program?
Christi holds each place in the cohort with care, and the cohort is small by design. If you need to withdraw before the retreat, your deposit is non-refundable as it covers committed retreat costs. If you need to withdraw after the retreat, Christi will work with you personally to find the most gracious path forward. Every situation is held with kindness and discernment.
I am ready. What is my next step?
If you have not yet completed The Threshold Session, that is where your journey into Remembering The Great Love begins. You can book your session here. If you have already completed your session and you are ready to enroll, you can reach out to us directly at communitycare@awakencoaching.com and we will walk you through the next steps with you.
Making the world a braver, more loving place.
Copyright © 2026. Awaken Coaching, LLC