The Deprogramming Company
WOMEN. TRUTH. FREEDOM.
A leadership retreat in power,
voice and sovereignty
October 2026 | North East England | Limited to 15 women
There comes a point.
You're not tired because you're weak.
You're tired because you've been holding too much - your tongue, the room, the emotional labour, the ambition, the boundary you keep swallowing.
Women. Truth. Freedom. is for women who are no longer willing to carry silently.
This is not about becoming louder. It's about becoming unapologetically clear.
At a glance
Dates: Arrive 20th October - leave 23rd October 2026
Location: Fairfield House, Stanhope, Bishop Auckland, DL13 2UR. United Kingdom.
Travel: Accessible via Newcastle Airport and Durham train station
What's included: Accommodation, facilitation, guided practices, catered dinners, generous breakfasts and lunches, snacks, beverages, sound bath and celebration dinner
Accommodation: Shared twin rooms, matched thoughtfully through pre-retreat preferences
Investment: £1,600 - payment plan available
What this retreat is
Women. Truth. Freedom. is a 4-day residential leadership and professional development retreat for women who are ready to strengthen strategic voice, boundary clarity, executive presence and sustainable leadership.
It is psychologically grounded, carefully facilitated and intentionally small - limited to 15 women.
Structured enough to feel safe. Powerful enough to create change.
The retreat arc
The retreat is designed as a sequenced journey - each day building the conditions for the next.
Tuesday grounds. Wednesday activates and integrates.
Thursday claims. Friday returns.
Women leave not just with insight but with something they have lived in their bodies - a different relationship to their own power, voice and authority.
Day 1 - Truth -
Tuesday
Crossing the threshold
Arrival from 12pm. A light buffet lunch. Time to settle.
The afternoon opens with a structured welcome circle - intentions, agreements and the question that holds the whole retreat: what called you here?
At 4pm, Ceryn leads the ceremonial opening of the retreat - a deliberate threshold ritual that marks this as something different from a workshop or a development day. Michelle and Felice participate alongside participants. This is not facilitated at them. It is held with them.
The evening is simple: dinner, optional fireside conversation, and an early night. Tuesday is designed to let nervous systems arrive before the real work begins.
Day 2 - Power - Wednesday
From self-silencing to grounded authority
Led by Michelle Minnikin.
Wednesday has a deliberate emotional arc: awareness in the morning, activation at midday, regulation in the afternoon, integration in the evening.
The morning opens with a grounding practice and a short teaching on the conditioned patterns that keep women's leadership constrained - perfectionism, over-functioning, self-silencing, permission-seeking. Participants are guided to identify where these patterns live in their own leadership.
The midday session moves from cognitive to embodied - structured somatic work that helps women access, metabolise and reclaim what has been suppressed. This work is tightly facilitated with clear entry and exit, grounding throughout, and full participant agency at every stage.
After lunch, a 60-minute Warrior Walk in the open countryside - ending with a collective practice of naming what participants are no longer available for.
At 3pm, Rebecca leads a sound bath - a deeply restorative practice that supports integration and regulation after the morning's activation work.
The day closes with a fire ritual at the firepit - each woman naming one thing she is leaving behind and one thing she is claiming going forward, followed by a soul-nourishing meal.
Day 3 - Freedom - Thursday
Voice, visibility and the Sovereign Seat
Led by Felice Ayling.
Thursday opens with the question Wednesday made possible: now that you have reclaimed your authority, how do you carry it in a room?
The morning explores the cost of visibility - the beliefs, fears and identities that have kept women's leadership smaller than their capability. Felice works with participants to map, examine and dismantle them.
Lauren, professional actress and voice specialist, works with participants on the embodied experience of voice - how women take up space, carry presence and communicate authority in practice, not just in theory.
The afternoon brings the Sovereign Seat.
One chair. The centre of the room. The group as witness.
One by one, each woman takes her place. She speaks - who she is becoming, what she stands for, what she is no longer available for, what she is now claiming.
The group witnesses. No advice. No critique. No fixing. Just presence.
This is not a performance exercise. It is a leadership claiming - and it is the moment most participants describe as the turning point of the retreat.
Felice closes the afternoon with a collective anchoring practice.
The evening is the Matriarch's Table - a candlelit celebration dinner. Candles, music, a symbolic crowning, and a toast to every woman in the room. The feeling of women who have stopped apologising.
Day 4 - Return -
Friday
Integration and departure
A gentle closing morning.
Breakfast, a final circle - what are you taking with you, what commitment are you making, what support do you need - and a clean, grounded ending.
Participants leave by 10am.
Friday is designed so that every woman leaves clear, steady and resourced - not emotionally flooded, not unravelled, but genuinely integrated and ready to return to her life with something solid.
The facilitation team
Michelle Minnikin, Chartered Organisational Psychologist, Co-Founder of The Deprogramming Company, Author and Guide
Michelle brings psychological depth, deconditioning work and authentic leadership development. Her work helps women understand the invisible patterns they have been carrying - and reclaim a more grounded, self-respecting relationship to power and authority.
Felice Ayling, Visibility Strategist, Author and Founder of Loud Women
Felice brings strategic voice, visibility and embodied authority. Her work supports women in communicating more clearly, carrying influence more confidently, and showing up with a stronger sense of their own leadership presence.
Ceryn Rowntree, Writer, Coach and Guide
Ceryn holds the ceremonial opening of the retreat, creating the conditions for honest reflection, genuine threshold-crossing, and the kind of clarity that comes from being truly witnessed. She marks the retreat as sacred time from the very first afternoon.
Lauren Ayling, Professional Actress and Voice Specialis
Lauren works with participants on voice, presence and embodied communication - helping women access the full range of how they speak, take up space and carry authority in a room. Her work on Thursday is where insight becomes something participants can feel and use.
Rebecca Lawrence, Sound Healing Practitioner
Rebecca leads the sound bath on Wednesday - a deeply held, restorative practice that supports integration, regulation and the kind of stillness that makes deeper clarity possible after the morning's activation work.
The setting
Fairfield House, Stanhope, Bishop Auckland, DL13 2UR
A luxury countryside venue in the North East of England - open landscape, autumn air, firelight and space to think.
Accommodation is in shared twin rooms, paired thoughtfully through a pre-retreat questionnaire. This is intentional. The intimacy of shared space - late-night conversations, morning quiet, the witnessing that happens between rooms - is part of the retreat experience.
The venue includes 10 bedrooms with a mix of en-suite and shared bathroom options.
Frequently asked questions
Is this therapy?
No. The retreat is psychologically grounded, but it is not therapy. Participants are never required to disclose personal history or engage in any exercise that does not feel right for them. All practices are invitational, and participant agency is maintained throughout.
Do participants have to join every activity?
No. All activities are invitational. Consent is key. Silence is a valid form of participation, and no one will be pressured to speak, perform or take part in any exercise.
What is the somatic work on Wednesday?
Wednesday includes structured embodied practices designed to help women access and metabolise what has been suppressed in their leadership. This work is tightly facilitated with clear instructions, grounding throughout, and full participant choice at every stage. Participants are invited to share any relevant history in the pre-retreat questionnaire so facilitators can hold the space with care.
What food is provided?
Three evening dinners are catered, with generous breakfasts, lunches, snacks and beverages throughout. Dietary requirements are taken into account when preparing the menus.
Can my organisation fund this?
Yes. The professional development summary below is designed to support HR or L&D approval. It can be shared directly with a budget holder or line manager.
How do I secure my place?
A £350 deposit secures your space. The balance can be paid in full or across five monthly payments of £250, with the balance settled by 31 August 2026.
Spaces are limited to 15. When they are filled, registration closes.
Professional Development Summary
This section is designed to support HR and L&D approval processes and can be shared directly with budget holders, line managers or learning and development teams.
Programme overview
Women. Truth. Freedom. is a structured 4-day residential leadership development programme for high-performing women.
It is facilitated by a Chartered Organisational Psychologist alongside specialist practitioners in voice and presence, embodied leadership, writing and coaching, and sound healing.
The programme supports women to strengthen executive presence, strategic voice, boundary clarity and sustainable high performance - addressing the conditioned patterns that constrain leadership at the root rather than at the surface.
Programme details
Programme type: Residential leadership and professional development retreat
Duration: 4 days / 3 nights - 20 to 23 October 2026
Location: Fairfield House, Stanhope, Bishop Auckland, DL13 2UR
Maximum cohort size: 15 participants
Investment: £1,600 per participant
Lead facilitators: Michelle Minnikin, Chartered Organisational Psychologist; Felice Ayling, Visibility Strategist
Guest specialist contributors: Ceryn Rowntree - writer, coach and guide; Lauren Ayling - professional actress and voice specialist; Rebecca Lawrence - sound healing practitioner
Programme objectives
Participants will:
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develop greater clarity and confidence in high-stakes communication, decision-making and leadership presence.
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will identify and interrupt conditioned patterns - including over-functioning, self-silencing, perfectionism and permission-seeking - that limit visible authority and strategic contribution.
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build sustainable self-leadership practices that reduce over-functioning, boundary erosion and performance-driven exhaustion.
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leave with a specific personal leadership commitment and an embodied sense of their own authority that they can carry back into their role.
Learning outcomes mapped to leadership competencies
Presence and confident communication - developed through structured voice work with a professional actress and voice specialist, embodied leadership practices and the Sovereign Seat - a witnessed leadership claiming exercise in which each participant practises articulating who she is, what she stands for and what she is claiming going forward.
Strategic voice and visibility - developed through coached communication exercises, facilitated group work and structured practice of the conversations, asks and boundaries participants have been avoiding.
Boundary clarity and sustainable performance - developed through somatic awareness work, values clarification, explicit boundary-setting practice and a closing integration session designed to anchor change before participants return to work.
Relational intelligence and influence - developed through peer learning, small group facilitation and structured reflection on power, authority and leadership presence.
Reflective thinking and self-trust - developed through guided journalling, nature immersion, sound healing and a final closing circle focused on integration and commitment.
Evidence of impact
Participant-reported outcomes included: stronger boundary-setting, increased confidence in meetings, improved delegation, reduced burnout indicators, successful career progression and promotion.
This programme is part-built on a proven methodology delivered through our corporate leadership
and public group programme for women - Rise Above.
“Michelle brings warmth and honesty to everything she does. She isn't afraid of naming the gendered roles we play and the ways these keep women down. She has a knack for bringing women together to laugh, challenge ourselves, celebrate each other and generally to drop the crap and be more real. I love her work and the women around her!”
Dr Hanne Warren, Clinical Psychologist and group programme participant
Organisational context
Women. Truth. Freedom. is most suitable for high-performing women who are navigating leadership responsibility, increased visibility, complex power dynamics or sustained over-functioning.
It is appropriate for mid-level and senior women leaders, women stepping into leadership for the first time, and women who are capable and committed but not yet leading with their full authority.
The programme complements and extends the impact of internal leadership development, coaching and mentoring by addressing the deeper conditioned layer that skills-based programmes alone cannot reach.
Get in touch if you would like a pre-booking conversation to discuss fit, individual context or organisational requirements.
