MID WALES, UK
Intimate Being Retreat
August 24th - 30th 2026
Much of what we long for cannot be found through more doing, achieving, or becoming, but through rediscovering a deeper intimacy with ourselves, with others, and with life itself.
This retreat is an immersion into what begins to unfold when the body softens out of defence through practice, rest, honesty, and relational exploration.
Not self-improvement, but a return to the sensitivity, openness, and aliveness that have always been there beneath the ways we’ve learned to protect ourselves.
SCHEDULE:
24th-30th August
DAY 1:
15:00 - 17:00 arrival time. 17:30 Dinner. 19:00 Orientation & welcome class
DAY 2
8:00 - 9:00 guided Pranayama & somatic meditation
7:00 - 8:00 light organic breakfast followed by outdoor barefoot walking
9:00-12:00 Yoga (somatic movement)
15:00 - 17:30 Yoga (somatic movement)
17:45 Organic vegan dinner
12:15 Organic vegan lunch
Free-time to enjoy nature, sauna,
lake swimming, socialising or time alone
19:00 - 20:30 Relational explorations and guided Yoga Nidra (deep rest)
DAY 6
DAY 7:
7:00 - 7:30 pranayama & somatic meditation. 7:30 - 10:00 yoga (somatic movement). 10:15 organic vegan brunch
Over 6 nights and 5 full days, I’ll be guiding an immersive retreat through yoga, pranayama, meditation, deep rest, and relational practice.
Held through the lens of the yamas from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, this retreat is not about becoming a better version of yourself.
It is an invitation into a deeper intimacy with the one already here.
A remembering of the qualities that emerge naturally when we are no longer defending against life:
sensitivity, openness, honesty, generosity, intimacy.
Together, through many hours of shared practice, we’ll explore how we relate inwardly to ourselves, and outwardly to others.
How the body reveals the habits that keep us separate.
And how intimacy begins as those habits soften.
Each day of the retreat will be shaped around one of these lenses.
The Yamas, drawn from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, are not offered here as moral rules to obey, but as natural qualities that begin to emerge when we become more intimate with ourselves and with life.
The Yamas
(Expressions of our essential nature)
Ahimsa – Sensitivity
The sensitivity that naturally arises when there is less inner conflict and defence.
Satya – Honesty
The honesty that becomes possible when we no longer need to distort or protect our experience.
Asteya – Openness
The openness that emerges when we are no longer orientated around lack or insufficiency.
Brahmacharya – Intimacy
The intimacy and conservation of energy that arise when we stop resisting, grasping, or moving away from life.
Aparigraha – Generosity
The generosity that flows when there is less holding, clinging, and fear around what we are.
Prerequisites, Venue & Travel:
Food:
To attend this retreat, you’ll need a basic embodiment of the Dynamics of Integrity. If you’ve worked with Olivia or Godfrey you will already have this foundation.
If not, you’re warmly welcome to join the Foundation Course (available here on the website) and complete before the retreat begins.
The retreat is being held at:
Garth barns & country house
Llanidloes
Powys
SY18 6NN
Closest train station:
Caresws
Closest airport:
Birmingham
We can help you work out the best way to get here, just let us know where you’ll be travelling from.
The cuisine is organic vegan, locally sourced where possible.
Let us know if you have any special dietary needs and we will do our best to accommodate them.
Cost &
Accommodation:
This cost includes all food, accommodation, practice and offerings.
- Shared rooms (2-4p): £950
- Single private room: £1225
- Couple private room: £1800
2 apprentice space availability
payment plans are possible
If you are experiencing dire financial circumstances, please contact us so that we can try to find a solution that enables you to attend. Likewise if you are enjoying financial abundance, please let us know if you would be willing to help others who may not otherwise be able to participate.
Facilitated by:
OLIVIA CROOKS
Olivia began working with Godfrey Devereux in 2003, after completing a diploma in Yoga in Sydney, Australia. She then apprenticed him for the following 10 years. Eventually assisting and co-teaching his teacher trainings. She has been integral to the development of the methodologies in which he teaches. For the last 14 years she has been running workshops, courses, intensives and retreats. Teaching somatic movement, meditation and pranayama. She continues to teach with Godfrey each year on their annual winter Somatic Meditation Retreat and summer Radical Ecology Retreat. Olivia is striking in her inability to be inauthentic, or lean on any external authority. From her deep trust in life she extends, in her presence, words, actions and teaching, an almost irresistible invitation to say 'yes' more deeply to life just as it is.
