The Retreat
Women’s Freedom Tribe is a four-day intensive retreat designed to dive deep into the subconscious, connect with sacred femininity, and explore what it means to be a woman. Your primary focus will be on breathwork.
Our four-day program is centered around two breathwork experiences, and a Cacao Ceremony, including preparation, integration, and a range of complementary rituals and practices. Each offering has been carefully crafted as an invitation to connect more deeply with the body, with others, and with the mystery of life. Throughout these practices, you are invited towards a greater sense of self-compassion, self-love, and self-inquiry.
Our Team:
Sandra Schider and Hannah de Waal are the co-creators behind Women’s Freedom Tribe.
Sandra Schider
Sandra is a Breathwork facilitator, Yoga teacher, Cacao medicine woman, Rapé ceremonialist, shamanic practitioner, and founder of The Freedom Tribe.
With two decades of experience dedicated to practicing spiritual traditions across the world she weaves science, art and spirituality in her work, incorporating sound, movement, plant-and animal-teachings, and her many valuable learnings from multiple traditions.
Read how Sandra found breathwork in her life HERE
Hannah de Waal
Hannah is a breathwork facilitator, mindfulness practitioner, and health psychologist. Her work centers around compassion, empowerment and learning to listen to our inner wisdom.
Read how Hannah found breathwork: HERE
Agnieszka, retreat support facilitator
Agnieszka is a breathwork facilitator and holistic masseur, fascinated by the human body, psyche and its inner intelligence. She is dedicated to accompanying people during their self-discovery journey, to reconnect with inner wisdom, authenticity and self trust. She supports transformation with sensitivity, kindness, and a deep appreciation of everyone's unique experience.
Discover more about all of our facilitators here and read about Sandra and Hannah, the facilitators of this Women’s retreat.
In order to make the most of your retreat experience, Women’s Freedom Tribe is a three-week process, including a group preparation call one week before the retreat and a group integration call following the retreat.
Please ensure you are willing to make such a commitment to yourself and to the group.
Sandra & Hannah about The Women’s Retreat
You can find out more about the sacred snuff Rapé and the sacred Cacao Medicine below.
Your journey:
— Breathwork
You will practice a style of deep, slightly accelerated breathing designed to quiet the mind and enter an expanded state of awareness. In this state, deep physical and emotional “healing” processes arise. Sandra and Hannah are trained, amongst other techniques, in Neurodynamic Breathwork, a technique developed by Michael Stone based on the work of Stanislav Grof. This style of breathwork involves an evocative music journey and emphasizes self-empowerment. Both beginners and experienced breathers are welcome.
Please read about the scientific and energetic benefits of breathwork in the upcoming article. Please sign up to the newsletter!
More will be spoken about the breathing technique during preparation.
Read the blogpost “And Introduction To Breathwork” for more information
— Rapé medicine
Rapé ( pronounced ha-peh) is a medicinal plant mixture, a sacred snuff, based on mapacho, which is sacred tobacco.
A Rapé ritual reminds us that we ARE Nature, it cleanses our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies, allows us to practice trust in Nature’s medicines, and surrender to the clearing process.
A Rapé ritual can be held before or after a breathwork session, for example, as it eases us into the process of surrender and allows us to experience deep connection to ourselves and “ all-that-is”, and it clears out blockages aswell.
read more about this powerful plant medicine HERE
— Cacao medicine
Cacao is often referred to as "medicine of the heart and soul”; it also holds the following beautiful names, “ food of the gods”,” medicine of peace”, “wisdom keeper”, “medicine of beauty”, and “ancient sacred seed”. Cacao has been used ceremonially across Ancient Mesoamerican cultures to connect deeply with oneself and with the earth, resonate with loving kindness, and joyfully celebrate life.
You can read more about this sacred Medicine right HERE.
The Cacao plant is both a strong and soft, psychoactive medicinal plant, that was - and still is- often misused in our western culture. Cacao is thought to contain around 1200 chemically individual components, like minerals, vitamins and neurotransmitters, all beneficial for body, mind and soul.
From the perspective of soul, nothing is separate. Cacao shows us the way into the heart-soul connection and creates a heart - centered consciousness. The community like experience can be very helpful to feel love, trust in life, and the connection to our authentic nature and the expanded nature, that surrounds us in all its beauty.
— Embodiment practices:
Our physical bodies hold unparalleled wisdom, which we can connect with through movement and somatic practice. The smallest of physical sensations or impulses may lead to the greatest insights or releases. Throughout our practices, we deepen our relationship with the physical body, listening to and honoring its needs and desires.
Some of our embodiment practices include yoga, sacred body positions, and active meditation.
— Shamanic journeying and fire ceremony : embracing metamorphosis
Ceremonies and rites of passage mark life’s essential or pivotal moments as they provide meaning and suppose during significant life transitions. They reflect our personal values, hopes, culture and spirituality. Ceremony can help to show us, that we are united and that we belong. They can motivate us, stimulate our emotions and prompt memories.
In summary, ceremonies and rites of passage are essential for our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and well-being.
By participating in these rituals, we can connect to our ancestors, honor their heritage, and contribute to the healing of our lineage, family line, and communities.
— Voice-work
A woman’s voice is a special instrument, as the throat and the womb are deeply connected. Working with the voice can thus have a profoundly healing effect on the womb. Our voices connect us with our power, our vulnerability, our courage, our unity. We practice voice work as a unique way to re-connect with the authentic and unique way, each and every one of us expresses her true frequency.
Every voice is uniquely beautiful, but we were often told, that we “can´t sing” or that we are “ not musical”. Don´t worry! Everyone can produce sound through frequency. The work we do has nothing to do with “ singing beautifully”. It’s all about allowing the magic of your uniqueness to shine through all the possible conditionings you may have experienced in your life, and begin to free yourself from constricting beliefs and fears around the voice.
— Nature connection
Through connecting with nature we connect with ourselves, with our interconnectedness, and with the great mystery of life. Nature connection practices invite us to cultivate a relationship with the symbolic realm, with the magical and the mystical. We practice listening to a voice that doesn’t use words.
This beauty of the nature around us, invites us to go into deep connection with the land, that will welcome us for this journey together.
— Community
The retreat will bring a like-minded, heart-centered community of women together, will you be part of it?
Participating in a community offers support and safety, connection and belonging, sharing, learning from each other, acceptance of diversity and love.
Experiencing deep emotional processes, heart-opening practices, authentic sharing, stillness and movement together, can sometimes create friendships for life aswell.
There is no power of change greater than a community discovering what it cares about
What’s included in the program:
40 min personal introduction and discovery call
Three-week group process, including one preparation call, four-day retreat, and one integration call
Three nights and four days shared accommodation, + organic vegetarian/ vegan meals
Two breathwork sessions
Rapé ceremony
Cacao ceremony
Yoga, meditation, and somatic practices
Energy cleansing
Sharing circles
Fire ceremony
A few little surprises and sprinkles of magic!
The location
The retreat will take place in the beautiful Aigen im Ennstal, Steiermark, in Austria, near one of the highest free standing mountain of Europe, which holds ancient myths and stories.
It is approximately 2.5 hours from Vienna and 1.5 hours from Graz.
See pictures below!
More info on getting to the venue will be shared on registration.
The wooden chalet is nestled among the mountains, with a view upon stunning natural landscapes all year round. Our space offers a cozy and comfortable retreat from the busy-ness of daily life, inviting you to breathe in the cool mountain air and soften into being held by nature.
INVESTMENT:
Payment plan available, if needed do not hesitate to contact us.
Standard price: 888 Euros
Solidarity price: 999 Euros
(- Pay this price if you're systemically privileged and believe in equity, you will help support other women, who are experiencing financial hardship, or are unemployed.
The following is included:
your stay in the enchanting venue
all meals
your 4-day in-person retreat : please read about our signature program above
your 40 minutes exploration zoom call with Sandra and Hannah
your group preparation zoom call 1 week before the retreat
your group integration zoom call 1 week after the retreat
Personal consultations during these 3 weeks, if needed
integration guidelines after your deep dive in retreat
We will offer Early Bird pricing!
If you feel called to join but cannot afford it right now, please get in touch and we will consider other options. Similarly, if you are able to contribute more, please let us know, and that contribution will support another woman.
We limit our group size to a maximum of 8 women. To secure your place, a deposit of 200 euros is required. You then can opt to pay in full or in two installments. Please note that deposits are non-refundable 30 days prior to the start of the retreat.
We can’t wait to meet you !
Sandra and Hannah
UNMASKING A MYTH
when they want to
control you
they do not come
with shackles
made of iron
they come instead
with cages made
of shame and story
like the one
about the woman
who earned crisis
for her curiosity
so tempted by a life
of wisdom and independence
she caused the downfall
of all civilization
women are dangerous
says the shame story of Eve
they cannot
be trusted and
should not
trust themselves
give a woman
free choice and
she’ll eat the fruit
tempt the man
enrage the god
she’ll destroy us all
with her mad desire
to know
to discover
to understand
her self
her world
her maker
give a woman any freedom
and she’ll follow
her curiosity
shape her
own story
seek truth beyond
the dictates
of order and obedience
she will wreck
your carefully controlled mandates
your reign of tightness
she will unmake
your holy wars
of right and wrong
and infuse the realm with
choice and instinct
empathy outranking rules
creativity eclipsing war
sovereignty subsuming
blind servitude
when you want to know
like Eve
when you have a taste
for truth
and a hunger for wisdom
you have to question
the stories
test the facts
rattle the cage
who profits from you
believing a lie?
who benefits because you
believe you are both
cause and curse?
they have tried
to burn you
with their shame
strip you
violate you
shrink you
silence you
but they could not break
your phoenix spirit
its fierce heat
will melt old regimes
and enflame a generation
who will not settle
for smallness
for submission
for shame
sink your self into
the feathered
red sleeve
of your ancestors
and rise, woman
rise again
for you are
Persephone’s Daughter
Lilith’s lover
Eve’s heir
find the truth
eat the fruit
unmask the myth
let it burn
poem by Angi Sullins
