My Story

The idea for this retreat has come from my work across various complementary disciplines and experiences. I have worked in many contexts in women only settings, such as Women’s Refuges, Assertiveness Training, Professional Development settings, and more latterly with women in the context of aging well. My background lies in community working, counselling, coaching training and writing, a mix of the practical while being very much in touch with evidence bases and research. My professional training has been in social and community work, therapeutic interventions, coaching, neuro linguistics and mindfulness. My lived experience is as a woman, a daughter, sister, mother and grand mother, who has crossed many bridges and traversed various lands. And I am a long time lover of Tarot, both a reader and a lifelong student.

One way and another, the notion of The Hero’s Journey speaks to me, life being a journey, a symphony created with many movements. I have woven my way through Joseph Campbells work, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. I had the pleasure of working with Robert Dilts and Debra Bacon Dilts, on their three day version of The Hero’s Journey.  Over the years, I have also become aware of just how much women need different steps on their journey to men, and so it is wise to build different resources and stages into our narrative. This was my first awareness that I would like to create a version of The Heroine’s Journey, to honour those differences and to enjoy them. You might therefore expect a shift of energy and discovery of some unexpected twists and turns as we move through a conceptual lifetime in an atmosphere of support, care, enjoyment, challenge and energetic shift.

So this is the first offering of the course I have built, and during this Retreat you will be supported and energised through a guided journey, to assimilate, clear space, and revitalise with direction for the next part of your future. Within the base structure, founded upon Campbell’s work, we will integrate a tailored version of the five rhythms, after Gabrielle Roth, this integration being directly inspired through my learning with Robert Dilts and Debra Bacon Dilts. I will also introduce pauses, and body work facilitated by my guest professional yoga teacher Laura Tilley, an accomplished and multi talented professional, and a deep, compassionate woman with a way of energising which is individual and highly enjoyable.

I am also excited to be able to offer a unique bonus on our second  full day, the opportunity to work with Guest Tutor Keziah Gibbons, in her Comfortable in Her Skin experiential workshop, based around the story of the Selkie Woman and her adventures as she searches for her skin. You can expect deep exploration, some shift, perhaps a necessary release and a magical, powerful Becoming as you realize your own true nature and the meaning that weaves through your whole life.  Keziah is an accomplished story teller, a teacher and facilitator across a web of complementary approaches, and a deep and unique soul with a generous and authentic spirit.

The pattern of the Retreat offers a grounded structure with flexibility, creativity and support.  You will experience  and learn practices which provide both practical tools, and spiritual freedoms.