Ronya Fakhoury Banks (Teacher in Training), LCSW
Residential Retreat Teacher in Training
Ronya Fakhoury Banks is the founding teacher of Asheville Insight Meditation group, in Asheville, NC, which she has led since 2010. She has maintained a daily Vipassana meditation practice since 1985, spent two years sitting on Vipassana meditation retreats, as well as having had valuable experience as a Theravada Buddhist nun. She had the Theravada Buddhist teachings transmitted to her for five years by Buddhist monk and scholar Venerable Ujotika.
She is presently in the joint IMS/Spirit Rock teachers training program, a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader program, and a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. Although she has sat with over 30 different teachers, she considers Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Chanmyay Sayadaw her primary teachers. Ronya has led and co-led several residential and online meditation retreats since 2014. Her co-teachers have included John Orr, Donald Rothberg, Heather Sundberg, and Pat Coffey.
As a social worker, she works as a trauma-healing therapist, with an emphasis on healing intergenerational trauma. She also has an additional 25 years’ experience as a business consultant and entrepreneur. She is a published author in Tricycle magazine, and in Coaching/Consulting periodicals. Born in Kuwait of Palestinian-American descent and raised in Islamic faith, Ronya values justice and equality for all.
Ronya Fakhoury Banks (Teacher in Training)'s Upcoming Programs
Retreat | On-Land
October 3 - October 20, 2026 | Saturday - Tuesday | 17 nights
17-night Retreat: Concentration (Samādhi) & Fall Insight Retreat
A Special Opportunity for Deep, Integrated Practice: 17-Night Retreat in the Fall
Full - short waitlist. For those seeking an extended retreat experience this fall, we encourage you to consider attending both the Concentration (Samādhi) (Oct 2-12) and the Fall Insight Retreat (Oct 12-20) as one continuous 17-night retreat. These two retreats are intentionally designed to complement one another, offering a rare opportunity to deepen in both heart and wisdom practices.
This combined retreat supports a natural progression in the meditative path: cultivating samādhi as a foundation, followed by insight practices (vipassanā) grounded in that settled presence. Teachers see this integration as essential. Uniting these practices brings enhanced clarity and depth to both. While each retreat may be attended on its own, we strongly recommend that practitioners who are ready for a longer commitment join both as one cohesive training.
Tuere Sala
Eugene Cash
Brian Lesage
devon hase
Vance Pryor
Kristina Baré
Hakim Tafari (Movement Teacher)
Ronya Fakhoury Banks (Teacher in Training)
Adam Stonebraker (Teacher in Training)
Retreat | On-Land
October 3 - October 12, 2026 | Saturday - Monday | 9 nights
Concentration (Samādhi) Retreat: Cultivating Joy and Contentment
Full - short waitlist. Commuter spaces available! Concentration (samādhi), the unification of mind, is essential for deepening meditation and was emphasized by the Buddha as a path to awakening. This retreat offers practical techniques to strengthen focus and stability, supporting both Insight (vipassanā) practice and access to deeper absorption states (jhanas). Whether you're new or experienced, you’ll receive guidance on sustaining attention, calming the mind, and integrating concentration into your practice—building a foundation for greater clarity, ease, and transformation.
Tuere Sala
Brian Lesage
devon hase
Vance Pryor
Kristina Baré
Ronya Fakhoury Banks (Teacher in Training)
Retreat | On-Land
December 11 - December 17, 2026 | Friday - Thursday | 6 nights
Opening to Insight and Love
Spaces Still Available! It is easy for us to forget the heart’s capacity for wisdom and love. The term sati—mindfulness—means to remember. To re-member is to make whole. Meditation retreat invites us to remember our fundamental wholeness so we can respond to the cries of the world. Cultivating a clear mind and tender a heart, we can act with skill and kindness. Within the silent container of retreat, we investigate our experience with relaxed, focused attention, let go of habitual patterns of reactivity and fear, and rediscover the preciousness of human life and poignancy of our shared humanity. As our felt sense of separation heals and we remember our essential goodness, we can engage with life from a place of embodied compassion, freedom and peace.
Erin Treat
DaRa Williams
Pamela Weiss
Kate Siber (Teacher in Training)
Ronya Fakhoury Banks (Teacher in Training)
Retreat | On-Land
January 11 - January 18, 2027 | Monday - Monday | 7 nights
Mettā Retreat: Teachings and Practices to Cultivate a Wise, Compassionate, and Resilient Heart
12 CE Credits. Registration Open. This retreat focuses on the cultivation of mettā, or lovingkindness—the development of a heart grounded in goodwill toward oneself and all beings. Through sustained practice, we train the heart in kindness, drawing on mindfulness to recognize and soften patterns that limit the heart. While centered on mettā, we also explore compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. Held primarily in noble silence, the retreat includes guided meditation, Dharma talks, and meetings with teachers.
Gullu Singh
Donald Rothberg
Diana Winston
Beth Sternlieb
Jonathan Relucio (Movement Teacher)
Ronya Fakhoury Banks (Teacher in Training)
Retreat | On-Land
June 30 - July 6, 2027 | Wednesday - Tuesday | 6 nights
Rooted in Love: Heart Qualities and the Living Elements - Annual BIPOC Retreat
For those who identify as BIPOC. Registration Open. You are welcome here, exactly as you are. This retreat for BIPOC practitioners of all levels weaves together the brahmavihāras—mettā (lovingkindness), karuṇā (compassion), muditā (joy), and upekkhā (equanimity)—with the wisdom of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space. Each element illuminates a quality of the heart. Together they become a living pathway to freedom—a practice for the whole of life. Come rest, open, and grow deep roots, aligning with the living elements of connection.
Noliwe Alexander
bruni dávila
Pawan Bareja
Solwazi Johnson
Kimi Mojica (Movement Teacher)
Ramona Lisa Ortiz-Smith (Teacher in Training)
Gina LaRoche (Teacher in Training)
Ronya Fakhoury Banks (Teacher in Training)