2027
Introducing Wild Women Retreats
Something new is unfolding within Wild Stillness.
Again and again, I’ve seen what can happen when women are given genuine time and space to step away from the demands of everyday life, slow down together and listen more closely to themselves. Conversations deepen. Creativity opens something. Women recognise shared threads in one another’s stories — around courage, voice, self-trust, boundaries, identity and the lives they want to create.
Wild Women Retreats has grown from that.
Beginning in 2027… I’ll be offering a small collection of immersive four- and five-day retreats, each built around one meaningful question in women’s lives. Groups will remain intentionally small — around 10 women — creating the time and trust for honest reflection, real connection and experiences that can go deeper than a weekend away.
Each retreat brings together the heart of Wild Stillness — mindfulness, expressive art, nature, place, travel and shared experience — with a clear inner purpose.
The creativity and the landscapes are not simply things we do while we are there. They become ways of noticing, exploring, expressing and discovering — helping us understand ourselves more clearly and carry something meaningful back into the way we live.
Different places. Different themes. One invitation: to know yourself more deeply, trust what you discover, and live more fully from that place.
COMING BACK TO MYSELF: Create, Connect, Restore.
11 - 15 Jan 2027, Hindmarsh Island, South Australia
We begin with the foundation: knowing ourselves more clearly. What restores me? What drains me? What brings me joy? What am I carrying? What have I lost touch with while being busy working, caring and getting things done?
Across four days beside the water, we’ll use meditation, nature, facilitated reflection and creative exploration to develop a clearer understanding of our own pathways back to peace, energy and connection. At the centre of the retreat will be a personal Canvas of Becoming, developed gradually through intuitive painting, cyanotype, nature printing, gel plate printing, paper marbling, block printing, collage, words and mark-making.
We’ll also journey into the Coorong, explore Ngarrindjeri stories of Country and share plenty of time around the table and beside the water.
The intention: to leave knowing yourself a little better — and knowing how to find your way back to yourself when life becomes full.
Only 10 places. Bookings are now open HERE.
MAKING SPACE FOR MYSELF: Boundaries, Worth and What I Need
19-23 April 2027, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
This retreat will explore something many women find difficult: setting boundaries and making space for ourselves without guilt.
Where am I giving more than I genuinely have to give? What do I need? What deserves protecting? Where do I need a clearer yes — or a clearer no?
Set amongst the autumn landscape of the Adelaide Hills, our creative practice will draw on the season through botanical printing, natural dyes and paints, textile work, pattern and nature-based mark-making.
The intention: to leave clearer about your needs, your boundaries and the parts of your life that deserve your time and protection — with greater permission to make space for them.
Only 9 places. Bookings open soon
COURAGE : Following What Calls Me
5 - 9 July 2027, Ubud, Bali
Courage isn’t always dramatic.
Sometimes it is admitting what we want. Trying something unfamiliar. Following a creative impulse. Changing direction. Travelling somewhere new. Or taking the first step towards something we have been quietly postponing.
Bali gives us the perfect setting to explore this through traditional arts and crafts, sound healing, batik painting, cultural immersion, nature and a traditional Balinese cooking class.
As we step outside our usual roles and routines, we’ll ask:
What is calling me? What have I been waiting to begin? What might become possible if I trusted myself a little more?
The intention: to return home with renewed creative energy, greater clarity about what you want, and the courage to take a meaningful step towards it.
Only 12 places. Bookings open soon
VOICE & AUTHENTICITY: Living More Fully as Myself
27 Sept - 1 Oct 2027, Barossa, South Australia
There is a difference between knowing what is true for us and being willing to live it.
This retreat will explore voice, courage, self-trust and authenticity — the places where we hold back, soften what we really think, make ourselves smaller, or hesitate to stand behind what we know and want.
Where am I silencing myself? What do I want to say more clearly? Where am I adapting myself to meet other people’s expectations? What would it mean to live more openly and confidently as myself?
The Barossa’s vineyards, old gums, open country and spring landscape will become part of that exploration. Creative practices include expressive drawing, ink and charcoal, botanical forms, personal symbols, intuitive mark-making and mixed-media work — using art as another way to explore what wants to be expressed.
The intention: to leave with greater clarity about what is true for you, greater trust in your own voice, and more confidence to express, choose and live from that place.
Only 9 places. Bookings open soon
Impressions of India: A Journey into the Sacred Rhythm of Nature, Art, and Self
5-13 January 2028, Tamil Nadu India
This immersive journey through southern India will bring together traditional arts and crafts, culture, spirituality, sacred places, nature, mindfulness and deep reflection — experienced through travel as much as through retreat.
Over the first part of the journey, we’ll travel through Tamil Nadu, moving between places, communities and creative traditions. We’ll spend time with local artists and makers, explore historic and sacred sites, experience the textures and rhythms of everyday life, and allow each new place to become part of the reflection.
The final days will be spent at Sri Narayani Peedam, offering a very different pace — time to settle, experience life within a spiritual community, participate in meaningful practices, and allow the journey to deepen inwardly.
Together, the movement from travel and discovery into stillness and reflection creates the heart of Impressions of India.
The intention: to step outside ordinary life long enough to see differently, listen more deeply to what matters, and return with a clearer sense of how you want to live.
Only 11 places. Bookings open soon
Why Wild Women
Wild Women has grown from something I have witnessed again and again in retreats: when women are given time and space to slow down together, something meaningful happens. Different lives and stories begin to reveal shared threads — around joy, creativity, courage, self-trust, voice, belonging and making space for ourselves within full lives. There is something powerful in being able to share honestly, listen deeply, laugh, create and recognise parts of our own experience in one another.
Wild Women creates space for that connection, while allowing each woman to follow her own path.
Some of the most meaningful moments on retreat happen naturally — in the conversations between sessions, the laughter around the table, the honesty that grows as trust builds, and the feeling of being seen and understood by other women. Alongside our facilitated group sessions, there will be plenty of space for these connections to unfold, creating the kind of friendships and shared memories that often become one of the most treasured parts of the experience.
About Your Guide
Jan Carey is an educator, author, retreat facilitator and creative practitioner whose work brings together mindfulness, expressive arts, nature, place and meaningful human connection. With more than 30 years in education and school leadership, Jan has spent many years exploring how awareness, creativity and connection can support the way we live, learn and relate to ourselves and others.
Jan is the founder and author of Wild Stillness. Her approach has been shaped by her own life — from living on a 46-acre bushland property in the Adelaide Hills to many years of living, working and volunteering in India, particularly Tamil Nadu. Through meditation, nature-based creative practice, art-making and immersive experiences of place, she creates retreats that invite people to slow down, notice more deeply and reconnect with what matters.
Jan has facilitated retreats, workshops and trainings across Australia and internationally in India and Bali, weaving together mindfulness, creativity, cultural immersion, nature and shared experience. Her work is grounded, experiential and gently reflective — creating space for people to explore, make, notice, connect and discover their own way forward.
Cancellation & Transfer Policy
Because our retreats and journeys are offered as a small group experience, all bookings are confirmed through full payment and are non-refundable. Once your place is secured, that space is reserved especially for you.
If you are unable to attend, you are very welcome to transfer your booking to another person of your choosing, subject to suitability and final confirmation. This approach helps keep the journey fair, sustainable, and accessible for everyone involved, while honouring the care and commitment required to hold a small-group experience.
If you have any questions or concerns before booking, I warmly encourage you to reach out so we can explore whether this retreat feels like the right fit for you at this time.