Somatic therapy retreats
Somatic therapy retreats
in the beautiful Azores
Who is this retreat for?
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Despite whatever efforts you‘ve made, you cannot fully recover from trauma following a car accident, concussion, or surgery.
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Unexplained symptoms have disrupted your daily life, such as persistent headaches, loss of balance, numbness in your limbs, bodily pain, or overwhelming fatigue. Your doctor cannot determine a clear cause and provides you with a hardy useful piece of advice: “You need to learn to live with this.“
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You’ve been told you have a neurodegenerative condition for which there is currently no cure, such as Parkinson’s, MS, or fibromyalgia.
If mainstream medical treatments have not resolved your ailments — if relief has been temporary and your symptoms tend to return — this may mean that they have not addressed the root cause. To heal truly, you may need to go deeper.
Why somatic therapy?
But how do you know where to look? You may have tried many approaches, visited multiple specialists, each focusing on a separate aspect of your condition: physiotherapists and massage therapists deal with your muscles, osteopaths with your fascial system; psychologists with your emotional landscape.
Somatic therapy addresses body, mind, and soul in concert. It views the physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of a person as threads of one interwoven fabric.
This approach may help you realize that pain and illness are not just failures of your body, but rather, the bodily felt signs pointing toward genuine healing.
Why Azores?
Since time immemorial, people have sought places of power with majestic natural features radiating potent energy for physical and spiritual restoration. It is easier to break the chains of old habits when you step outside your familiar daily life and give your soul an elixir of beauty and joy.
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For me, São Miguel is — the largest island of the Azores Archipelago — is one of such places. Here, steep verdant mountains plunge into clear turquoise ocean waters, and roads lined with hydrangeas wind across the landscape like decorative ribbons.
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Between sessions, you will have plenty of time to experience the island’s wonders: the rugged shoreline, waterfalls, lookout points where the breath catches and the body whispers, “Yes… I feel it too.”
One-to-one or small group healing mode
I believe that healing requires human connection — sincere, trusting, and unfiltered.
It can be cultivated through one-to-one work with a therapist or in a small, intimate group. One advantage of the group format is that collective sessions and discussions may help reveal certain parts of yourself you may overlook alone.
Families are welcome as well.
The program is shaped around the specific needs and abilities of participants, clarified during preliminary consultations. Each participant will receive an individual session every day.
Arrangements based on your needs
Accommodation, meals, and transportation are arranged individually, depending on your preferences, physical condition, ability to drive, and financial circumstances.
You may choose to stay alone in a small, charming village house, rent a larger apartment for your family, or book a hotel room by the ocean.
This will not be an “all inclusive” retreat. You may cook for yourself using the island’s fresh local ingredients to satisfy your individual needs, eat out in charming Portuguese tavernas, or we can discuss catering options. In any event, you will be able to savor some of the best cheeses in Europe, fresh fish delivered right to your doorstep, local fruits with unforgettable taste.
The length of your program may be adapted to your circumstances, though I recommend spending at least one week on the island.
