Transformational Breathwork and Somatic Therapies for emotional, stress and trauma release
Join us on a 4-Day Transformative retreat in portugal
You will discover ways to move away from the spiralling loop tape in your mind and bring you back into your body. You will be guided through workshops and somatic practices, including transformational breathwork, and leave the retreat armoured with resources on how to activate the changes you’ve discovered into your life. You will also have access to one to one support before and after the retreat. An intimate and exclusive retreat truly designed for and around your growth and healing.
Awaken Your Authentic Self!
Step away from the noise and rediscover your Heart, Body, and Soul.
28 November – 1 December 2024
Therapeutic Somatic Retreat for Emotional relief
Immerse yourself in a transformative retreat designed to nourish your mind, body, and spirit. Begin your journey with intention-setting and personalized guidance to support your personal growth. Throughout the retreat, enjoy comfortable accommodations in the tranquil setting of Casa Paço D’Ilhas, with nourishing meals and snacks provided.
Experience powerful somatic practices, including yoga, therapeutic breathwork and emotional release, guided by experienced facilitators. Private moments of reflection and integration will allow you to dive deeper into your healing process.
Following the retreat, receive an online breathwork program to support your ongoing transformation, along with access to follow-up resources for deeper integration and continued growth. This holistic experience is crafted to support your journey, both during and beyond the retreat.
energy activation
Emotional release
embodied self awareness
Why Transformational Breathwork?
Breathwork goes beyond traditional therapy by engaging both mind and body. While traditional talk therapy focuses on thoughts and emotions, transformational breathwork includes the body’s energy systems, where many memories, stressors, and emotions are stored. Through deep breathing, movement, acupressure, and meditation, you can release what no longer serves you.
A Unique Immersive Experience
This retreat is a process of insight and inner transformation. Our program is a unique combination of guided experiential processes (morning practices, daytime workshops and experiences and ‘conscious conversation’ circles), somatic practices (transformational breathwork, movement and embodied exercises), and space to pause (time rest, reflect and connect with nature). You will leave with an enriched inner sense of resourcefulness to take back to your life in the real world.
Unlike many retreats, we truly are an intimate offering. Never more than 10 participants, this exclusive intimacy sets the scene for deeper and more meaningful connections. It also enables us to tailor the experience to your individual needs and allows you to have one to one time with your two facilitators. This personalised approach results in more internal resonance for you. Every voice is heard and celebrated at our retreat. You will co-regulate with each other, you will belong and feel supported.
This retreat includes a 3 pre-retreat somatic coaching session, individual support during the five days at the Quinta and a supportive and integrative post-retreat coaching or therapy session. We find that retreats can often be a wonderful ‘time out’ from the hustle of daily life, but the nourishment you felt there is hard to carry back into reality. We want to change this, and help you discover resources that will sustain your growth long into the future. The specially crafted workshop programme and the private 1:1 sessions will support you in doing this.
This retreat will be guided by Joanna Januszewicz who is a certified breathing coach, and somatic integrative trauma therapist whose approach is based in the teachings of Hakomi, Gestalt, IFS and somatic psychology, attachment and developmental theory, affective and interpersonal neurobiology, psychodynamic psychotherapy and body-mind integration, including breath analysis and deep bodywork. We understand the importance of safety and trust in doing this type of inner work.
This immersive retreat is a time for deep insight and inner work, as well as a time for rest, reflection and restoration. Letting the body decompress and reorganise back to its natural biorhythm. You will take a deep break from your busy life and immerse your senses in the world of embodied self-awareness. You will walk in nature, rest in peace, easefully learn and expand your understanding of yourself. We encourage journaling throughout your stay and have crafted the programme to allow for much self-reflection and slowing down.
This is the place to allow your-full-self to be taken care of, to be healed and nurtured. To really surrender in the cocoon and luxury of the Quinta Carvalhas, or ‘The Green Farm’. You’ll experience the calming rhythm of nature, combined with the supportive energy of the immersive retreat. Your senses will be awakened, activated and nourished by the natural surroundings, the organic spaces to learn and grow in, the body-nourishing dining experiences and the safety of your new home for five days.
The retreat offers a holistic blend of workshops and somatic practices, including transformational breathwork, designed to facilitate deep self-reflection and healing. This integrative approach helps attendees move beyond mental loops and reconnect with their bodies, fostering a profound sense of well-being.
JOIN IF YOU:
FEEL DISCONNECTED
from your body, emotions, and inner self, and seek a nurturing space to reconnect and heal.
CARRY STORED EMOTIONS
that manifest as tension, discomfort, or overwhelm, longing for release and deep emotional relief.
DESIRE CLARITY AND INNER PEACE
to break free from constant overthinking, stress, and uncertainty, and connect with your authentic self.
EXPERIENCE BURNOUT AND EXHAUSTION
from the pressures of daily life and societal expectations, and want to restore balance and well-being.
LONG FOR HEALING AND TRANSFORMATION
to release old emotional patterns and experience a deeper sense of peace, joy, and freedom.
SEEK TO RECONNECT WITH NATURE
and find space for self-reflection, rest, and renewal in a serene and nurturing environment.
Location/retreat venue
We can’t wait to host you at Casa Paço D’Ilhas, our magical retreat venue nestled in the hills of Ericeira, Portugal. With its rustic charm, stunning ocean views, and peaceful gardens, this space is designed to inspire connection and tranquility.
Imagine unwinding in the lush gardens, enjoying farm-to-table meals, and gather by the firepit for unforgettable moments.
You’ll have exclusive access to the yoga shala, outdoor terraces, and cozy communal spaces, all designed to create an intimate and unique retreat experience.
How to Get there
For those arriving at Lisbon Airport (LIS), getting to Ericeira is easy. You can take a direct bus from Lisbon to Ericeira with an hourly service, making it a budget-friendly option for travelers. The total journey takes about 1 hour 30 minutes.
If you prefer, we can also arrange a private transfer for you from the airport starting at €50, for a more comfortable ride.
Rooms Available
Shared room / Shared House – double occupancy
Enjoy your space of a private room or mini house, with a friend or another participant.
Private Room or House with Private Bathroom – single occupancy
Experience full privacy with your own room and en-suite bathroom.
All prices are per person for the duration of the retreat. Room availability is limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Food
We invite you to indulge in the mesmerizing flavors, crafted by Justin and Jelle. With a passion for authentic cuisine and a commitment to pure, honest ingredients, they’ve created a culinary experience that is both unique and nourishing. Their food philosophy emphasizes that a healthy mind thrives in harmony with a healthy body, and this is beautifully reflected in every dish they serve. From the well-catered breakfast buffet, featuring a daily special, to wholesome lunches and fusion dinners, the talented kitchen team prides itself on exceeding guest expectations.
All-Inclusive Content
During 5-day retreat
Immerse yourself in a deeply personalized retreat experience with dedicated support from skilled somatic practitioners. Journey from emotional awareness to embodied wisdom, uncovering the connection between your body and mind through somatic breathwork, emotional release, and other therapeutic practices. Discover how breath patterns influence your physical and emotional state, and work through stored emotions that may manifest as tension or discomfort in the body.
Our retreat invites you to explore the difference between reacting and responding, offering tools to navigate triggers and projections with greater awareness. Through daily breathwork sessions, somatic exercises, and meditative practices, you will release suppressed or stuck emotions and cultivate a sense of inner freedom and presence.
This retreat is designed to help you access and release deeply held emotions, trauma, and blockages. Through therapeutic breathwork and somatic practices, you will:
- Witness and work through emotions stored in the body
- Release chronic stress, tension, and self-restricting patterns
- Let go of emotional trauma and harmful beliefs
- Explore past memories and shift from fight/flight/freeze states
- Discover new levels of self-awareness and personal power
post-retreat
Continue your journey of growth and integration with 3-month online Integration Program (online platform: retreat activities to repeat and reinforce what you have learnt, therapeutic breathwork training and customized somatic interventions, mindfulness and positive psychology activities ).
Retreat Daily Program
During the 4-Day Transformational Breathwork Retreat
Your Journey from Emotional Awareness to Deep Inner Healing and Embodied Wisdom
- Begin your journey with a deep dive into somatic and emotional awareness, helping you reconnect with your body and understand the messages it holds.
- Experience Breath Analysis to uncover your unique breathing patterns and how they affect your physical and emotional state.
- Release stored emotions through powerful therapeutic breathwork sessions, allowing your body to shed layers of tension and emotional suppression.
- Engage with your fears gently, using somatic tools to build a safe and supportive connection with your body.
- Delve into shadow work, recognizing and understanding the adaptive survival strategies you use to protect yourself, which often block deeper healing.
- Confront feelings of shame and learn somatic tools to release and move beyond the stuckness that shame creates.
- Explore Polyvagal Theory to gain a deeper understanding of how your nervous system responds to stress and trauma, learning how to regulate and heal these responses.
- Learn how different ways of handling emotions—suppression, repression, expression, and escape—can lead to stuck energy, emotional patterns, and even physical ailments.
- Focus on emotional integration and releasing charged emotions that have been held in the body.
- Understand the mechanics of reactivity and learn The Emotional Integration Procedure to process emotions in a healthy, embodied way.
- Discover the S.O.B.E.R. technique, a powerful tool for interrupting automatic stress responses, allowing you to pause, ground yourself, and choose your responses consciously.
- Learn to cultivate safety within your body, building a secure foundation for continued growth and healing.
- Practice somatic techniques to gain clarity on your path forward, both in your personal life and as you integrate the deep healing work done during the retreat.
- Gain a sense of emotional freedom and confidence in moving forward, equipped with tools to respond to life’s challenges with awareness and presence.
Day 1 - Befriending the Body
15:30 – 16:00 Arrival and Check-in
16:00 – 16:30 Orientation and Healthy snacks
16:30 – 17:30 Somatic Breathwork Session
19:30 – 20:30 Dinner
Day 2 - Release and Connect & Day 3 - Let go
8:00 – 9:00 Morning Yoga & Meditation
9:00 – 10:30 Breakfast
10:30 – 12:30 Somatic Session
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 16:30 Pause and Reflect (rest, massage, walk, hike)
16:30 – 17:00 Healthy snacks
17:00 – 19:00 Somatic Session and Transformational Breathwork
19:30 – 20:30 Dinner
Day 4 Safety and Moving forward
7:00 – 8:00 Morning Meditation
8:00 – 9:15 Transformational Breathwork Session
9:30 – 10:30 Breakfast
10:30 – 11:00 Check-out
11:00 – 12:30 Integration Session & Closing
12:30 – 13:00 Goodbye Snacks and Departure
Throughout the retreat, you will also enjoy daily therapeutic breathwork sessions, yoga, somatic exercises, and guided meditations, all within the serene and nurturing environment of our retreat space. Nourishing meals and restful accommodations will support your journey as you transform old shadows into gifts and open to deeper levels of healing and embodiment.
Meet Your Instructor/Trainer
joanna januszewicz
BREATHING COACH AND INTEGRATIVE COUNSELOR
Joanna is a Portugal-based certified breathing coach, mental health practitioner, and body-centred psychotherapist.
The desire to discover the power of breath brought her to pack up her suitcase and travel the globe to learn unique methods of using breath for healing purposes.
In India, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, and Austria, Joanna trained and learned different modalities, all of which she uses in her practice. Her approach is to combine the mind, body, and spirit for holistic healing.
Joanna also trained in advanced Somatic Bodywork for trauma release and self de–armouring, which she incorporates in her practice to help clients notice physical sensations that stem from mental health issues and use that awareness to work through painful emotions.
She travels worldwide as a breathing coach and facilitator, providing trainings to individuals, guiding clients to transform their experiences and, equipping them with the tools needed to experience greater self-awareness, a clearer mind, and a deeper connection to their bodies.
Q&A
Possibility to come earlier or book an additional integration stay, get a therapeutic massage or other activities. For the extra bookings please contact the venue directly: www.casapacodilhas.com
What are somatics? The Greek word ‘soma’ means body. Somatic experiences are practices that are body-oriented, where the focus is on the whole self (mind and body). Western traditions keep us circling in our heady conceptual self-awareness (as opposed to embodied self-awareness) and over time we’ve developed this unhelpful distinction between mind and body.
The world of somatics has discovered that staying in conceptual self awareness – in those areas of the brain – will never solve the problems you might face in life. You have to invite the whole body into the conversation.
Our bodies speak to our brains – bottom up thinking we call it – via different types of nerves. Actually most of the information we use to react, understand our environment, relate to each other and grow as people is bottom up thinking.
In somatic practices, the body is seen as a living laboratory. By learning to interpret bodily sensations we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves.
If we get to know our sensations and signals in the body, become more attuned to this we can tap into the subtle clues our bodies are sending us. That gut instinct for example – what it’s telling you about what you really want and need in life.
Neuroscientific studies have even shown that our experiences leads to changes in the brain’s structure and functioning, affecting areas responsible for memory, emotion regulation, and stress response.
Integrating this type of new understanding of yourself (in your body) takes effort and exploration. Once we can do that exploration though we will have laid the groundwork for living more congruent lives, dealing with actual issues in the here and now rather than ruminating on the untrue rubbish our minds keeps us stuck in. We can instead find joy and pleasure, connect with each other and all that other good stuff we yearn for in life.
As complex organic beings the understanding is we all have the natural ability and processes to perceive, learn, reason, solve problems, and adapt to our environments. Our ‘organic intelligence’ results from the interactions between our brain, nervous system and physiological and psychological factors.
Our natural biology works in ON and OFF – heart squeezes and releases, we are awake or asleep, we breathe in and out. And much much more on a complex and subtle level we aren’t aware of.
We have a natural biorhythm that in our ON ON ON world has been slowly forgotten, buried, forced out of rhythm. We are addicted to ON and to internalised struggle. Away from the here and now.
We are tired so we pump caffeine into ourselves. We’re can’t focus and yet we sit for hours at our desks squeezing more productivity out of ourselves. A headache is coming on and we take a pill and go out to dinner at a loud restaurant.
We push and squish and force our bodies to stay ON. We dampen the nuanced, subtle but ever present signals of our bodies. We ignore the signs and flags that our biology is yelling out to us.
We have this natural innate resource to return to our natural biorhythm. We just need to pause, slow down and listen to our bodies. Let them lead for a while. Trust in its wisdom.
It’s understood that embodied self-awareness (instead of just the heady conceptual self-awareness) is made up on 8 stages – resources, slowing down, verbalisation, co-regulation, boundaries, self-regulation, re-engagement, letting go.
During this retreat you will learn these stages in an experiential way to bring you into a better relationship with your body and launch you further along the path of embodied self-awareness.
Breathing as Healing
Breathwork is a powerful healing tool, whether used as a standalone modality like Conscious Connected Breathwork or integrated into somatic psychotherapy. For some, deep-seated tension and emotional rigidity require more than talk therapy – they call for an embodied approach that opens the door to altered states of consciousness, where true transformation begins.
How Does It Work?
Transformational Breathwork activates the subconscious mind, bringing hidden insights and emotions to the surface. As your breath opens the energy channels in your body, you release suppressed emotions, physical blocks, and harmful beliefs, paving the way for genuine transformation.
Whether you’re releasing emotional baggage, healing past trauma, or clearing inner obstacles, this retreat offers a pathway to access your full potential for emotional, physical, and mental well-being.
This retreat is open to all, regardless of experience. Whether you are new to breathwork or an advanced practitioner, you will find a space for healing, growth, and inner exploration.
- All the somatic sessions over the course of the 4 days
- 6 wholesome Meals, snacks, desserts, coffee, tea, water (dinner on arrival evening, breakfast, lunch, dinner on 2nd, 3rd day and breakfast on 4th day )
- Full accommodation for 4 nights at Casa Paço D’Ilhas, Portugal
- Free access to yoga shala, outdoor space, pool, coffee, tea, drinks at Casa Paço D’Ilhas during 4 days of the retreat
- Welcome / Goodbye drink and snacks
- Pre and post retreat support from our team
- Wifi connection
- Parking
- Luggage storage
- Airport transfer
- Travel insurance
- Flights costs
- Additional activities not included in the itinerary
- Additional treatments
- Travel costs to Casa Paço D’Ilhas, Portugal
We recommend you take travel insurance covering for personal effects, personal accident, medical and emergency travel expenses, as well as cancellation and curtailment.
If you cancel your participation 60 days (or more days) prior to the event, you are eligible to request a full refund minus the deposit (non-refundable).
Cancellations 59 to 30 days prior to arrival date: partial refund of 20% of payments received.
Cancellations 29 days or less prior to arrival date : no refund of any payments received.
Please Note: Travel Insurance, travel costs and gratuities for staff are not included in the registration fee.
This retreat will be conducted in English, ensuring accessibility for participants from diverse backgrounds to engage in a shared journey of self-discovery and transformation.
Certainly! After the retreat, you’ll receive a bonus package, including 3-month access to Online courses and Mental Health app – Cognitive Restructuring Course and Mindfulness Course as well as 3-month access Transformational Breathwork Program.
We currently do not have an Early Bird special, as we are already offering a discounted, budget-friendly price for the retreat. This is the lowest price we’ve offered so far, and it won’t be available again in 2025.
We recommend securing your spot now to take advantage of this unique opportunity!
Please aim to arrive between 3.450pm-3.150pm on 28th November 2024. Day activities will start shortly after.
Connect with us and prepare yourself for a magical and transformative retreat to discover who you truly are!
Participant Reviews
“A truly transformational and enjoyable experience! Therapeutic breathwork is the best modality I have tried so far to release pent-up emotions and tension from my body. Joanna is definitely my favourite facilitator of all. Can’t wait for the next edition! ” Daniela
“This is a retreat like no other just fantastic. Joana are amazing doing what they do. Amazing Experience feeds your soul. The homemade food was delicious. Thanks a lot for this great experience! I can only recommend this retreat, will uplift your spirits and put a smile on your face 😊 I am planning to come back for another visit!” Thoma
“Thanks for all beautiful people and for this deep journey. This retreat was really therapeutic, thanks to everyone for the sharing and a special thanks to the facilitators 
It was a big change here 
I trust the path too 
” Inês
Experience transformative healing at our Therapeutic Retreat 2024 in Portugal, where transformational breathing, somatic practices, and counseling converge. In the tranquil Portuguese setting, you’ll dive into breathwork and somatics, guided by experts to unlock emotional healing and self-awareness. This retreat is an invitation to explore your inner self, offering tools for stress relief and personal growth. Join us for a journey of discovery and transformation in the heart of Portugal, where you’ll find balance and rejuvenation through the power of breath and body awareness
Breathwork and Emotional Release Retreat
It is a unique retreat that brings together integrative therapies and healing techniques from bioenergetics and breathwork to somatic coaching and somatic psycho- therapy and consciousness expansion.
At our retreat, you will learn and practice breathwork and psycho-somatic therapies as well as immerse in body wisdom to wake up the Presence in you and to connect with the true power of nature within.
You will understand the power of emotions and subconscious programming and how they can deeply impact our mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. We offer a safe and supportive environment for you to explore and release any suppressed emotions, trauma, or pain that may be holding you back from living your fullest life.
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