Our retreats can incorporate counselling, coaching and debriefing support (see below for more details), an effective and complementary combination intended to help people identify and work through emotional difficulties, process challenging events, and find practical solutions for personal and organisational issues.
Every programme is uniquely tailored to each individual or couple. After you first contact us, we will arrange an initial assessment call in order to understand your present situation, something of your background, and your particular support needs.
We will also talk through how best to structure your retreat. We recommend that guests come for either one or two weeks, with two hours of sessions each day alongside plenty of space for rest and reflection. This gives people an opportunity to step away from ordinary routines to undertake an in-depth personal and practical reset.
For those unable to commit to that amount of time, we can also work with you to structure a more compressed programme over fewer days. And for those who are unable to travel here in person, we also offer the option of an online retreat package.
Counselling
The primary aim in counselling is to help people address and resolve emotional issues such as anxiety, depression, conflict, and trauma.
This is done by creating a safe space to explore present and past challenges and the potentially difficult feelings attached to them. This in turn helps people examine and resolve stuck and repetitive patterns of relating to both self and others in a way that fosters deeper security, stability, and wellbeing.
At High Meadow, we can support you with longstanding issues or more recent challenges. We have particular expertise in helping people recover from traumatic experiences and can offer EMDR, an effective and supportive trauma therapy, as part of this work.
Coaching
Coaching takes a more pragmatic future-oriented approach to identifying practical challenges, transitions or “stuck places” and working through them in a structured way.
This happens in dialogue with the coach, who will ask thought-provoking questions and reflect back what they are hearing to help individuals reframe ideas, gain fresh perspective and make decisions. Although coaching may include discussion of emotional difficulties, the focus is more on addressing practical challenges or obstacles in order to gain clarity, enhance performance and take meaningful action.
Debriefing
Debriefing is a space to tell your story and process recent events to make sense of them and come to terms with their impact on you.
Marriage Retreat
Life in ministry places significant pressure on any marriage. Amid many competing priorities, spouses can gradually drift apart, sometimes without even realizing it.
Our marriage retreat programme is designed to help married couples enhance their capacity to communicate, deepen their emotional bond and generally revitalize their relationship. This process is particularly helpful for couples who feel they have got stuck in painful and repetitive patterns of relating.
The programme is based on Emotionally Focussed Therapy (EFT), a thoroughly researched model of couple therapy with well validated and lasting outcomes.
Online Retreat
We are very aware that some people may not have the time or the resources to travel to High Meadow in person.
We are sadly unable at this point to offer programmes for whole families, so we are also mindful that many people with childcare responsibilities would find it hard to get away.
We are therefore happy to talk through the possibility of offering an online retreat. We ask those interested in this option to consider making space in their calendar so that they are taking a full break from their usual work commitments during their High Meadow programme.
Aftercare
We very much hope that the counselling and coaching sessions here will give you the chance to make profound and lasting changes in your life.
It is important to acknowledge, however, that there are limits to how much can be fully resolved and worked through in a limited period of time. We recognize, therefore, that your time at High Meadow may be the beginning of a longer process.
Bearing this in mind, we are building a network of Christian therapists and coaches who are available for longer term support. We will discuss ongoing needs with you while you are here with a view to signposting you to continuing care, where requested.
In order to support you along the way, your retreat package will include a follow-up coaching session three to six months after your stay in order to reflect on the impact of your time here and consider progress with the goals that you identified.
Training
We offer courses on:
- Cross-Cultural Communication Skills
- Coaching Skills for Leaders
- Psychological First Aid
- Created for Connection
All our courses can all be provided online or in-person.
If you are interested in a specific topic for your team or organisation, or would like to be added to our mailing list to receive news of upcoming events, please contact us at .
Confidentiality and Safeguarding
You can be assured that everything you discuss with us at High Meadow will be kept in the strictest confidence. If you would like a report to be sent to your organisation/company, we would be happy to do that with your consent. In accordance with safeguarding legislation and clinical ethics codes, we are legally bound to contact the relevant authorities/medical practitioners if you disclose a serious risk of harm to yourself or others.
Please note that we are a small team committed to delivering the highest possible standards of counselling and coaching support with the resources that we have. We do not have the clinical capacity to provide the longer-term speciality care needed for issues such as active addiction, psychosis, self-harm, ongoing eating disorders, suicidality, marital abuse or active affairs. If these are identified during the assessment process, we will provide guidance and advice on where to seek appropriate support.
