Healing The Healers Doctors Retreats 2023-2024
Join Dr Claire Noonan, Dr Amy Imms, Dr Hilton Koppe, and Veronica Sutherland for healing and inspiring weekend immersive retreats, and virtual mini-retreats.
Doctor burnout is on the rise, and many are questioning the sustainability of their current work-life arrangement. We need great doctors, but we also need them to survive. Doctors deserve the chance to not only care for others, but also care for themselves. They deserve the opportunity to connect with themselves, rest, enjoy life, and feel truly fulfilled. Claire and Amy care deeply about doctor wellbeing, and have created the Healing The Healers retreats as a space to do this. A chance to set aside time for yourself, remind yourself of who you are and what you want, and provide a space that allows you to reflect and create changes you need.
Our residential retreat program is designed especially for doctors who are worn out, pushed to their limits, and desperately in need of a time of rest and renewal.
Come and connect with other doctors, share challenges, and encourage one another.
You will have a chance to relax and explore this stunning region in your own time, with no agenda, and no pressures from your usual everyday life and work.
You will be invited to self-reflect and express yourself creatively – an outlet we often neglect as doctors.
We will explore new skills and strategies that you can continue to experiment with and implement as you face challenges in life.
We will enjoy a variety of movement classes, mobilising and releasing tension.
There will be great food, laughter, sleep, rest, sharing, and loads of fun.
We hope you will leave refreshed and renewed as you re-enter work and life in a slightly different way.
Upcoming Retreats
Brightlands Retreat
March 1-3rd, 2024
This retreat invites medical doctors to share a safe space to step aside from daily life & work challenges, and seek rest and renewal.
Brightlands Retreat is in Leura, near the Blue Mountains, and is an idyllic peaceful setting to pause, reflect, and nurture. You will receive a $50 voucher to use towards enjoying the day spa and treatments if you wish to do so.
We will arrive on the Friday afternoon, and settle in (use your day spa voucher if you like!), and then gather together for a welcome circle and dinner. Our flexible program will then lead you through a process of learning, rest, and growth on Saturday and Sunday. Everything is optional, and you are always in charge of deciding what you need most from this time. After our Sunday morning session, we will enjoy lunch together and then share a closing circle before heading off on the journey home with a new sense of clarity and vitality.
Our program includes mindful movement (Qi Gong, yoga, nature walks), development of new skills to apply to life’s challenges (DBT & ACT skills), experiential creative exercises (writing and art), and plenty of time to rest and enjoy the beautiful natural setting.
The cost includes accommodation (single private rooms with ensuites) for the Friday and Saturday nights, all meals and snacks, all sessions on the programme, personalised journalling prompts, and a gift bag. It does not include travel to and from Leura, though Brightlands have a van that can pick you up from the train station. Parking is available on site.
Super earlybird tickets available now!
Meet your facilitators
Dr Amy Imms
Founder of The Burnout Project, medical doctor, Burnout counsellor, Expressive Arts Facilitator, speaker, author of ‘Burnout: your first ten steps’
Dr Amy Imms knows all too much about burnout, being a mother of 5 and managing a busy medical career. Amy experienced burnout as a GP, and faced many challenges as she tried to access good support to recover. This experience inspired her to shift her work to focus on helping others to manage burnout so they can enjoy life and have sustainable and fulfilling careers. Amy works with individuals through counselling, programs and workshops, as well as working with workplaces and organisations to create systems and processes that prevent and manage burnout.
Dr Claire Noonan
Claire Elizabeth GP therapist, founder of Clarity Lane, and Licensed Associate of the Impostor Syndrome Institute.
Dr Claire Noonan is a practicing GP and psychotherapist in Orange NSW. Her preferred therapeutic modalities include DBT, ACT, and Buddhist informed contemplative psychotherapy. She combines her time between her solo therapy practice and locum work at the coalface of general practice. Claire preceded her medical degree with first class honours in medical science, majoring in neuroscience. Awestruck by the complexity of the brain, she further indulged her exploration of human psychology with her years of experience as a GP. It was a natural next step to become a registered provider of Focussed Psychological Strategies. Claire’s portfolio career also includes freelance medical writing, and she will be bringing Qi Gong classes to the group starting with our Autumn retreat!
Dr Hilton Koppe
GP, author, reflective writing facilitator
Hilton has always combined his clinical work with an active role in medical education, training new and experienced clinicians within the region and around Australia. Since 2003, Hilton has been running creative writing workshops for doctors and other health professionals with the goal of deepening their compassion, overcoming professional isolation and reducing risk of burn out. In 2015, Hilton was invited to present this work as Visiting Professor in Medicine and Humanities at Harvard Medical School.
Veronica Sutherland
Movement and Postural Neurologist, Pilates instructor, Founder of Movement Evolution studio
As the owner and found of the Movement Evolution Studio in Orange NSW, Veronica is an Accredited Pilates and Group Fitness Instructor devoted to making movement the fluid and spontaneous experience that it is designed to be. Frustrated with the “no pain no gain” mantra associated with exercise and the myriad of injuries that seemed to have become the norm, Veronica explored further education to become both a Movement and Postural Neurologist. Integrating all systems of the body, appreciating the impact of emotion, inflammation, posture, alignment, compensatory patterns and especially the role of the nervous system as it relates to both sensory and motor output, has allowed the development of group fitness classes that are as unique as they are powerful.
