Unique Retreats for Women — How it got started

Unique Retreats is now 14 years old. People often ask me how Unique Retreats began? With my being ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity), you can imagine it had an impulsive beginning.

I was on a horseback trip across Wales, going over one moor after another, tiny sheep jutting between the hoofs. We stopped at a little outpost and the guide said we could go in and buy postcards. I was so upset, I couldn’t remember anyone in my life to send a card to. After we got going again, I suddenly thought of all the people I love family and friends I could have sent cards to. It shocked me that my mind had been so empty I couldn’t even remember my parents!

As I thought more about that, going over more moors, I realized that the rhythm of the horse’s movement and the thump of the hoofs against the soil had rocked my brain empty. I was still marveling at that (and a bit scared, wondering if I’d get my brain back) when the idea of horses helping people solve problems crept in, and by the end of the next hour, I had designed the entire retreat. Given my experience, I saw some metaphors about horses, including the rhythms can free the mind from “stuff,” allowing new ideas to emerge.

For the first many years, Unique Retreats for Women met at Graves Mountain Lodge, in Syria, VA. (just outside Washington, DC), and horseback riding was an integral part. The theme was taking the reins of your life in your own hands. When I moved away from the East coast, the retreats took a different focus.

Now, though, we’re going back to Graves Mountain Lodge. Of course there will be changes (the wonderful guide, Tommy Shea, is no longer with them). But, it will again be special in the most important way you will get clarity in areas of your life where you want change, and you’ll do it while having fun, meeting other women, enjoying the fantastic views, eating to your heart’s content. The all work and no play adage doesn’t fit here work and play are so integral, you won’t be able to tell one from the other!

So, if you want plenty of space to roam the outdoors and your personal indoors, if want time to contemplate and see your problems from a different perspective; if you want answers to your questions, as well as answers to questions you may not even know you have — make sure save November 12-14.

There’s one catch, though. Reservations must be made by October 7 in order to hold a space for you.

If you have questions about whether this retreat is for you, call or email me.

This is the last Unique Retreats for Women for the year 2010.

It’s an opportunity not to be missed.

Dr. Karen Gail Lewis is a marriage and family therapist (39 years) and author of numerous relationship books — on marriage, for singles, about adult siblings. Her latest is Why Don’t You Understand? A Gender Relationship Dictionary. For 16 years, she has run Unique Retreats For Women, weekends for self-growth and fun.