NARDENA garden for the mind, where science and well-being meet.
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Narden / Branches / 05

Narden Retreats

Not to withdraw, but to find yourself

Evidence-based wellness immersions to regulate emotions, reconnect with yourself and others, and regain presence in your own life.

Next retreat: Tuscany What a retreat can include
Stone farmhouse with a cypress, on a Tuscan farm stay
Next retreat · 27–29 November 2026
Emotional regulation retreat in a Tuscan vineyard
Villa Tiberini · Torrita di Siena (SI)
Discover the retreat →

Who it is for

Do you recognise yourself?

Narden Retreats are for people looking for emotional regulation and genuine contact with themselves and others.

  • intense emotions that overflow and are hard to regulate;
  • a mind that will not switch off, tiredness and the feeling of living on autopilot;
  • the wish to truly connect with yourself and with others;
  • tired of technological loneliness: many connections, few relationships;
  • shallow, inauthentic relationships in which you cannot be yourself.

Who you might meet

Different stories, the same goal

At a retreat you might meet…

A wise older man

who is recovering from grief after his wife’s death and wants to learn again how to inhabit his days.

An entrepreneur in burnout

who has reached his limit and needs to relearn how to slow down without feeling he is losing everything.

A woman with complex PTSD

looking for a safe place to feel her body again and to trust others, at her own pace.

A neurodivergent young man

tired of masking, looking for belonging without having to explain himself all the time.

…and many other people, with different stories and the same goal: the well-being of regaining presence in life and finding a life worth living.

A retreat that is not a retreat from life

Stepping out of routine to return to life more whole

Narden Retreats are not experiences of isolation, nor a way to escape everyday life. They are spaces to find yourself, meet others and experience in practice what we often learn about well-being and mental health only in theory.

A break from hyperconnected routine: fewer screens and digital stimuli, more contact with people, nature, the body and meaningful activities that help regulate the nervous system and make emotional regulation possible.

How the retreats are organised

A partnership between health and wellness professionals

Narden’s wellness retreats are run by health and wellness professionals working in partnership: psychologists, nutritionists, psychiatrists, yoga teachers and professionals in animal-assisted interventions.

Through an immersion, participants learn to put into practice what they learn in psychotherapy sessions and with the nutritionist. They experience first-hand how certain habits (regular sleep, movement, nutrition, less alcohol and fewer screens) support treatment, including the effect of psychiatric medication prescribed by their doctor.

Above all, they decompress: they become present again, mentally and physically, with the energy to start new cycles of life and take the next steps in treatment.

Experience
Living the technique in real situations.
Practise
Repeating with guidance until it becomes a skill.
Observe
Noticing the effects on body and mind.
Integrate
Bringing the practice into your own routine.

The common thread

The window of tolerance

The “window of tolerance” (Siegel, 1999) is the zone in which we can feel emotions without being swept away by them. Above it is hyperarousal: agitation, alarm, anger, racing thoughts. Below it, hypoarousal: emptiness, detachment, shutting down. People who have lived through prolonged stress or traumatic experiences often have a narrower window. All the retreat activities serve to widen it, a little at a time (Ogden, Minton & Pain, 2006).

Where and how

Warmth, land and respect

Breakfast table with juices, fruit, bread and local produce

On farm stays

The retreats take place on agriturismi (farm stays) where everything consumed comes from local, organic production, in small-scale farming that respects the environment and animals.

Food for everyone

There are always vegetarian, vegan and alcohol-free options, according to each participant’s needs.

Pets

They are always welcome, according to the rules of each venue.

Your phone stays with you

Phones are not taken away and participants can use them. But we advise against it during the retreat, because constant digital stimulation is one of the stimuli and dependencies we work on at the retreat itself.

Gradual welcome

The retreats are cosy and welcoming. Social interaction is gradual: no one has to introduce themselves to the group all of a sudden. Each person is brought in little by little, at their own pace.

Offered, never imposed

Every activity is an invitation. You can always choose to simply observe, or to rest.

Everything a retreat can include

Every activity has a precise purpose

Each retreat chooses some of these activities, according to the purpose of the experience, the place and the season. All are based on approaches studied by research: DBT, CBT, ACT, Schema Therapy, mindfulness, compassion-focused therapy and nature- and body-based interventions.

Nature

Ecotherapy: free walk with grounding

What we do

An aimless walk in nature, alone or in company, as the body prefers, paying attention to the ground under your feet and what is around you: colours, sounds, scents.

Why it works

Grounding brings attention back to the senses and the present: it is one of the first tools for returning to the window of tolerance when alarm rises. A study published in PNAS showed that a 90-minute walk in a natural setting reduces rumination and the activity of a brain area linked to it, which does not happen when walking in the city. Leaving people free to be alone or in company respects everyone’s pace.

References: Kaplan, 1995; Bratman et al., 2015; Ogden et al., 2006

Gardening with grounding

What we do

Hands in the soil: sowing, caring, removing what is no longer needed, with attention to gestures and sensations.

Why it works

A meta-analysis of gardening studies found positive effects on anxiety, depression, mood and life satisfaction. The garden offers powerful metaphors for inner work: caring, waiting, putting down roots, pruning.

References: Soga et al., 2017

Truffle hunting

What we do

In the woods with the truffle dog, following its nose and its pace, where the venue offers this experience.

Why it works

An experience of presence in nature and shared pleasure. In DBT, accumulating positive experiences is a real skill, because it makes us less vulnerable to difficult emotions. The woods help attention recover.

References: Linehan, 2015; Kaplan, 1995

Body

Yoga at different paces

What we do

Gentle, trauma-sensitive practices throughout the day: activating yoga in the morning, restorative yoga at the end of the day, slow moon yoga with stretching. No forced poses: everyone chooses how much and how to take part.

Why it works

Trauma-sensitive yoga helps you feel your body as a safe place again and trains interoception, the ability to perceive internal signals. In a controlled study of people with chronic PTSD, ten weeks of yoga significantly reduced symptoms; meta-analyses also point to benefits for anxiety and depression.

References: van der Kolk et al., 2014; Emerson & Hopper, 2011; Cramer et al., 2013; Cramer et al., 2018; Streeter et al., 2012

Meditation and mindfulness

What we do

Short moments of mindful attention, guided and always optional, also within everyday activities: cooking, walking, tasting.

Why it works

Bringing mindfulness into everyday life, not just onto the mat, is what makes it usable in difficult moments. The DBT skills of “observing” and “describing” train us to look at experience calmly and without judgement.

References: Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Linehan, 2015

Hands-on activities, grounding and creativity

All the hands-on activities that can be part of the retreats

Gardening and vegetable-garden careCandle makingOrigami makingTherapeutic paintingClay and ceramicsWeaving and natural fibresWoodwork and natural materialsCollage and visual journalingMindful cookingTherapeutic photographyTherapeutic writingBoard games

Each retreat chooses some of them, according to the place, the season and the purpose of the experience.

Therapeutic writing

What we do

Free writing starting from a question linked to a concrete experience of the day.

Why it works

Expressive writing is one of the most studied interventions in psychology: putting experience into words helps to organise it and give it meaning. We write during the day, to work in depth without weighing down the evening and sleep.

References: Pennebaker & Beall, 1986; Frattaroli, 2006

Therapeutic photography

What we do

Going out with a camera or phone to freely photograph whatever catches your eye, then looking at the images together.

Why it works

The image is a way of looking at your own experience from another perspective: choosing what to frame is already an exercise in attention and self-expression.

References: Weiser, 1993

Therapeutic painting

What we do

Painting without needing to know how to paint: colours, shapes and marks to give form to what you feel.

Why it works

When words do not come, colour and gesture allow emotions to be expressed and regulated non-verbally. Focusing on the process rather than the result reduces self-criticism and fosters presence.

Crafts

What we do

Handwork with natural materials from the local tradition: clay, fabric, wood, fibres.

Why it works

Busy hands calm the mind: attention settles on the gesture, the rhythm becomes repetitive and regulating, and finishing something you made yourself brings a sense of mastery, one of the DBT skills that reduce emotional vulnerability.

References: Linehan, 2015

Origami making

What we do

The Japanese art of folding paper, step by step, in silence or in small groups.

Why it works

It requires sustained attention, sequencing and patience: it is mindfulness in action. Getting a fold wrong and starting again is also gentle practice in tolerating frustration.

Candle making

What we do

Melting the wax, choosing natural scents, preparing the wick and shaping your own candle to take home.

Why it works

It is grounding through the senses: the warmth of the wax, the scent, the slow and precise gesture. It requires presence and patience, because each stage has its own time. And the candle you take home becomes a concrete anchor for your self-care routine: lighting it can be the “when” of a new “when… then…” habit.

Table and flavours

Mindful cooking

What we do

Cooking traditional local dishes together, paying attention to scents, textures and gestures.

Why it works

A systematic review of cooking interventions found benefits for self-esteem, socialisation and mood. In DBT, building pleasant experiences and a sense of mastery is part of the skills that reduce emotional vulnerability.

References: Farmer et al., 2018; Linehan, 2015

Mindful tastings

What we do

Wine, olive oil, cheese, coffee or locally produced juices, savoured slowly. Always optional, always with alcohol-free alternatives.

Why it works

Slow tasting draws on a classic mindfulness exercise (the raisin of the MBSR programme) and on the skills of “observing” and “describing”. It is optional because alcohol can interfere with emotion regulation and with some medications, and because choosing freely is part of the work.

References: Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Linehan, 2015

Shared meals

What we do

The first meal is shared, in an informal atmosphere; after that, meals are more flexible, out of respect for those who need quiet space.

Why it works

A sense of belonging and the feeling of not being the only one facing certain difficulties (“universality”) are among the most important therapeutic factors in groups.

References: Yalom & Leszcz, 2005

Encounter and group

Fireside therapy

What we do

Group therapy around the fire: stories told in the third person, listened to without advice or interpretation, or conversations about emotions as a compass. It closes with a caffeine-free herbal tea.

Why it works

An anthropological study published in PNAS observed that, around the fire, communities tell stories that create bonds and pass on meaning; another study showed that watching and listening to a fire lowers blood pressure. Talking about yourself in the third person (“self-distancing”) reduces emotional reactivity, and listening without comment draws on the “outsider witness” practice of narrative therapy.

References: Wiessner, 2014; Lynn, 2014; Kross et al., 2014; Kross & Ayduk, 2017; White, 2007; Gilbert, 2010; Greenberg, 2002; Linehan, 2015

Group therapy: skills for moments of crisis

What we do

Recognising when you leave the window of tolerance, DBT distress-tolerance skills and the “when… then…” routine: small gestures linked to moments that already exist in your day.

Why it works

DBT crisis skills are designed precisely for the moment when it is hard to use what you know. “Implementation intentions” are among the most studied strategies for turning an intention into a habit: a meta-analysis of almost one hundred studies shows a medium-to-large effect.

References: Siegel, 1999; Linehan, 2015; Gollwitzer, 1999; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006

Board games

What we do

Cooperative and strategy games, in small groups, during free time or in the evening.

Why it works

Play allows a gradual, light social approach: attention is on the board, not on the person. It trains frustration tolerance, turn-taking, flexibility and executive functions, and brings back the pleasure of play, so rare in adult life.

Closing circle and online group

What we do

The group closes in a circle: what am I taking with me? Afterwards, anyone who wishes continues in the online continuity group.

Why it works

A careful closing helps consolidate the experience. One of the central aims of DBT is “generalisation”: carrying skills into real life. The online group is not mandatory, but it is recommended, to share what helped bring what was learned into everyday life.

References: Yalom & Leszcz, 2005; Linehan, 2015

Animals

Equine-assisted and animal-assisted interventions

What we do

Activities with the horse or other animals, accompanied by the psychotherapist and a professional dedicated to handling the animal.

Why it works

The horse responds to the emotional state of whoever is near it: it becomes an immediate mirror of your level of activation and a chance to experience co-regulation. Systematic reviews suggest promising effects, although the evidence is still preliminary. Activities follow the Italian National Guidelines for Animal-Assisted Interventions.

References: Linee guida nazionali IAA, 2015; Kendall et al., 2015

Before taking part

Science, not magic formulas

Who it is for

For those who want to slow down, learn in practice strategies for regulating emotions and the nervous system, and carry these skills into everyday life.

Who it is not for

It is not for those looking for esotericism or magic formulas. Here we work with psychologists, nutritionists and psychiatrists who follow an evidence-based approach (evidence-based).

The retreats are group interventions led by a psychotherapist and do not replace individual psychotherapy when it is needed.

The retreat ends, but the skills you learned carry on.

What you learned goes back into real life: home, work, relationships and everyday challenges.

Discover the next retreat
Bibliography

All references have been checked against the original publications.

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