Psyche Retreat for Therapists

Psyche (Ψυχή) is derived from the Greek verb psycho (Ψύχω), which means to breathe, blow or cool. Psyche, as both a concept and mythological figure, has an extensive lineage throughout antiquity. It was originally understood to be an animating life force or divine exhalation that marks the relationship between the mortal and the immortal. It has come to be commonly known as the soul or the breath of life.

As helping professionals, who work with the psyches of others, the Psyche Retreat invites you back to your own. This reconnection might be particularly apt for helping professionals, whose energies and gaze are often directed towards the wounds of others. The Psyche Retreat embraces and welcomes those tendencies, yet hopes to co-create an experience of greater wholeness in your self-expression born from unleashing your more dormant soulful creative and generative energies.

The Psyche Retreat will start with a night in Amsterdam to connect with your fellow journeyers and then will move to a cozy Dutch farmhouse in Haarlo (about 2 hours east of Amsterdam) surrounded by fertile soil that supports the growth of fields of sunflowers, grazing for cows, chickens and even a few peacocks.

We hope this retreat will also invite you into a new relationship with being in a group, which is often a source of energetic drain and scarcity of resources for those in the helping professions. What we might not have received in our family of origin or current working conditions, we hope to cultivate together, through the healing power of communitas, or a collective sense of togetherness and shared humanity, that researchers are finding is vital to the transformative power of group retreats (Kettner et al., 2021).

Once we are in Haarlo, all room accommodations will be shared in a summer camp-like cabin sleeping arrangement. We hope this invitation sparks curiosity to reimagine your experience being in community with others alongside a re-emerging ability to express your needs, ease in setting good boundaries, and joyousness in connection.

In addition to our two legal psilocybin journeys, Rachel Blackman, our special guest and a somatic experiencing coach, will be supporting your cultivation of inner resourcing and psyche connection during our two full integration days onsite together.