Our Opening to Grace healing Retreat is an opportunity to come together to create a sacred space for healing, transformation and growth.

You will experience the Transformational Gestalt approach which combines the Gestalt approach & spiritual companioning.

In this healing sacred space we are invited to participate in a journey towards transformative healing and wholeness. As facilitators, we have experienced  and witnessed profound physical and emotional healing and change when God is consciously acknowledged at the heart of the healing process.

The framework of Gestalt offers a vital and compelling backdrop to this healing work.

The Retreat offers participants a supportive space to experience profound healing and change, within a spiritual framework.

NOTE: Our next Healing Retreat is scheduled for July 26th – 28th 2024 – in-person

Facilitators: Dinah Eades Buchanan and Naomi Sirio

Please contact Dinah on 0430 752 710 or email dinahbuchanan18@gmail.com for further details.

The Transformational Gestalt approach is essentially a synthesis of Gestalt Therapy and spiritual companioning – Gestalt through a spiritual lens.

The work is based on the premise that God is present and available for healing and wholeness. Acknowledging this allows us to enter a sacred healing space that is profound and inspirational. If we can ‘step aside’ metaphorically and attend to the emerging process, then healing and change will occur naturally, as the Divine is revealed personally through embodied experience.

Participants of the workshops have experienced profound physical and emotional healing and growth when the Divine is consciously acknowledged in the process, and the framework of Gestalt offers a vital and enriching backdrop to this growth work.

Connection and community are prominent aspects of the work and exploration often centres around our blocks to connection both personally and relationally. With an underpinning of compassion and focused care, each participant is encouraged to centralise and deepen their spiritual connection, in turn deepening connection to self and to each other – ultimately strengthening a sense of community. In this sense the work is about ‘fellow travelling’ and tapping into the Divine in each person and in the group as a collective.

The “Here and Now”

The ‘Opening to Grace’ Retreats are essentially experiential and experimental, where participants are invited to explore personal concerns and ways of being within a supportive space. The work is awareness focussed in the ‘here and now’, with an emphasis on the relational aspect of how we express ourselves in the world. Spontaneous personal Gestalt experiments and rituals are an integral part of the process, facilitating awareness and insight, and bringing an element of creativity and spontaneity to the work. Each Retreat comes alive with a sense of seeking more of the Divine personally and collectively, and building strong, compassionate community.

Professional Development

During the Retreat we emphasise a contemplative stance which is the relational underpinning of this work. This will prepare and equip you to approach this work effectively, both for your own spiritual development and for your work with others. Spiritual formation is part of the focus of this work. Whilst the emphasis is on personal healing and growth for each participant, the work can be viewed through a professional development lens and unpacked from a process perspective – learning can be immediately integrated into professional practice.

  All spiritual faiths and beliefs are welcomed, honoured and shared in a spirit of deep community

Please select the image or click HERE to download a printable PDF of our “Opening to Grace” hand-out.

Who will benefit from ‘Opening to Grace’ Retreats?

The Transformational Gestalt approach is a way to deepen personal spirituality and spiritual connection, and a way to help others deepen and strengthen their own spiritual journey. In turn connection to self and other is also strengthened. The Retreats are open to all – professional practitioners and anyone interested in healing / spiritual work. Participants don’t necessarily need to have experienced Gestalt work previously or be a clinical practitioner. For professionals and helpers who want to work more creatively, spontaneously and more effectively with others, there is no better way than to experience Transformational Gestalt work personally through an ‘Opening to Grace’ Retreat. Within the TG framework we are all regarded as ‘fellow travellers’ and support each other on our individual and collective spiritual journeys. Contemplative practice forms the foundation for the process as a way to move towards healing revelation.

Participants are encouraged to participate at the level they are comfortable with, and the work is sensitive and timely. Because the work is experiential it tends to be more creative and spontaneous, with attention to emerging process and embodied experience – participants report profound awareness and insight that often lead to recognisable shifts in continuing experience and relationships. Participants who are in professional practice also report that their work with clients and others deepens and becomes ‘easier’, in the sense that they are able to attend to where the Divine is already available in each person, and more easily facilitate awareness and insight into this process for their clients.

Above all, the Retreats are a chance to step out of the bustle of life and step into a reflective space – there will be time for some silent meditation and reflection, and time to contemplate your own spiritual journey, and what is being called forth in you. You will also have an opportunity to support others and be part of compassionate community whilst at the Retreat. Your spiritual journey will be deepened, and your spiritual walk become clearer and more profound. We will have times for discussion, reflection, and meditation / contemplation in various forms.

‘Opening to Grace’ Retreats are suitable for those who are in professional practice as well as those who are not in any professional role with clients but who are interested in deepening their spiritual journey. All you need is a willingness to participate and a willingness to surrender to the process.