http://www.returntoyourself.zone/

Return to Yourself Retreat, Fazana (2026)

18/04/2026

We are so afraid of being seen.

We are afraid others will leave if they see the parts of us we are ashamed of.

The hidden parts.

The parts that were dismissed growing up.

The parts that keep us stuck in life.

In my sessions with my clients I get to see and hear what is not revealed out there.

I get to experience the real deal.

Raw and intimate connections.

Vulnerable and open human to human encounters.

Away from shoulds and norms
We let go of external pressure

Knowing we are safe and held
We surrender to the yearning within

We peel away the layers
And take of the social masks

When naked emotionally

We allow for closeness
And connection

We give ourselves a chance
To be seen and heard

For that felt, magical encounter
The most intimate human experience.

The irony?

Our fears hold the greatest power over us

To keep us stuck Or to awaken and transform us

Remember

Shame dies when brought to life.

And freedom lies in the art of surrendering to ones own true and whole being.

💫

- Edita Petojevic

01/04/2026

Today I got to try breathwork with my friend and colleague, Aneta.

I had the opportunity to be guided through a grounding breathwork session.

I have co-facilitated many breathwork sessions, I have been guided by many different facilitators, and I’m currently undergoing a breathwork course.

Aneta’s way of guiding resonated deeply with me.

It was intuitive, grounded, and soothing.

The rhythm, the pace, the words and the music—all of it resonated with me.

Aneta created a safe space where I was able to connect with my body,

feel the tensions stored,

and release whatever was not serving me.

At the end of the session I felt immense gratitude,

towards my heart for holding space for so many people,

towards Aneta for holding space for me,

and immense joy that life brought us together.

In a month we’ll be holding space for 20 lovely participants who are flying in from all over the 🌍 to Fažana, Croatia,

to breathe, feel, connect & return to themselves. ⚓️💫

We can't wait! 🥰

Thank you for the beautiful soul you are and for all the light you bring to this world. ❤️

25/03/2026

Do you meet yourselves where it hurts?

Or do you disguise your pain in shame, anxiety and anger?

Do you allow yourself to be seen when you are hurting?

Or do you cover up the pain in pride, override it in talk and hide it in the dark?

Meeting ourselves in our pain is the greatest act of courage.

Allowing ourselves to be seen when we are in pain leads to the most intimate connections.
With ourselves and with the other.

As children we need someone to hold our pain. To help us regulate our emotions. We need that holding of our emotions in order to learn to sit with our emotions.

We need someone to give us permission to feel our feelings. Through words of validation. And through demonstration.

How can we allow ourselves to feel our pain if we've learned to reject it? To suppress it?

Lejla and I were privileged to meet so many brave individuals in Sarajevo, Bosnia and to guide them through their pain. Brave souls who dared to go where it hurts and share with us.

We reached profound connection and healing.

We were also able to share our pain and by doing so give others indirect permission to feel.

It's ok not be ok.

It's ok if you are carrying wounds from the past.

It's ok if you feel stuck in your pain, not knowing how to move forward.

All of it is ok.

You are ok, no matter where you are in the process.

Your feelings are not hurting you. The cover up is.

Going back to our country of origin activated some of our own memories. It opened up some of our own wounds.

Holding our own inner child while guiding others to do the same felt so special.

I can even say that it brought us light and relief.

Daring to be with what is led to feelings of relief.

Daring to be seen and heard brought feelings of connection.

We invite you to take your own disguise off.

We invite you to be you.

To own your life story.

No matter where you are on your journey.

We invite you to return to yourself. ⚓️💫❤️

06/02/2026

We are so excited to welcome every single one of these beautiful human beings to magical Fažana, Croatia where they will participate in a holistic program that will bring them closer to their inner child, playfulness and authenticity. We'll connect, heal, and grow together in the most profound ways and in the most inspirational setting. 🌊🌞

Can May come already!? 🥰

30/01/2026

This morning a colleague sent me a photo from 2017—the year I opened my private practice in Copenhagen.

I was 32, newly returned from a year-long maternity leave with my son. I had been employed at a clinic in Malmö, Sweden, and I realized I didn’t want to go back. I envisioned opening my own practice, creating work that connected with people from across the globe, and delivering therapy free from the constraints of rigid regulations that limited how deeply I could work with clients.

Motherhood changed me. Amongst many things, it made me reevaluate how I viewed time and space. I wanted the flexibility to set my own hours so I could be present for my child and family, while still dedicating meaningful time to my work. I wanted to create and I wanted to contribute more. I yearned for this opportunity.

A couple of years before this, I had begun seeing private clients in Stockholm, but our move to Malmö led me back to employment. From that moment on, I knew I would start my own practice; I was just waiting for the right moment.

Although Copenhagen remained my goal, I hardly knew any people in Copenhagen, not to mention that I had no network of colleagues. I started googling and found Peter MacFarlane, an American psychotherapist practicing privately in central Copenhagen. I reached out, sent him an email, and asked for a meeting. A week later I was on a train to meet him, to present a business proposal.

How ballsy, now when I think about it. I just went for it, focusing on the goal and didn't worry much about being rejected.

Peter and I launched MacFarlane Psychology Group together—a group that grew to become one of the biggest English therapy services in Copenhagen (and Denmark).

9 years later, I'm sitting in my office in Fazana, Croatia and reflecting on that period. How much I've grown from listening to my needs and from daring to step outside of my comfort zone.

The most important steps?

1) Daring to ask ourselves—what do I really want and need?

2) Trusting that we are worthy of meeting our needs and wants.

3) Having the courage to take risks to get where we want to go.

The takeaway?

Dare to do what you love and the rest will follow.

— Edita Petojevic

27/11/2025

PS: Due to your requests, we’re adding freediving and windsurfing for all levels. 🌊🏄‍♀️🏊‍♂️

Plus boat rides for island hopping. 🚤

Countdown to May 2026 begins! 🥰

20/11/2025

Have you ever felt not wanting to leave a place, a life you’ve built?

Today I’m headed on a seven-day work trip alone, and this morning I woke up with a resistance I’ve never felt before: I don’t want to go.

All my life I’ve been on the move.

Since the war when I was eight, we fled and rebuilt. Through my teens we moved with my family. Then I traveled with basketball—first with Sweden’s national team, then professionally in the U.S. and many years in Europe; playing basketball, studying, and working. Moving from country to country felt more normal than staying.

As I packed the last items, preparing to leave my husband and kids, I noticed a pressure in my chest and a knot in my throat. Anxiety tangled with sadness. I don’t want to leave.

For the first time, leaving scared me. This was a new feeling. One that surprised me.

A fear of something happening to me overwhelmed me, and that I might not return to my children. A sadness about leaving our everyday routines—the very routines that ground me and bring me joy.

I felt a kind of absence even before departing.

And then it hit me: returning to yourself, creating a home within and in your daily life, makes you want to stay put.

So many of us—myself included—are very often focused on what comes next. In fact, for as long as I can remember I've moved from one goal to the next.

Today, all I could feel was a desire to stay and continue savoring what is.

My sadness softened into peace with this realization. My best friend’s words helped, too: “Imagine how lucky and privileged you are to have created a life you don’t want to leave.”

I suppose this is the ultimate return home: wanting to stay with what is, and exactly where you are.

Fear and sadness gave way to peace, and a deeper insight emerged.

Authenticity means embracing all your emotions and gathering the courage to leave when needed.

It also means trusting that everything you need is in you and awaits you when you return.

💡

02/11/2025

Within us, we feel a strong pull toward authenticity. We all long to come home. ⚓️

Think about the moments when you’ve felt seen—when someone recognizes you as you are, hears what you’re truly saying, and understands you. I can imagine you wanted to prolong that moment, just as I do, just as we all do. That’s what it means to be human.

We are all longing to be seen, to be recognized and accepted as we truly are. Yet often, we disguise our true selves. We may experience difficulties that make us feel unsafe being our authentic selves. So we start covering up, accommodating, pleasing, or avoiding in order to be accepted.

This is survival. We do our best to endure, yet inside, the yearning to come home never goes away.

I know what that feels like. My colleagues know what that feels like. We feel called to guide our clients and retreat participants home through intuitive, evidence-based, and structured therapies and practices.

In 2026, we have a packed program of workshops. ✨️

In March and April, we’ll invite participants from Istria to join our group therapy, where we’ll offer breathwork, kinesiology, sound healing, and emotional processing guided by and . 💫

In May, we are organizing two retreats where will fly from the US to Istria, Croatia, to spend a month in Europe, co-hosting the retreats together with and . 🙌🏼 We’ll also be joined by & 🙏🏼

At the beginning of June, we’ll head to Novi Sad, Serbia, to offer a healing space for the local population who needs it after a long period of uncertainty and struggle in Serbia. ❤️

Before diving into 2026, we are going to wrap up 2025 with a women’s circle in Copenhagen, Denmark, where and guide 14 lovely women home. 💫

Our work is a continuous journey. It begins with us and flows outward to those we support. The deeper we meet ourselves, the deeper we can meet others. And so we travel onward, always returning to home, time and again. ⚓️🌍💫

15/10/2025

~ Our Spring RTY Program is filling up 🥳🙏🏼💫

When I first created the Return to Yourself Program 3.5 years ago, my aim was simple: to help people access deeper, more lasting healing. While psychotherapy provides a strong foundation, I’ve often felt that a reset and a calming of the nervous system are essential to ground people in their bodies and the present moment. So, I distilled long-term therapy into a five-day immersion that weaves together conditioning, inner child work, playfulness, and authenticity.

In this program, we honor the body, breath, and emotional processing to reach core issues more deeply. I had no idea it would evolve into an annual offering that attracts participants from around the world. The connections formed in each group touch me deeply, and I’m grateful for the healing that unfolds—one person and one group at a time.

We currently have six people signed up, with four spots remaining for the first RTY program, taking place May 13–17. 🥳 I’m grateful for this work, which fills me with joy and purpose. ❤️

A special thank you to my colleagues for helping me make this magic happen. 🙌🏼✨️

09/10/2025

My suffering comes from forgetting who I am.

My stressors and worries come from an illusion:

That I need to be something else.

That I am not enough.

That I need to prove myself.

Becoming myself is about letting go of those illusions.

The realization that we are all going to die—and that the creation of reality is often based on thoughts—shows that whatever we identify with is often our way of protecting ourselves against pain and, ultimately, the notion of death.

Returning to myself is a constant reminder that I am not my thoughts.

My connection with the bigger picture frees me. It allows me to let go of judgments and to connect with the infinity—there is one consciousness, and we are connected to the same consciousness.

Some call it God. I call it Love.

09/10/2025

My suffering comes from forgetting who I am.

My stressors and worries come from an illusion:

That I need to be something else.

That I am not enough.

That I need to prove myself.

Becoming myself is about letting go of those illusions.

The realization that we are all going to die—and that the creation of reality is often based on thoughts—shows that whatever we identify with is often our way of protecting ourselves against pain and, ultimately, the notion of death.

Returning to myself is a constant reminder that I am not my thoughts.

My connection with the bigger picture frees me. It allows me to let go of judgments and to connect with the infinity—there is one consciousness, and we are connected to the same consciousness.

Some call it God. I call it Love.

17/09/2025

Let me share a story that inspired me.

This past weekend, we took our eight-year-old windsurfing. On the way, his little brother, who is five, insists on giving windsurfing a try. I call the instructor to tell him. He says that Oli (our five-year-old) is too young. When we arrive, Big bro heads out to surf like a pro, while the little guy watches and keeps insisting he wants to try. After the class ends, I speak frankly with the instructor: if he wants to try, let him. What’s the worst that could happen—he discovers he can’t do it, and that’s that?

As I say this, I realize the instructor is operating on old assumptions, while my five-year-old is guided only by pure desire to get on that board. Long story short, Oli—my five-year-old—eventually gets on the board, and, oh my, is he happy. He’s literally bursting with joy as he strains to hold the boom, feel the wind, and balance his feet. I expected fear, but it’s not there—the joy and perseverance pull him forward, and he keeps at it for a full hour.

When he finally steps off, I ask,
“How was it?”
“It was great, Mom. When can I go again?”

This experience made me reflect.
I almost stopped my child from windsurfing, almost letting old truths and “maybes” block him from that immense joy and growth on the board. It made me think of all the times we adults let our own rationales convince us something won’t work, and how often our doubts and fears get in the way. We can learn so much from children. In fact, that child lives inside us all, if we’re brave enough to quiet the mind.

After this experience, I decided to include windsurfing in my Return to Yourself Program for Spring 2026.
Oli inspired me to invite adults to try getting on the board. In the process of doubting and falling, the child within comes out to play—and that’s exactly the lesson I want participants to take away.

It’s okay if you can’t do it. It’s okay to fall. Not trying, though, dismisses your inner child and, ultimately, your playful, authentic self.

Return to Yourself Retreat

18/04/2026

01/04/2026

25/03/2026

06/02/2026

30/01/2026

27/11/2025

20/11/2025

02/11/2025

15/10/2025

09/10/2025

09/10/2025

17/09/2025

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