Immersive In-person Retreats

I know the power of gathering in person, but also the exhaustion of heavily managed retreats. I am co-creating Immersive and in-person retreats in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia for local change agents and ‘Friends in the Work.’ No agendas—just a space to breath and regenerate.

For members who want to come together in person.

I have designed, facilitated, and participated in many different types of retreats and in-person events over the last three decades. From one-day industry events with hundreds of people to three-month-long meditation retreats I have done on my own, I know both the power and nourishment of being in-person, as well as the challenges that can represent.

Recently, I experimented with an in-person gathering where I simply put a date and time in the calendar with a location on the map: Te Aroha Hot Pools, 10:00 AM, Saturday the 13th of June. I let a couple of people know, and that was it. No more organising, agenda setting, or expectations. Self-managing, self-organising, and self-determining.

It was the most relaxed I have ever been attending something in-person. I was there at 10:00 AM, soaking in the warmth of the hot pool, and three of my ‘Friends in the Work’ turned up. I made lunch—a Masterchef-level Vietnamese Pho. We walked the wetlands and talked in the afternoon sun, sitting in deck chairs and on curb-sides. We yarned into the night around a campfire that blazed away on the concrete of an old dairy shed. I think I burned my legs, as I had been sitting in shorts even though it was wintry cold. And then we left. We separated, and I felt the pull. It produced a tear.

Co-Design

I am currently in a process to co-design a 3-day, in-person immersion for local food web practitioners, gardeners, and community change agents.

This is not an organisational off-site; it is a first-line practice retreat designed to resource the individual practitioner.

The Proposition

Many of us are deeply invested in our local food webs and ecological networks. To do the work of playing a role that generates value and regenerates life is inherently messy and full of challenges. I know through my lived experience that if I do not take care of myself, I become exhausted and, unfortunately, have completely burnt out. I cannot regenerate life from this state.

This long weekend is dedicated strictly to first-line work: creating the space to Regenerate from the Inside Out alongside a developmental cohort of 'Friends in the Work'.

Proposed Timing: mid-March 2027 (tbd)