Transformative retreat to nourish your capacity for shaping change
2026, Uckermark by Berlin (exact date tba soon)
About the retreat
Amidst the social and ecological crises we are facing — climate change, inequality, and rising authoritarianism — we can feel overwhelmed by anger, fear, and other difficult emotions. Even as conscious and caring individuals who want to make a difference, it’s hard to know where to begin and to stay hopeful.
We invite you to join Restoring Connections, a transformative retreat whose central aim is to help you connect more deeply with yourself and with the world — in the hope that doing so strengthens your capacity to confront these crises with creativity and resilience.
From Thursday through Sunday, we’ll embark on a carefully crafted journey of workshops, embodied practices, and reflective exercises to engage in meaningful (self-)inquiry and explore tools for navigating and provoking change. Together, we will take a step back from daily life, lean into experimentation, and hopefully walk away with renewed inspiration, ready to tackle the major challenges of our time.
Guiding Questions
1.
How do I relate to the social and ecological crises of our time? What’s serving me and what’s holding me back?
2.
How can I strengthen my capacity to act, so that I can best play my part in shaping change?
3.
What concrete steps can I take toward social and ecological transformation?
What to expect
Interactive workshops to explore the guiding questions through the lenses of psychology, leadership, philosophy, and deep ecology
Embodied practices like yoga, breathwork and dance to start your day, bring you back into your body during workshops, and recenter in the evening
Plenty of time to integrate and reflect through walks in nature, silent journaling in the garden, and creative practices
Space for laughter and connection in a group of 10-14 participants who share your interest in personal development and shaping change
Cozy rooms and healthy & delicious meals at the beautiful retreat center Seminarhaus Taubenblau, surrounded by nature and easily accessible from Berlin
Retreat Program
Thursday
16:00-17:15 Check-In & Arrival
17:30-18:30 Arriving in the space, your body, and in the group
18:30-20:00 Dinner
20:00-20:45 About Restoring Connections
Friday
8:30-9:00 Morning Yoga
9:15-10:15 Breakfast
10:15-12:30 Honoring your complexity in times of crisis
12:30-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-17:00 Widening your circle of concern and defining your vision
17:00-18:30 Integration & Reflection
18:30-20:00 Dinner
20:00-20:45 Breathwork
Saturday
8:30-9:00 Movement Meditation
9:15-10:15 Breakfast
10:15-12:30 Exploring your relationship with change
12:30-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-17:00 Navigating growth, conflict and transformation
17:00-18:30 Integration & Reflection
18:30-20:00 Dinner
20:00-20:45 Dance & Improvisation
Sunday
8:30-9:00 Morning Yoga
9:15-10:15 Breakfast
10:15-12:30 Developing a personal roadmap toward shaping change
12:30-14:00 Lunch & Check-Out
Team
Kelley Luyken - Social Change Facilitator, Mediator, Yoga Teacher
Kelley creates spaces for people to connect with themselves, each other, and a grander purpose to bring about change. As consultant and trainer in social innovation, she’s spent years facilitating workshops and change processes toward gender equality and climate justice at NGOs and public organizations. For this, she draws on a rich set of methods: mediation, to navigate conflict and foster understanding across boundaries; yoga, to render change more sustainable by anchoring it in the body; and intersectionality, to make sense of the roles identity and power play as we embark on driving change. Kelley gains inspiration for her work by spending time in nature — taking solo journeys across mountain ranges, climbing on big rocks, or simply watching waves break in the sea.
Pascal Nonnen - Change Facilitator, Co-Active Coach, Musician
Pascal’s vision is to build a retreat place for people to learn who they truly are and what they can offer to the world. For 7 years, his work has been to support individuals, teams and organisations to drive systemic change on today’s wicked challenges - e.g. digitalization, or sustainability. He does this through 1:1 coachings and workshop facilitation, with a focus on leadership development for change makers across the globe. Currently, Pascal is researching at the intersection between leadership, the good life, and systemic change making (PhD’ing). Pascal loves to delve into different cultures through food and music. He can spend hours searching for the song that best captures his moods, and gains immense pleasure from culinary experiences.
Lia Döring - Psychologist, Addiction Counselor, Dancer
As someone who has always been inspired and energized by dance, climbing and other forms of movement, Lia is passionate about exploring the body and the role it plays in psychological, spiritual, and relational healing. For five years, she has worked as a therapist facillitating group and individual therapy in addiction care. Having embarked on her own journey as body-oriented psychotherapy trainee, she feels in her heart that she will continue dedicating her life to helping people grow, and feel more free, connected, playful, compassionate and curious through embodied practices. Lia draws from her professional experience and her personal journey to create compassionate containers for transformation.
Dr. Derek van Zoonen - Philosopher, Counselor, Breathwork Facilitator
Derek is driven to help people live more examined lives. With over ten years experience as a teacher, researcher, counselor, and facilitator, he currently seeks to integrate philosophical and psychological findings about human happiness and the good life at a large, interdisciplinary, Oslo-based research project. He is also a certified breathwork instructor and, more recently, he has embarked on a training in Hakomi—a mindfulness-based, somatic psychotherapy form. He loves to engage people in conversation and help them think more carefully about the values that shape their lives.
All you need to know
Dates - Arrival is on Thursday between 16:30 and 17:15, and departure is on Sunday at 14:00. A new date will be announced soon.
Accomodation - A private room for 3 nights, including access to common spaces and a lovely garden.
Meals - Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner are included. Same for water, tea and snacks. We will serve delicious vegetarian food prepared by a skilful chef.
Language - The retreat language is English, though all facilitators speak German or Dutch for individual questions.
Participants - 10-14 people who are curious to learn about their own attitude toward today’s global challenges and how to shape change.
What to bring - We recommend bringing comfortable clothing and a journal to take notes and reflect. We will provide everything else — a yoga mat and further equipment for the embodied practices, and anything else we need in workshop sessions.
See what it’s like - browse through the image gallery from last year’s retreat here.
Investment
This is an all-inclusive retreat. The ticket price covers full accommodation for three nights, including three vegetarian meals per day prepared by a skillful chef, and facilitation of the retreat.
Ticket Price:
Regular Ticket: 1790,- EUR
Cancellation Policy: If you cancel more than 60 days before the retreat, you receive a 50% refund. If you cancel more than 30 days before the retreat, you receive a 25% refund.
In line with our vision to empower individuals to shape change, we aim to provide equitable access to this experience to people from different financial backgrounds. If you are eager to join but would struggle to cover the costs, please reach out to us at restoringconnections.retreat@gmail.com.
Location
Ernst-Thälmann-Straße 9, 16248 Lunow-Stolzenhagen
Accessible by train from Berlin (1,5hours)
Sign up now!
If you’re ready to join us at the retreat, have a couple of questions or would just like to get to know us better, leave us a message. We look forward to hearing from you and will be in touch shortly!
The Restoring Connections Team
“The most remarkable feature of this historical moment is not that we are on the way to destroying our world – we have actually been on the way quite a while – it is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennial long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves, and to each other.”
– Joanna Macy
Inspirations
Restoring Connections is informed by an inspiring set of writers, thinkers, and activists. Here are some of the writings that have had a profound impact on us, and have helped frame this retreat:
Immunity To Change by Bob Kegan & Lisa Lahey
Active Hope by Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone
On Intersectionality by Kimberlé Crenshaw
The Good Ancestor by Roman Krznaric
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
No Bad Parts by Christopher Schwartz
The Ecology of Wisdom by Arne Naess
