More room. Less Clock.
Sometimes fifty minutes works beautifully.
And sometimes it really doesn’t.
You spend some time arriving.
We talk about what has happened since we last met.
Your nervous system settles enough to stop managing the conversation.
You finally reach the thing underneath the thing you thought you came to talk about...
...and now we have eight minutes left.
There is nothing inherently therapeutic about stopping at fifty minutes.
For some work, having a longer stretch of uninterrupted time simply makes more sense.
Longer, spacious therapy for grief, trauma, neurodivergence,
life transitions and the things that need more than fifty minutes.
IN PERSON ON PENDER ISLAND • ONLINE THROUGHOUT BRITISH COLUMBIA
What is a Personal Therapy Retreat?
A Personal Therapy Retreat is individual counselling offered in a longer block of time rather than a traditional weekly therapy hour.
You may also hear this kind of work called a therapy intensive. I prefer Personal Therapy Retreat because the point is not intensity for intensity’s sake.
We are not trying to squeeze twelve weeks of therapy into an afternoon.
We are creating room.
Room to arrive.
Room to follow something without immediately having to wrap it back up.
Room to pause, walk, eat something, stare out the window, breathe, make something, say nothing for a while, and begin again.
And room for your nervous system to have a say in the pace of the work.
Why work this way?
Longer sessions can be especially helpful when there is something you want to stay with long enough to understand more deeply.
You may be carrying a loss that does not fit neatly into weekly conversations.
You may have recently realized you are autistic, ADHD, or AuDHD and feel as though someone has tipped your entire life story onto the floor.
You may be at a transition point and know that something needs to change.
You may understand your patterns intellectually but keep finding yourself inside them anyway.
Or you may simply know that you want more time.
A Personal Therapy Retreat gives us the ability to follow what emerges rather than continually asking, Can we get into this and safely back out again before the hour ends?
More time does not mean more pressure.
This is important to note.
A longer session is not several hours of relentless emotional processing.
Dear god, no.
We pace the work.
We take breaks.
We change positions.
We may go outside.
We may stop talking and do some art.
We may laugh about something completely unrelated.
You may need food, water, tea, movement, silence, or fifteen minutes of looking at trees while your nervous system catches up.
All of that is part of the work.
The goal is not to push you past your capacity in pursuit of some dramatic therapeutic breakthrough.
The extra time gives us more choice about pace, not less.
What might the day actually look like?
There is no standard retreat script.
We may sit together in my cozy therapy space, light a candle, and talk.
We may take a walk along Pender’s winding roads, depending on the weather — and your fortitude.
We may work with what I notice in your movement, posture, breath, or nervous system as you tell a story you have told many times before.
I may offer imagery, metaphor, drawing, journalling, mindfulness, meditation, movement, ritual — even oracle cards — if any of those give us another way into something words alone haven’t reached.
You may bring something into the work, too.
A photograph.
A letter.
A piece of music.
Something you have made.
Something meaningful that belonged to someone you lost.
A question you cannot stop asking.
Your playlist.
Your crystals.
Your skepticism about the entire concept of crystals.
All are welcome.
We may laugh.
We may swear.
You may cry.
You may not cry at all.
You do not have to perform depth in order for the time to matter.
We will take breaks.
Science, mystery, and whatever is meaningful to you
I value evidence, neuroscience, clinical training, and understanding how our brains, bodies, relationships, and nervous systems work.
I also make room for what is meaningful to you.
Spirituality. Ritual. Intuition. Nature. Ancestry. Astrology. Energy work. Symbolism. The sacred. Crystal magic.
Or absolutely none of those things.
If you are a science nerd, you are very welcome here.
I tend to make my home where science and spirituality meet. I believe they intersect in interesting ways, and I’m comfortable leaving room for what we understand, what we are still learning, and what may remain mysterious.
You do not have to edit any part of yourself to make it sound sufficiently clinical in the therapy room.
Come to Pender
For people coming from Victoria, Vancouver, elsewhere in the Gulf Islands, or farther afield in British Columbia, an in-person Personal Therapy Retreat can also provide something ordinary weekly therapy often cannot:
a little distance from ordinary life.
Not escape from it.
Just some space around it.
There is something different about giving a piece of your life several uninterrupted hours and allowing that to be the reason you came.
Pender offers quiet, forest, shoreline, winding roads, and a pace that lends itself naturally to slowing down.
Your therapy itself may happen indoors, outdoors, or through some combination of the two, depending on what we are doing, accessibility, privacy, and weather.
I encourage you, when possible, not to stack the rest of the day with obligations. Give yourself some room before and afterward to arrive and integrate.
Travel, accommodation, meals, and other activities are arranged separately and are not included as part of therapy.
Or stay exactly where you are.
Personal Therapy Retreats are also available online throughout British Columbia.
And online does not mean sitting upright at a desk staring at me for several hours.
Please don’t.
You can work from somewhere private and comfortable.
Bring your tea.
Have a blanket nearby.
Sit on the floor.
Move.
Take the laptop outside if privacy and internet allow it.
Have the dog beside you.
During breaks, you can step into your own garden, make something to eat, lie down, or simply be alone in your own space.
For some people, doing deep work without having to travel anywhere afterward is exactly what their nervous system wants.
A retreat can stand on its own.
You do not have to commit to weekly therapy with me in order to have a Personal Therapy Retreat.
Sometimes one longer session is what someone needs.
Sometimes it becomes part of ongoing work.
Sometimes we decide together that a short series makes more sense.
And if you already have a therapist, a retreat may sometimes complement that work when doing so is clinically appropriate and everyone is clear about our respective roles.
We will talk about what makes sense before we schedule anything.
Is a Personal Therapy Retreat right for everyone?
No.
Longer does not automatically mean better.
Some people benefit much more from the rhythm and relationship of weekly therapy. Some work needs time between sessions to settle. And there are situations where a Personal Therapy Retreat would not provide the level or type of care someone needs.
This is outpatient counselling, not crisis care.
If I don’t think this format is a good clinical fit for what you are carrying, I will tell you.
The consultation is partly for you to decide whether you want to work with me.
It is also for us to decide together whether this particular way of working makes sense for you.
Personal Retreat Options
Personal Therapy Retreats can be structured in different ways depending on what you are coming for, how much time feels appropriate, and whether we are meeting in person or online.
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Supportive Care Half-Day Retreat
Personal Therapy Retreat
3 hours · $975 CAD
A spacious, uninterrupted block for one area of focus, with time to slow down, follow what emerges, take breaks, move, and integrate as we go.
A good fit when you want more depth than a weekly session allows without committing an entire day.
Includes: advance preparation, materials used during our work, breaks as needed, and a small take-home care package.
CHOOSE THE SUPPORTIVE HALF-DAY RETREAT -
Extended Day Personal Retreat - 4.5 Hours
4.5 hours · $1,350 CAD
F4.5 hours · $1,350 CAD
More room for work that needs time to unfold slowly.
The extended retreat allows for deeper exploration with generous space for movement, nourishment, quiet, breaks, and integration throughout our time together.
This may be a good fit when you’re carrying something layered or complex and don’t want to feel rushed by the clock.
Includes: advance preparation, materials used during our work, generous breaks, and a small take-home care package.
CHOOSE AN EXTENDED DAY RETREAT
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Two-Day Personal Retreat
Two 3-hour sessions on consecutive days · $1,900 CAD
For work that benefits from both depth and space between sessions.
We meet for three hours on Day 1, then you have the rest of the day and overnight to rest, walk, write, eat, stare at the water, sleep, or simply let the work settle.
We come back together the following day for another three hours, with room to notice what shifted, what surfaced, and where the work wants to go next.
This format can be especially meaningful for grief, major life transitions, identity work, trauma, or later-realized neurodivergence.
Includes: advance preparation, materials used during our work, breaks as needed, and a small take-home care package.
Travel, accommodation, and meals are arranged separately and are not included.
CHOOSE A TWO-DAY RETREAT
Not sure which one fits?
You don’t have to decide before we talk.
During your free consultation, we’ll look at what you’re bringing, what you hope to make room for, and how much time seems clinically and practically appropriate.
What happens before we begin?
1. We start with a free consultation.
Tell me what is bringing you here.
We’ll talk about what you are hoping for, what you are carrying, and whether a Personal Therapy Retreat seems like the right container for it.
2. We decide on the format.
If we decide to move forward, we’ll choose an amount of time that makes clinical and practical sense and reserve it together.
3. You complete your paperwork.
Yes, even on an island, therapy still contains paperwork.
I’m sorry.
I’ll make it as painless as possible.
4. We talk about how to prepare.
This is usually pretty simple.
Comfortable clothes.
Water.
Food or snacks as appropriate.
Anything you would like to have with you.
And, ideally, some breathing room around the rest of your day.
5. You come as you are.
You do not need to arrive centred.
You do not need to have meditated.
You do not need an intention written in a beautiful journal.
You do not need to know what the breakthrough is supposed to be.
You just need to arrive.
You don’t have to rush something important.
Some things need repetition over time.
Some things need rest.
And some things need a little more uninterrupted room than we usually give them.
A Personal Therapy Retreat is one way of making that room.