Life coaching holiday in Greece

Our centre nestles on the hillside at the edge of the island village. Built high up long ago to evade the clutches of the Mediterranean pirates, the village is accessible only by foot through narrow, cobblestoned streets. The beach is a pleasant ten minute walk away. The centre’s courtyard, shaded by fig and pomegranate trees, has a panoramic view of the valley and the Aegean. Its white walls are covered by bouganvilleas and grapevines.

Life at the centre is bursting with energy. A typical day starts with yoga on the terrace followed by the late morning Life Choices workshop, the day‘s centrepiece. One can then laze around on a long sandy beach, delight in a massage, or just like the Greeks, take an afternoon nap! This year the centre is also offering 'a taste of Greece' with events ranging from Greek music, dance and mythology to moussaka cooking or Greek wine-tasting. 

Life choices programme
The world we live in today offers us freedom and choice that often goes far beyond those of previous generations. But it can also challenge us with new forms of stress and feelings of alienation and confusion. Meanwhile, the current economic roller coaster has further undermined many of the realities we have taken for granted, and has led increasingly to uncertainty and fear.

In such times, we urgently need to reassess our priorities and needs, and find stability and a sense of purpose that will enable us to ride the waves of change. The Life Choices programme is designed to facilitate this process.

The programme is open to anyone facing change or transition and is willing to explore new beginnings in any area of life. People will be encouraged to look into specific areas such as improved relationships, career change or managing uncertainty and stress and will be assisted in their search for a more fulfilling life. Everyone will be supported in looking for fresh ideas and perspectives.

The aim is to transform challenges presented by the current difficulties into opportunities for new growth, renewed confidence and the sense of hope that is generated by our dreams. This is not just about making dreams come true, but about being true to our dreams, and knowing what our true dreams are.

The programme’s facilitators are known for their warmth and integrity as much as for their expertise. They are there to support, inspire and encourage participants to listen to their own inner voice and find their own path. The courses, enhanced by the relaxed atmosphere and the magical qualities of village life, run for three hours per day every weekday morning. In addition to the Life Choices programme listed below, all sessions include morning yoga and ‘A Taste of Greece’ activities (e.g. Greek wine-tasting, cooking, dancing and much more), plus a selection of one-off events from our holistic programme

1 – 8 April 2010 (1 week) Coaching & Self Coaching with Andry Anastasiou £695
This is a self-coaching workshop for individuals who want to gently start to practice using coaching for focusing life goals, energising themselves and overcoming obstacles in life. Coaching and self-coaching, is for those who want to start the day in an encouraging, positive and thoughtful way. It’s also for those who when returning home, might want to have some practical tools that they can use on themselves instead of or alongside using a professional coach. By the end of the workshop you should be able to; identify how coaching skills and metaphysical self-coaching tools support your daily life, use coaching tools and techniques to feel good about yourself and your life, change your thinking for the better, learn from your experience and/or create focus in your life. In essence you will leave feeling better about yourself and knowing how to help yourself on a daily basis. Andry Anastasiou is a trainer, coach and teacher with a background in healing and self-healing techniques. She's been teaching and training in personal and professional development for 18 years.

15 – 28 May 2010 (2 weeks) Life Choices & Changes and New Beginnings with Dina Glouberman £895
Wk 1: Learn to follow the whisperings of your body, heart, and soul. Guide everyday life with the extraordinary resources of your intuitive mind and find the courage to change. This is a course on using the creative imagination to understand yourself and guide your life. Imagery has the proven effect of deepening and speeding up any learning, healing or creative process. Dina will use image work to help you explore what is holding you back from the past, what is calling you in the present and future, how you can improve your relationships with others and with yourself and make new choices in your life.

Wk 2: How do we know where our soul is guiding us, how do we commit to what we know, and what do we have to let go of to do so? Much of our illness, depression and burnout underline the danger of driving ourselves down pathways that are no longer right for us. Through harnessing the power of the imagination, we become able to listen to the whispers of our soul, find our truth and follow it. Imagery has the proven effect of deepening and speeding up any learning, healing or creative process. This workshop will utilise Imagework as a means of stepping back, tapping into and understanding our old patterns, and freeing ourselves to find a new vision. Dina Glouberman, author of the classics The Joy of Burnout and Life Choices, Life Changes, has pioneered Imagework.

29 May – 5 June 2010 (1 week) Opening the Heart with Judi Ledward £695
People often ask why psychotherapists trawl through the past so much, so that personal development starts to feel more like archeology. The reason for this is that our early relationships, our early experiences of attachment and separation, become models for later life. How we experienced our first relationships gives us not only a sense of who we are through the way we are related to, but also of what we can expect from relationship. Current research in neuropsychobiology shows the importance for brain development in babies of the experience of love and attunement. Research also shows that our brains can continue to develop, even in adulthood, through experiences of closeness and unconditional positive regard. In other words, supportive relationships, both inner and outer, can trigger brain development that might have been missing because of early misattunement and neglect. "Opening the Heart" will focus on ways in which we can expand love. Through large and small group exercises, movement, meditations, creative activities and therapeutic group work, we will make inner connections and expand loving contact with the parts of ourselves we don't like or think are unloveable. We will focus on acceptance of who we are and look to change the unhelpful and out-of-date beliefs we have about our loveability. We will explore early experiences of love, where appropriate, and move on from unhelpful feelings that keep us turning to the past. Judi Ledward is a leading psychotherapist and trainer. She co-directs Elan Training and Development in Cheshire and has been running courses for 17 years.

5 – 18 June 2010 (2 weeks) Peace in Your Heart and Peace in Your Life with John Gloster-Smith £895
Wk 1: Come to learn how to still your mind and connect with your true Inner Self. Develop skill in being calm and present, in managing your mind, dealing with you ego and knowing the splendour of your heart through stimulating teaching, yogic meditation, east-meets-west philosophy, self awareness coaching, NLP visualisation and even laughter.

Wk 2: Develop your ability to be aware of and connect to your Inner Self while managing and resolving the challanges of everyday living, your reactions to situations, your 'ego moments' so as to manifest your vision. We work using yogic meditation, east-meets-west philosophy, teaching, discussion, coaching, small group work, NLP visualisation, laughter and music. John Gloster-Smith combines Life and Executive Coaching with facilitating personal development programmes in the UK and abroad. He has a prior background in education.

20 June – 3 July 2010 (2 weeks) Finding Your Priorities and Leadership Skills with Claire Chidley £995
Wk 1: You will focus on looking at the external environment from different perspectives and understand how you have created your 'map of the world' through your beliefs, values and attitudes. You will learn how to develop a vision that will guide you through life and the milestones needed to realise it. In this process you will find out what's a priority and what isn't.

Wk 2: We will look at different forms of leadership and 'model' leaders to understand how they combine emotional, creative and spiritual intelligence to best effect. There will be opportunities for you to learn more about these concepts and to apply for example, creative management techniques to develop your own leadership skills. We will look at some of the future challenges facing society and the impact/change they will bring. We will apply leadership models to help solve these problems as well as creating new opportunities. This course helps those who are in leadership positions or want to be the leaders of the future. Claire Chidley is the Managing Director of Create Tomorrow Today, a leadership development company. She has been working for 20 years as a senior manager in the public and cultural sector.

4 – 17 July 2010 (2 weeks) Your Best Possible Self and A Journey of Transformation with Sally Jones £1095
Wk 1: Emotional exploration within a safe group setting will be combined with breathwork, yoga, movement and visualization to help you clear the blocks that are keeping you from flourishing. You will learn how to ground and centre yourself to maximise your sense of stability in life. This is an opportunity to develop your sense of personal power and learn to trust who you are. You will take home an increased self awareness, renewed creativity, increased energy and a sense of optimal wellbeing.

Wk 2: Free yourself from the restrictions of the material world and move towards an integration of mind, body and spirit. Emotional exploration within a safe group setting will be combined with yoga, breathwork and mindfulness exercises to help you transcend your perceived limitations enabling you to feel whole, free and liberated as you speak, see and feel your truth. Maximise your full potential and allow the unknown to inform and guide you. Learn to develop your self-awareness and intuition whilst achieving a sense of optimal well being. Dr Sally Jones is a Clinical Psychologist at the Tavistock Centre with specialist training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and System Centred Group Therapy. She is a qualified Ashtanga Yoga and Kundalini Yoga teacher and her interests include breathwork, meditation and the use of yoga in optimising emotional well being.

18 – 31 July 2010 (2 weeks) Who am I? and Choose Life at Any Risk with Ari Badaines £1145
Wk 1: This experiential group is based on our wish to know ourselves better at a deeper level, and how do others experience us - both their initial impression and a more developed impression? The first question is worked on by intensive pair-work where you reveal more deeply who you really are. It is often a very enlightening experience that sometimes leads to reinforcing self-beliefs and providing new awareness as to who you are.. Feedback as to how others see you - both initial and later impressions - is provided through a range of experiential exercises,and opportunities to obtain a greater level of truth by asking the group for specific feedback about yourself.

Wk 2: The essence of this group centers around the idea that people get stuck in many aspects of their lives: relationships, work, self perceptions, self esteem. There are many reasons for this stuckness, but the essential idea is that people will not take the necessary risks, and if they do, will often not experience the ensuing anxiety and discomfort long enough to maintain the growth, shift, or move in directions that will ultimately bring greater satisfaction to their life goals and dreams. Thus, avoidance of anxiety becomes primary for many, and they remain stuck in relatively unsatisfying relationships to others, themselves, family, and their vocation. Similarly, they may be spiritually depleted, and not sufficiently connected with their spirituality nor humanity. Further, they often do not go for, or sabotage, the very things that would make a positive change in their lives. Through the issues that arise in the group, '"stuff " that people bring to the group, and from what emerges over the life of the group, participants may become more aware of how they hold themselves back, and the origins of these concerns and fears. Sometimes this awareness leads to one more step in the direction of growth, and sometimes it is a giant leap which has life-changing positive changes. After building some safety and trust in the group, I tend to facilitate the process of the group utilising structures, interactions, and exercises derived from many years of experience in working with groups which serve to heighten awareness and challenge the stuckness. I also inform participants that it is always their choice as to whether they participate in any structure, and can choose to stop at any time. Individuals who attend have final responsibility for their choices in the group which participants often find most challenging, but ultimately most empowering. Individuals soon begin to share at a more personal level about their concerns and difficulties, and then using a variety of approaches including some from psychodrama and gestalt therapy, and anything else that I can responsibly use, I will facilitate their process which often, but not always, helps them to experience the blocked emotions, gain new awareness, and experience more satisfying ways of being. Besides powerful emotional release, other possible outcomes from attending this workshop are: greater awareness and consciousness, a change in perception of self and others, a richer connection to yourself and others, and a deepening sense of your own humanity. Other potential benefits include greater clarity and direction about current situations where ambivalence predominates, increased self-esteem and feeling more alive by being more genuinely in touch with yourself and others. Ari Badaines, a facilitator since 1982, runs personal and professional development courses worldwide. Within a safe group setting, he will guide you to face whatever blocks you in any area of life, and take a leap of faith into a new way of living.

1 – 14 August 2010 (2 weeks) Who am I? and Choose Life at Any Risk with Ari Badaines £1245
Wk 1: This experiential group is based on our wish to know ourselves better at a deeper level, and how do others experience us - both their initial impression and a more developed impression? The first question is worked on by intensive pair-work where you reveal more deeply who you really are. It is often a very enlightening experience that sometimes leads to reinforcing self-beliefs and providing new awareness as to who you are.. Feedback as to how others see you - both initial and later impressions - is provided through a range of experiential exercises,and opportunities to obtain a greater level of truth by asking the group for specific feedback about yourself.

Wk 2: The essence of this group centers around the idea that people get stuck in many aspects of their lives: relationships, work, self perceptions, self esteem. There are many reasons for this stuckness, but the essential idea is that people will not take the necessary risks, and if they do, will often not experience the ensuing anxiety and discomfort long enough to maintain the growth, shift, or move in directions that will ultimately bring greater satisfaction to their life goals and dreams. Thus, avoidance of anxiety becomes primary for many, and they remain stuck in relatively unsatisfying relationships to others, themselves, family, and their vocation. Similarly, they may be spiritually depleted, and not sufficiently connected with their spirituality nor humanity. Further, they often do not go for, or sabotage, the very things that would make a positive change in their lives. Through the issues that arise in the group, '"stuff " that people bring to the group, and from what emerges over the life of the group, participants may become more aware of how they hold themselves back, and the origins of these concerns and fears. Sometimes this awareness leads to one more step in the direction of growth, and sometimes it is a giant leap which has life-changing positive changes. After building some safety and trust in the group, I tend to facilitate the process of the group utilising structures, interactions, and exercises derived from many years of experience in working with groups which serve to heighten awareness and challenge the stuckness. I also inform participants that it is always their choice as to whether they participate in any structure, and can choose to stop at any time. Individuals who attend have final responsibility for their choices in the group which participants often find most challenging, but ultimately most empowering. Individuals soon begin to share at a more personal level about their concerns and difficulties, and then using a variety of approaches including some from psychodrama and gestalt therapy, and anything else that I can responsibly use, I will facilitate their process which often, but not always, helps them to experience the blocked emotions, gain new awareness, and experience more satisfying ways of being. Besides powerful emotional release, other possible outcomes from attending this workshop are: greater awareness and consciousness, a change in perception of self and others, a richer connection to yourself and others, and a deepening sense of your own humanity. Other potential benefits include greater clarity and direction about current situations where ambivalence predominates, increased self-esteem and feeling more alive by being more genuinely in touch with yourself and others. Ari Badaines, a facilitator since 1982, runs personal and professional development courses worldwide. Within a safe group setting, he will guide you to face whatever blocks you in any area of life, and take a leap of faith into a new way of living.

15 – 28 August 2010 (2 weeks) Deepen Your Relationships and Embrace the Beloved with Jan Day £1245
Wk 1: Intimacy, while sometimes hard to find or maintain, is what we yearn for. Intimacy is also the doorway to meaningful connections and loving relationships. Whether your longing for a deeper connection with your love partner or with family and friends, the first step is to deepen the connection with yourself. In growing your awareness of body, emotions, mind and soul you become more 'at home'. This course invites you to make friends with parts of yourself you have confined to the dark corners of your psyche. It invites you to be true to yourself and to feel into another person, at the same time. It will encourage you not to shut down, but learn to open in consciousness. This workshop provides a safe and nourishing space where you'll be invited into guided meditations and processes. There will be dance, some physical touch, some times of silence and reflection, some times of sharing. Always you will be encouraged to be in tune with yourself.

Wk 2: This workshop is an invitation to move through whatever keeps us from enjoying open-hearted connection with others. Embrace the Beloved is about falling in love with yourself and your life. It is about being willing to let yourself be human, fallible, passionate and vulnerable. It makes loving relationships possible.This workshop includes touch, guided processes, meditation, dance and open sharing circles. It will provide a safe and yet powerful environment in which you can learn to trust your own natural energies and find a freedom and passion to take back into your daily life. Jan Day has been leading work shops on intimacy, relationships, sexuality and life vision since 1999 in Europe and Hawaii. She is a certified coach and Art of Being teacher.

29 August – 11 September 2010 (2 weeks) Mastering Uncertainty and The Path of Happiness with Michael Eales £1145
Wk 1: We cannot make uncertainty go away. The question is how do we learn to live with impermanence so that’s its effects do not spin us out into a state of fear and paralysis, so that we can find inner peace even in the midst of suffering and chaos. The Zen path of self-mastery aims to jolt us out of intellectual ruts and unconscious blocks so we can find the strength of our own centre. It does not mean grandiose control over, but rather understanding, flexibility and personal discipline. This course will draw on a mix of western psychology, eastern philosophy and Native American wisdom to explore self-mastery. It is a chance to limber up in order to face life with more confidence.

Wk 2: Feeling good, but could feel better? What about those people who always seem to be happy in their lives? Wouldn’t it be great to be more like them more often? Positive Psychology, based on the latest research, focuses on what makes some people happier and healthier than others, rather than just focusing on what makes us depressed or ill. The key to happiness is to identify and build on our personal strengths, and not to waste too much time working on our weaknesses. However we also need to develop emotional intelligence and mindful awareness, so we do not dwell too much on the past or the uncertainties of the future, and can have more ‘here and now’ choice in our relationships and our life path. The course will focus on finding your sense of meaning and purpose, learning to live in the here and now, letting go into pleasure, developing emotional resilience and finding connection with others. All this and lots of fun too! Michael Eales is one of the leading figures in Humanistic Psychology. He is the co-author of The Personal Management Handbook and The Coaching Cube.

12 – 25 September 2010 (2 weeks) De-Clutter Your Life and Attract Your Ideal Partner with Frank Shapiro £1095
Wk 1: Clutter isn't only physical. Mental, spiritual and emotional clutter can keep you from doing what you really want to do. During our time together we will look at 'unloading' the clutter in our everyday life, work on emotional clutter that is getting in the way and discover how creating more space in all areas of life will allow us to attract the important things we want and need. The main areas we will look at are de-cluttering your brain, your accountability system, your emotions, your body, your social life, your heart and soul, your home, your finances, your language and your behavior. De-cluttering is the same principle as setting New Years resolutions or spring cleaning...it's about clearing out the old to make room for the new.

Wk 2: How can you expect others (friends, family or a potential partner) to be attracted to you if you are not first attractive to yourself? During our time together we will look at how attraction works, especially when it is for a partner, but will also look at attraction in general. We will learn what is attractive from the inside out, and understand that by being your authentic self you will attract like minded people and interesting situations towards you like a magnet. We will consider love, lust and self limiting beliefs as well as things that have stopped you in the past from having the close intimate relationship you want. This relaxed time together is ideal for men and women of all ages who have the desire to have a lasting relationship that really works. Frank Shapiro is one of the leading motivators and has written about getting the most out of life in books and the media. He regularly facilitates workshops, retreats and seminars around the world and helps individuals close the gap between where they are and where they want to be in both their personal and professional life. His relaxed style ensures you will have a fun time while being gently prodded to achieve your goals.

25 September – 2 October 2010 (1 week) Getting on with People with Gaie Houston £695
This workshop lets you find more about how you influence and are influenced, and gives an opportunity for taking more charge of how you do your living. Each day of the workshop will give the chance for you to look in perhaps a new way, at a different aspect of your relationship to the rest of the human world. The present group will be our first reality. Then there are groups from earlier life, family and childhood. Then the contrasting groups in your contemporary life. The aim will be to give you greater insight into how you and others get on together, and in consequence, more control over how to achieve what you find you want emotionally. A psychotherapist and playwright, Gaie Houston has written eight books on group and organisational behaviour including The Red Book on Groups and Being & Belonging - topics she has also presented in three TV series.