The Midlife Retreat

✦

The time you crave. The space you need.

Midlife isn’t a crisis. It’s a call from your soul, asking you to get clear on what really matters, and use it as a compass to guide your life.

We’re all meant to do this. So it’s natural that in midlife you might:

  • Feel unsure about your work

  • Question relationships with your partner, family and yourself

  • Have to navigate changes in your body and energy

  • Want a more meaningful life

In midlife we need ‘me’ time more than ever. But it can feel harder than ever to take it, when everyone needs something and there’s always something to do. But the need doesn’t go away if you ignore it.

 As Carl Jung said: “Life really does begin at 40. Everything before then is just research.”

 

Why go on a midlife retreat?

Navigating midlife with a patchwork of different solutions won’t provide the foundational support you need. The challenges you face are all interlinked, so you need a holistic approach that addresses mind, body, spirit and soul.

Making a decision to take space for yourself and allow something new to emerge is a sign of your intention to answer the call of your soul. And when you say ‘yes’ to your soul, the Universe steps in and offers the support you need.

On your Midlife Retreat we’ll help you find solutions to the real stuff going on in your life, and address the deeper questions too.

Expert guides. Therapies tailored to you.

Your Midlife Retreat guides, Tara and Bernadette, are trained in the perfect blend of therapies and wisdom to help you safely go to the heart of what’s going on for you.

A 4-circle Venn diagram showing the psychological, energetic, spirit/soul and physical worlds that Magic & Medicine operates in to offer true holistic healing.

Magic & Medicine’s four worlds of healing.

  • You won’t do all of these on your retreat; you’d need much longer than a weekend! But we’ll draw from these to create the perfect blend for you.

    ✦ Psychotherapy

    ✦ Psychology

    ✦ EMDR

    ✦ Transition coaching

    ✦ Reiki

    ✦ Shamanic healing

    ✦ Wellness coaching

    ✦ Soul discovery sessions

    ✦ Cacao ceremony

    ✦ Healing and guidance in nature

    ✦ Fire ceremony for healing and release

    ✦ Guidance on living a soul-led life

    ✦ Massage (optional) (trusted provider)

    ✦ Yoga (optional) (trusted provider)

How do you know what I need?

We get to know you. We also tap into spiritual guidance to help us personalise your retreat.

We draw on:

  • a detailed questionnaire covering your health, energy, passions, goals and daily routine

  • a Zoom chat, so we can get to know each other

  • guidance from shamanic journeys on the right rituals and therapies to include

So you can trust that you’ll get exactly what you need to begin to move forward. 

 

What will my retreat look like?

Your retreat starts on Friday at 4pm and ends on Sunday at 11am. We’ll arrange a date that works for you when you book.

 
 

FRIDAY:

You’ll arrive at Magic & Medicine and take the time you need to settle in. Together, we’ll talk through your itinerary and set your healing intention. You’ll have time to settle in before dinner. After dinner you might do a ritual or ceremony before a restful night’s sleep.

 

SATURDAY:

A day of deep healing, normally involving two sessions (psychotherapy, EMDR, shamanic healing, soul guidance or Reiki). In between you can relax in the garden, journal or walk in the nearby woods. If you’d like a yoga session or massage, we can arrange that for you.

 

SUNDAY:

We’ll help you close and integrate our work together, perhaps with a gentle walk where we process everything that’s happened. A soothing Reiki session might feel good. We’ll make sure you leave feeling clear on how to take the next steps in your journey.

“I discovered Magic and Medicine whilst feeling at a cross roads in mid-life, feeling quite stuck in a number of ways, unsure of my purpose and just very low on energy. I felt weighed down by a lot of life's responsibilities and decisions. Magic and Medicine is truly very special.  The accommodation felt really private, a beautiful space overlooking the garden, it was a treat just to be cocooned here for the weekend.  The therapies and sessions offered were unlike anything I had experienced before, but approaching these with an open mind led to great rewards.  The number and intensity of the sessions were really well balanced and I very much felt they'd both tailored the experience to me, this included details like the food available, which was exceptional and really nourishing. Thank you Tara and Bernadette, I have left you both feeling revived, comforted and with more energy. I cannot recommend Magic and Medicine enough, a truly special experience all round..”

— Jane Richardson, West Sussex, UK

A week after the retreat we’ll check in with you over Zoom to see how you’re feeling. We’ll give you the support you need to make the end of your retreat the start of your new chapter.


Contact us for a no-strings chat.

enquire now

Is the Midlife Retreat for you?

The Midlife Retreat could be for you if:

  • You want to make big changes in a short space of time, and you’re willing to dig deep to get it

  • You want a powerful, potentially life-changing healing adventure

  • You’re open to trying different therapies – anything from psychotherapy to Reiki to shamanic healing.

 
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 The investment

✦ 50% off our first ten bookings*: Get your Midlife Retreat for £550 (normal price £1100) when you pay in full. ✦

*50% off offer ends midnight, Sunday 12th April 2026.

 
 

We’re Tara & Bernadette

When you’ve only got a weekend, you need guides who understand the complexity of midlife.

Plus, every problem has psychological, energetic, emotional and spiritual aspects. We’re trained to work with all of them – so you can quickly make the shifts you need.

Read our stories
 

Testimonials

  • My work with Tara Byrne was life changing. I’ve been on a spiritual path for quite some time, and have had different people mentor me along the way, but the mentorship I received from Tara was most profound.

    She helped me tap into my soul in ways I’ve never experienced, and was able to discover things that had been hidden, which have helped me create a more authentic life. She taught and gave me tools that I can take with me wherever I go, which will connect me to my deeper self when I’m searching for answers. She performed a soul retrieval and power animal retrieval that were such amazing experiences for me. I will take this information moving forward to help me navigate my life.

    Diana Zamudio

  • Before I started therapy, I felt depressed, hopeless and like I had lost myself. Bernadette was able to help me through trauma from my childhood and identify how these events were triggering and affecting me in adulthood. I was nervous to begin with, but Bernadette is so lovely and made me feel super comfortable. Although I am no longer in therapy, I am able to use the tools I learnt in my sessions to help me continue my journey. I feel therapy taught me a lot about myself and I am a much stronger person because of it, even family members have commented on the difference they have noticed in me. My sessions with Bernadette have really helped change my life, I couldn’t recommend her enough!

    Charlotte Jones

  • Tara is like a vagabond Buddha, an angel, a shaman. Plus, she’s not afraid to get into the dark and difficult stuff that we all have to deal with in life.

    I am lucky to have been guided by Tara in our deep soul encounter work. I could not have wished for a more solid, rooted and whole guidance. Compassionate, open-minded and stimulating. Tara is wise on multiple levels of development. The permission I felt in her encouragement and support has been of great value to be able to put aside my sometimes overly rationalizing mind and my inner cynic. I was able to connect to some forgotten layers inside me, and I am so grateful. Do you also need guidance in your underworld journey? Tara’s trust and empathy provided a very safe space to surrender to mine.

    Leonard de Groot

  • Bernadette is amazing, she put me at ease straight away. I felt she genuinely cared and wanted to help me. She introduced me to some shamanic practices during our sessions, which I found to be extremely beneficial and insightful. I left our sessions feeling positive and refreshed. I can’t recommend her highly enough.

    Tania Gower

All of your questions answered

Have questions or concerns? Check them here.

 

  • We’re in Barnet, North London (we’ll send you the full address once you’ve booked).

    Barnet is one of London’s greenest boroughs. There’s a lovely park and nature reserve at the bottom of the road - but it’s still London! We live in a normal suburban street, with neighbours and other houses close by. Although ours is a quiet cul-de-sac, there can be noise at times, as in any residential area.

  • Yes, we try to make our retreats as accessible and affordable as possible. You can book your retreat with a £150 deposit, then pay the balance in four instalments of £115.

  • All our retreats happen at the weekend, from 4pm on Friday to 11am on Sunday. Please get in touch to ask about availability.

  • Yes, you can park on the drive.

  • No, all our retreats run from 4pm on Friday to 11am on Sunday. If you’d really like to come for longer or shorter, please get in touch and we may be able to arrange it.

  • Not at the moment, but we do plan to in the future. If you’re interested in doing a retreat online, let us know and we can put something together for you.


  • Here is our full list of therapies:

    ✦ Psychotherapy (CBT, dynamic psychotherapy)

    ✦ Psychology (including parenting advice)

    ✦ EMDR (Eye Movement Densitisation and Reprocessing, a therapy for working with blocks, trauma and addictions)

    ✦ Transition coaching

    ✦ Reiki

    ✦ Shamanic healing (soul retrieval, ancestral healing, womb healing, power animal retrieval, etc)

    ✦ Wellness guidance

    ✦ Soul discovery sessions (how to discover your soul's hidden messages, and how to discover your soul purpose

    ✦ Cacao ceremony

    ✦ Healing and guidance in nature

    ✦ Fire ceremony for healing and release

    ✦ Guidance on living a soul-led life

    ✦ Massage (trusted local therapist)

    ✦ Yoga (trusted local yoga teacher)

  • We don’t routinely serve coffee, as your retreat can be a good chance to take a break from it. We do serve Matcha, Guayusa, and other sources of caffeine that don’t give you the jolt that caffeine does. But if you want to have coffee please let us know and we can accommodate it.

  • We do, if you eat them, but sparingly. Most of our food is plant based.

  • We can cater for vegetarian, vegan and lactose-free diets. Most of the food we serve is naturally gluten free too (although we can’t guarantee that everything we serve is completely free of gluten traces). We have the best gluten-free bread! Please get in touch if you have more questions or different dietary requirements.

 

Got more questions or fancy a chat?

Email us

Ready to have the life you’ve always wanted? Now is the time.

Come join us in our secret garden retreat. Expect magic.

 We can’t wait to meet you!

Enquire now