Healing Trauma Retreats

31/12/2025

This year has held goodness for me.
Work I care deeply about recognised.
New ground explored with one-day workshops, and more taking shape.
A home finished. A garden beginning.
A marriage that feels steady and kind.

And alongside that, a deep awareness of how much pain the world is carrying.

I’m learning to let both exist.
To tend what is close, without turning away from what is hard.
To stay human, not hardened.

Wishing you a gentler New Year. 🌙

31/12/2025

Not everything that hurt this year needed to teach you something.

Some experiences weren’t lessons.
They were simply hard.
They unsettled your sense of safety, rhythm, or trust.

You don’t need to make meaning from everything in order to move forward.
You don’t need to turn pain into growth.
And you don’t need to feel grateful for what was genuinely difficult.

From a trauma-informed perspective, experiences that overwhelm the nervous system don’t automatically lead to healing.
What supports recovery often comes later:
being met with care, being listened to, being allowed to feel without being rushed or corrected.

If this year left you more tired, more discerning, quieter, or less willing to push through — that isn’t something to judge.
It can be a sign of a system learning how to protect itself.

You’re allowed to reach the end of the year without neat conclusions.
You’re allowed to carry what hasn’t resolved yet.
You’re allowed to arrive here just as you are.

Some years aren’t about becoming someone new.
They’re about staying connected to yourself.

I wish you a happy, gentler New Year.

If you feel drawn to explore support in the year ahead, I’m available for a discreet discovery call.

Tess Hunneybell
Psychologist
WhatsApp:+39 339 126 2908
tess@healingtraumaretreat.com

25/12/2025

Happy Christmas from Senegal ❤️😘🫶🏿🫶🏻

23/12/2025

15/12/2025

Re-Humanisation Is the Real Revolution
By Tess Hunneybell

I am not calling for silence.
I am not calling for passivity.

I am calling for re-humanisation.

That means refusing language that strips people of dignity. Naming manipulation when we see it. Pausing before we share outrage. Teaching nervous-system literacy alongside critical thinking.

This is not softness.
This is strength.

A regulated nervous system is far harder to manipulate — and far less useful to war economies.

⸻

Let’s Start a Revolution Against Hate

I am a trauma psychotherapist.
I work with the nervous system every day.

I know what it feels like to be safe in my body.
And I know what it feels like to be in real danger.

That difference matters.

Because when you understand the body — not just the intellect — you can see what hate actually is. Hate is not simply opinion, disagreement, or free speech taken too far. It is a physiological state — one that can be deliberately induced, sustained, and exploited.

I am gentle by nature but feisty.
I am deeply fed up with watching my world be manipulated for greed.

⸻

Hate Is Not Accidental. It Is Manufactured.

Before people can be attacked, expelled, or killed, they must first be stripped of their humanity.

This is not a dramatic claim. It is a documented psychological process.

Neuroscience research shows that when groups are described using animalistic or mechanistic language — vermin, parasites, invaders, machines — the brain’s empathy networks quieten (Harris & Fiske, 2006). The nervous system literally stops responding to another’s suffering as if it matters.

Language does this.
Fear does this.
Repetition does this.

Hate prepares the body — not just the mind — for violence.

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Rage Bait and the Hijacking of the Nervous System

We now live inside an economy that feeds on emotional activation.

“Rage bait” is the term researchers use for content designed to provoke anger and outrage because these emotions drive attention, clicks, and profit. Algorithms do not reward wisdom or nuance. They reward arousal.

Large studies show that angry content spreads faster and further than content rooted in empathy or grief (Brady et al., 2017). Anger releases adrenaline and dopamine. It feels energising. Certain. Righteous.

From a trauma perspective, this is dangerous.

A nervous system in fight-or-flight does not pause to reflect. It reacts.
And reaction is profitable.

⸻

Hate Sells — And It Sells Weapons

Let’s be honest.

Hate doesn’t just divide societies.
It makes a great deal of money.

Fear has always driven spending. Since the year 2000, global military expenditure has more than tripled. In 2024, the world spent an estimated $2.7 trillion on military defence — the highest figure ever recorded. Arms manufacturers generate hundreds of billions in annual revenue while populations are kept in a near-constant state of threat.

From a nervous-system perspective, this is not accidental. When people feel unsafe, they accept militarisation as protection. They tolerate escalation. They stop asking harder questions.

Hate creates demand:
for weapons framed as “security”,
for borders framed as “safety”,
for enemies framed as “necessary”.

I am tired of pretending this is coincidence.

⸻

Why Hate Feels So Compelling

This is the part we must be honest about.

Hate works because it offers something immediate.

It gives identity.
It gives belonging.
It gives a place to put fear and helplessness.

Neuroimaging studies show that morally justified anger activates reward circuits in the brain (Aarts et al., 2012). It can feel good — briefly.

But trauma teaches us something essential:

Relief is not regulation.

Hate discharges emotion without resolving it. The body stays braced. The danger never truly passes. Over time, this state becomes exhausting — and addictive.

Hate feels powerful.
It actually makes us easier to control.

⸻

From Language to Harm

Words do not remain words.

Longitudinal studies show that spikes in dehumanising online language often precede increases in real-world hate crimes (Müller & Schwarz, 2021). Language creates permission.

Silence matters too.

When hateful speech goes unchallenged, it becomes normalised — even among those who privately disagree (Paluck et al., 2016). This is how cultures slide, quietly, into cruelty.

I see the consequences of this in therapy rooms every day — not only in those targeted by hate, but in those who have absorbed it. Hatred corrodes the nervous system of the hater as well.

⸻

What Actually Changes Things

The research is clear.

Hate is reduced not only through rules and consequences, but through education and regulation.

Prejudice decreases when people learn:
• how identity is complex and overlapping
• how algorithms manipulate emotion
• how to regulate the nervous system under stress
• how to think critically without dehumanising

Educational programmes that explain how hate works psychologically are more effective than those that simply condemn it (Banas et al., 2020).

Awareness restores choice.
Regulation restores agency.

⸻

The Line I Will Not Cross

I know what safety feels like in my body.
And I know what danger feels like.

I will not be persuaded to hate my way into either.

Every day we are invited to pick enemies, pick outrage, pick fear.

But there is another choice:
to stay human,
to stay regulated,
to ask — again and again — who benefits when we hate?

That is where the real revolution begins.

Quietly.
Firmly.
And together.

13/12/2025

Flashing some privilege today 💫

I’m grateful to have been able to care for a child in need today. On the way out of a private clinic in Dakar we met a poor woman begging for money to help her little 5 year boy, Amadou. He was peeing blood. Aliou, my gentle husband spoke to her and took the little lad out of her arms and into the hospital.
The child was seen straight away by the chief medical officer, an urology specialist, who carried out a scan. He had a urinary infection. His mother was deeply worried — the child has a history of illness, and she was afraid.
We took care of everything and made sure she and her child could get home safely, with enough support to help them through the next couple of weeks.

His little face made my heart melt🥰

09/12/2025

Sarah B, Dubai

“Now I feel much more myself.”

I wanted to go on a retreat after my recent cancer treatment, relationship problems, and loss of self. I chose this offering as it had a unique focus on trauma therapy, as well as yoga — and the opportunity to spend time with a small group of like-minded women.

I had some important realisations in a professionally supported environment and was given tools to support myself going forward. I also made a couple of big leaps in my yoga practice. Now I feel much more “myself.”

Tess and the yoga teachers were wonderfully supportive — and also knew when to challenge me. Go if you are willing to be open and challenged, as well as closely and lovingly supported.

2025 Update – During the retreat, I came to a life-changing realisation: I was about to marry the wrong person. I had even been planning to put a deposit down on a venue that very week. With space, clarity, and support, I could finally see the truth — his behaviour was controlling and emotionally abusive.

Two years on, I’m deeply grateful I walked away. I’m now in a loving, respectful relationship and at peace with the path I chose.

03/12/2025

Seeing our retreat featured in Condé Nast Traveller today — in their piece “Can immersive retreats help heal trauma?” — landed more deeply than I expected.

To have the Healing Trauma Retreat acknowledged and credited by a magazine of this calibre… it’s one of those moments that makes you stop, breathe, and take it in. And this wasn’t a paid mention — they found us because of our reputation, our work, and the transformations they kept hearing about. That makes it even more meaningful.

What we do isn’t flashy. It’s not superficial. It’s slow, intimate, somatic, and deeply human. So being recognised for creating a space where women can regulate their nervous systems, reconnect with their bodies, and begin to release what they’ve carried for far too long — it means more than I can say.

I feel both proud and humbled. Proud of the years of work, study, and devotion that have shaped these retreats. Proud of every woman who has walked up the monastery steps ready to face herself with such courage. And humbled because healing is always a shared journey — one we walk together, breath by breath, layer by layer.

And it is absolutely team work. None of this would be possible without Eszter Balázs and Viktoria Varga — their presence, their skill, their integrity, and the tenderness they bring into every retreat. I’m endlessly grateful to walk beside them.

Every transformation I witness reminds me why I do this. When a woman arrives with tension in her shoulders, a guarded heart, or a nervous system stuck on high alert… and leaves softer, clearer, more anchored in herself — it is a sacred honour I never take lightly.

To everyone who has trusted me and trusted the retreat: thank you. Your stories, your bravery, your willingness to feel again — this is the real work.

If you’ve been wondering whether there is a place for you to unravel, to rest, to come back home to your body — there is. And it would be my honour to walk beside you.

You are invited to a complimentary discovery call to help you decide if this retreat is for you.

With love,
Tess
WhatsApp: +39 339 126 2908

https://www.cntraveller.com/article/can-immersive-retreats-help-heal-trauma?fbclid=IwdGRleAOdE11leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeicnvPyITs2dbv7zW4THP60yDez5EDsWPWwcvX2MXtZ_CPDTmUqIjDiD-p5I_aem_v3iX-pnrmeinxlmfNSSuCA

Trauma retreats are gaining popularity and have evolved into immersive sanctuaries that blend neuroscience, somatic healing, and spirituality. Jane Alexander explores the new breed of therapies at The Held Space

02/12/2025

Sally M, U.K
🌿 “A Life-Changing Experience — More Than I Ever Imagined”

I didn’t quite know what I was looking for when I stumbled upon Tess’s website, but something deep inside me knew I needed help. I kept finding myself drawn back to it, again and again. When I finally reached out to Tess, I felt a flicker of hope that maybe, just maybe, she might be the answer I was searching for.
From that very first conversation, I felt completely at ease. Tess has such a calm, grounded presence that instantly made me feel safe. Despite never having done yoga before, and being unsure about spending seven days with five complete strangers, something told me to take the leap — though I’ll admit, I was sceptical. Could a single week really make any meaningful difference? Was this retreat even the right place for me? Could it possibly live up to what I’d seen online?
Wow — how wrong I was to have any doubts.
Those seven days at San Flaviano have truly changed my life.
From the moment you arrive, every part of you — body, mind, and spirit — is nurtured, supported, and gently held. The location is beyond beautiful — peaceful, expansive, soul-soothing. The food, created lovingly by Eszter and Viktoria, is both nourishing and spectacular; every meal a delight. We all found ourselves asking for recipes, hoping to carry just a taste of the experience home with us.
The mornings began with gentle yoga and somatic movement sessions — accessible even for complete beginners like me — held in the garden or within the walls of the ancient monastery. The evenings were spent in the same peaceful rhythm, helping us wind down and connect with ourselves. Every detail felt intentional and healing. These sessions were guided by Eszter & Viktoria.
Tess’s one-to-one and group sessions are, quite honestly, beyond words. She has a gift — a rare ability to help you look deep within yourself with compassion, clarity, and honesty. The work was powerful, at times emotional, but always transformative. Tess isn’t just a counsellor — she’s a healer, a guide, and truly, a miracle worker.
Eszter and Viktoria were angels in every sense.. Alongside preparing divine meals, they offered healing massages and reflexology, and even took us on a beautiful afternoon outing to a nearby village. Their presence added such warmth and magic to the entire experience.
I’d worried about how I’d feel sharing this journey with a group of strangers, but those women — all so different — quickly became trusted friends. We shared stories, laughter, tears, and moments of deep connection. I now believe that Tess’s thoughtful pre-retreat calls help her create groups that naturally gel — we were all searching for something, and we’d all been drawn to her for a reason.
Whatever the magic formula is, it works.
If you’re hesitating — if part of you is longing for something but you’re unsure or afraid — take the step. Do it. This retreat is one of the best things I’ve ever done, and I’ll be forever grateful I found the courage to say yes to myself.
The location, the people, the healing — everything was incredible. I loved the fresh air, the walks, the moments of stillness. It was everything I didn’t know I needed — and more.