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Residential retreats & courses.............2009
We offer a small range of retreats and courses which, both in their focus and in the way they are delivered, are in harmony with their surroundings. They take place in an idyllic venue called Le Sentier Tranquille in SW France, a short drive from the Pyrenees, amid the rolling hills and ancient woods of Ariège. The setting is one of tranquillity and serene beauty.
Groups will be up to twelve and accommodation is full board in rooms equipped to a modern standard but retaining the character of the area. Economic travel is possible from all parts of the UK via Toulouse or Carcassonne airports. Transfers are offered from both these airports (€20 each way, reduced if there is more than one person) and return flights from the UK are available from £40 to £160.
A list of available events with costs and dates is given below. If you want more information or want to talk about whether something is right for you, please just contact me - by email first and, if you want to talk, I will give you a low-cost number to dial if you are phoning from the UK.
Retreat: a reflective passage
3 days/4 nights: cost £375
dates: arr. Mon 27th April , dep. Fri 1st May
‘I will only pass this way once; may the road I walk be my past and my present and a guide for my future.’
This retreat seeks to hold the two themes of reflection and inspiration. As with all our retreats, our first aim is to facilitate retreat, and so, if you wish to use the space to do no more than be quiet with yourself and allow the warmth of the sun and the shade of the trees to calm you, and then to join us for meals, then that is what you can do. But if you want to follow a theme, we will introduce you to readings and thoughts and music which facilitate reflection and inspiration. In the afternoons we will visit places whose past can speak to our present and whose location is inspirational. And in the evenings we will look at what we may have found which has touched on aspects of our own lives.
Retreat: a walking meditation
3 days/4 nights: cost £375
dates: arr. Thur 18th June, dep. Mon 22nd June
‘When you are looking, just look’
‘When you are standing, just stand’
‘When you are walking, just walk’
These few days could be a time to turn your life, or they could be a time to connect with your life… stand, and look, and meditate and walk, and move on when you are ready. We will offer you the space to experience a relaxed and timeless way of being… mornings you will wake to a symphony of bird-song… meditate in the lush warmth of the garden… join with others in the light airiness of the summerhouse… afternoons you will be able to walk the ancient woods and hills of Ariège… evenings you can find warmth in meals and company shared, and peace in the evening light… and always you will be able to just stand, just look, just walk, and just allow your inner to voice to speak to you.
Walking will be an important aspect of this reflective course, with options for easy or more difficult routes, as required. In all respects they will ensure that the activities and the pace respect both individuals and the community of course participants.
Retreat: stories and identity
4 days/5 nights: cost £395
alternative dates: arr. Mon 18th May, dep. Fri 22nd May - arr. Mon 31st Aug, dep. Fri 4th Sep
This residential is about stories… the earth’s stories, cultural stories, family stories, our own stories. Stories are the essence of our existence. In a sense, they are our existence. We are nothing except the story of our being. And into our being we bring the stories of our families and friends and colleagues and compatriots and ancestors and the history of our peoples and their societies and their cultures… we are a universe, each one of us. Suzuki in talking about meditation drew a picture of our breathing as a swinging door, allowing us alternately to become the whole universe and to be a part of the universe. And Petruska Clarkson in ‘The Therapeutic Relationship’ ends her poem ‘Story as Medicine’…
 “To have authority is to write your own story and help them to live their own their way with their beat and their feet and the twistings of meanings and her-stories into the plaits of time and the resonances of cathedral bells and a whistling in the dark shrouded in fear and disgust, and what if they draw from the dreams of early times or far worlds or the whimpering sirens of war, without Physis suffering is just suffering and pain is just pain.”
With our stories we create our identity. We made them and they make us. So this time will be about respecting our own stories whatever the sadness joy pain remorse excitement regret contentment fulfilment they contain, so that we can connect with the universe they encompass. It will offer time for exchange, contemplation, walking and discovery, rest and food and drink, enjoyment and satisfaction.
The Therapeutic Potential of Non-Attachment
4 days/5 nights (30 hours cpd): cost £395
dates: arr. Wed 16th Sep, dep Mon 21st Sep
This course echoes the Buddhist precept that all suffering comes from holding on.
I believe that it can be used by therapists as a CPD course, as well as by others interested in their personal and therapeutic development.
Over the five days we use the healing environment of Le Sentier Tranquille and the stimulating atmosphere of the hills and woods around to discover how non-attachment does not have to mean abandoning, how we can step outside cultural responses and still feel held, how free choices can only be made without expectations and without assumptions and without anxiety.
We start with acquiring ‘thoughtlessness’ through awareness and move on to develop free reflexivity and non-attached creativity. The course is entirely experiential, will work extensively in the open air and will include at least one dream workshop.
And at any time, we offer... 
Therapeutic Recuperation
(individual or group, length of stay as required)
The Latin root of our word ‘recuperation’ means ‘regain’. We’ve become a bit narrow in the way we think about recuperation and have tended to limit it to recovery from a physical trauma. But in reality there are lots of times in life when we need to regain our… spirit, capacity, enthusiasm, verve, belief, faith, confidence, equilibrium, purpose… all those aspects of ourselves which for whatever reason have got dimmed or become swamped by the tide of events in our lives. It can happen to individuals going through a taxing time in life; and it can happen to groups, perhaps a work group who have become worn down or lost direction in a project or who have together experienced a traumatic event, or perhaps a faith group seeking renewal.
What is on offer is an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity, a setting where nothing is expected of you, a calm place to recuperate in time with the rhythm of nature. It can be unstructured and unconstrained, with or without therapeutic intervention. Please contact me and together we will work out what can serve you best.
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