Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre
Your Journey - Your Sanctuary
Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre
Your Journey - Your Sanctuary
Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre · Aberdeenshire
Private, one-to-one retreats for rest, reflection and deeper healing
A calm retreat centre in rural Aberdeenshire, for people who need more than a holiday. You get your own private space, home-cooked meals, daily one-to-one support, and all the time you need to slow down and feel like yourself again.
This isn’t a group retreat, a spa break, a hotel getaway or a clinical programme. It’s a quiet, carefully held place for people who want privacy, real care and room to breathe.
Your enquiry comes straight to Dan and Tomaz — it’s private, personal, and there’s no obligation to book.
At a glance
Your retreat at a glance
Location
Midmar, rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Format
Private personalised retreat for one guest, a couple or a small private group
Typical stay
4–7 nights
Includes
Private accommodation, meals, daily one-to-one sessions, treatments where appropriate, quiet space and integration time
Setting
A historic granite mill near Midmar Forest, with private guest spaces, gardens and grounds
Held by
Dan and Tomaz, the founders of the retreat centre
Best for
Rest, restoration, emotional healing, life transition, body-based support, spiritual deepening or carefully held inner work
Investment
From £2,650 for a four-night private retreat
Not: a group retreat, spa break, hotel-style holiday or clinical programme.
You don’t need to have it all worked out before you get in touch.
Why people come
A quiet place to stop carrying everything alone
Most people come to us when an ordinary break just isn’t enough any more. They’re often worn out, stretched thin, holding tension in the body, grieving, or in the middle of a big life change — or simply aware that something inside needs attention.
What people notice first usually isn’t the comfortable house or the views. It’s the feeling of being quietly looked after, with nothing expected of them.
A slower rhythm.
A warm meal.
A fire in the lounge.
A quiet garden path.
A conversation that does not need to be rushed.
Space to breathe, before anything has to be understood.
“I arrived frazzled and left feeling renewed, peaceful, and more myself.”
“From the moment I arrived, I felt embraced by a peaceful atmosphere and positive energy.”
“Tomaz and Dan’s warmth and genuine care made me feel deeply welcomed.”
A deeper pause
A place to pause when ordinary time away is not enough
People come to Awakening Alchemy when something in them is asking for a deeper kind of pause.
You might be worn out from holding too much for too long. You might be carrying grief, tension, pain or old patterns. You might be at a crossroads, unsure what comes next. You might feel disconnected from your body, your direction, or yourself. You might be longing for quiet — while sensing that rest alone may not be the whole answer.
You don’t need to arrive with all the answers.
You only need to start with what’s true right now.
Retreat pathways
Find the starting point that fits your reason for coming
These pathways are simply a way in — not fixed programmes. You don’t need to pick the perfect one before you get in touch.
Rest & Restore
For exhaustion, burnout and overwhelm. A quiet private retreat to help you step back from the pressure, settle your nervous system, and start to feel like yourself again.
Explore Rest & Restore →The Healing Path
For grief, emotional pain, and what you’ve carried for too long. A gently held space for meeting deeper feelings with steadiness, compassion and time.
Explore The Healing Path →Life Reorientation
For transitions, crossroads and uncertain next chapters. A reflective retreat for hearing yourself beneath the noise and finding a clearer sense of direction.
Explore Life Reorientation →From Pain to Peace
For physical tension, pain, body-based distress or a frazzled nervous system. A restorative pathway for rebuilding a calmer, kinder relationship with your body.
Explore From Pain to Peace →Conscious Deepening
For those already on an inner or spiritual path. A grounded pathway for deepening connection — without striving, performance or pressure.
Explore Conscious Deepening →Sacred Allies
For legal plant-allied ceremonial work and deeper self-exploration. A private, carefully held pathway for those drawn to work with legal plant allies such as Blue Lotus, Bobinsana or Mapacho.
Explore Sacred Allies →You don’t have to choose perfectly
Plenty of guests have no idea which pathway is right when they first get in touch. You might simply know that you’re tired, overwhelmed, in pain, grieving, or ready for something to change.
When you get in touch, we’ll help you work out whether one pathway fits, or whether your retreat is better shaped from a blend of them.
Your stay
Private, personal and shaped around you
There’s no fixed group schedule here. It’s a private stay, shaped around your needs, your energy and the reason you came.
Throughout your stay you’ll have your own space in the house, nourishing meals, daily one-to-one support, quiet indoor and outdoor places to be, and time between sessions to rest and let things settle.
Your days might include reflective conversation, meditation or breath practice, sound work, Alexander Technique-informed support, Ayurveda and body-based awareness, restorative treatments, frequency-based wellbeing therapies, quiet time in nature, or deeper inner work where it feels right.
Some people need nothing more than food, sleep, stillness and gentle support.
Others want space to explore what they’ve been carrying.
Either way, the retreat adapts as your needs become clearer.
Most common starting point
A closer look at Rest & Restore
Rest & Restore is often the most natural starting point if you feel exhausted, depleted, overwhelmed, or unable to switch off. It’s for people who are still holding it together on the outside, but inside feel flat, wired, stretched, or disconnected from themselves.
The retreat offers a calm private rhythm with nourishing meals, rest, nervous-system support, body-based work, restorative treatments, quiet evenings and space to recover a steadier relationship with yourself.
For some, it stays simple: sleep, food, nature, gentle support, and time away from everything that’s been asking too much. For others, deeper emotional patterns begin to show themselves. Where appropriate, elements of The Healing Path, Life Reorientation, From Pain to Peace or Soul Alchemy-informed work can be woven in carefully.
And you don’t need to know any of this in advance.
The setting
Held by the quiet of rural Aberdeenshire
Awakening Alchemy sits in Midmar, Aberdeenshire, on the Hill of Fare, close to Midmar Forest and around 25 minutes from Aberdeen airport and railway station.
The centre is a historic granite mill dating back to the early 1800s, and it feels like a home rather than an institution: warm rooms, characterful furniture, quiet corners, a guest lounge with a log fire, a dining room, a yoga and sound healing space, a small library, and private areas where you can settle into your own rhythm.
Outside, the gardens and grounds offer their own kind of support. There are ponds, trees, pathways, birdsong, open views, fields, woodland edges and places to sit quietly without needing to speak or explain anything.
For many guests, the land itself becomes part of the retreat.
A walk after breakfast.
A moment beside the water.
A pause by the trees.
A quiet evening sky.
A sense that there is finally enough room around you to hear yourself again.
Food & care
Nourishment is part of the retreat
Food is part of how we look after you.
Every meal is made with care from fresh ingredients, organic wherever possible, and adapted to your dietary needs, your preferences and where you are in your retreat.
Before you arrive, we ask about allergies, intolerances, likes, dislikes — anything that helps us look after you well.
Meals are nourishing, thoughtful and quietly generous — not formal, not performative, and not separate from the retreat itself.
Your hosts
Held personally by Dan and Tomaz
Awakening Alchemy is held by the two of us, Dan and Tomaz.
We live here, and we guide the whole thing ourselves — from your first enquiry through to your stay. We shape the rhythm of your days, run the sessions, cook and serve the food, and adjust the support as your needs become clearer.
Dan
Dan brings a grounded, body-aware approach to retreat support, with experience in meditation, Alexander Technique-informed work, restorative practice and holding space for people to slow down and reconnect with themselves.
Tomaz
Tomaz brings deep experience in Ayurveda, meditation, retreat environments, Soul Alchemy coaching and parts-informed inner work, supporting guests to meet what they are carrying with compassion and steadiness.
One carefully held retreat
Together, we offer a retreat that can meet both the need for rest and the deeper layers that may be asking for attention. The work is warm, careful, unhurried and personal. You won’t be passed around a team of facilitators — you’ll be looked after by the two people who built this place and care deeply about it.
Our approach
A retreat shaped around the person who arrives
Everyone’s different, so Awakening Alchemy is deliberately small, private and personal. We adapt to you day by day, hour by hour.
What makes it different isn’t any single treatment or method. It’s the way the whole retreat is held.
- One guest, couple or small private group at a time
- Private retreat environment
- Personalised support
- Integrated approach
- Adaptability
- Nourishment and practical care
- A real place, held by real people
Is it a fit?
Is this the right kind of retreat for you?
Awakening Alchemy may be a good fit if you’re looking for privacy, depth and one-to-one support in a calm setting.
This may be right for you if you are:
- Carrying grief, tension, pain or old patterns.
- At a crossroads or in transition.
- Seeking rest, reflection or deeper inner work.
- Open to holistic and integrative support.
- Willing to rest, listen, receive support and participate honestly in your own process.
- Looking for privacy rather than a social group experience.
- Drawn to meaningful change, but not force or pressure.
Another kind of support may be more appropriate if you are looking for:
- A quick-fix transformation.
- A busy group retreat.
- A social holiday.
- A luxury spa or hotel-style escape.
- A full activity schedule.
- A purely clinical service.
- Medical or psychiatric treatment.
- Acute crisis support.
- 24-hour care.
Awakening Alchemy offers a deeply supportive retreat environment, but it isn’t a substitute for medical care, psychiatric treatment, crisis support or hospital-based care.
If you’re not sure whether this is right for you, get in touch anyway — we’ll be honest and careful with you.
Investment
Retreat investment
Our retreats are private and bespoke, so there’s no one-size-fits-all price. Most guests stay between 4 and 7 nights. Retreat investment starts from £2,650 for a four-night private retreat.
We can also arrange custom retreat packages for two from £4,325 (£2,162 per person).
Four-night private retreat
Custom retreat for two · £2,162 per person
Investment includes private accommodation, meals, daily one-to-one support, retreat sessions and treatments where appropriate, and integration support.
We’ll always talk through the cost openly with you before anything is booked.
There’s no pressure to book. The first step is just a conversation about whether this is right for you.
The enquiry process
A gentle, private enquiry process
You don’t need to know exactly what you need before you reach out. The whole enquiry process is designed to help you make a clear, grounded decision.
You send an enquiry
Tell us what’s been happening, why you’re thinking about a retreat, and what you feel you might need. You don’t need the perfect words.
We ask a few thoughtful questions
This helps us understand your energy levels, hopes, needs, dietary requirements, access needs, current support and whether any deeper emotional themes may need to be held carefully.
We explore suitability
A private retreat can be deeply supportive, but it isn’t right for every situation. We’ll tell you honestly if another kind of support would serve you better.
We suggest a retreat shape
If it feels like a good fit, we will discuss possible dates, length of stay, practical details, investment and which retreat pathway or blend of pathways may be most supportive.
You decide
There’s no pressure to book. The aim is simply for you to feel clear, informed and settled in your decision.
Before you enquire
Questions you might be holding
Do I need to know which retreat pathway I need?
Is this a group retreat?
What is included in a retreat?
How long do retreats usually last?
Is this a spa or hotel-style break?
Is this therapy or clinical care?
What is the first step?
Come as you are
Come just as you are
You don’t need to arrive clear, composed or certain.
You may be tired.
You may be carrying too much.
You may not know which pathway fits.
You may simply know that something needs to change, and that you need space to listen.
We begin gently. With privacy. With care. With time.
With enough quiet for the next step to become clearer.