Highly Sensitive Person Retreat

A space for Highly Sensitive People to connect in community. Join us on this 4-day retreat where you'll meet like minded people, engage in holistic wellbeing activities and have time to rest, restore and re-energise

The HSP retreat will be held from Thursday 11th June until Sunday 15th June at the beautiful estate of Selgars Mill. Selgars Mill is a beautiful converted 19th Century mill house with cottages, set in eight acres of secluded grounds in the Culm Valley in Mid Devon.

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person?

Research tells us that 20- 30% of the population are HSPs. We are born into this world with a unique set of traits that offer us depth of processing, empathy, and sensitivity to subtleties. We have great capacities and gifts to share with the world, but unfortunately, because of the fast-paced and overstimulating world we live in, many HSPs can struggle with overwhelm and anxiety and feel like they don’t quite belong. It can be difficult to articulate how we really feel and what our unique needs are.

There are so many retreats and workshops available for social-emotional well-being and spiritual development, yet they are not built for the temperament of high sensitivity. They can often feel overwhelming with not enough ‘downtime' and can leave you feeling more exhausted than when you started!

This is why we founded and created the HSP Retreat UK and are now expanding our offering to include regular in-person day retreats and workshops for our community.

What's Included...

Guided Mindfulness and Meditation

Throughout the retreat you'll be led through a series of guided meditations designed specifically for HSP to soothe and regulate the nervous system and help you to access expanded states of consciousness for greater wellbeing and spiritual connection.

Workshops on HSP

Jules and Genevieve will offer an informative workshop to help us explore our lived experience of high sensitivity, clarify the definitions of HSP and explore tools to support us with the more challenging aspects of being an HSP so we can access our gifts and capacities.

Cacao Ceremony and Sound Bath

We'll be offering a cacao ceremony to access and open our hearts before guiding you through a healing and transformative sound bath with Tibetan bowls, crystal bowls and other instruments. The sounds will be gentle and soothing and adapted for those of us with sensitive nervous systems.

Ecstatic & Conscious Dance

Josh Silver from Ecstatic Dance Bristol will guide us through a deeply healing dance, sharing his meditative and sacred sounds. This practice is extremely liberating and transformative for those of us who are seeking a space to tap into the deeper aspects of ourselves.

Daily Schedule

The scheduled events will vary each day but include the following: ecstatic dance, sound baths, breath work, nature activities, wild swimming, singing, yoga, meditation, workshops on High Sensitivity, sharing circles and cozy fire-side gatherings in the evening. All activities are optional and you'll also have plenty of time to relax in nature.

8.00 - 9.15am - Yoga

9 - 10.30am - Breakfast

10.30- 12am Community sharing circle (small pod sharing)

1.00 - 2.00pm - Lunch

2 - 3.30pm - Afternoon Activity

5.00 - 6.00 - Workshop

6.15 - 7.30 - Dinner

7.30 - 9.30 - Evening activity

Facilitated by...

Dr Genevieve von Lob

Clinical Psychologist and Parenting Coach

Genevieve is a clinical psychologist, conscious parenting coach and author. After 15 years working in the NHS, private practice in Harley Street and inside big corporations, she wrote two parenting books with Penguin, including ‘Five Deep Breaths: The Power of Mindful Parenting.’

Genevieve is one of the leading experts in the UK on high sensitivity in children, with regular appearances in the media including BBC Woman’s Hour, Channel 4 and The Guardian and has appeared on webinars with Sensitivity Research. Genevieve specialises in working with highly sensitive children and their parents. She is the author of “The Resonant Parenting Project,” and “The HSP Revolution.”

In the 20 years since Genevieve qualified as a psychologist, Genevieve has helped hundreds of people from all walks of life transform trauma and stress into a greater sense of confidence, ease and flow. But her own healing journey has taught her that a supportive community can be the catalyst for transformation on a whole new level.

Born to a single mother in an alternative community in the east of England, Genevieve’s earliest experiences of feeling safe and protected in a village-like atmosphere laid the foundations for her later professional interest in community healing spaces.

While earning her psychology doctorate, Genevieve wrote a thesis on the psychological benefits of group singing. But it was only in her late 20s, when she was starting to confront unresolved traumas and losses from her own past, that she began to discover the true power of healing in community.

Over a period of several years, Genevieve explored countless healing modalities, investigating everything from nature connection to shamanic drumming, sound bowls and ecstatic dance. When she stumbled upon a sweat lodge ceremony in Oxfordshire in southern England, she finally understood what it meant to feel truly safe and held. The community there was so supportive that for the first time she truly felt comfortable being vulnerable in front of others, and never felt judged. Nobody stepped in to try to fix or rescue – but they did bear witness, and it was in that space that Genevieve did some of the most profound work on herself. Running retreats for highly sensitive people represents the fulfillment of a vision that Genevieve has held ever since that time – of creating healing spaces where people can find sanctuary, connect and learn from others on the same journey, and rediscover who they really are.

Jules De Vitto

Transpersonal Coach, Trainer and Educator

Jules De Vitto has a BSc in Psychology, MA in Education and MSc in Transpersonal Psychology, Consciousness and Spirituality and is an accredited transpersonal coach, trainer and experienced educator. She is the founder of the Highly Sensitive Human Academy - a central hub that offers courses, coaching, articles and a podcast for Highly Sensitive People. She is a leading expert in the field of high sensitivity and helps those who identify with the traits of to navigate emotional overwhelm, step into their authentic power and align with their true purpose in life.

She is a published author and wrote one of a series of books on Resilience, Navigating Loss in a time of Crisis. Her research has also been published in the Transpersonal Coaching Psychology Journal and Journal of Consciousness, Spirituality, and Transpersonal Psychology.

In addition to her academic and coaching pursuits, Jules has spent years engaging in deep transformative healing work. She is a Reiki Master and Teacher and has completed Michael Harner’s Shamanic Practitioner Training through the Foundation of Shamanic Studies and a Grief Ritual Leadership Training with Francis Weller. She offers holistic sound baths with Tibetan Singing Bowls, a ancient healing modality she studied in a monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Jules is passionate about creating community for Highly Sensitive People and embracing the full spectrum of our emotional and sensory capacities rather than trying to ‘fix’ ourselves. Deepening the connection to our sensitivity enables us to open our hearts and form better relationships with ourselves, others and the world.

As an expert in the field of high sensitivity, her writing has been featured in SAND and Highly Sensitive Refuge and she has been invited to speak on the Sensitive SEO Podcast, Quiet and Strong Podcast and the Healthy Sensitive Podcast.

The Wider Team

The retreat is supported by the following facilitators and space holders...

Simona Da Costa

Yoga Teacher, Space Holder, HSP Coach & Integrative Psychotherapist

Meet Simone Da Costa who provides teaching and administrative support on the HSP Coaching Course. Simone is a certified HSP Coach, Integrative Psychotherapist, Facilitator, Author and Yoga and Meditation teacher. She is the founder of her private practice in Integrative Psychotherapy where she offers one to one psychotherapy for adults. Her training is in Core Process Psychotherapy which is the integration of Buddhist psychology and theology with Western psychodynamics and psychotherapy. Simone’s integrative approach to therapy offers a mind-body, somatic approach to traditional talk therapy. She uses the tools and teachings of mindfulness in order to help clients to build a relationship with both their mind and body and thus, take back control of their mental, physical and emotional health.

Over the past eleven years, Simone’s journey towards her own personal growth and development has introduced her to multiple, alternative modalities of healing including; yoga, mindfulness, meditation and spirituality. She uses her years of personal experience and professional study to create unique, group workshops, retreats and online programs. These cover a variety of topics like emotional intelligence, stress management, self-care, mediation, personal empowerment, goal setting, femininity, self-compassion, self-love and more.

Josh Silver

Conscious, Ecstatic Dance Session

Josh will be facilitating a conscious dance session. Josh’s life dream is to bring dance to the collective as a medicine as he truly believes in the healing power of movement and music! Josh’s dance spaces are often referred to as joyful and playful and nothing brings him greater joy in life than to see you, the dancer, expressing yourself through movement! Josh has been DJ’ing for two decades and involved with Conscious Dance practices since discovering 5 Rhythms in 2015. Josh has been running “Dancing the Elements” since the summer of 2021 and has developed his own down-to-earth, intuitive and empathetic style. All music is improvised as a collaboration between you, the dancers, and himself. (Photo Credit: @mo_visual)

Alan Piatek

Breathwork Sessions

Alan is a certified Systemic Coach, NLP Practitioner, and YACEP Yoga Alliance Breathwork instructor. With a deep passion for working with people, he guides them to a healthier, more balanced, and more meaningful life.

His coaching is rooted in research and evidence-based methods that prioritize tangible results over empty promises and draws upon a combination of ancient wisdom and modern coaching techniques. Originally from Berlin, Alan has lived several years in Portugal, where he has also worked and practiced at a research-led mindfulness and wellness retreat center.

He will be facilitating men's groups and providing introductory workshops to breathwork, using his knowledge to deepen the power of the mind-body connection and cultivate useful skills to navigate life's challenges with more ease.

Plant Based Organic Catering

Peter "Chippy" Grant and Bogdan Theo

Peter "Chippy" Grant and Bogdan are two seasoned professionals and the creative force behind Nature's Pantry, an eco-friendly catering company dedicated to supporting local producers. As avid foragers and advocates for healthy eating, they share a passion for exploring the flavors and benefits of wild ingredients. Together, Peter and Bogdan have mastered the arts of herbalism and fermentation, crafting unique dishes and beverages that nourish the body and delight the palate. Their expertise has led them to oversee the food and beverage operations at Medicine Festival, the UK's premier wellness event, where they showcase their culinary prowess to a diverse and enthusiastic audience.