The Retreat
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from doing too little, but from giving too much for too long. From showing up for everyone else while quietly losing the thread of yourself. From carrying things that were never yours to carry- and carrying them anyway, because that is what you do.
Deerstone is for women who recognise that description. Whether you are navigating recovery, moving through a significant life change, or arriving at the point where the life you have built no longer fits- this retreat is built around one question: what does it feel like to put yourself first?
Set in the quiet, wooded landscape of Kilkenny, Deerstone is ten days of honest, unhurried work. The kind that only becomes possible when you step out of your ordinary life and into a space that is entirely yours.
Who This Retreat Is For
Deerstone is for women at any crossroads. Women in recovery who want a programme built around their specific experience. Women navigating transition- grief, divorce, a career ending, a relationship breaking down. Women who are functioning well on the outside and quietly falling apart on the inside, and who are tired of pretending otherwise. This is not a spa break. It is for women who want to be in a room with other women who understand exactly how that feels.
The Pelagus Method
Somatic & Embodied Practice
The programme begins in the body deliberately- because that is where the work of reconnection starts. Daily yoga, breathwork, cold water immersion, and nature immersion are woven through the ten days. None of it requires prior experience. None of it asks anything to be performed. The body is treated as a site of reclamation, not discipline.
Somatic & Embodied Practice
Therapeutic Circle Work
Group and individual sessions draw on trauma-informed, narrative, and somatic approaches, facilitated by senior clinicians who understand the particular experience of women in transition. Participants are not asked to perform their pain. They are asked to understand it — and to decide what comes next. Creative practice sessions- writing, drawing, clay work- run alongside the talking work, accessing what language cannot always reach.
Therapeutic Circle Work
Strategic Life Mapping
Each participant leaves with a Life Redesign Map: a concrete, personally authored document for the life they are stepping into. Not a vision board, not a list of intentions. A grounded, actionable plan that holds the work done across the ten days and points clearly to what comes next- including a 90-day roadmap and a peer accountability structure that continues beyond the retreat.
Strategic Life Mapping
Sample Guest Itinerary
Final scheduling and activity sequencing confirmed prior to your arrival.
Day 1: Arrival
ARRIVAL AND SETTLING IN
No agenda. Arriving is the first work.
ORIENTATION WALK
The Deerstone grounds, at your own pace.
WELCOME DINNER AND OPENING CIRCLE
One word for what you're carrying. One for what you're hoping for.
Day 2: Awareness
MORNING YOGA AND BREATHWORK
Beginners welcome. The body before the mind.
WOODLAND WALK
Solo time in the trees. Hear yourself again.
THERAPEUTIC CIRCLE
Who were you before everything got complicated?
Day 3: The Body
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENT
Fluid. No performance required.
SOMATIC THERAPY
Where does it live in your body? Begin there.
LIFE REDESIGN — SESSION 1
Strip back obligation. What do you actually want?
Day 4: Depth
GUIDED HIKE
Wide landscape. Physical effort. The clarity that follows.
THERAPEUTIC CIRCLE
Grief, loss, and what needs to be let go.
CREATIVE PRACTICE EVENING
Writing, drawing, clay. What words can't always reach.
Day 5: Release
FREE CHOICE MORNING
Yoga, walking, creative work, or rest. Yours to decide.
THERAPEUTIC CIRCLE
Boundaries, voice, and the permission you never needed.
INTEGRATION SESSION
Bring the threads together. One clear picture.
ONE TO ONE COACHING
Your programme. Your pace. Your next steps.
Upon Booking, Guests Receive
- A Pelagus welcome pack- journal, compass pendant, herbal teas, and a personalised programme outline shaped around the ten days ahead.
A pre-arrival call with their assigned therapist- not an admin call, a real conversation about where they are and what they need.
Access to the Pelagus Compass App for pre-retreat reflections, guidance on what to bring, and gentle preparation for arrival.
No phones during programme hours. This time belongs entirely to the participant.
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
Applications are reviewed individually. Cohorts are capped at 12. If you are ready, we would like to hear from you.
Not sure yet?
GUEST EXPERIENCE