Weekend Retreat for Women North of San Francisco: Coaching and Sound Healing in the Redwoods
Imagine stepping away from your everyday life for just three days and returning fundamentally changed. Not temporarily inspired, but genuinely transformed. That's the promise of The Catalyst Retreat, a carefully curated weekend retreat for women taking place April 16-19, 2026, in the ancient redwood forests of Mendocino, Northern California. This isn't about escaping your life—it's about reclaiming it.
Designed specifically for women already on a journey of self-discovery, this women's retreat North of San Francisco offers a Thursday evening through Sunday experience that fits perfectly into busy Bay Area schedules. You don't need to fly to Bali or book a week off work. Just three hours north of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, you'll find a coaching retreat Mendocino experience that weaves together strategic coaching exercises, sound healing, holotropic breathwork, yoga, and the grounding wisdom of towering redwoods. Limited to just 14 participants and facilitated by Harvard-trained executive coaches Christine Raschke and Monique Pearson, this three-day retreat women experience creates the intimate container necessary for lasting change. Discover this and other transformative experiences at Spirit Camp's retreat calendar.
Three Days That Change Everything: The Catalyst Retreat Weekend Experience
Escape the Ordinary and Step Into Transformation Just Hours from the Bay Area
What can really happen in a weekend? More than you might imagine—especially when that weekend is intentionally designed to create sustainable transformation rather than temporary inspiration. This women's weekend getaway Northern California unfolds through a carefully sequenced arc that helps you connect with what no longer serves you, claim who you are today, and calibrate toward the life you're ready to create.
The Catalyst Retreat begins Thursday evening April 16th, allowing Bay Area women to leave work at a reasonable hour and arrive at Spirit Camp in time for a welcome dinner and opening circle. By starting Thursday evening rather than Friday morning, the retreat eliminates the rushed feeling that can come with weekend-only experiences. You have time to settle in, meet your fellow participants, and begin the gentle unwinding that the redwood forest naturally inspires. The retreat concludes Sunday at noon, giving you the drive home to begin integrating what you've discovered before returning to your regular life Monday morning.
What makes this transformational weekend retreat different is its deliberate progression through three interconnected phases. You'll Connect—identifying the patterns that once protected you but no longer serve you, while rediscovering unique strengths you may have forgotten along the way. Then you'll Claim—through coaching exercises, journaling, and guided inquiry, you'll gain clarity about who you are today and what truly matters to you. Finally, you'll Calibrate—clarifying what you want to bring forth in this next chapter and taking intentional action to make it real. Throughout the weekend, sound healing is woven alongside coaching, breathwork, yoga, and mindfulness practices, creating multiple pathways for insight and transformation.
This personal growth retreat near Oakland attracts a particular kind of woman. You're already asking big questions. You're feeling the pull toward shifting something in your life. You're longing to reconnect with your intuition, your body, and your inner wisdom. And you're drawn to do this work in community with other inspiring women who will help you see yourself more clearly. Your comprehensive retreat package includes a private 1:1 coaching session with Christine or Monique before the retreat begins, three nights of accommodation at Spirit Camp, all organic vegetarian meals prepared by a private chef, full programming with coaching, breathwork, yoga, sound healing, and movement sessions, plus a post-retreat integration group coaching session to help carry your insights forward into daily life.
Sound Healing: Ancient Vibrational Medicine for Modern Transformation
How Therapeutic Sound Frequencies Facilitate Deep Release and Emotional Integration
Among the transformative modalities integrated throughout The Catalyst Retreat, sound healing offers a unique pathway to insight and release. While Christine and Monique weave this practice into the retreat's overall arc, understanding its foundations can deepen your appreciation for this ancient yet scientifically validated approach to healing.
Sound healing represents one of humanity's oldest therapeutic practices, found across cultures spanning millennia. From Tibetan singing bowls to indigenous drumming ceremonies, from Aboriginal didgeridoos to Gregorian chants, humans have long recognized that specific sounds and vibrations can profoundly affect our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The underlying principle is elegant: everything in the universe, including our bodies, exists in a state of vibration. When our natural vibrations become disrupted—through stress, trauma, or disconnection—therapeutic sound can help restore harmonic resonance.
The science behind sound healing reveals why this ancient practice continues to gain recognition in modern therapeutic contexts. Sound frequencies directly affect our brainwave states, helping participants shift from beta waves (associated with everyday thinking and problem-solving) into alpha and theta states (associated with deep relaxation, meditation, and access to subconscious material). During sound healing sessions using instruments like crystal singing bowls, gongs, or tuning forks, these frequency shifts create windows of opportunity for releasing stored tension, accessing emotions that might be difficult to reach through talk therapy alone, and processing experiences at a cellular level. Research has shown that therapeutic sound can calm the nervous system, reduce cortisol levels, and facilitate states of profound peace and integration.
Within The Catalyst Retreat experience, sound healing serves as a powerful complement to the strategic coaching work, breathwork, and yoga practices that define the weekend. Christine and Monique understand that transformation happens through multiple doorways—sometimes through conscious insight and intention, sometimes through somatic release and energetic recalibration. The sound healing sessions create opportunities for integration, allowing the insights gained through coaching exercises to settle into your body and nervous system. After a powerful breathwork journey, a sound bath can help you process and integrate the experience. Following an intense group coaching circle, therapeutic sound can soothe your system and restore a sense of peace and centeredness. You can explore more about sound healing practices at The Sound Healing Academy.
Photo of Deer Haven, one of the our many unique cabin spaces. This cabin has three beds. Cabins have between 1 to 8 beds each and provide several different sleeping arrangements for weekend retreat for women. All cabin spaces are included in women's retreat North of San Francisco.
Photo of Group Glamping Tents Setup in Sunset Meadow. We have 10 Glamping Structures that can be added with 1to 3 beds each. This can increase bed capacity of campus to 50 guests across 20 unique accommodation spaces.
Christine Raschke and Monique Pearson: Your Guides to Authentic Leadership
Executive Coaches Who Understand the Intersection of Professional Success and Personal Truth
Christine Raschke and Monique Pearson bring a rare combination of strategic acumen and spiritual depth to their work as facilitators. Both are Harvard Business School graduates who have held significant leadership positions in tech, startups, and consulting environments. Their extensive experience as executive coaches means they've worked with hundreds of high-achieving professionals navigating complex career transitions, leadership challenges, and the often-difficult question of how to align external success with internal truth. They understand firsthand the unique pressures facing ambitious women—the expectations, the patterns of overwork and over-giving, the tendency to prioritize everyone else's needs, and the growing sense that something essential is missing even when everything looks good on paper.
What distinguishes Christine and Monique's approach is their seamless integration of traditional coaching methodologies with somatic and spiritual practices. They're equally comfortable helping you craft a strategic plan for your next career move and guiding you through a breathwork journey to release old trauma stored in your body. They excel at holding space for both vulnerability and vision, creating a safe container where women can explore strategic life questions—What do I want? What's next? What needs to change?—alongside deeper existential ones—Who am I really? What truly matters? What am I here to do? Through this coaching retreat experience, they guide participants beyond surface-level insights into embodied transformation that creates sustainable change. Their gift lies in helping women identify limiting patterns with compassion rather than judgment, then systematically shifting those patterns through a combination of conscious inquiry and somatic practice. Connect with Christine and Monique and learn more about their approach at @thecatalystretreats.
Your Home for the Weekend: Spirit Camp's Welcoming Accommodations and Sacred Spaces
Where Rustic Redwood Charm Meets Thoughtful Design and Genuine Comfort
There's a particular magic that happens the moment you arrive at Spirit Camp. You drive up through towering redwoods, and before you even step out of your car, you feel it—that immediate slowing down, that sense of having crossed an invisible threshold from the busy world into a place where time moves differently. The ancient trees seem to welcome you, their grounding presence inviting you to drop your shoulders, take a deeper breath, and simply arrive. This women's healing retreat near Bay Area destination balances authentic forest immersion with thoughtful comfort, creating the perfect environment for the deep inner work ahead.
For this intimate weekend retreat for women limited to 14 participants, you'll stay in beautifully designed cabins that perfectly embody Spirit Camp's ethos: rustic enough to keep you connected to nature, comfortable enough to support genuine rest and reflection. Choose from private spacious cabins if you're craving solitude for journaling and integration, private cozy cabins offering the perfect balance of comfort and forest immersion, or three-to-four person shared cabins with either queen or twin beds for those traveling with friends or open to community living. Every cabin features oak hardwood floors that feel warm underfoot, plush cotton sheets and linen bedding that invite deep sleep, personal electric heaters you can adjust to your comfort, and thoughtfully placed blue-blocking lights that protect your natural circadian rhythms. Each space is meticulously cleaned both physically and energetically between guests, refreshed with natural botanical sprays that clear old energy and welcome new possibilities.
The Sanctuary serves as the heart of much of your retreat experience—an architectural gem featuring a copper roof with central skylight and 20-foot south-facing windows that flood the space with natural light throughout the day. Picture yourself here for morning meditations as sunrise illuminates the redwood canopy visible through the windows, gathering in circles for afternoon coaching exercises where vulnerability meets strategic insight, and settling onto plush floor cushions for evening sound healing sessions as the copper roof above you holds the resonance of crystal bowls and gongs. The space itself seems designed for transformation, with its warmth from the wood-burning stove, its vintage rainbow color palette of pillows and throws, and that ever-present sense of being held by something larger than yourself.
Equally important to the retreat experience is the communal dining in the Redwood Lodge, where you'll gather around long wooden tables to share nourishing organic vegetarian meals prepared by a private chef. There's something profound that happens when women eat together—conversations deepen, laughter flows more freely, guards come down naturally. The lodge itself, built from redwood lumber harvested onsite decades ago, features six skylights that keep the space bright even on foggy Mendocino mornings, a stone fireplace that creates a cozy focal point, and houseplants that bring the forest inside. This shared nourishment—both the food itself and the community connection it fosters—becomes an integral part of the retreat's transformational container.
Spirit Camp's Perfect Location: Mendocino's Redwood Forests North of the Bay Area
Accessible Beauty Three Hours from San Francisco in California's Magical North Coast
Here's a question many Bay Area women face when seeking a genuine retreat experience: Do you really need to fly to Bali, Costa Rica, or Hawaii to access world-class transformation? The answer, beautifully, is no. Spirit Camp offers profound healing and growth just three hours north of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley—no passport required, no long flights, no jet lag, and no international travel budget necessary. This retreat for clarity and purpose brings together Harvard-trained coaching expertise, powerful somatic practices, and the ancient wisdom of California's redwood forests in a location that's remarkably accessible yet feels worlds away from everyday life.
The journey to Spirit Camp becomes part of the retreat experience itself. You'll leave behind the bustle of the Bay Area—the traffic, the noise, the constant stimulation—and drive north through increasingly rural landscapes. Pass through wine country where vineyards give way to oak woodlands, cross over into Mendocino County where the character of the land shifts dramatically, and eventually enter the realm of coastal redwoods where the air changes, the light filters differently through the canopy, and you know you've arrived somewhere special. Spirit Camp sits nestled on 27 acres of second-growth redwood forest on California's North Coast, creating a natural sanctuary that amplifies the inner work you'll be doing throughout the weekend.
The location offers perfect accessibility for women throughout Northern California. Spirit Camp is approximately three hours from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Oakland International Airport (OAK), making it an easy Friday afternoon or Thursday evening drive for participants flying in from elsewhere. For those coming from Santa Rosa, it's just a two-hour journey north. Women traveling from Palo Alto, San Jose, Berkeley, Marin County, Sonoma County, or other Bay Area communities will find the drive manageable and scenic. The nearby historic town of Mendocino—just ten minutes from Spirit Camp—offers charming cafes, unique boutiques, and natural food stores for any last-minute needs or post-retreat exploration before your drive home. Continue discovering transformative experiences at Spirit Camp's retreat offerings.
Common Questions About Joining The Catalyst Retreat
Preparing for Your Transformational Weekend in the Redwoods
What does the daily schedule look like during the retreat?
While each day is thoughtfully structured to build upon the previous one, the schedule balances active programming with spacious time for reflection and integration. You might begin your morning with gentle yoga or breathwork to awaken your body and settle your mind, followed by coaching exercises designed to spark insight and deepen self-awareness. Afternoons could include nature walks through the redwood trails, group sharing circles, or guided visualizations, with built-in spacious blocks for personal journaling, resting in the Sanctuary, or simply sitting in contemplation. Evenings often feature sound healing sessions, integration circles where you process the day's discoveries, or fire gatherings in the Magic Meadow under the stars. The sequence builds intentionally throughout the weekend retreat, with Christine and Monique carefully curating each element to support the Connect, Claim, and Calibrate arc. What's important to understand is that there's time—time to process, time to feel, time to integrate—rather than cramming every moment with activity.How does the pre-retreat coaching session work?
Each participant receives a private 1:1 coaching session with either Christine or Monique before arriving at Spirit Camp for the three-day retreat. Scheduled via video call in the weeks leading up to the retreat weekend, this session typically lasts 60-75 minutes and serves multiple important purposes. First, it allows you to set personal intentions for your retreat experience—what are you hoping to explore, release, or discover? Second, it ensures you feel seen and understood before joining the group, which can ease any nervousness about sharing in circles with women you haven't yet met. Third, it gives Christine and Monique valuable context about where each participant is in her journey, allowing them to tailor the weekend experience to meet the group where they collectively are. Many women report that this pre-retreat session helps them arrive at Spirit Camp already feeling connected to the process and ready to dive deep from the opening circle.What if I've never done breathwork or sound healing before?
This is one of the most common questions, and the answer is reassuring: all the modalities incorporated into The Catalyst Retreat are designed to be accessible to complete beginners while still offering depth for those with prior experience. Christine and Monique excel at creating safe containers with clear instructions, ongoing support, and permission to modify or adjust as needed. Before each breathwork session, you'll receive thorough guidance about the technique, what you might experience, and how to work with whatever arises. During sound healing, you simply lie down and receive—there's nothing you need to "do" or "get right." The practices are designed to meet each person exactly where she is. If at any point something feels too intense, you always have the option to take breaks, modify the practice, or simply rest. The emphasis throughout the weekend is on honoring your own process and trusting your body's wisdom about what you need.
Two Unforgettable Experiences Near Spirit Camp
Extend Your Retreat with Mendocino's Natural Wonders and Creative Spirit
Jughandle State Natural Reserve: A Geological Journey Through Time
Just a short drive from Spirit Camp, Jughandle State Natural Reserve offers one of the most unique natural experiences on the California coast—an ecological staircase that takes you on a literal journey through geological time. This fascinating reserve features five wave-cut terraces ascending from sea level, each terrace representing approximately 100,000 years of geologic history. The relatively easy 2.5-mile loop trail guides you upward through distinct ecological zones: beginning at coastal prairie where wildflowers bloom in spring and fall, ascending through bishop pine forest where the trees grow progressively shorter, and eventually arriving at the pygmy forest where ancient trees grow only a few feet tall due to the highly acidic, nutrient-poor soil of the oldest terrace.
Walking this trail after your transformational weekend retreat offers a powerful metaphor for the personal transformation work you've been doing. Here is visible, tangible evidence of how slow, steady forces create remarkable change over vast stretches of time. The pygmy forest, where 100-year-old cypress trees stand barely waist-high, demonstrates how environmental conditions shape growth patterns—a reminder that the patterns we carry were formed by our own environmental conditions and can, with intention and time, be reshaped. Many retreat participants find that extending their stay to explore Jughandle creates space for continued contemplation of the weekend's themes while remaining immersed in Mendocino County's stunning natural beauty. The trail is well-maintained and suitable for various fitness levels, making it an accessible way to continue your nature immersion and personal reflection.
Mendocino Headlands State Park: Where Land Meets Infinite Ocean
The dramatic coastal headlands surrounding the town of Mendocino provide another stunning destination for extending your retreat experience. Mendocino Headlands State Park encompasses the rocky bluffs and wave-battered shoreline that define this stretch of California's North Coast, offering a network of trails with spectacular ocean views, natural sea arch formations, and protected coves where harbor seals often gather. During winter through spring months, these headlands serve as prime whale-watching territory as gray whales migrate along the coast. Even if you don't spot whales, the sheer vastness of the Pacific stretching to the horizon provides its own form of perspective and wonder.
What makes the headlands particularly valuable for post-retreat integration is the abundance of peaceful benches strategically placed along the cliff edges—perfect spots for journaling, meditating, or simply sitting with whatever insights emerged during your weekend with Christine and Monique. There's something profoundly grounding about standing at the edge of the continent watching waves crash against ancient rocks, feeling the salt spray on your face, and allowing the ocean's vastness to put your own life into perspective. Many women find that this natural panorama helps them reconnect with what truly matters, distinguish between the urgent and the important, and gain clarity about the calibrations they want to make in their lives. The headlands trails are easily accessible from the town of Mendocino, where you can grab coffee or lunch before or after your walk, making it a perfect final morning activity before beginning your journey back to the Bay Area.
This Is Your Invitation to Step Away and Step Into Transformation
Your life is calling you toward something—you've felt it, that gentle but persistent pull toward change, toward greater authenticity, toward the woman you know you're meant to become. The Catalyst Retreat offers a carefully curated weekend retreat for women where executive coaching, breathwork, sound healing, and the ancient wisdom of the redwood forest converge to support your journey. Just three hours north of San Francisco in Mendocino's enchanting forests, this women's retreat North of San Francisco creates the intimate container necessary for genuine transformation.
Join Christine Raschke and Monique Pearson April 16-19, 2026, for three days that could change everything. Limited to 14 participants, this coaching retreat Mendocino experience fills quickly.
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