Reflect, Restore, Reweave, Renew, Reimagine

Transforming Grief Into Hope

23-25 October 2026 | Port Stephens Hinterland, NSW

Transforming Grief Into Hope

Facilitator: Sarah Tolmie

You are invited to a weekend of deep connection, self-care, and renewal. Reflect on your journey, restore your spirit, reweave your story, renew your sense of hope, and reimagine your future through ritual and shared experience. Come as you are. Leave with a heart more open, a spirit more resilient, and a renewed sense of belonging.

Gentle Sessions and Healing Spaces

Through gentle group sessions, creative expression, ritual, and quiet reflection, you’ll gain practical tools and new wisdom for your grief journey.

Safe Space

In this small group retreat, you’ll experience the profound healing of being truly seen and heard, surrounded by women who understand the power of tears, laughter, and the quiet strength found in shared stories.

About Sarah Tolmie

Throughout the weekend you’ll be guided by Sarah Tolmie, a Holistic Therapist, Celebrant, and Sacred Deathcare Practitioner, whose compassionate presence and expertise create a safe, healing space for transformation.

Learning to Live, Love and Laugh Again

We all love. We all grieve. Grief is not a flaw-it is a natural response to love and loss that connects us all. This women-only weekend retreat offers a gentle place for honouring the full spectrum of grief, from quiet sadness to the fierce love that drives it. You’ll explore how to safely navigate and integrate losses, deaths, and injustices – not by “getting over” them, but by letting your grief flow, honouring its wisdom, and learning to live, love, and laugh again.

Healthy Grief = Life + Love + Loss.

Your weekend at a glance

Day 1

Friday

4.00pm: Check in

6.00pm: Dinner

7.45pm – 8.45pm: Welcome: Meditation/ Visualisation
Grief enables you to survive losses by immersing you in the deep river that flows underneath all life. If you can’t move into your grief, you may only experience destabilisation and dissociation in response to the shock of loss, injustice, inequality, and death – instead of being cleansed and renewed in the river of all souls.

Day 2

Saturday

Breakfast (self-serve) in bed or at leisure

10.00am-11.30am: Morning Session
Meeting Grief - Who are you grieving? What are you grieving? How are you grieving? Where are you grieving? Why are you grieving?
Goal Setting - how to be in mindful, meaningful, and healthy relationship with your grief?

12:30pm: Lunch

3.00pm – 4.30pm: Afternoon Session
Expressing Grief - Riding the waterfalls, waves, floods, torrents, runs and ripples…
Finding Hope - Drinking from Wisdom of the WELL

6:30pm: Dinner

8.00pm-9.00pm: Evening Session (optional)
Rituals for Grief – enacting, transforming and harnessing our deep soul energy

Day 3

Sunday

Breakfast (self-serve) in bed or at leisure

10.00am – 11.30am: Morning Session (Final)
Making Meaning - Making bridges, crossing the river, reflections
Integrating Grief and Living Well with Loss - Learning to live, love, and laugh again.

12.00pm: Depart

Accommodation & meals

Your retreat package includes:

Two nights’ accommodation in a private room
All meals, snacks, and refreshments supplied throughout your stay
Fresh linen, towels, tea/coffee facilities
Access to tranquil gardens, pool areas, and quiet outdoor spaces

Meals can be enjoyed communally, in your room, or outdoors, depending on what feels most restful and supportive to you.

Who is this weekend for?

Women seeking healing from:

bereavement and death
relationship endings
identity transitions
illness or health changes
family estrangement or rupture
career or life-path shifts
cumulative losses or emotional overwhelm

Whether your grief is fresh or deeply buried, your presence is welcome here.

I recently spent a weekend at The Women's Healing Sanctuary and attended a Grief Matters Workshop. It was an amazing weekend. Not only was it value for money, the ambience, and peace of the facility was just perfect. Host Janine could not have been a more empathetic person. Not only was her cooking comforting but her graciously calm demeanor wrapped around myself and other participants like the flames of a big open fire, warming and lightening the way. Mandy our workshop facilitator was professional, compassionate and was there when needed but allowed the workshop process to move on organically when it could. I'm looking forward to my next visit which is most likely to be a pamper weekend before the winter is over.