Fire & Rain Soul Spas® are uplifting retreat holidays for widows and widowers. On this page for support professionals we have summarised information that will help you assess if someone you work with could be interested and benefit from such a break:
About the retreats
Who they are for and intended outcomes
Working in partnership
About the retreats
Soul Spas offer a safe space to just be and are all about self-care and enjoyment, in the company of people who really understand. Our retreats are created with much attention to detail and combine elements that all have a widely recognised healing effect:
> Nature: walking and just being in nature
> Peer support & mindful alone-time
> Guided tours: exploring a new location with all its treasures
> Sharing stories and experiences; reflection circles
> Delicious food, freshly prepared on site – using local ingredients where possible
> Joint yoga practice
> Mindfulness meditation & exercises
> Creative activities (painting, creating memory objects etc.) and journaling
> Tasteful spaces
> Access to library of helpful resources
> Personal service from the first contact.
The focus is on self-care and enjoyment – as much as this is possible after experiencing great loss. The Soul Spas do not involve formal therapy. Instead there is a programme of enjoyable activities where everything is optional, with plenty free time to just drift, relax and explore. Guests find time and space to be alone, but with the option to dip in and out of warm, compassionate company whenever they feel like it.
A Soul Spa typically runs over 6 days (5 overnight stays) and group sizes are between 5 and 10 guests. Prices for the all-inclusive packages start at £1340 (flights and other travel to and from the retreat location are not included). While all Soul Spas have mindfulness techniques built into the programme, some (marked as mindfulness soul spas) include a more in-depth mindfulness course led by Dr Avinash Bansode. Avinash runs Mindfullybeing and is Honorary Mindfulness Chaplain at Edinburgh University. He has been teaching mindfulness for over 15 years.
From widows for widows and widowers
Inspired by her own healing journey following the sudden death of her fiancé, founder Ute Amann-Seidel set up Fire & Rain. Through Fire & Rain Soul Spas, Ute and her co-hosts want to share some of the things that have helped them heal after loss with others in a similar situation. The team have relevant experience and skills which they keep developing further, but also warm and compassionate personalities that make the Soul Spas healing and uplifting experiences.
Who the retreats are for
Fire & Rain Soul Spas® are a more relevant alternative to other quality holiday offers such as health spa retreats, singles’ holidays and spiritual retreats. They are for women and men who have become widowed between a few months and several years ago and wish to take a break surrounded by a beautiful natural environment and find new inspiration. Participants are usually at a stage on their healing journey where they still feel fragile and are trying to make sense of the “new normal”.
Our retreats don’t replace but rather complement professional support such as one-to-one or group counselling.
Soul Spa outcomes
The intended outcomes for retreat participants are:
> New friendships – participants feel they are not alone
> Feeling less hopeless
> Mindfulness techniques can help to get more clarity, inner peace, new sense of perspective
> Benefits of exploring a new location – feeling enriched and inspired
> Allowing creative flow – do what they love doing or try out something new (e.g. abstract painting)
> New self care ideas – better sense of what feels good and what to build into one’s life
Feedback has confirmed guests are experiencing these outcomes. Examples of guest feedback are available here.
Working in partnership – Please help us spread the word!
Fire & Rain Soul Spa® is a relatively new service and we can use any support we can get with making widowed people and those supporting them aware of its existence and benefits.
If you work with people who have lost their life partner, please do tell them about Fire & Rain! We feel this is an important service. Yes, it is a private business, but it’s not about us becoming millionaires but about the business becoming viable so we can continue to run healing retreat holidays.
Giving something back
We have started working with bereavement charities to find ways of making the retreats accessible to as many widowed people as possible. The costs of running such a quality experience are quite high, but we would like to give something make by regularly making a space available for free in partnership with charitable organisations.
We have just donated a space through the US charity Live The List. The sponsorship makes it possible for a widow from Minnesota to take part in the Hebridean Wildscapes Soul Spa in May in Mull. The dates are almost exactly on what would have been the 25th wedding anniversary for her and her late husband, and a trip to Scotland for this anniversary had been on their bucket list.
If your organisation would be interested in a sponsor partnership please get in touch to discuss options.
Widowed people often forget to look after themselves properly. We have lots of ideas for making these breaks really special. They are reminders that life is still worth living to the full.
You can find information on upcoming Soul Spas here.
You can also download the information for support professionals as pdf: Fire & Rain info for support professionals
Fire & Rain Soul Spa® | Bereavement Support UK 