Early July 2026: Burnout to Embodied Retreat – near Ottawa
Join Jaya Hollohan MA, SEP for a 4-day somatic retreat — early July 2026 — in the countryside near Ottawa. Delve into shadow and trauma integration, alongside nervous system regulation. Move beyond protective patterns and into embodied freedom in pristine nature, with sauna, healthy food, and in sacred community.
Burnout to Embodied: 4-Days of Somatic Trauma Integration & Remembering
Countryside, Near Ottawa, early July 2026
Join Jaya for a transformative 4-day journey into the depths of somatic trauma integration, alongside the principles of Jungian shadow work and IFS parts work, while remembering your spirit’s freedom. This immersive retreat offers you the space to move beyond intellectual understanding of where you get stuck or override through old protective patterns, and supports you to move towards their embodied integration.
Through nervous system regulation, making space to feel what we usually repress (not cathartic), and grounded connection with your spirit, you’ll reconnect with your body’s wisdom to support its own healing journey.
In a world that asks us to perform, and keep pushing through until we burn out, this retreat is your invitation to slow down, feel deeply, and remember yourself. Together, we’ll explore what it means to stop, and begin to embrace all of our parts into wholeness.
The pristine retreat setting will support us in grounding, settling and releasing, resting in the countryside while bathing in a wood-fired sauna, and enjoying fresh-picked, healthy vegetarian/vegan food within sacred community.
There is so much going on in the world today. Give yourself the gift of coming home to yourself and enjoying greater embodied freedom. ✨
What This Retreat Offers
Over four deeply nourishing days, you’ll experience:
✨ Somatic practices and inner exploration to reconnect you with your body’s wisdom and spirit’s authentic expression
✨ Space for old parts and patterns to be seen and integrated, e.g. overthinking, spiritual bypassing, perfectionism, people-pleasing, dissociation
✨ Nervous system capacity building to create a foundation to meet challenging bodily sensations that we often avoid leading to burn out
✨ Shadow and light integration without bypassing related difficult emotions
✨ Pristine natural setting amidst the countryside, wood-fired sauna, and quiet grounds
✨ Time for rest, reflection, and connection with nature and sacred community
✨ Healthy vegetarian/vegan meals made with fresh-picked ingredients to support your nervous system in regulating, and remembering safety
Core Themes
Shadow & Outdated Patterns
Recognize your bypass patterns (intellectual, spiritual, perfectionist, relational, dissociative) and understand how they live as tension and armor in your body. Learn to track sensations, work with pendulation and titration, and build capacity to feel instead of disconnecting.
Belonging to Yourself & Healthy Boundaries
Drop the exhaustion of performing and people-pleasing. Discover how to listen to your body’s authentic “yes” and “no” instead of overriding boundaries. Meet the parts of yourself that shame has kept hidden and welcome them home.
Spiritual Bypassing & Somatic Freedom
Move beyond “love and light” spiritual practices that skip over anger, grief, and the full emotional range. Learn to reclaim boundaries, healthy aggression, and fierce compassion without accommodation or bypass. Discover Jaya’s L.I.F.T. method to remember your body and spirit’s truth.
Trauma, Nervous System & The Natural World
Understand your window of tolerance and activation states (fight, flight, freeze). Learn grounding, orienting, and vagal toning practices that help to avoid burn out. Invite the land and natural world to support regulation through embodied ritual and remembering.
Post-Traumatic Growth & Wholeness
Transform through adversity while staying connected to feeling, and without transcending your humanity. Connect with ancient wisdom, ancestral lines, and cosmologies that support trauma integration and embodied transformation.
Integration & Resilience
Build sustainable practices that honor body, psyche, and spirit. Learn to work skillfully with resistance as nervous system protection. Develop your unique integrative approach to resilience that prevents burnout and supports lasting change.
Sample Schedule
Thursday
Arrival & Grounding
2:30 pm – Arrival, Orienting, Welcome circle, Somatic Intro + Sauna
6-7 pm – Dinner
7-8:30 pm – Restful Somatic Practice
Friday
Somatic Shadow Work
8:30-9 am – Walking Meditation in woods
9-10 am – Breakfast
10-11 am – Somatic talk and practice + demos
11-11:15 am – Break
11:15-12:30 pm – Somatic talk and practice
1-3 pm – Lunch + Break + Sauna
3-5 pm – Somatic practice & Embodiment exercises
5-6 pm – Rest & Reflect
6-7 pm – Dinner + Sauna
7-8 pm – Somatic Circle around the bonfire
8-8:40pm – Vagus nerve meditation
Saturday
Integration & Freedom
8:30-9 am – Morning swim or canoe/kayak at onsite beach
9-10 am – Breakfast
10-11 am – Somatic talk and practice + demos
11-11:15 am – Break
11:15-12:30 pm – Somatic talk and practice
1-3 pm – Lunch + Break + Sauna
3-5 pm – Somatic practice & Embodiment exercises
5-6 pm – Rest & Reflect
6-7 pm – Dinner + Sauna
7-8:30 pm – *Special treat* TBC!
Sunday
Wholeness & Closure
8:30-9 am – Walk on forest trails or swim free time
9-10 am – Breakfast
10 am-11:30 am – Closing circle + Sharing
12pm – Departure
Retreat Location TBD
Last year’s location below. To be updated ASAP!
Praise from Somatic Retreat July 2025
Praise from Somatic Retreat July 2024
Acknowledgement
This retreat offers therapeutic benefits but is not one‑on‑one therapy nor a professional somatic trauma training. For significant trauma history, ensure external therapeutic support. Medical clearance may be required in some cases.
FAQ Section
Yes. I will briefly explain Somatic Experiencing fundamentals at the outset. I will email additional video content to people who are new to somatic work. The retreat will also be paced in such a way to avoid overwhelm, including ample breaks to reset, alongside tools for nervous system regulation for all.
I don’t use spiritual language that requires specific beliefs. When I say “sacred” or “spiritual,” I mean connection to something larger than yourself, whether you call that: Self, soul, nature, universal consciousness, or the Creator. The practices that we will engage in are grounded in neuroscience, quantum physics and Jungian Shadow Psychology. If you’re secular and want to experience body-based shadow integration work, and are open to connection with something larger than yourself, you’ll find that support here.
Deep work can activate our subconsious patterns and unintegrated traumas. That’s different from being triggered or re-traumatized. We work carefully with resources, and your are invited to stay within your window of tolerance. You’re always in control of how deep you go. Myself or my assistant will be able to support people who require additional help with integration.
Yes, unless you would like to bring a tent to camp on the land. Otherwise there are either 4 or 5 beds in each cabin. There are outdoor composting toilets or indoor toilets just a couple of minutes walk from each cabin.
You are also more than welcome to book a room in nearby Wakefield. Feel free to reach out for this option.
The refund policies for all retreats is outlined below:
- Cancellation up to 90 days before the event – full refund.
- Cancellation up to 60 days prior to event start date – 50% of your payment is refunded.
- Cancellation up to 60-30 days prior to event start date – 25% of your payment is refunded.
- Cancellation 30 days prior or less before event start date – no refund.
This refund policy is non-negotiable due to bookings and deposits that we have committed to our wonderful hosts, food services and all of the amenities that support our events. Thank you for your understanding!
From protective to connected
From stuck into feeling more
From coping to being yourself
From overdrive into remembering
Come home to your nervous system, and your body and spirit’s yearning for vitality and freedom.
Still not sure?
Email me: info {@} jayahollohan.com with your questions
Write me to me on WhatsApp: +1 (613) 866-7091