Our Story
WE ARE A FAMILY BUSINESS WITH A COMMON VISION & PASSION TO SHARE WITH OUR COMMUNITY
Our Vision: Seven Springs Holistic Retreats is a place of natural abundance and cultural diversity where people learn to create holistic sustenance for themselves and their communities.
Our Mission: We provide an innovative and transformative space for local and global communities to experience high quality holistic education.
Meet the Family
Jessi Townesmith
Jessi's background in dance and creative movement laid the foundation for her deep embodiment. Her passion for the holistic path of yoga has taken her across the globe, from the United States to Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Bali, and Costa Rica. A certified RYT500 instructor and doula, Jessi's teachings weave together her love for birthwork, herbal medicine, and the natural world.
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Jessi's connection to Seven Springs runs deep, as it's the place where she grew up and also gave birth to her two sons, Kai and Cedar, in the Peru yurt. Now, she joyfully shares this family land with retreat participants, offering a unique blend of yoga infused with elements of dance, natural movement, and stillness. Her classes emphasize the rhythm of the breath and encourage organic flow within each pose. A creative entrepreneur at heart, Jessi is dedicated to ethical business practices that benefit both people and the planet. She is a co-founder of Kula Collective Yoga School and Seven Springs Retreats, ventures that embody her passion for community, nature, and holistic well-being. She met Zach while working in Guatemala to found an NGO and Fair Trade Business promoting women's cooperatives.
Zach Townesmith
Zach is a passionate connector. His innate creativity, flexible perspective, and quick smile make him a natural leader, inspiring participation and thoughtful consensus in the wide array of groups he works with. He has dedicated his life to the study and development of intercultural relations and the facilitation of innovative solutions for sustainable well-being.
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Zach’s Cum Laude B.A. from Harvard led him to explore issues of privilege and work for justice from his hometown of Philadelphia to the Guatemala City garbage dump. This work has taken him throughout the Americas engaging diverse stakeholders in strategic planning through the development of creative and critical thinking in fields such as education, public health, business, creative industries, and entrepreneurship.
He expresses his own creativity through music, photography, and capoeira bringing insights from these arts into his facilitation and mediation. He believes that interpersonal relationships and creativity are the keys to sustainable innovation, and brings a unique skill set to his work with individuals and groups in settings ranging from corporate board rooms to dirt-floored rural schools. His multi-cultural and multi-lingual fluency are valuable assets as groups develop and maintain creative environments of respect and trust.
Herman & Mary
Herman's mother brought him from Germany to Maryville to live with his stepfather at the tender age of 9. His story of adaptation to East Tennessee culture is an example of building community. After military service and travel abroad he returned home in 1976 to help his mother work their new farm.
Mary was a college student when they met a few months later. Together they studied agriculture, plant sciences, animal husbandry, and forestry at University of Tennessee, melding select principles with those from the "back to the land movement" on their new land. Realizing he also needed skills to repair farm equipment, Herman studied welding, They then created Sweet Hollow Landscaping, a greenhouse, design and landscape construction company, which thrived for nearly 20 years as a family business.
Herman later became a journeyman welder and master pipefitter with 35 years experience of fixing, repairing and building things out of metal. Mary continued in conservation and ecology work throughout the States, Puerto Rico, and parts of Asia. Now Herman's skills as master builder and Mary's offerings as ecologist - naturalist provide invaluable support to Seven Springs in everything from visioning to implementation.
The Kula Collective
Seven Springs is the U.S. site and partner with Kula Collective international Yoga Teacher Training School. Kula offers holistic, embodied and therapeutic trainings in sacred locations around the world.
“I've been to Seven Springs many times both as a facilitator hosting my own events and as an attendee. This is a home away from home for me. Jessi, her family and the way they run their business are simply the best. The land, the yurts, the food, the company... everything is always perfection!!!”
- Meg C.
Equity & Inclusion
You are welcome on this land. We are all born into different skins, ethnicities, socio-cultural contexts, religions and spiritualities, economic statuses, sexual orientations, ages, differing abilities and differing levels of access and opportunities. We welcome you as you are.
No matter your race, gender, abilities or beliefs.
We believe you bring medicine for the earth
and hope that you may find healing here.
Please consider Seven Springs as a place to rest, recover and continue to develop a collective vision for the world we're dreaming of. Take some time for your Self. A healthy and powerful You is what the world needs right now. Join us in a community where we take care of each other and make personal decisions based on the wellbeing of ourselves, our families, our wider communities and our planet.
We are committed to being more inclusive and accessible, so please reach out and ask for what you need.
