BEYOND THE ORDINARY
A Somatic Integrative Breathwork Immersion
Expanded states of consciousness are where accelerated healing takes place.
This work doesn’t start where most approaches do. It doesn’t begin with insight. It doesn’t try to think its way into change.
It starts in the body. In the nervous system. In the places where patterns actually live. And from there, something begins to move. What shifts below eventually reorganizes what happens above.
Beyond the Ordinary is a four-day immersion into this territory. A chance to meet your patterns at their root, form new experiences, build new neural networks, and discover firsthand what becomes possible when you move beyond the ordinary mind.
Your breath is the vehicle.
The Heart of this Work
The Heart of It
At the center of this retreat is the breathwork process itself. Not us, not something imposed from the outside, but the process. Your breath, the music, and your own system working together in ways that are genuinely difficult to describe until you have experienced them.
In our experience, nothing else creates this level of movement across the body, nervous system, and psyche in such a short period of time. This process engages multiple layers at once, not in sequence but all together, and it does so without forcing anything.
From Within
You won’t be told what to feel or what should happen. The process unfolds from within, guided by your breath, carried by the music, and led by your own system’s intelligence. We call this the inner healer. And it knows where to go. It moves at a pace that is entirely specific to you.
What We Have Witnessed
Anything can happen in a session, and over the years we have witnessed a great deal. People moving through unresolved grief or trauma. Laughter, tears, shaking, or profound stillness.
Moments of panic that passed. Voices that found themselves. Reconnections with memories, relationships, or parts of the self that had been buried for a long time. Experiences that defied easy explanation.
And just as often, people are moved by something quieter. The discovery of their own capacity. To feel what they have been avoiding. To stay with it. To move through it. That kind of surprise tends to stay with people for a long time.
The Arc
Each session is held by carefully curated, soul-stirring music that moves with you through the experience. It is not background. It is an active part of the journey, designed to support activation, emotional and somatic release, expansion, and eventually a gentle settling into integration. No two sessions are alike, and no one is asked to have any particular kind of experience.
Always Moving Toward Wholeness
Whatever arises, this process is always moving toward something. Toward completion. Toward release. Toward integration. That is not something we impose. It is simply what we have witnessed, again and again, in every person who has trusted the process enough to let it move.
Toward wholeness. Always.
Where change actually begins…
Most approaches to change begin with the mind. Understanding your patterns. Talking through your experiences. Shifting perspective. That can be genuinely helpful. But it often doesn’t reach the places where those patterns are actually held.
This work starts somewhere else.
It works at the level of the body, the nervous system, and the subconscious. Where reactions happen before you think. Where patterns live as sensation, emotion, and impulse. These are the places that talk alone cannot fully access, and they are exactly where this process begins.
In expanded states of consciousness, the usual organizing structures of the mind begin to soften. What has been held in place can begin to move. Not by force. Not by effort. But because the system finally has the conditions it needs.
And because the process is guided from within, it tends to move toward exactly what is ready. Not everything at once. Not more than you can handle. But what’s next. Your inner healer knows the difference.
There is something else that happens when this work is done in a shared space. When a group breathes together, something shifts collectively. There is a momentum that builds, a field of shared presence that supports deeper access, deeper release, and deeper integration than most people experience alone.
You are in your own experience.
And you are held by something larger than it.
What This Is
This is an immersive breathwork retreat focused on accessing deeper layers of the body, nervous system, and psyche through non-ordinary states of consciousness. It is a structured experience designed to create real movement, not just insight.
At times, this work can be intense. Not because anything is being forced, but because what emerges is real.
In this process, the guidance comes from within. Your inner healing intelligence will lead the way.
What This Is Not
This isn’t a traditional retreat centered around relaxation or escape.
It asks something of you. Your presence. Your willingness to engage with what arises.
And in that willingness, new possibilities begin to open.
For people ready to go deeper
You may have already done a significant amount of personal work and still feel like something hasn’t fully shifted. You’re not looking for more insight. You’re open to feeling, to experiencing, to letting something move. You’re willing to be present with your internal experience, to allow emotions and sensations to arise, and to engage with a process that unfolds on its own terms.
This retreat is for you if:
• You’ve done the work. Something still hasn’t moved.
• You’re ready to feel, not just understand.
• You want real movement, not just insight.
• You’re curious about what lives beyond your ordinary mind.
Who This Is Not For
This is not a good fit if you are looking for something light, relaxing, or primarily restorative.
It is also not appropriate if you are currently:
• In acute psychological crisis
• Experiencing psychosis
• Pregnant
• Managing an unmanaged heart condition
Not sure if this is the right fit? We’re happy to have a conversation before you register.
Held, supported, and free enough to let your process move…
Work at this depth requires more than just the process. It requires a container that can hold what happens when things open. This retreat is intentionally designed to do that.
Over the course of four days, you will move through two full breathwork sessions, each one held in a supported group space with us present throughout. Between sessions there is nourishing food, time in nature, integrative practices, and rest. The rhythm is deliberate. Depth without overload. Movement without rushing.
We are not here to direct your experience. We are here to create a space where you feel held, supported, and free enough to let your process move. To tend the space around it. To meet whatever comes, whether that is intensity or tenderness, with steady and grounded presence. With our combined backgrounds in trauma therapy, somatic work, and movement, you are in capable hands.
There is also something meaningful that happens in the group itself. Each participant will have the experience of going deeply into their own process, and of being quietly present while someone else goes into theirs. Both are part of the retreat. Both change you in different ways.
This is not a loose or unstructured experience. It is also not rigid or overly directed. It is held. Tight enough to feel secure. Open enough to allow your process to unfold in exactly the way it needs to.
What we can promise
Because this process is so individualized, it’s impossible to promise a specific outcome.
What we can promise is this: something will shift.
Something that has felt stuck begins to move. A different relationship to emotions. More access to the body and internal experience. A sense of release or completion around something that has been unresolved for a long time. Parts of yourself that feel more available than before.
Not everything gets resolved in a weekend. But something changes. And that change tends to continue unfolding long after you leave.
Many people also leave with a deeper trust in their own process. Less need to force. More ability to listen. More capacity to stay with what arises.
That quieter shift is often the one that lasts the longest.
Lotus Ranch, Wimberley
Forty acres of juniper and oak woodland in the Texas Hill Country, 45 minutes from Austin. Ponds, hiking trails, low-EMF lodging, and land that has been holding retreat groups for over 15 years.
We chose Lotus Ranch deliberately. It is private, quiet, and genuinely away from the pace of daily life, not just in miles but in atmosphere. When you arrive, something shifts before the breathwork even begins.
Accommodations are simple, clean, and communal. This is not a luxury spa. It is a working sanctuary, comfortable and nourishing and oriented entirely toward the inner process you came here to do.
Everything you need to know
November 5 – 8, 2026. Thursday 3:00 pm arrival through Sunday 2:00 pm departure.
Location
Lotus Ranch Retreat Center, 525 Fischer Trail, Wimberley, Texas. 45 minutes from Austin.
Investment
$1,500. Includes all sessions, meals, and accommodations for the duration of the retreat.
Breathwork Sessions
Two full sessions. Each session runs approximately two to three hours in expanded states where time dissolves.
Group Size
Intentionally small. Limited spots to maintain the depth and intimacy of the container.
What Is Included
• Two full breathwork sessions
• Somatic bodywork support during sessions
• Mandala creation and integration time
• Group integration circles
• Nourishing meals throughout
• On-site accommodations
• Access to 40 acres of Hill Country land
• Integrative practices between sessions
Dates
Two humans who happen to be therapists.
We do not show up to this work as clinicians in a clinical setting. We show up as people who have done this work ourselves, who have been changed by it, and who are genuinely honored to hold the space for others to experience it. Our training informs the safety of the container. Our humanity is what fills it.
Brenda Lee Gauthier
(she/her) LCSW · LCDC · SEP · E-RYT
I have spent a long time sitting with people in the hardest places of their lives, and I have done my own hard work in those same places. What I have learned, through my own healing and through witnessing countless others, is that we are not our patterns. Our patterns are not our personality. They are responses our systems learned, and once we understand that, we can change them. That belief is at the center of everything I do.
Breathwork found me years ago and it changed the way I understood healing. What drew me in, and what keeps me coming back, is this: in an expanded state, you can access multiple layers of yourself at the same time. The neural, the somatic, the emotional, the transpersonal, all at once. That is rare. And when change happens there, you get to know that you did it yourself. Your breath. Your inner healing intelligence. That kind of empowerment does not fade.
I am a licensed clinical social worker, licensed chemical dependency counselor, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and experienced registered yoga teacher. I am certified in Integrative Breathwork through Jacquelyn Small, a lineage rooted in the work of Stan Grof. My practice is built on the conviction that change is always possible, and that the body is where it begins.
Rebecca Pollard
(she/her) MA · LPC · SEP
I came to this work through the body, through years of yoga, Authentic Movement, contemplative dance, and long-distance running, long before I had language for what I was doing. What I understood in my body before I could articulate it in words is that healing is not primarily a cognitive process. It lives in the felt sense, in sensation, in the places that open when we slow down and actually listen.
I have worked alongside people navigating grief, trauma, loss, and major life transition for many years, in agencies, in private practice, and in group settings. What I have seen again and again is that the body holds both the wound and the way through. When we create enough safety for someone to turn toward what is there, something in them knows exactly what to do next.
I am a licensed professional counselor and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. I draw on training in Integral Somatic Psychotherapy, EMDR, and attachment-based approaches, woven together with decades of somatic movement practice. I am committed to my own growth, as a clinician and as a human being, and I bring that same spirit of ongoing curiosity and humility to every container I help hold.
Ready to go beyond?
Space is intentionally limited. This retreat fills with people who are ready, and we encourage you to reach out before it does. If you have questions about whether this is the right fit, we want to have that conversation with you.
A brief conversation is part of our intake process. We want to make sure this is the right fit for where you are right now.