The Elder Within Experience

About the program

Step into the wilderness with The Elder Within Experience - a wellbeing retreat designed for adult men and women. Set in the tranquil surrounds of Kangaroo Valley, NSW (just two hours from Sydney, three hours from Canberra and one hour from Wollongong).

This retreat is designed to celebrate and support those moving into a new phase of life where wisdom from lived experience can emerge and be shared with others. 

Participants will:

• Be invited to connect with themselves and the natural environment through daily stillness, meditation and breathing practices.
• Participate in active challenges that invigorate and empower them physically and mentally.
• Be invited to collaborate in group activities and share their stories and experiences as we learn and grow together. 
• Have an opportunity to think about who they are becoming in this next phase of life and voice that in a supportive environment.
• Provide a network of friends as future contacts for ongoing connection.

Everything is provided - accommodation, nutritious meals, equipment and expert guiding. Each evening concludes around a campfire - an open-air circle for honest conversations, listening, storytelling, or simply sitting in presence. 

Holistic wellbeing

All of our programs are build on the philosophy that wellbeing must be viewed holistically. This means to be truly well, we must address the physical, mental and emotional layers of our Being. 

We've created a program that combines physical challenges of varying degrees to suit the age and physical capacity of the participants with activities that still the mind and engage a greater emotional awareness. 

The balance created means we can offer a unique program within a natural setting that challenges each participant in different ways. Some may be physically fit but have never meditated or learned the gift of being still in nature. Others may be seasoned meditators but never navigated in the bush or paddled through rapids on a river. 

Celebrating our Elders

The Elder Within Experience was created from a need we saw to honour and empower adults as they transition into the wise years of their life.

We believe in the power of Rites of Passage and see the powerful impact it has on the teenagers who complete our Rite of Passage Experience as well as on their families and communities. And we saw that adults in their 40s, 50s and 60s often get overlooked and even devalued with age in modern cultures. 

This was not always the case and we know from indigenous cultures that elderhood was highly revered as people transition into new and important roles with their families, communities and places of work. 

Our intention is to provide an experience where we honour this transition and encourage participants to reframe ageing into an exciting time of opportunity.