Retreat Season — Kelowna, Canada
Travelling retreats for therapists and practice owners, run from Kelowna, BC
Retreat Season has no single campus. Its address is an office on Harvey Avenue in Kelowna, British Columbia, and its rooms change with the calendar: a spa resort above the Okanagan, a cave house on Naxos, a beachfront villa in Costa Rica, the pilgrim hostels of northern Portugal and Spain.
The founder is Nicole Ripley, a trauma therapist and seasoned retreat host who owns a group practice with more than 100 staff and ten locations across British Columbia. Over two decades she has paired clinical work with study and service abroad: Cape Town and Western Australia, anti-human trafficking work in Nepal, street-involved youth in India. Those years left her convinced that deep change happens when people step out of their routines. After the death of her son, she writes, her purpose sharpened toward joy and presence, for herself and for others.
The guests are therapists, counsellors and practice owners. The earliest retreat listed was in November 2023, a Counsellor Connect weekend at Sparkling Hill Resort & Spa in Vernon, with workshops, steam and sauna rooms, a journaling session and optional morning nature walks. Since then the groups have kept to small numbers. A Maldives retreat in February 2027 caps at ten participants. A Sparkling Hill planning weekend in May 2026 offered fourteen spots.
The work is practical. Participants build 12-month strategic plans, study revenue and retention, and talk openly about money and retirement. The most unusual program is the grief retreat on the Camino de Santiago in September 2026: 130 km on foot from Porto into Spain, nine days, nights in albergues, and 10 continuing education credits earned through grief exercises woven into the daily walk. The pages call it a hard walk, and say that the effort is part of the learning.
Upcoming are the Maldives retreat on Dhigurah Island and an executive retreat for group practice owners at Casa Fajara in the Algarve, the latter already sold out.
Traditions: Guided Reflection, Journaling, Pilgrimage Walking, Leadership Yoga, Nature Walks, Experiential Grief Work
Programs: Counsellor Connect Retreat, GPO Strategic Planning Retreat, Experiential Grief Skills on the Camino, Profit & Purpose Retreat, Diversify Your Revenue Streams Retreat, Redefining Resilience Retreat, Strategic Planning & Self-Care Retreat, Finance, Leadership & Legacy Retreat