Most people who reach out about a healing retreat share something in common.
They want to come.
Something in them knows they need it.
But another part holds back, asking quiet questions they sometimes don’t even know how to put into words.
Will I be pushed beyond what I can manage?
Will someone expect me to share things I’m not ready for?
What if I cry?
What if I don’t?
Do I have to know what I want from this?
What if nothing happens?
What if I’m afraid of the horses?
What if …
These questions are not obstacles to healing. They are part of the very human experience of preparing to be seen, heard and supported.
This guide is not only for first-timers. It’s for anyone who has found their way here and wants to know, honestly and simply, what it might be like to spend a day, a night, or several days at Highlands Centre for Healing (if you ask us, the more the better!)
You Don’t Have to Arrive Ready
Nobody ever does!
There is a common belief that to do this kind of work, you need to know what you’re there to heal. A clear intention. A readiness to go deep.
In reality, most people arrive carrying far more than they realise and without any words for it at all.
That is completely fine here.
You are welcome to come with a specific intention, a question you’ve been sitting with for years, or simply a quiet knowing that something needs to change. All of these are starting points. All of them are enough.
There is no correct way to arrive.
Arriving and Settling In
Highlands Centre for Healing is a 106-acre sanctuary in the NSW Southern Highlands, about 90 minutes from Sydney and an hour from Canberra.
There are horses in the paddocks, plentiful birdsong , and a quality of quiet that surprises most people the first time they visit
If you’re staying overnight, your accommodation is private and on the property. The Stables and Gang Gang Hideaway are both simple, comfortable, and nestled in nature. No traffic. No crowds. The soundscape is mostly wind, birdsong, and the occasional movement of the herd.
People often notice the energy of the land as they enter the front gates. Ancient trees, smells of eucalypts and pine. By the time they’ve reached The Stables they’re already noticing they can breathe differently. More slowly. Softly.
Not because of anything that has been said or done …yet.
Just the land.
There is no formal orientation, no clipboard, no schedule handed over at the gate. And I may greet you with hay coming out of my hair and mud on my clothes. None of us is perfect! But in fact that’s not true … we’re all perfect in our own unique ways.
What My Role Is
I’m not here to lead you toward a particular outcome, or to tell you what your experience means.
I’ve done (and continue to do) my own deep work. I know what it is to carry things the body remembers long after the mind has tried to move on. I know what survival mode feels like from the inside. That is the ground I work from, not a position of clinical authority above you.
My role is to listen. To notice. To create a space in which your nervous system can begin to feel safe. And from that safety, things often begin to move on their own.
I will not push you toward particular emotions, interpret your experience for you, or move things along before they’re ready. I follow your lead, at every step.
That is the whole design of it.
What a Session May Feel Like
In short you have to feel to heal.
Every session here is different. There is no script, no activity list, no set of structured exercises waiting for you.
We begin by listening. To whatever you bring that day. To what your body is doing. To what feels present. From there, it unfolds.
Sometimes the horses will come close. Sometimes they stand nearby, watchful. Sometimes the land itself becomes the most significant presence. And sometimes the most meaningful shifts happen in stillness, with very little happening externally at all.
There is no performing. You are not being assessed. You will not be asked to do things that don’t feel right for your body.
What you may notice is a gradual softening. A sense of something beginning to settle that has been braced for a long time. Occasionally a wave of emotion. Sometimes unexpected laughter. Sometimes simply a deep, wordless rest.
Your pace is the pace of the session. Always.
Somatic Equine Therapy, Reiki With The Herd, and the Land
The work here takes a few different forms, depending on what you’ve come for. Here is what each of them genuinely feels like.
Somatic Equine Therapy with Horses
This is ground-based. There is no riding. You won’t be asked to handle, lead, or manage the horses. They move freely across the property and engage with each session in their own way, which can be deeply attentive, curious, or quietly watchful from across the paddock.
The session is body-led. It tracks what your nervous system is holding and offers it conditions to begin to release. Sometimes this is quiet, almost meditative. Sometimes it is more emotionally present. Sometimes a horse will come and simply stand with you, and that itself is the thing that shifts something.
No prior experience with horses is needed. If you arrive nervous, that is information, and it will be honoured.
Reiki With The Herd
This session is primarily still. You will lie on a massage table or sit comfortably, outdoors among the horses. Soo channels Reiki while the horses participate in their own way. Sometimes one will rest a muzzle near your hand or your heart. Sometimes they stand quietly nearby, doing what horses do when something is settling.
One guest described lying under the trees with a gentle breeze and feeling a horse press its muzzle exactly where she had been carrying pain. She said she didn’t know she needed that until it happened.
Most people find this session restorative in a way that is difficult to put into words afterward.
The Land and Unstructured Time
During a healing retreat stay, you will have time that is yours entirely. Time to walk the property, sit in the forest, watch the herd from a distance, or rest in whatever way your body needs.
This time is not empty. For many people, it is where some of the deepest settling happens. The nervous system needs room to process. Rest that isn’t passive. Quiet that isn’t filled.
Do You Need to Talk About Everything?
No. This is not talk therapy, although there is dialogue in sessions so I can learn what I need to about your story.
You are not required to share your history, explain your reasons for being here, or revisit things you’re not ready to revisit. If something wants to come forward, it will. I may gently reflect what I notice, and you are always free to engage with that or simply receive it in silence.
Some people share a great deal. Others say very little and move through significant internal shifts in the quiet. Both are equally valid ways of working.
There is no correct level of openness. There is only your own timing, and it will be honoured here.
What If Emotions Come Up?
They might. In fact, they usually do. That’s the nature of somatic work.
For many people, being in a safe space with the horses and the land opens something that has been held tightly for a long time. Tears are not uncommon. Neither is laughter. Neither is a quiet sense of something shifting that you can’t quite name.
If emotions arise, they will be held, not managed. I won’t try to stop what’s happening, move things along before they’re ready, or interpret your experience for you.
And I also won’t allow you to become overwhelmed or retraumatised. That is critical.
Iif nothing visibly emotional happens, that is also fine. Sometimes the work is very quiet on the surface while something significant moves beneath it.
You cannot get this wrong.
How Much Private Time Is There?
Retreat stays here are deliberately spacious.
Your accommodation is private. You have your own space to return to between sessions. The 106 acres are yours to wander. The days are loose by design.
This is not a resort with group activities and communal meals you’re expected to attend. There are no scheduled gatherings. No one will knock on your door. You will have as much solitude as you need.
For many, this unstructured time turns out to be one of the most important parts of the whole stay.
You may choose to bring a friend or partner. Small group retreats for up to four people are available and can be shaped around what you’re all here for.
What Happens After You Leave?
This is the question not enough people think to ask before they come.
Healing work that reaches the body and nervous system at depth doesn’t end when you drive out of the gate. The days that follow a retreat often bring continued movement. Insights that arrive gradually. Emotions that surface in unexpected moments. A sensitivity that needs a little more care than usual.
This is not a sign that something went wrong. It is a sign that something began.
Integration is part of the process. Some people find they want to journal, walk, sleep more, or simply be quieter for a few days. Trust that impulse. Be gentle with yourself in the days that follow.
If something feels unclear, or you want to talk through your experience after you leave, I’m reachable..
For the Part of You That’s Still Not Sure
If you’ve read this far, something in you is probably already considering it.
That pull toward the land, the horses, the idea of a few days that are genuinely for you — that is worth listening to.
You don’t have to know exactly why you want to come. You don’t have to be at your lowest point to deserve this kind of space. You don’t have to arrive ready, certain, or clear.
You just have to be willing.
The herd and I will be here when you are.
