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At 'Creative Retreat' workshops, our aim is to teach to stretch fully and free your mind and body of expectation. You will better understand your innate possibilities and the world around you. It is done through creative and physical activity and by sharing experiences.

You have opportunity to benefit from a professional, safe, supporting, inspiring and welcoming environment. There will be no expectations, judgment or questions. Personal attention is ensured throughout as there will only be five people in any workshop.

You are invited to discover and unleash your hidden potentials and perhaps confront and overcome the challenges of any fears or personal obstacles which you may be faced with. It could be challenging.

The daily schedule is geared towards mealtime, where a specially designed menu of delicious homemade food is offered and where will be an opportunity to socialize.

The first workshop takes place in a beautiful space, secluded in nature, but with easy access to civilization.

Upon arrival, you will be asked to find an outdoor location where you will start your journey the following day. Although everyone will work independently, all relate to each other.

You construct by any means available, a three dimensional form representing a previously given theme.

It is important to realise this is a process of creative freedom where you are not expected to make an object that has artistic merit or possesses even any aspects of aesthetic beauty. Instead you are encouraged to freely enjoy the physical activity, the creating process in itself, without putting emphasis on the final product.

I wish you to engage openly with the surrounding nature, focusing on your feelings rather than using your intellectual prowess. In this first stage, five day workshop there is plenty of space for exploration inside and outside.

Whether you go along with, or rebel against, the set program you will leave with a new experience and have the opportunity, if you wish, to pursue your journey further in the follow up workshops of which the second stage is a day's adventure, set in an urban environment.

"The CR Workshop was incredibly interesting and informative. I was surprised how the forces of nature conspired to help the creative process and reveal inner secrets about my true self. Making the physical foreground in the work provided a gateway to the spontaneous creative urges often inhibited by the restraints of our daily professional lives."

"An exceptionally fantastic place to be with our souls stripped down to the bone. I cannot imagine anybody else but Gabriella — as our 'shepherd' — to help us reach a state that probably was unknown for some of us."

"The amazing food just made the whole memory seem further from reality. It was really nice to forget the word 'needs' for a week, to forget about our pixilated life."

For further information about upcoming events please contact ella@gabriellasimon.com