119 Ross Durrance Road, Victoria, BC, Canada
Up to 15 in group
September 26 - October 5, 2025
About this Retreat
Stephanie MacKay is the Co-founder and Director of Fianna Wilderness School. She specializes in ancestral knowledge, earth-based skills, ceremony and myth. She has a degree in literature, and her work is informed by over 15 years of practice and study through Animas Valley Institute, Haven Institute, Wilderness Awareness School, and 12 years of study with Martín Prechtel.
She is a fiercely compassionate facilitator, mentor and guide in search of perspectives and practices to deepen the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Stephanie is dedicated to uncovering the vestiges of intact cultural origins within the body of old European mythologies, within our own bodies, and within our ancestral memory.
Sarah Frizelle is a counselor in private practice in Victoria BC who offers wholistic counselling to individuals, couples and families. She has worked with individuals in roles of educator, psychotherapist and wilderness guide for over 25 years, sometimes combining all three roles in nature-based therapy or eco-psychology with individuals and groups.
Sarah works to support positive personal, family and cultural level changes. She embraces transformative learning and is dedicated to unleash the creative gifts and potential of people to heal and transform, in support of creativity, collaboration and innovation.
Dr. Stéphanie Marchal is a registered psychologist working in Victoria. Her practice focuses on relationships, attachment, trans-generational trauma and transitions/transformations. She is a wilderness personal guide, and studied with Animas Valley Institute and Francis Weller among others. She works with people toward recovering their wholeness, uncovering their gifts, and applying these in their lives and for the good of their community. She has experienced wilderness as a powerful ally in these tasks.
She is personally interested in supporting deep and courageous transformations driven by the participants. One of Stephanie's focus is to support the weaving of authentic experiences and visions with the person's embodied life. She's a firm supporter of people's authentic voices and helps them be heard. She uses dream images, guided journeys and somatic practices to help clarify the thread to deep experience, and support integration and manifestation.
Some of Stéphanie's integration work is brought into psychedelic-assisted therapy as she is legally trained to support the use of psilocybin, MDMA and Ketamine.
Visit Stéphanie's page: www.SacredWeaving.org
Details of this retreat
This Wilderness or Soul Quest will offer a transformative rite of passage, guiding individuals through significant life transitions such as career changes, loss, or spiritual crises. The fast facilitates this transition by helping participants shed old identities and reconnect with their soul's essence, offering a unique gift to the world. By incorporating myth, reciprocity with the World, and the wisdom of nature, participants are encouraged to surrender their familiar life, encountering soul and psyche through solitude, fasting, ceremonies, and soulcentric practices. Part of this quest will involve a 4 day fast with a 3 day solo time on the land. The Quest interweaves ancient traditions with modern psychology, guiding individuals through self-discovery and reintegration into daily life with the help of mentors. It’s an opportunity to navigate pivotal personal shifts and discover one’s purpose in the collective context of our time. This journey does not involve substances.
Application:
This is an application-based journey and spaces will be limited to 15 participants. After registering, you will be asked to fill out a secondary questionnaire. Should we feel that this is not a good time for you to undergo this journey, you will be reimbursed your deposit minus a processing fee of 50$. We will send feedback on applications within two weeks, and possibly ask for a meeting to clarify readiness. In the case your application is successful, the deposit will be accepted and is non-refundable. A couple of spaces are reserved for need-based scholarship.
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