Meet your hosts · Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre
Meet Dan & Tomaz, the two people who’ll hold your retreat
Founders, hosts and retreat holders at Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Awakening Alchemy is a private retreat centre personally held by us — Dan Shepherd and Tomaz Mueller.
We’re the ones you’ll write to, the ones who greet you at the door, and the ones who guide you through every day of your stay. No middle layer, no handover.
We live here, care for the house and gardens, prepare the food, welcome each guest and guide the retreat process ourselves.
Your retreat is never handed off to staff you’ve never met. From your very first message to the quiet rhythm of your final morning, you’re held by the two people who built this place and who shape it, in real time, around the person actually in the room.
For many guests, choosing a retreat is not only about the setting or the treatments. It is about whether the people holding the space feel safe, steady and trustworthy.
So before you decide anything, let us introduce ourselves, tell you why we built Awakening Alchemy, and show you what it feels like to be cared for here. When it feels right, reaching out is simple.
Your enquiry is completely private and confidential, and there’s no pressure to book. Just a thoughtful conversation.
Our home
A retreat centre personally held by Dan and Tomaz
Awakening Alchemy Retreat Centre is our home. When you come here for a private retreat, you’re welcomed into a home where every small detail has been considered with you in mind.
The quiet of the house.
The warmth of the fire.
The food prepared for your body and digestion.
The rhythm between sessions.
The privacy of the garden.
And the space to simply rest, without performing, explaining, or holding yourself together for anyone.
We specialise in private, bespoke retreats for one guest, a couple, or a small private group. Most guests come for three to seven days. Some arrive exhausted and depleted. Some are carrying grief, stress, emotional pain or old patterns. Some are navigating a crossroads. Some are drawn to deepen their connection with themselves and their inner life.
You don’t need to arrive with it all worked out. The retreat is shaped around the person who arrives.
Why we created it
Why we created Awakening Alchemy
Awakening Alchemy grew from one simple question we couldn’t let go of:
What kind of retreat space would truly help someone feel safe enough to rest, soften and reconnect with themselves?
We never wanted a busy wellness venue, or a fixed programme where everyone is handed the same experience. We wanted something far more personal.
- A place where one guest, a couple or a small private group could step away from ordinary life and be properly supported.
- A place where the house, food, gardens, sessions and quiet time all worked together.
- A place where rest could be respected, deeper inner work could be held carefully, and the retreat could adapt as the guest’s needs became clearer.
The first seed of the idea came during the Covid years, when Dan felt a strong pull to leave London and create a retreat centre in the countryside. Tomaz, with many years of experience in Ayurvedic clinics, retreat environments and holistic wellness, understood both the beauty of that vision and the practical devotion it would require.
That combination still shapes the centre today. Dan brought vision, embodiment and a lived understanding of stress and burnout. Tomaz brought depth, steadiness and decades of experience in retreat work, Ayurveda, meditation and personalised care.
After an earlier chapter holding retreats in Devon, we found our way to rural Aberdeenshire, to a historic granite mill beside Midmar Forest on the Hill of Fare.
This became the home of Awakening Alchemy: a private retreat centre for people who need more than a holiday, and who are looking for rest, reflection, healing, transition, embodiment or deeper inner work in a space that feels personal, grounded and carefully held.
Our approach
How we hold the space
Holding a retreat is not only about what happens in a session. It is also about the rhythm of the day, the quality of the welcome, the food you are given, the space between conversations, the privacy you have, and the way your needs are noticed without you having to explain everything.
At Awakening Alchemy we hold just one retreat at a time, so your experience stays genuinely private, responsive and personal to you.
Before you arrive, we take time to understand what has brought you here, what you may need support with, and whether the retreat feels suitable. During your stay, we pay attention to how you are responding. Some guests need deep rest before anything else. Some benefit from gentle body-based work. Some are ready for emotional exploration. Some need quiet, nourishment, sound, meditation, time in nature and space to sleep.
We never force a process. We shape the retreat around what is supportive, appropriate and able to be received.
What this can mean in practice
- You have private accommodation and your own guest spaces.
- You have private use of the gardens and grounds during your retreat.
- Your food is prepared from scratch and tailored around your dietary needs, preferences and retreat process.
- Your sessions are chosen and adapted depending on what feels most supportive.
- Your evenings are spacious so you can rest, reflect, read, journal, sleep or simply be quiet.
Supported, but never crowded.
Guided, but never pushed.
Cared for, without ever losing your own space.
Dan Shepherd
Dan: grounding, embodiment and calm presence
Dan brings the grounding and embodied side of Awakening Alchemy. His work is especially supportive for guests who arrive tense, exhausted, overwhelmed, physically guarded or disconnected from their body.
Dan is an Alexander Technique practitioner and intuitive energy healer. His approach combines body awareness, mindful movement, gentle touch, calm presence and a deep interest in how the mind, body and nervous system influence one another.
His path into this work began through his own experience of stress and burnout. That lived understanding matters here. Dan knows how easily the body can become a place of bracing, pushing through and quiet survival. He also knows that change does not always begin with talking.
Sometimes it begins with feeling safe enough to notice your breath.
To soften your shoulders.
To become aware of the effort you did not realise you were carrying.
To sense that your body is not something to overcome, but something to listen to.
Before moving into holistic health and retreat work, Dan’s background included a degree in astrophysics, a master’s in environmental management and work in the field of corporate sustainability and leadership. This gives his work a thoughtful, grounded and enquiring quality.
He is intuitive, but not vague.
Gentle, but clear.
Calm, but deeply attentive.
Dan’s role at the retreat centre
Dan may support you through Alexander Technique sessions, body-based awareness, meditation, sound, energy healing, reflective conversation or integration after deeper emotional or energetic work.
His role is not to fix you. It is to help you reconnect with ease, balance and self-trust in a way your body can actually receive.
Tomaz Mueller
Tomaz: depth, steadiness and intuitive care
Tomaz brings depth, steadiness and long experience in holistic wellness. His work is rooted in nearly 40 years of Ayurveda, meditation, retreat work and personalised support. He has worked internationally in Ayurvedic clinics, retreat settings, teaching and consultancy, and brings that experience into Awakening Alchemy in a warm, practical and very human way.
What matters most here is not the length of his background. It is how his experience is felt.
In the way he listens.
In the way he notices what may support someone’s balance.
In the care he brings to food, treatments, beautifully curated rooms and atmosphere.
In the steady presence he offers when deeper work begins to unfold.
Tomaz brings traditional Ayurvedic knowledge, intuitive guidance, meditation, hypnosis, IFS-informed coaching, sound, nourishment and carefully chosen holistic approaches into a retreat setting that remains personal rather than formal.
He is experienced without being distant.
Deep without being dramatic.
Precise without being rigid.
Tomaz’s role at the retreat centre
Tomaz may support you through Ayurveda, meditation, hypnosis, sound, energy-based healing, frequency treatments, reflective inner work, nourishing food and retreat guidance.
He also brings a strong sense of beauty and hospitality to the centre itself. The rooms are not generic. The food is not an afterthought. The atmosphere is part of the retreat. For many guests, Tomaz’s care is felt in both the sessions and the everyday details: the tea, the meal, the room, the timing, the remembered preference — the sense that someone is paying attention without intruding.
His role is to help you feel met with steadiness, warmth and respect for your own pace.
Find out more about Tomaz
If you’d like to get a feel for Tomaz’s wider work before you enquire, you can explore his book, his online course and his social channels.
Two people, one retreat
Different strengths, one carefully held retreat
We bring different strengths to the retreat. That is part of what makes the experience feel balanced.
Dan often brings the grounding, embodied and integrative quality — helping guests reconnect with the body, soften tension, find ease and absorb what is shifting.
Tomaz often brings the depth of long holistic experience — Ayurveda, meditation, energy work, nourishment, intuitive insight and the creation of a beautiful, restorative environment.
Together, we hold the retreat as a whole. We speak with each other throughout your stay. We notice how you are responding. We consider what may need to slow down, what may need more space, and what kind of support would be most helpful next.
Sometimes the best next step is a session.
Sometimes it is a walk in the garden.
Sometimes it is rest.
Sometimes it is a conversation that helps something become clear.
The retreat has structure, but it is not rigid.
It has depth, but it does not need to be intense.
It is guided by experience, but shaped around you.
Being held
What it means to be held here
Being held here does not mean being watched over constantly. It means you do not have to carry the whole retreat by yourself.
The space has been prepared before you arrive. Your food, room, sessions, quiet time and daily rhythm have been considered. There is room for you to arrive tired, tender, tense, unsure, hopeful or simply in need of silence.
There is room for rest.
There is room for emotion.
There is room for not knowing.
There is also room for honest conversation about what is suitable. If we feel another form of support would be more appropriate, we will say so.
Awakening Alchemy can offer a deeply supportive environment for rest, reflection, personal growth and inner work, but it is not a substitute for medical treatment, psychotherapy, psychiatric care or crisis support.
Our role is to hold the retreat with care, integrity and respect. You do not need to arrive perfectly clear. You only need to begin with what is true.
In their words
What guests often say
Guests often describe the same things in different words. They speak about warmth. They speak about the food. They speak about the beauty of the house and gardens. They speak about feeling safe, welcomed and personally cared for. They speak about arriving exhausted or burdened, then leaving lighter, clearer or more connected to themselves.
Selected guest language
“A space where your nervous system can finally relax.”
“Tomaz and Dan anticipated every need.”
“The one-on-one care here is on another level — truly bespoke.”
“Dan and Tomaz are incredible people. Attentive, understanding and absolutely full of knowledge.”
“They are so warm and welcoming… if you are taking part in any ceremonies or treatments you will be so nurtured and safe.”
“Every detail, from the peaceful surroundings to the carefully curated practices, felt deeply intentional.”
These words matter because they reflect what we hope each guest feels here.
Not impressed from a distance.
Personally met.
Gently supported.
Safe enough to rest, reflect and receive.
Is it for you?
Who tends to feel at home here
Awakening Alchemy is best suited to thoughtful, self-aware people who are ready to step away from ordinary life for a few days and be privately supported.
You may not know exactly what you need yet. You may simply know that pushing through is no longer enough.
Some guests are exhausted, depleted or close to burnout, and are drawn to the Rest & Restore pathway. Some are carrying grief, emotional pain, old wounds or patterns that feel ready to be met with care, and are drawn to The Healing Path. Others come because they are navigating transition, living with physical tension or pain, seeking deeper inner connection, or sensing that something in their life needs to change.
Across all of these pathways, the deeper need is often the same:
- Privacy.
- Care.
- Space.
- Skilled one-to-one support.
- A retreat that can meet you where you are, rather than asking you to fit a fixed programme.
Rest & Restore
For exhausted professionals, leaders and carers who need deep rest and burnout recovery.
The Healing Path
For those carrying grief, emotional pain, old wounds or patterns that feel ready to be met with care.
Life Reorientation
For those navigating transition, crossroads or a sense that something needs to change.
From Pain to Peace
For those living with physical tension, chronic pain or body-held stress.
Conscious Deepening
For those seeking deeper inner connection, spiritual enquiry or personal growth.
Sacred Allies
For those drawn to plant medicine, ceremony or sacred inner work.
You do not need to be experienced in meditation, bodywork, energy healing or inner work. You do need to be open, self-responsible and willing to participate honestly in your own process.
This is not a place for performance or dramatic promises. It is a place for quiet depth, personal attention and carefully held change.
Experience
Experience that supports the way we work
Experience matters, but we do not want this page to feel like a list of credentials. What matters most is whether our experience helps you feel safe, supported and well cared for during your retreat.
Training and experience in Alexander Technique, body awareness, mindful movement, intuitive energy work, meditation and mind-body integration. His work is also shaped by lived experience of stress and burnout, and by an earlier background in science, sustainability and leadership.
Nearly 40 years of experience in Ayurveda, meditation, holistic wellness, retreat work, teaching and personalised care. His background includes international work with high-profile clients in Ayurvedic clinics and retreat settings, alongside a deep understanding of nourishment, digestion, atmosphere and the details that help people feel genuinely looked after.
Together, we bring different forms of experience into one retreat environment. We try to wear that experience lightly. It is there to support the work, not dominate it.
The enquiry process
What happens before you book
The enquiry process is gentle, private and completely no-obligation. You don’t need to know which retreat pathway is right for you before getting in touch. That’s exactly what we’ll help you figure out.
You send an enquiry
You can simply tell us what has been happening and why you are considering a retreat. You may be clear about what you need, or you may only have a sense that something needs to change. Both are welcome.
We ask a few thoughtful questions
We will ask about your hopes, energy levels, current support, dietary needs, access needs and anything important for us to understand before suggesting a retreat. This helps us consider what kind of support may be appropriate.
We explore suitability
A retreat here can be deeply supportive, but it is not suitable for every situation. We will be honest if we feel another form of support would be more appropriate.
We suggest a retreat shape
If it feels like a good fit, we will discuss dates, length of stay, practicalities, investment and which retreat pathway or combination of pathways may best support you. The plan is not rigid. It gives us a thoughtful starting point.
You decide
There’s never any pressure to book. The whole point is to help you reach a clear, grounded decision that feels right for you.
Before you enquire
Questions people often ask before enquiring
Will Dan and Tomaz personally hold my retreat?
Do I need to know which retreat pathway is right for me?
Will there be other guests?
What if I only need rest?
What if deeper emotional material comes up?
Is Awakening Alchemy a clinical or therapeutic programme?
Where is the retreat centre?
What is the first step?
Begin gently
Begin with a private conversation
Choosing a retreat is a personal thing. It is not only about the room, the treatments or the location. It is about whether the space feels right, whether the people feel safe, and whether you can imagine arriving here and allowing yourself to be supported.
If something in you feels drawn to Awakening Alchemy, we’d love to hear from you. You can begin gently, and at your own pace. You don’t need to know exactly what you need — just tell us a little about what’s been happening and what you’re hoping for, and we’ll take it from there.