Residential house with garden and flowering trees in a community setting.

Chrysalis Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Suburban

Founding year

  • 2002

What we do

Chrysalis is committed to building a sustainable, violence-free culture through intimacy, compassion, radical honesty, freedom of choice in intimate relationships, ecological sensitivity, transparency, and the power of community. Social change and personal transformation are central to our vision.
Chrysalis has two houses side-by-side in a wooded setting about 10 minutes’ drive from Washington, DC. The houses can handle eight to ten permanent residents comfortably, with plenty of room for each person to have both personal space and an office or studio if they wish. Each person pays a share of the mortgage based on room size.
The common rooms can accommodate up to 50 people for events. The houses front on a large park, with miles of bike and hiking trails and unspoiled nature. At Chrysalis, each person is empowered to take initiative and create their own projects, healing the society while building a supportive web of intimate relationships that nurture inner transformation. We use many techniques, including sacred touch, non-violent communication, being in the moment, and more. Our goal is to love the world through loving oneself.
Chrysalis encourages members to follow their own vision in the context of a creative, supportive community; we find the ongoing cross-pollination of ideas, talents, and energy takes us to a higher and more productive level. Resident non-members and non-residents are also an important part of Chrysalis; we see our community as part of a much larger network.
We are especially looking for people who want to explore their own limits, both personally and productively, who like to be synergized by being around other creative and effective people, and who would enjoy living in an environment that is both challenging and supportive, that invites you to grow while affirming who and what you are.
We actively welcome people who are not members to live with us; we value the unique contribution each person has to make. We are less focused on long-term commitments, and more interested in the energy and ideas that our housemates have to offer in the present. We welcome those who would like to work and play and learn with us, whether it be “for a day or a decade.”

Our Mission

Integrating community with the larger world; creating change *in* people that leads to critical social change.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Coliving
  • Activities
  • Education
  • Experiences
  • Networking
  • Services Business

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2002
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2002
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 4 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
10

How to join

The process is flexible, generally starting with email exchange, phone calls, and a week visit, then exploring whether we have a good match.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Please call or email in advance. We do not have a formal visitor program, and we can sometimes take visitors on relatively short notice.
We are drug, smoke, and alcohol-free; please do not bring any of these items with you.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • No Established Process

Governance structure

  • Minimal/Anarchist

Little to no formal governance structure.

Conflict resolution approach

Leadership is a function, not an identity.
The core is not a closed group; it is mostly reflective of who is putting in significant effort.
Decision making is primarily “responsible anarchy”. Each person has substantial authority to make their own decisions, with due consideration to the rights and
needs of others.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Regular fees: $700
Labor: Yes (2 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Gym or sports area, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 1-3 times per month

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • School, Educational Institute or Experience
  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • Ethical Business, Investment Group, or Alternative Currency
  • Organization, Resource, or Network
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies
  • Substance use is prohibited in the community

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By several individuals through an LLC or a Tenancy In Common agreement

Setting

  • Suburban

Residential areas outside city centers but within metropolitan regions.

Community type

  • Coliving

    Shared living spaces with private bedrooms/bathrooms and communal
    kitchens, dining, and social areas.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Up to 33%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    0.4 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Virginia, United States

Chrysalis Community

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Promoted
  • Events
2 weeks ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00
  • Promoted
Need
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
3 days ago

Breathe the Magic

Set in Sea Elephant, Tasmania, within a remarkable conservation landscape, this contemporary home offers genuine privacy with the assurance that the surrounding native environment is protected for the future.  With its cool King Island climate and abundant rain and water supply, your lifetyle is secure in a climate future that is becoming unsettling. Experience the unique community lifestyle that only King Island can offer.  Sleep with the peace of knowing you live in a place where everyone looks out for everyone else, and someone will always have your back. 1675 Reekara Road offers slightly more than 51 hectares of protected King Island wilderness, of which approximately 48.84 hectares are protected under a conservation covenant encompassing King Island scrub, blue gum forest, remarkable wildlife. The property is surrounded by the Lavinia State Reserve and Council Hill Conservation Area. A 2 hectare residential entitlement provides ample space for planting vegetables, fruit trees,  keeping chickens, or creating other sustainable living infrastructure.  Already included are: – A well-maintained house built in 2023 with upstairs en-suite bedroom and deck with gorgeous views, including forest/ocean outlook. – A spacious downstairs bathroom provides options for guest accommodation – Just include a sleeper couch or 2 in the ample living area. – A large pristine kitchen, including pantry and laundry. – Small wood shed – Large shed or double garage built in 2024 – Enclosed garden – 40,000 litre water storage tank – large dam An existing approved DA means you have the option of further development.  Buy the property furnighed, unfurnished, or with a 2015 Jeep Wrangler thrown in.

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