Recovery Without Compromise
Most men in recovery are asked to do the hardest work of their lives in environments that don’t reflect the standard they hold themselves to everywhere else. Kilkenny exists to close that gap. This is a programme designed for men who want rigorous, evidence-based recovery support delivered with the discretion and quality they expect.
Small groups. Expert clinicians. An environment that is both challenging and deeply restorative. The work is serious. The setting is exceptional.
Who This Retreat Is For
Kilkenny is the natural home for executives and professionals who are functioning at a high level and running on borrowed energy — and who know the bill is coming. It is equally suited to adults in recovery who want a programme that matches their pace, their intelligence, and the specific complexity of their life.
It is also the programme we recommend to individuals in the aftermath of something significant: bereavement, breakdown, a relationship ending, a career collapsing. Kilkenny is well suited to HR and occupational health referral pathways, and to organisations looking to support high-performing individuals before crisis becomes collapse.
The Pelagus Method
Therapeutic Depth
Evidence-based individual and group therapeutic work facilitated by senior clinicians who understand the specific experience of men in recovery — and the way that high-functioning people often build their lives around avoidance of the very things that most need addressing. CBT and ACT approaches run throughout.
Therapeutic Depth
Adventure & Challenge
Every activity at Kilkenny Retreat is chosen because it teaches something. Golf, sailing, equine therapy, and hiking are not diversions from the therapeutic work — they are the therapeutic work. Challenge, accountability, and honest self-assessment in motion.
Adventure & Challenge
Recovery Mapping
Each participant leaves with a personalised Recovery Map — a concrete, practical document built across the programme covering triggers, patterns, coping strategies, support architecture, and a 90-day plan. It goes home with you. The work continues from there.
Recovery Mapping
Sample Guest Itinerary
Final scheduling and activity sequencing confirmed prior to your arrival.
Day 1: Arrival and Grounding
INDIVIDUAL INTAKE
We start where you actually are. Not where you think you should be.
GUIDED WALK — KILKENNY CITY
The first shared hour. The tone is set.
OPENING CIRCLE
Group agreements. Personal intentions. The container is built.
Day 2: Awareness
MORNING YOGA AND BREATHWORK
Regulate before the real work begins
THERAPEUTIC SESSION
Name the cost of high performance. Honestly.
STRATEGIC LIFE MAPPING — SESSION 1
Where are you, really? Across every domain.
Day 3: Patterns
MORNING WALK
Unscheduled thinking time. Many haven't had this in years.
SOMATIC THERAPY
What's driving you. What's useful. What's become destructive.
LIFE REDESIGN — SESSION 1
The science of recovery, resilience, and sustainable performance.
Day 4: Desire
Equine Therapy
Explore relational patterns and boundaries.
Attachment Workshop
Healing interpersonal wounds.
Solo Reflection Hike
Journaling on relationships and identity.
Evening Fire Circle
Symbolic release and storytelling.
Day 5: Release
COLD WATER IMMERSION
Work with your stress response. Not against it.
THERAPEUTIC SESSION
Grief and the things that don't get processed at speed.
STRATEGIC LIFE MAPPING — SESSION 3
Who holds you accountable. What conversations need to happen.
Day 6: Integration
MORNING YOGA AND JOURNALLING
Synthesise the week. Through the body and on the page.
STRATEGIC LIFE MAPPING — SESSION 4
Your 90-day plan. Specific. Time-bound. Real.
FINAL COMMUNAL DINNER
You share your plan. The group witnesses it.
Day 7: Voice
SILENT BREAKFAST & CLOSING YOGA
Unhurried. The transition back deserves its own moment.
CLOSING CEREMONY
Your Strategic Life Map shared. Your journey acknowledged.
DEPARTURE
The clarity you found here is yours to keep.
Every Pelagus retreat begins with a conversation.
We take the time to understand where you are and what you need, and to be honest with you about whether this programme is the right fit right now. The first step costs nothing except a willingness to reach out.
Upon Booking, Guests Receive
- A Pelagus welcome pack- journal, compass pendant, herbal teas, and a personalised programme outline structured around the seven days and the specific work ahead.
- A pre-arrival call with their assigned therapist and recovery coach — a substantive conversation about where they are starting from, what they want to resolve, and how the programme will be calibrated to them.
- Access to the Pelagus Compass App for pre-retreat reflections and preparation.
- Kilkenny participants are also provided with pre-reading on the therapeutic frameworks used across the week, for those who want to arrive informed.
Where You Will Stay
Kilkenny accommodation is private throughout- single rooms, quiet, and set within easy reach of the city and the countryside routes used across the programme. The environment is designed for focus: calm enough to think clearly, comfortable enough to rest properly. Meals are provided and structured into the daily rhythm- communal without being compulsory, nourishing without being performative. Maximum 10 participants per cohort. Kilkenny runs monthly.
Apply Now
Kilkenny is well suited to direct referral from HR departments, occupational health teams, and medical professionals. If you are enquiring on behalf of someone else, or want to understand whether the programme is the right fit before applying, a call with Colin is the right starting point.
Ready to commit?
GUEST EXPERIENCE