Return to Self
Retreat
BY CARMEN BALACIANU
KLOSTER KAPPEL AM ALBIS, SWITZERLAND
Slow down.
Remember.
Come home.
16–18 OCTOBER 2026 • KLOSTER KAPPEL AM ALBIS, SWITZERLAND
Return to Self
Retreat
BY CARMEN BALACIANU
Slow down. Remember. Come home.
The beginning
THE PAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN LONGING FOR
There is a particular kind of tiredness that sleep does not reach. It lives beneath the surface of a well managed life, in the gap between how capable you appear and how present you actually feel.
Most of us learn to manage that gap rather than close it. We schedule holidays that do not quite restore us. We take the courses, read the books, and return to the same life only slightly improved, never genuinely changed
return home
THE INVITATION
This retreat begins from a different premise. The reset you are looking for is not a technique. It is a remembering, of who you are beneath the accumulated weight of performance, expectation, and the relentless forward motion of a high achieving life.
Over one weekend, inside the ancient stone walls of a former Cistercian monastery in the hills above Zurich, you will have something rare: genuine permission to stop, to sit with what is, and to return home carrying something you forgot you had lost.
The call
THIS IS FOR YOU IF...
You are performing well on the outside and running on empty within. Something needs to change, but you cannot yet name what it is. You have achieved what you set out to achieve and feel oddly hollow. The ambition that once drove you no longer feels entirely yours.
"You will leave this weekend knowing who you are again. Not the version shaped by deadlines and expectation. The version that exists beneath the roles. Grounded, clear, and genuinely restored."
Return home
YOU WILL leave with:
A SETTLED BODY
Reconnect with the intelligence that lives in the body, with simple practices to sustain it.
A QUIETER MIND
Not silenced, but no longer running the show unchecked. Think from stillness rather than urgency.
CLARITY ON WHAT MATTERS
When the noise reduces, what remains is honest. Leave with a clearer sense of what you are living for.
SOMETHING RELEASED
Through guided releasing practice, set down a weight you may not have realised you were carrying.
A DIRECTION THAT IS YOURS
Not a five year plan. A felt sense of what you are moving toward, from the inside out.
TOOLS YOU WILL ACTUALLY USE
Simple practices for Self-inquiry, grounding, and releasing that work in ordinary life.
Your Sanctuary
NeSTLED IN NATURE
Kloster Kappel am Albis has held silence for centuries. Founded in the twelfth century and set among meadows and forest on the Albis ridge, this former Cistercian monastery carries a quality of presence that cannot be manufactured.
Less than an hour from Zurich, yet entirely removed from the pace of modern life. You do not need to travel far to find stillness. You need only to stop long enough for stillness to find you.
A gentle jouney
THE ARC OF THE WEEKEND
FRIDAY · 16:00 onward
Arriving and Releasing. A grounding practice, a welcome circle, and an early shared dinner. Nothing is asked of you except to arrive.
SATURDAY · Full day
Going Deeper. Morning yoga, guided Self-inquiry, a silent forest walk, and a releasing practice that helps you set down what no longer belongs to you. The day closes in candlelight.
SUNDAY · Until 16:00
Returning, Changed. A morning of integration, a closing ceremony, and a practical bridge back into ordinary life from steadier inner ground.
Your guide
CARMEN BALACIANU
Executive and Awakened Leadership Coach. Former SVP of Marketing at Roche Diagnostics. ICF certified. Camino de Santiago pilgrim. Carmen guides senior leaders through the threshold from high performing exhaustion to grounded, conscious leadership, drawing on somatic awareness, Lester Levenson’s releasing method, Self-inquiry, and Pránanadi energy healing. She does not teach a path she has only studied. She guides one she has walked.
when and where
DETAILS
DATE: 16 to 18 October 2026
TIMES: Friday 16:00 to Sunday 16:00
LOCATION Kloster Kappel am Albis, Switzerland
PARTICIPANTS: Maximum 10
INCLUDES: Accommodation, all meals, materials, integration call
Retreat options
INVESTMENT
Early bird pricing available until 15 August 2026. All accommodation, meals, and materials included.
| Early Bird, Shared Room Book before 15 August 2026 | CHF 1,900 |
| Early Bird, Single Room Book before 15 August 2026 | CHF 2,400 |
| Standard, Shared Room After 15 August 2026 | CHF 2,400 |
| Standard, Single Room After 15 August 2026 | CHF 2,900 |