From Contraction to Expansion retreat

Move from freeze to flow, from bracing to relaxation, from stuckness to movement… Reset your inner compass to joy.

Do you feel constantly on edge, as if you can’t fully relax?

your body tense, your energy low, your mind still busy — even in moments of rest?

This private, women-only retreat gently guides your nervous system from contraction, tension, and alertness into joy, expansion, and inner ease.

Offering a gentle and profound, holistic, neurobiological approach to releasing underlying intensity—subtle or strong—that may have been present for a long time: a sense of not quite being good enough, or not fully at ease in yourself.

Together we gently support your system to reorganise and find its natural rhythm again in ways that feel attuned, safe, and nourishing. So life becomes less about bracing… and more about the joy of fully being, reconnecting with your own source of vitality, creativity, and Inner Sparkle.

Through a thoughtfully woven blend of Organic Intelligence® Coaching, NIA Move to Heal, Feldenkrais, dance, and embodied creativity, you are invited to reconnect with your body, your sensations, and your natural way of being and moving.

At the heart of my approach is MAMA—Map, Anchor, Move, Align: a four-pillar, soul-led somatic pathway rooted in your neurobiology. MAMA gently supports your system in shifting out of cycles of intensity and patterns of overwhelm and holding– so your body can soften, your nervous system can settle, supporting you in responding to life with more aliveness and ease.

Through this integrated approach, you are guided to:

  • Reconnect with your Sensuous Body Wise and the full spectrum of sensations—without overwhelm
  • Shift neuro-muscular patterns from holding and bracing into ease, presence, and flow
  • Rewire your nervous system toward safety, aliveness, and responding with ease
  • Anchor into your Sentient Inner Wisdom—your inner compass and Playful Self Wise for vitality, joy, and self-alignment

Dance, move, create, feel, and open into a renewed connection with yourself, your energy, and your joy.

Experience sunrises over the mountains, settle in tranquility, move and dance in nature, breathe in fresh air. Reconnect with your own source of vitality, creativity, and embodied aliveness.

Would you like to meet the Mystic Healer within you… Let your nervous system rediscover ease, presence and playfulness?

Wonderful Blend of Somatic Practice, Relaxation, Community, and Nature

Pingel is a truly gifted facilitator—full of energy, kindness, and deep knowledge. Her guidance made me feel safe to explore movement, release tension, and reconnect with myself in ways I didn’t expect. Each session felt nourishing, insightful, and transformative.

Monica Findlay

Scotland, UK

Are you longing to feel more peaceful and grounded in your body again?

In this intimate, private women-only somatic dance, movement, and creativity retreat, your experience is fully tailored to your body, your nervous system, and your unique journey.

I help you shift from a body organised around “something in me is not okay” to a body that feels safe to be, express and receive as it is. Together, we gently unwind intense, efforting patterns—physical, emotional, and neurological—so your system can soften, reorganize, and open.

As these layers release, your sensuous, intuitive wisdom re-appears… your natural capacity to feel, sense, and move through life with fluidity, ease, and trust. We create the conditions—like nutrient-rich soil—for your inner world to grow and bloom, so you can create a beautiful life from who you are.

Deeply personal experience—body-centered, soul-led, and fully tailored to you.

This is a fully personalized 1:1 retreat, held in a warm, supportive, and relaxed environment. Every session, practice, and moment is adapted to meet your system where it is—so you can move at your own pace, explore safely, and reconnect with your body, your energy, and your inner compass.

I hold the space for you to meet yourself fully, gently, and on your terms. Your journey is yours alone, guided with care, presence, and deep listening to your system. Everything is adapted to your unique needs, ensuring a retreat that truly serves your body, nervous system, and inner growth.

What this supports:

  • Releasing patterns of holding, bracing, and hyper-alertness
  • Reconnecting with your body, senses, and inner signals
  • Expanding your capacity to feel without overwhelm
  • Moving with more ease, pleasure, and confidence
  • Accessing creativity, intuition, and aliveness

Are you ready to dance through life with more flow, trust, and inner sparkle?

The Intelligence of Your Living System

The biological channels through which you experience life—sensing, feeling, intuiting, thinking, moving, and imagining—are deeply interconnected. Each one continuously shapes and is shaped by the others. How you feel influences how you think and act. How you perceive the world shapes how you feel, and in turn how you respond.

Together, they form a dynamic network that guides how you move through life—how you act, relate, and experience yourself. They are in constant dialogue, informing your nervous system moment by moment and providing the living input that shapes your brain’s patterns.

When protective patterns are operating in the background, with past painful experiences lingering, your biological channels can become pulled into more intense states—continuously signaling danger to your nervous system.

Coming into presence—here and now—you begin to sense your body in direct relationship with your environment, rather than through the lens of the past. As awareness of the present deepens and you move with what is here and now, your system begins to shift. You become more at ease, more connected, and more able to meet life with clarity and flow.

Healing doesn’t need to be forceful or overwhelming. Your nervous system reorganizes most effectively in conditions of safety, curiosity, and ease. Beneath patterns of tension and bracing, your body holds a natural capacity to restore balance, resilience, and vitality.

Meet this quiet intelligence within you—your Inner Mystical Healer.

Are you often overthinking, pleasing, or on alert?

Do you feel like there is a constant undercurrent of tension and unease in you?

If this feels familiar, you’re not alone. This is often what happens when your system has been carrying too much intensity for too long.

When your nervous system begins to reorganise, something subtle but profound starts to shift. The inner intensity settles. The body no longer needs to stay in constant bracing. Little by little, you may notice more space inside, more breath, more ease. As this happens, perception changes. The way you relate to yourself softens. Emotions that once felt overwhelming—often connected to not feeling good enough or fully at ease in yourself—begin to lose their grip. The world feels different. And you start to meet yourself, and life, from a more grounded and present place—more fully as who you are.

This retreat supports your system in shifting from protection into easeful connection with the world around you, and invites you to explore what it feels like to be fully you from a place of embodied ease and Inner Sparkle.

Nestled amidst peaceful olive and citrus groves, Jardín de Luz Inner Sparkle Sanctuary offers a serene space to breathe, explore, and awaken your senses—inviting curious connection with your body, your energy, and the vibrant life within you.

Imagine…
Starting the day with a reviving breakfast as the first sunbeams touch your skin, followed by a gentle, playful NIA Move to Heal session that awakens your body, mind, and spirit. Explore, laugh, and discover the gateways your system offers to heal itself.

Come to your senses in the quiet aliveness of nature, and nourish yourself with Organic Intelligence® sessions over home-baked delights and a fresh, garden-inspired lunch. Early afternoons invite walks in the surrounding nature, dreamy moments in hammocks, refreshing dips in the pool, or simply soaking in the sun-dappled groves.

Late afternoons ease into a slower pace with somatic movement meditations or playful creativity. We end the day with a delicious, nurturing dinner .“As dusk settles and bed calls, crickets softly sing under the starry skies, before nature drifts into sleep.

The Approach

This retreat weaves together a unique blend of:

NIA Move to Heal – Dance, move, and play in a sensory-rich practice that awakens vitality, joy, and fluidity in body, mind, and spirit.

Feldenkrais Method – Gentle, mindful movements that release limiting patterns, restore ease, and teach your brain new, effortless yet playful ways of moving through life.

Organic Intelligence® Post-Trauma Growth Coaching – Neurobiological coaching that helps your system self-organize, restore balance, and reconnect with your inner compass, resilience, and joy.

Embodied Creativity – A guided journey of self-exploration through expressive dance, play, somatic-intuitive constellations, voice dialogue, active imagery, energy work, and somatic creative processes.

At the heart of it is MAMA—Map, Anchor, Move, Align, a four-pillar, soul-led somatic pathway rooted in the natural intelligence of your neurobiology, created by me.

Through MAMA, you will:

  • Map your body and senses in the here-and-now
  • Anchor safely in your body
  • Move from your body’s wisdom, shifting tension into fluidity
  • Align your inner compass with vitality, joy, and self-trust

Everything is adapted to your unique needs, ensuring a retreat that truly serves your body, nervous system, and inner growth.

All bookings go through Bookretreats.com 

I invite you to step out of patterns that keep you holding back—and into a body that feels alive, at ease, and free to move with pleasure and confidence.

In this intimate, private women-only somatic dance, movement, and creativity retreat, your experience is fully tailored to your body, your nervous system, and your unique journey. Together, we gently unwind hyper-vigilant, efforting patterns—physical, emotional, and neurological—so your system can soften, reorganize, and open.

As these layers release, something new becomes available: your sensuous, intuitive wisdom… your natural capacity to feel, sense, and move through life with fluidity, ease, and trust. We create the conditions—like nutrient-rich soil—for your inner world to grow and bloom, so you can create a beautiful life from who you are

A deeply personal experience—body-centered, soul-led, and fully tailored to you

This is a fully personalized 1:1 retreat, held in a warm, supportive, and relaxed environment. Every session, practice, and moment is adapted to meet your system where it is—so you can move at your own pace, explore safely, and reconnect with your body, your energy, and your inner compass.

Here, you can meet yourself fully, gently, and on your terms. Your journey is yours alone, guided with care, presence, and deep listening to your system.

Please contact me through Bookretreats prior to booking to get to know each other and feel whether we are a fit for your journey. And discuss the availability of the chosen dates.

Information about our accommodation possibilities, daily program, prices and food can be found on our Bookretreat.com page

All retreats include:

  • Breakfast, Lunch, dinner, drinks & snacks
  • All  sessions mentioned in the program of the retreat
  • Accommodation at Jardin de Luz
  • The trips mentioned in the program

Not included are:

  • Your travel expenses
  • Transport to and from the airport
  • Accommodation other than in Jardin de Luz
  • Travel insurance
  • Additional 1-1 sessions
  • Trips not mentioned in the program

Testimonial by Deborah

As I transitioned through my 60th birthday into the third age of my life, I wanted to honor this rite of passage and spend time deepening into my whole self and what is arising in and through me at this time. I was drawn to Pingel and her solo retreat because of the...

Testimonial by Sharon de Boer

Inward journey surrounded by love and beauty 😍 My 6-day Retreat with Pingel (& Peter, cats, Noah the dog & chicken ladies ;)) was absolutely wonderful. I chose this Retreat to do some soul-searching and work on trauma-related issues and wanted a 1:1 setting....

Testimonial by Nina Kirstina Ravn

The atmosphere at Jardin de Luz was very heart-warming, and I truly enjoyed my stay at Peter's and Pingel's sanctuary.The place is so full of life-force energy, and I can only recommend it. Pingel is one of the most inspiring people I've met, and she works her magic...

Testimonial by Donna Mattingley

Reward yourself with this retreat! What initially appealed to me was the dance element in the description but I had no idea that NIA and the Feldenkrais method would give me a different perspective in my healing journey.  Pingel and Peter have the ability to make you...

Testimonial by Taima Sunde

10/10 retreat! I had been feeling very low and had been struggling for a very long time with my self-image and self-esteem. When winter arrives my struggles usually intensify so this year I decided to do something active about it. It is also the last month of the year...

Testimonial by Michelle Wigmans

Ready to get to know your body and take a deep dive. I needed some time for myself, a break from work and daily life.  The dancing part of the retreat attracted me.  It was a deep dive in personal development. For me it opened up some patterns and things that are...

Testimonial by Angelica Escoto

Dear Pingel, I just wanted to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the amazing dancing retreat that I attended recently. Your guidance and instruction were truly transformative for me. Your big heart and warm personality made me feel safe and supported...

Testimonial by Sintija Kazaka

Me is real Me I was just a bypasser of my own life. I needed to start to feel and be me again.  I chose this offering as it was a 1:1 retreat with the word 'freedom' in a description of what I wanted, and it didn't matter that it involved dancing. The resistance in...

Testimonial by Hollie

I was very very depressed following some difficult situations, losing my job and a break up from a very toxic relationship. This retreat offered something different from the usual yoga offering. This experience was probably the single best investment I have ever made....

Testimonial by Margrietje

A life changing experience ! This retreat has taught me to feel and connect with my body, down to earth so I can feel the connection with others again and bring more joy in my life. Thank you so much, Pingel and Peter!

Testimonial by Lori Briscoe

What a beautiful experience I was blessed with. Thank you so much. I look forward to the creation of my new life and can embrace I have lived my dreams. Your retreat has and wil continue to have a profound effect in my life moving forward. Thank you for helping me...

Testimonial by Charlotte Campbell

I found my inner sparkle I went to the retreat because of personal and professional burnout. Loss of sense of self and inner peace. I liked that Pingel offered 1:1. That it had Therapeutic benefits offered through dance and creative methods. Fresh whole foods, set in...

Testimonial by Natalie Rose Roberts

An amazing transformative retreat! I felt really stressed, over-whelmed and disconnected to myself and my loved ones.  I wanted to specifically do a somatic retreat using dance and movement to reconnect with myself. When I saw that this was a Personal 1:1 retreat;...

Testimonial by Elizabeth

Incredibly Grateful Aged 66 my 40 year marriage had ended and had featured traumas for me. Historically I had felt 'not good enough' and lacked confidence socially. In the past I'd had repeated episodes of talking therapies which were an outlet but didn't help to...

Testimonial by Katelijjn

A Joyful Change of Perspective I wanted to change my perspective in order to transform detrimental personal programs into helpful personal programs. The dance part made me choose this retreat, together with the presence of cats... A change of perspective, where...

Testimonial by Melissa Levebvre

My retreat at Jardin de Luz was magical. At first, you see this land, surrounded by mountains and full of olive and fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and sweet animals. Everything is there to help you feel supported and encourage openness. And then there’s Pingel and...

Testimonial by Federica Fornara

Expect the unexpected! I wanted to improve the body/mind connection.  I experienced a rich, accurate and flexible program, thanks to Pingel's multidisciplinary skills. She is able to approach with great sensitivity, respect, intelligence and a joyful attitude, the...

Testimonial by Elitsa Tilkidzhieva

Amazing! This retreat was the most intense and transformative self-awareness I have ever experienced. I am a therapist myself and have gone through years of personal therapy and training, but the depth and the immersive experience Pingel offered was something very...

Testimonial by Christie

I Am so glad that I chose this retreat I had been in a state of high anxiety for months, with serious doubts over my relationship and my life choices. I felt completely stuck in life and needed help finding a way forward. I was originally looking for a yoga retreat to...

Testimonial by Eline

Dear Pingel and Peter, My private retreat at your center was such a great experience! What I recall the most is the transformative power of intuitive dance. Pingel has a lot of knowledge of different types of somatic dance. She knows exactly what to use for your...

Testimonial by Cristal

Recharged Battery 🙂 I came to recharge my batteries after many months of high stress, and the experience was deeply restorative. Pingel gently guided me to explore new possibilities, creating a safe and supportive space to connect with my body and emotions. I also...

Testimonial by Debi

I Am Deeply Thankful for this Experience! I had panic attacks and felt stuck, and have chronic pain issues. I love to move and knew that that kind of somatic dance work would fit best for me, and it did. Found new perspectives. Tools to listen to my body and set some...

Testimonial by Claire Bentley

Attending the emotional healing retreat was truly transformative for me. It provided me with invaluable insights into my learned behaviors and triggers for my emotions, shedding light on areas I naturally avoided confronting. One of the most impactful lessons was...