Self Discovery Retreat
Know yourself then you’ll understand any reflection, any encounter - Bashar
Retreats for self-discovery are suitable for:
Helping you clarify your core values and find greater inner peace living in alignment
People in a transition phase looking for fresh perspectives and possibilities for their next chapter of life
Those needing time and space to explore themselves, identify latent talents, unused passions and gaining clarity around their values and direction
People wanting to reconnect with themselves, reflect on their life, make wise decisions and undergo personal transformation
Those who enjoy a holistic approach to self-discovery and would benefit from a range of modalities and tools
Self Finding Retreats
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The Surrounds
Work inside or take time outside in the elements to soak in birdsong and nature
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The Space
A tranquil, restful space with bushland views and access to starry skies
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Local Walks
Chase waterfalls after dark on a local spectacular floodlit night walk in Katoomba
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Local Waterfalls
Our retreat centre is within walking distance of healing Mini Ha Ha waterfall
Personal Discovery Retreats
Testimonials
Thank you Marcus and Ginny for the incredible retreat experience. It was truly transformational and the high-quality content resonated with me on such a deep level. This retreat has triggered the beginning of my next life chapter! Thank you so much!
- Heidi S
My girlfriend and I did the two day retreat. It was both informative and transformational. We felt comfortable and at ease as soon as we arrived. It felt as though we were hanging out with old friends. I received answers I was searching for, confirmation that I was on the right path, and discovered my life’s purpose. I am so grateful for the experience, highly recommend it and will no doubt be back myself!
- Sonja L
An amazing space with deep transformative programs. I'd recommend to anyone that wants a break from their busy life or needs to do important inner work in nature and solitude.
- Advait Junnarkar
Find Yourself Retreat
Program Outline
Day One
Guiding Lights
Morning Sessions 9:30am - 12:30pm
The program begins by having you determine your values and exploring which areas of life they are aligning with and which areas they are lacking expression.
In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony. ~ Suze Orman
Mid Morning Session
In the second session, you’ll define your deepest passions, strengths and intelligences then contemplate how your career is helping or impeding the development and expression of these.
It is a pleasure to witness a human being doing what she or he was meant to do. We delight when we see a parent who truly loves taking care of children. There is such a sense of fit. ~ Scott M. Peck
Lunch 12:30pm
Afternoon Sessions 1:00pm - 4:00pm
This session will delve into your soul blueprint. To create a masterpiece a builder will follow the specifications of architects and engineers. Understanding our metaphysical design adds a deeper layer to self-understanding than simply heeding our rational minds.
Computer Science: A study akin to numerology and astrology, but lacking the precision of the former and the success of the latter. ~ Stan Bootle
Mid Afternoon Session
The final session is centred around developmental psychology to explore the key changes and motivations surrounding the decade of life you currently sit in. You'll find it both illuminating and affirming to recognise that the changes you're going through are universal. Here you'll learn how others have navigated the life phase you're experiencing.
Our task is intimately related to our personal conflicts, we must court sickness, failure, or insanity in order to test the alternative whether the established world will crush us, or whether we will disestablish a sector of this world's outworn fundaments and make place for a new one. ~ Erik H. Erikson
Waterfall Walk (Optional) 4:00 - 6:00pm
Should the weather and your energy levels be accomodating, you can use this time to take in a nearby bushwalk to our local waterfall.
Alternatively, you might indulge in some art activities or enjoy one of the more physical activities we host (mountain biking / stand up paddleboarding).
Dinner 6:30 - 7:30pm
Enjoy a home cooked, organic meal or travel out to try one of Katoomba’s local dining facilities.
Evening (Optional) 7:30pm onwards
There are a range of optional evening activities for you to enjoy, such as listening to or reading poetry, life stories, or enjoying a thought-provoking film or inspiring documentary. Other options include self-guided meditation and yoga.
Day Two
Confronting Shadow
Breakfast 8:30am
Enjoy a homemade breakfast, tea or coffee on the verandah whilst the kookaburras and other local birds sing.
Morning Sessions 9:30am - 12:30pm
In this first session, you’ll explore your blindspots. Conditioning that first occurs in our childhoods carries into our adult development. Awareness of our recurring stumbling blocks allows us to own and then transform our shadow aspect.
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. ~ Carl Jung
Mid Morning Session
Here we will delve into love and relationships. Whether you’re in a partnership or single, this session is designed to help you strip away areas holding you back in relationships, while offering ideas on how to cultivate greater self-love and healthier attitudes and beliefs around love.
Today, we turn to one person to provide what an entire village once did. Is it any wonder that so many relationships crumble under the weight of it all? ~ Esther Perel
Lunch 12:30pm
Afternoon Sessions 1:30pm - 4:00pm
We'll return to the sister sciences of astrology and numerology to illuminate our challenging aspects and explore karmic carry over from past lives. Understanding your makeup and the themes you’ve chosen to work on in this lifetime provide greater focus as well as self-acceptance.
As long as you consider the stars as something above the head, you will lack the eye of knowledge. - Friedrich Nietzsche
Mid Afternoon Session
The final session involves finding balance between the active and receptive, or masculine and feminine. Learning where we have suppressed aspects of each, or over activated them, plays an integral role in being able to align who we are with our relationships and our vocational expression.
When the Sacred Masculine is combined with the Sacred Feminine inside each of us, we create the ‘sacred marriage’ of compassion and passion in ourselves. ~ Matthew Fox
Cost: $590 for 2 day self discovery retreats. $50 off for a weekday program.
$850 for a 3 day, deeper dive.
Inclusions: Our retreats include accommodation, meals, workbooks, counselling and activities.
Optional session of bibliotherapy. Learn more about our bibliotherapy service.
Location: Katoomba, Blue Mountains NSW.
Your Facilitators
Click on the + sign below to learn more about the backgrounds of the counsellors you’ll be working with
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Ginny created Break Your Shell to assist people to move through the blockages, fears and limiting beliefs that keep them from spreading their wings to soar.
Her training in guiding and supporting others began with her hairdressing career, informally coaching, listening and offering support to the thousands of clients she came to know both in Australia and while working abroad.
After navigating a crisis period (where she had to take control of her life and steer it in a healthier direction) she found her calling to work with people who were also ready to reclaim their life. In addition to following Buddhist practices and doing extensive studies in self-development, she complimented this with formal studies in Youth Work, Community Services & a Bachelor of Social Work.
Finding Breathwork to be a particularly transformative form of healing she has done extensive training in it and continues to deepen her practice. Taking an intuitive approach and allowing herself to be a channel for higher realms to work through, Ginny has found a gifting for interpreting the messages offered by tarot cards, working as a spiritual healer and for being a clear vessel for the collective unconscious to work through.
She has found the more that clients commit to their inner work, the greater is the transformation that follows. This has led her to offer retreat experiences that involve two days working intensively with her as well as two-day programs where she shares the facilitation with Marcus.
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Marcus Dabb had been always drawn to personal development before having a turning point when he came across the notion of the hero’s journey.
After reading Jim Styne’s book about it, Heroes: A Guide to Realising Your Dreams, he recognised that working as a public servant for the taxation office was probably not living out his highest potential.
His higher education in teaching was complemented by his time working in employment services, recruitment, outdoor education and the TAFE always with a view to helping people discover and develop more authentic vocational paths.
Finding the courage to walk an alternative career path - one fraught with self-doubt and other obstacles - began a journey that led to his current focuses, A Different Drummer - Career Counselling, Polaris - Soul Blueprints & and Writes of Passage Retreats - Personal Development Retreats.
Having worked closely with many people to help them find their sense of vocational fit and career bliss he found greater illumination was available through the metaphysical sciences of numerology & astrology.
He utilises both mainstream and esoteric tools to give people a holistic understanding of their career journey.
After running a wide variety of workshops in Australia and overseas he launched his retreat initiative in the belief that contemplation, nature, carefully curated ideas and guidance from someone who has been through the ordeals of the hero’s journey, is the ideal means for people to look at life with greater possibility and unearth their own dormant potentiality.
The Search For Self
E.E. Cummings captured the difficulty of individuating when he mused that, “To be nobody but yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
Adam Leipzig pointed out that, “An unexamined life is not worth living, but if all you're doing is examining, are you really living?”
There is a fine balance between living an unexamined life and going to the extremes of asceticism.
Ultimately, gaining greater self-understand should translate into practical action whereby the circumstances of your life grow more closely aligned to your most deeply held values and passions.
This personal development retreat is designed to draw out your truest essence and explore how you can develop a better relationship with yourself, loved ones and actualise your career dreams.
As mythologist Joseph Campbell eloquently put it, the human journey really consists of just two fundamental elements:
The meaning of the Grail and of most myths is finding the dynamic source in your life so that its trajectory is out of your own center and not something put on you by society. Then, of course, there is the problem of coordinating your well-being and your virtue with the goods and needs of the society. But first you must find your trajectory, and then comes the social coordination.
Blue Mountains Retreats
“Great things are done when people and mountains meet;
this is not done by jostling in the street.”
- William Blake
Take in a local stargazing tour at night
Rejuvenate in the Blue Mountains natural wonders
Retreats NSW
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Self Love Retreat
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Silent Retreat
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Tarot Retreat
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Wellbeing Retreat
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Yoga Retreat
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