MONDAY 16TH NOVEMBER TO FRIDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 2026

The shadow at work Retreat

lithuania

Five days in the Lithuanian forest, surrounded by nature, an expertly guided journey in meeting the parts of yourself that have been running your working life from out of sight. Led by Kenny this retreat uses deep-process therapy methods to bring you face to face with what your working life has been showing you — not to analyse it, but to actually move through it.
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What to Expect

For five days in November we will gather in the Lithuanian forest to do the work many people avoid: looking straight at what our working lives are showing us about ourselves.

We'll look at the repeating patterns, of avoidance and conflict, fear and ambition that quietly guide our working lives. The workplace triggers. The boss who gets under your skin. The meeting you dread. The success that still feels hollow. We will meet them as what they really are: mirrors pointing at what you have pushed into shadow.

This will be a deeply held space. We'll ask you to protect the container: no phones or laptops will be allowed. The days will move between group and individual work, with long meals and real rest built in rather than bolted on.

❋ Intentional Structure

The days move between guided group work, individual process, and open space, structured enough to go deep, unscripted enough to meet what's actually there.

❋ Collaborative Energy

The group is not incidental to this work — it is central to it. What one person meets, others often recognise. That recognition is part of what moves things.

❋ Expert Facilitation

Led by Kenny, whose work sits at the intersection of deep process psychotherapy and the realities of professional life and who knows how to hold a group in the difficult territory between insight and real change.

❋ A Supportive Space

This kind of work requires genuine trust in the room. The container is built carefully — small group, clear agreements, and Kenny's experience of holding people through difficult material. What is shared in the room stays in the room. You do not need to perform or be ready. You need only to be willing.

This retreat is for professionals and leaders who are doing well on paper, and know they have blind spots that are still unresolved.

This is for you if you have read enough, talked to enough coaches, understood your patterns intellectually and experienced that intellectual understanding hasn't changed much.

You may be at a threshold: a role you've outgrown, a success that didn't deliver what it promised, a recurring conflict you keep meeting in different settings. You are ready to go deeper and actually move through something, rather than keep trying to think your way around it. And you want to do it among professional peers who are serious about the same thing
This won't suit you if you're after a wellness break, a digital detox with nice food, or a few days to feel good and go home unchanged.
The work here will bring you face to face with both your unrealised greatness and some of the more challenging parts of yourself. There is no cacao, no chanting in the forest, no being told to find your most authentic self. We will rely on the methods of deep-process therapy, run in a held group, applied to the place most people spend most of their waking life.

WHAT YOU WILL GET FROM THIS RETREAT

You'll arrive carrying things from your working life that you've been treating as a problem to be managed.

You'll leave having met the parts of yourself that have been hidden for a long time — and that are the real issue.

The difficult situations won't have disappeared. What changes is that you stop being activated by them. You'll go back to the same meetings, the same relationships, the same pressures — but this time you'll meet them with a more integrated and known inner landscape. Less reactive. More able to choose.

Many retreats for leaders either focus on the head, theory and tools or float off into spiritual language that doesn't match the realities of the workplace.

This is neither.

We will work with the methods of deep-process therapy, in a held group container, applied directly to your professional life. Not metaphors. Not frameworks. The actual material: the specific relationships, the particular conflicts, the exact patterns you keep bringing with you.

The Shadow at Work is based on a simple idea: the difficulties we hit in our working lives are mirrors showing us what we've pushed out of sight. Turning toward them — rather than managing or avoiding them — is how we grow up, at work and everywhere else.

THE SHAPE OF THE DAYS

The days have a shape and a rhythm. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is bolted on.

The arrival day is for settling in, orientating and opening the container together. The closing day is for integration, landing what has moved, and preparing to take it back. In between, the days move between group work and individual process, with long meals, time in the forest, and genuine rest.

MORNING PRACTICES

Each morning begins with the group gathering, setting the thread we will follow, before moving into the deeper process of the day. The mornings are where the main work happens: group process, individual work held in the group container, and the slow, careful unpicking of what your working life has been showing you.

THE SHAPE OF THE DAYS

Every part of the day has intention.

THE SPACIOUS PAUSE

Between the sessions, are regular gentle pauses. Time to sit by the lake, to walk into the forest, to lie down, to be quiet, or to find yourself in conversation you didn't expect. This unstructured time is not a gap in the programme. It is where a different kind of processing happens, the kind that cannot be scheduled.

AFTERNOON PRACTICES

The afternoons continue the work often in a different register to the mornings. As the retreat progresses, Thursday's afternoon shifts into integration: beginning to make conscious what has moved, and to prepare for taking it back.

EVENING PRACTICES

Each evening the group reconvenes to close what opened in the morning to mark the threshold between the day's work and genuine rest. The evenings are held but lighter; they are not where the heaviest process happens.

THE TRADITIONAL SAUNA RITUAL

Four hours. Fire, heat, cold water.

Over four hours, our sauna master guides the group through a traditional Lithuanian sauna ritual that has nothing to do with wellness and everything to do with what happens to a person when heat, cold, and intentional ceremony are combined. The body loosens. The defences that stayed up in the room come down. Something moves that had not moved before.

This is not a spa sauna. It is an experience with its own arc, its own beginning, deepening, and end. It is part of the retreat's process, not an addition to it.

The days hold more than the work. There is stillness, roaring open fires to sit by, time to journal, read and rest, and there’ll be celebration and a particular joy that arrives when a group of people drop their guard together.

RETREAT TO THE FOREST

THE LOCATION

Our retreat home is the ancient Labanoras Forest

Šiaurys sits in the legendary Labanoras Forest, around 90 mins drive from the city Vilnius — far enough from anywhere that the outside world genuinely drops away, close enough to reach. Surrounded by serene lakes, forest, silence, and space. The entire peninsula is reserved for our exclusive use.

The houses are warm and generous, open fires, cosy spaces to withdraw into, rooms that look out onto trees and water.

Meet YOUR FACILITATOR

Kenny works with people who are thoughtful, capable, and often outwardly successful — and who, nonetheless, find themselves stuck in patterns that don't make sense to them.

His work sits at the intersection of depth psychotherapy, shadow work, and real-world systems: particularly work, leadership, and organisations. He is interested in what drives human behaviour beneath the surface, and in how unseen inner dynamics shape our relationships, decisions, and cultures.

  • “I FELT TOTALLY SAFE AND WELL HELD. THE IMPACT HAS BEEN ENORMOUS.”

    Richard

Meet our retreat chef

Nicki Merali

Nicki Merali founder of PikNikTable is a private chef who brings artistic vision to every plate she creates. Specialising in vibrant plant-based cuisine, she designs menus that honour seasonal rhythms, local ingredients and the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda — each dish as visually stunning as it is nourishing.

Every meal is crafted for digestion and deep nourishment. Nicki's approach honours the body's need for balance during intensive work, without ever sacrificing the pleasure of eating really, really good food.

Think vegetarian curries and naan breads and supper a hearty soup or stew with sourdough bread and cheeses. All meals will be family style and we will try to support allergies as best we can. If you have a serious nut allergy or concerns please contact us before booking.

THE ROOMS

The retreat is kept deliberately small to protect the quality of the container. There are 13 spaces available across four room tiers.

All room prices are fully inclusive. Your place covers four nights' accommodation, all meals from arrival supper to departure breakfast, the group transfer from central Vilnius and back, all sessions and process work with Kenny, and the traditional sauna ritual.. The only things not included are your flights and any travel to Vilnius.

MEZZANINE SUITE

Luxurious forest view double loft suite with mezzanine area, en-suite bathroom and generous seating. Available for solo occupancy

£3,500 per person — 2 available

SOLO LUXURY EN-SUITE

Spacious luxury room with en-suite bathroom and forest or lake views. Private and beautifully appointed, for single occupancy.

£2,800 per person — 3 available

STANDARD SOLO EN-SUITE


Comfortable solo room with en-suite bathroom, for single occupancy.

£2,500 per person — 4 available

STANDARD SOLO, SHARED BATHROOM

Comfortable solo room with shared bathroom facilities.

£2,300 per person — 4 available

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Apply using the form on this page. Once we've reviewed your application we'll be in touch to have a conversation and confirm your place. A non-refundable deposit of £500 is required to secure your space.

  • Yes — all rooms are for solo occupancy, so coming alone is the norm. You are also welcome to come as a couple and share a room if you prefer.

  • Yes. A group transfer minibus departs from a central Vilnius meeting point at 3pm on Monday 16th November and returns to central Vilnius at 1pm on Friday 20th November. Please ensure your flights arrive the evening before the retreat and depart the late evening of Friday 20th or the following day.

    If you prefer to hire a car, you are welcome to drive yourself and arrive by 4pm on Monday.

    Flights to and from Lithuania are not included.

  • All meals are served family style. Please contact us before applying if you have a serious allergy or specific dietary need and we will let you know whether we can accommodate you.

  • Comfortable, relaxed clothing you can sit and move in across the full day. November in Lithuania is cold, so bring warm layers — think forest walks as much as group rooms. Slippers for indoors. A pen and notepad for journalling or notes.

    A few practical things worth having: an eye mask (the rooms may not be fully dark), good earplugs (the retreat is quiet, but worth having to ensure you're undisturbed), a travel plug adaptor, and mosquito repellent if you react to bites.

    Towels are provided.

  • The £500 deposit required to secure your place is non-refundable. The remaining balance is non-refundable within 120 days of the retreat start date. Please read our full Terms & Conditions before applying.

  • The methods Kenny uses are drawn from depth psychotherapy and shadow work, and the container is a therapeutic one. It is not a substitute for ongoing personal therapy, and it is not a group therapy programme. If you are currently in a mental health crisis or under active psychiatric care, this retreat is not suitable for you — please get in touch before applying if you have any questions about this.

  • No prior experience of shadow work or therapy is required. What is required is a genuine readiness to look honestly at yourself. If you are coming hoping to observe rather than participate, this is not the right retreat.

  • No phones or laptops are permitted during the retreat. This is part of the container, not an inconvenience. If you have a genuine emergency need to stay reachable, please contact us before applying.

APPLY HERE

If you're drawn to this retreat, we'd love to hear from you. Complete the form and we'll be in touch to have a conversation.