6 days / 5 nights | Bulgaria
22 September - 27 September 2026
CPD Certified
Over six days, we’ll create a contained, supportive space for therapists and practitioners who want to deepen their relationship with dreams, both personally and clinically. The focus is experiential, reflective, and relational, with a strong emphasis on how to work with dreams ethically, creatively, and safely in therapeutic settings.
What the retreat offers
Each day we’ll move between teaching, experiential work, and integration, allowing time for rest as well as depth.
- Clinically oriented dreamwork teaching, grounded in therapeutic practice
- Group dreamwork, where we work with volunteered dreams in a respectful, consent-based way
- Practice in pairs and small groups, giving you time to apply methods, explore countertransference, and integrate learning at your own pace
- Space to reflect on how dreams live in your clinical work, including boundaries, pacing, and trauma-sensitive approaches
- Work with your own dreams and explore your dreamscape
- Fire-pit dream sharing and intention setting
- Morning yoga sessions
Dreamwork will be approached as a relational and embodied process, not something to “solve”. You’re always free to pass, work with fragments, or stay as a witness.
Working with dreams in nature
The landscape around the retreat is an active part of the work. We’ll include guided dreamwork in nature: walking, sensing, and dialoguing with images through the body and environment.
Evenings will include fire-pit dream sharing and intention setting, offering a simple, ancient container for listening and reflection as the day closes.
The venue includes a unique natural swimming pool filtered by plants, an indoor yoga shala/ workshop space with garden views, hammocks, sunbeds, and shaded chill-out areas.
Why Bulgaria?
We’re gathering in a quiet, rural part of Bulgaria, chosen deliberately for its rugged mountain landscapes, forests, and long tradition of restorative, nature-based culture. Bulgaria is known for its mineral springs, protected wilderness, and contemplative mountain regions, as well as a rich cultural and spiritual history shaped by monasteries, folklore, and life close to the land. From the stillness of the mountains to the tranquil shores of the Black Sea, it offers a powerful, understated setting for deep rest, reflection, and inner work.
Who this retreat is for
This retreat is for therapists, counsellors, psychologists, and practitioners who:
- already work with dreams, or are curious to bring dreamwork into their clinical practice
- want a balance of theory, experience, and application
- value depth, safety, and reflective learning
- are open to working gently, relationally, and at human pace
You don’t need to be a “good dreamer”. Curiosity, care, and respect for the inner world are enough.
Optional local excursions (or rest instead)
During the retreat, we’ll offer two optional half-day trips to nearby places of natural or cultural significance. These are always invitations, not requirements; you’re equally welcome to stay at the retreat centre to rest, journal, or integrate quietly.
1. Zheravna is a little Bulgarian museum-village, situated in the Eastern part of the Bulgarian Balkan mountains.The village keeps more than 200 wooden houses from the Bulgarian Revival period.
2. The river Kamchia which runs into the Kamchia Dam (alongside 6 other rivers). It’s a beautiful scenic area with the dam nestled between areas of imposing cliffs and old growth forests, and so it's an ideal setting for an afternoon dreamwork session, working with flow, sensation, and liminality. We may also go for a swim after the session!
FACILITATORS
Laura Roklicer is a psychologist and a dreamwork practitioner. She obtained her PhD in psychology from the University of Swansea, UK. She is a lucid dreamer and a writer, and for the past three years, she has been leading workshops for artists and therapists on the creative use of dreams for mental wellbeing.
Laura currently works at the University of Warsaw, conducting dream research in collaboration with Copernicus Science Centre and teaching a master's course on dreaming. She presented her research on dreamwork at the International Association for the Study of Dreams conference (2023 and 2024), London Arts-Based Research Centre 2023 conference, Talking Research 2023, and most recently the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity 2025 conference at the Paris Brain Institute.
. Her research was also published in the International Journal of Dream Research, and has been submitted for publication to The Journal of Creative Behavior and Creativity Research Journal.
Laura writes for Psychology Today, where she shares research and tips on lucid dreaming and dreamwork for therapists. She was also interviewed for the Guardian where she shared her views on the future of dreamwork.
For the past year, Laura has been working with a group of therapists in monthly workshops, as well as the general public at the Swansea Wellbeing Centre. Through this work, she has developed and keeps refining a practical model for combining dreamwork, storytelling, and drama as therapeutic tools.
"I started my doctoral research in search of the dreams’ creative potential, but I ended up unravelling the therapeutic side of combining creativity with dreams. Expressing my own haunting dreams creatively through a very unconscious process allowed me to understand myself against the confusing background of traumatic life events, and I continuously see this incredible effect dreamwork has on anyone willing to look inside."
Barry Hicks is an experienced and accredited Gestalt therapist, trained and practiced in working with dreams using the Gestalt Dream Method.
Barry has a long history of dream work from the mid 1970’s on working with Tony Crisp (aka: Dream Hawk, co-founder of the The British Wheel of Yoga, author of Dreams and Dreaming and Dream Dictionary amongst many other titles and articles).
Barry has since worked with and attended a great variety of dream workshops from
different global shamanic traditions to Jungian and then to Gestalt, which, being a truly integrative modality, allowed for the incorporation of all the above to inform his practice in a safe and trauma informed way.
different global shamanic traditions to Jungian and then to Gestalt, which, being a truly integrative modality, allowed for the incorporation of all the above to inform his practice in a safe and trauma informed way.
"I first came to dream work from a need to unravel a sense of lostness and depression as a teenager which threw me into a deep existential crisis. Stumbling across Dream and Encounter groups back then opened up for me a deep journey into an understanding of myself and my relationship with others. This became a rich seam of support for my own journey into greater self-understanding and self-acceptance. I am still forever amazed at the complexity and wisdom that shows up and informs me from inner world of my dreams. All I have to do is pay attention.
For me working safely with dreams in my personal world and with my clients is the gift that keeps on giving, and I would never say that I am finished in my learning of this fascinating and exciting realm."
PRICING
€1,600 for a double room (single occupancy)
€1,500 for a single room (single occupancy)
€1,500 for a double bell tent (single occupancy)
€1,300 for a twin bell tent (shared with one other person)
€1100 for a single bed in a 4-bed cottage
(all packages come with a deposit of €300 - deposit payable within seven days of acceptance onto the retreat)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
✅ WHAT'S INCLUDED
- 5-nights accommodation
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
- Two excursions
- CPD certificate
- Transport from the airport
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
❌ WHAT'S NOT INCLUDED
- Flights
- Insurance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TESTIMONIALS FROM PREVIOUS WORKSHOPS & RETREATS
Thanks Laura and Barry for making such a deep dive Dreamtime possible… it’s going to resonate for a long time I feel! It was wonderful to be you all… thank you for all your insights and support… such a rich time. Much love.
Just wanted to thank you all for the embodiment of the matrix dream - I feel I have encountered the reality of this dream in my work and personal life all week - when I look at it now it prepared me to stay steady and grounded with what I have needed to respond to and manage - thank you so much for your support and for this very needed rehearsal 🙏🙏🙏❤️
- Carolina Herbert, Integrative Arts Psychotherapist & Founder of Alkimia
What unfolds in these dream workshops are layers of image and depth. The dream is the raw material. Laura asks us to work with it in all sorts of creative ways. So the dream is fuel for a whole journey of exploration. We access our imaginal minds, intuitions, feeling states and let go the pressure of needing to understand or resolve.
Laura’s light touch and humour, her clarity, precision and patience are outstanding. And the atmosphere she holds feels safe, warm and fun. The work feels alive, creative, and refreshing.
Laura’s light touch and humour, her clarity, precision and patience are outstanding. And the atmosphere she holds feels safe, warm and fun. The work feels alive, creative, and refreshing.
- Lisa Harley, Trauma Informed Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist
The weather enabled us to create our own little safe bubble in the woods and it felt truly magical to be together and share deep insights.
- Sally Eastwood, Trainee Psychotherapist with the Welsh Psychotherapy Institute
Working with Laura and Barry created a warm, safe space for my dreams to unfold. The whole group actively joined in the narrative exploration. Through the careful, gentle work, I was enabled to be open to the profound messages my unconscious was trying to share with me. Thank you!
- John Dray, Psychotherapist, UKCP Trainee
I have just finished a zoom session and an immensely exciting piece of dream work with a client. Feelng very grateful for the session on Wednesday.
- Stuart Griffin, UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist