Tending the Carer: A Restorative Retreat for Helping Professionals

A 3‐Night Retreat for Therapists, ACC SCS Providers & Caring Professionals

As someone who holds space for others, you know how vital rest and regulation are for healing – and how easy it is to postpone your own care. High caseloads, ethical responsibilities, paperwork, and the wobbly balance of work/life can quietly erode our capacity to be present, creative, and well. This long weekend is an invitation to step into a deeply supportive environment. Our intention: to offer a weekend of nourishment to those who care for others.

---

Co‐facilitated by Jessica Dziwulska and Amy Benjamin, this 3‐night retreat is especially tailored for:

• ACC Sensitive Claims providers
• Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Counsellors, Social workers
• Other clinicians and carers working with PTSD / Complex Trauma
• Anyone in a helping profession seeking genuine restoration

This is not a training or supervision-intensive experience. It is designed for you—your rest, your body, your mind, and your wellbeing.

While there may naturally be professional and personal benefits, the primary intention is restorative. We can provide receipts if you are able to claim this as a business expense.

---

The Mana experience

Mana Retreat Centre is nestled on the hillside of the Coromandel Peninsula, with sweeping views out over the ocean along with:

• Beautiful walking tracks through native bush, with access to waterfalls and quiet forest spaces
• A sauna for deep unwinding
• Stunning views out over the bay
• Wholesome, delicious vegetarian meals, lovingly prepared to be both nourishing and satisfying
• Quiet spaces and places to connect with others
• Massage available (by appointment, additional cost)

Everything at Mana is set up to help your system shift out of doing and into a more resourced state of being.

---

Across the weekend, Jess and Amy will offer a spacious schedule that you can engage with as much or as little as you like, including:

• Gentle, mindful yoga and trauma‐sensitive movement
• Guided relaxation along with simple meditation and breathing practices
• Somatic regulation tools you can use personally – and, if appropriate, in your professional work
• Creative exploration (journaling / simple art processes) to reflect on your year, your work, and what sustains you
• Time in nature – supported group walks, solo time, space to simply sit and look at the view

There will also be optional opportunities to:

• Learn a handful of practical, body‐based tools that can be integrated gently into therapy settings
• Hear more about the ACC‐funded group work we offer for ACC Sensitive Claims Clients, and explore how we might collaborate in supporting your clients

You are welcome to choose what to attend and when to take time for yourself.

---

A truly choice‐based retreat

We know that life can at times feel overwhelming, especially at the end of a big year.
With that in mind:

• All sessions are optional.
• You are warmly encouraged to listen and respond to what you need:
  • • • Sleep in instead of morning yoga
      • Take a solo walk instead of a group session
      • Sit with a book, journal, or cup of tea on the deck
      • Connect with others – or rest quietly on your own

Jess and Amy will bring a rich menu of restorative wellness practices; your role is to choose what genuinely serves you.

---

This retreat offers a chance to:

• • Digest what 2026 has asked of you
  • Soften the accumulated stress of vicarious exposure and high responsibility
  • Re‐orient toward what sustains you
  • Sow seeds for the year ahead: intentions for pacing, self‐care, and ethical sustainability in your life and work

---

About your facilitators

Jessica Dziwulska is an experienced trauma‐informed practitioner with decades of experience in:

• Body‐based and somatic approaches to trauma and wellbeing
• Trauma‐sensitive, restorative yoga and mindful movement
• Creative and reflective therapeutic practices that honour the whole person
• Group work, 1:1 private work, and 15 years of running retreats in NZ and Bali
• ACC Sensitive Claims group work for PTSD and Complex Trauma

 

Amy Benjamin is a holistic counsellor who has worked in private practice since 2014, with a focus on:

• Creating safe, relational group spaces where people feel seen, heard and able to belong
• Co‐regulation and the healing potential of attuned, supportive relationships in community
• Ecotherapy‐informed practice and nature‐based mindful and somatic approaches
• Supporting reconnection with the natural world as a pathway back to self
• ACC Sensitive Claims trauma‐sensitive yoga groups and co-facilitation of Tools for Transforming Trauma retreats

Together, we are passionate about reframing self‐care not as an indulgence, but as an ethical, professional necessity.

---

The Invitation

This very special retreat is an opportunity to:

• Leave email, administration, and caseloads behind for a few days
• Let your body be held by the land, the ocean views, the food, and the gentle structure of the weekend
• Remember what it feels like to be resourced, rested, and more fully yourself

The Investment

Prices range from $1100 – $1500 depending on the room type chosen. We can cater to single accommodation, twin share, or couples. Single-occupancy rooms are limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Your investment covers:

• 3 nights of accommodation
• Delicious, nutritious meals each day
• An abundant (fully optional) schedule of yoga, guided relaxation, gentle
  breathwork, meditation, guided creativity and self-reflection sessions
• An optional information session about our ACC SCS funded group work
• Optional ‘somatic tools for talk-therapists’ session
• Use of the sauna, grounds, walks, and library at Mana

If you’re keen to know more or would like to book a spot, please get in touch.

[email protected]

Web: https://www.brighterlife.nz/retreats

Let’s give ourselves what we so often encourage our clients to seek: time, space, kindness, and a place to truly exhale.

---