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Wellness Retreats Sydney
You arrive into a place that’s been prepared for you. Not a hotel. Not a wellness package. A held container – small group or small party, two guides fully focused on what you came to do.
Everything else falls away because we’ve designed it to.
A Stellar retreat isn’t a fixed product. It’s bespoke – designed in conversation, anchored in the work you do on yourself, shaped to who you actually are and what you actually need.
From a Northern Beaches reset over a single night to a four-day immersion in the Bali highlands, the form changes. The depth doesn’t.
Two guides. Twenty-plus years between them in voice, sound, somatic practice, shamanic work.
What a Stellar retreat looks like
The ingredients, not the recipe
A Stellar retreat draws from a deep palette and the order shifts to suit the people in it. Reflective time alone. One-to-one work with a guide. Group immersion. Sound. Breath. Ice and ocean. Movement. Ceremony. An activity that pushes a personal limit.
Drum, voice, dance – the ecstatic edge when the group is ready for it. Quiet integration. The shape is fluid. What stays consistent is the depth of attention; what changes is the sequence.
The modalities
Live sound – crystal and Himalayan singing bowls, gongs, shamanic drum, flutes, rattles, rainsticks, chimes, tincture bells, didgeridoo, and Van’s looped vocal soundscapes. Breathwork. Ice and ocean immersion. Somatic and embodiment work. Organic and mindful nutrition. Movement. Individual and group reflection.
When a retreat calls for it, we bring in trusted specialists – acupuncture, additional breathwork facilitation, energy work, ice and cold-exposure instruction, somatic and movement teachers. Stellar is small by design but not closed. The right hands for the work, never a fixed roster.
The container
Forced separation from the calendar. Limited or no technology. Small group size – sometimes just one person, sometimes up to twelve. Two guides who are fully present, not splitting attention across twenty participants.
Permission to receive. Without earning it. Without performing wellness. Without apologising for taking up the time.
You arrive into a place that has been prepared for you. Everything else falls away because we designed it to.
Three retreat shapes
Every retreat is bespoke. These three shapes are starting points – the conversation shapes everything else.
Individual, couple, or up to four close friends. Sound, breath, ocean, one-to-one reflection time. The fastest path to a real pause – for the week that finally permits leaving, the month you’ve been overdue, the headspace that needs the calendar removed for a night.
- Sound, breath, ocean
- One-to-one reflection time
- Up to 4 people
Small group of 4–8 people, a couple, or a team. The full palette – sound, ceremony, somatic work, ocean and ice, integration. For people with a meaningful stretch to reset from – a long project, a bereavement, a chapter ending, a sustained period of overextension.
- Full modality palette
- Ceremony and integration
- 4–8 people
A single founder doing a deep solo intensive, a couple, a small group, or a team up to twelve. Full custom design, additional practitioners called in as the retreat needs, the deepest work. For the longer reset, the team off-site, the life pivot, the founder rebuild.
- End-to-end custom design
- Additional specialist practitioners
- Up to 12 people
Specific people, specific chapters
Not sure where you are right now? Our coaching page can help you find the right starting point.
Who holds the retreat
A certified Biofield Tuning practitioner with two decades of training in nervous-system research, somatic practice, and breathwork. Twenty years in voice, sound, and media – creator of Intuitive Voice. The guide who reads what is happening beneath what is being said.
Meet Vanessa →Built and scaled a $10M business across eight countries before turning, fully, to the inner work. Twenty years navigating chronic illness. Certified shamanic practitioner. The inside view of every hard thing – not the outside-looking-in version.
Meet Nic →The reason we know what makes a retreat worth doing is that we have spent years inside them – sound retreats, plant medicine ceremonies in the Peruvian jungle, vipassana intensives, somatic and breathwork containers across Asia and Europe.
We have been the participant. We know what depth of facilitation actually feels like, and we know what its absence feels like. That is what we hold for the people who come to us.
Sound is the medium. Relationship carries the work.
Locations
Walking distance to ocean, ten minutes from your front door. Easy in, easy out – for the people whose reset doesn’t require leaving the city, just leaving the noise.
Far enough to feel genuinely elsewhere, close enough to fit the calendar. One to four hours from Sydney. Coastal and hinterland retreats in spaces chosen to match the depth of work intended.
Bespoke Immersions designed and held wherever the brief requires. The form is custom, the planning is hands-on, the time investment matches the depth of the work.
Begin with a conversation
Every Stellar retreat starts with a conversation. We listen for what’s actually being asked for – not what the form says, but what’s underneath – then design from there.
The application below takes about three minutes. We come back within a week with either a proposed retreat shape or, if Stellar isn’t the right fit for what you need, a recommendation of who else might be.
Not ready for an application? Join the list – we send a short note when scheduled retreats are announced.
For deeper between-retreat work, our AI journal for inner inquiry supports the reflection that follows. For day-format alternatives, see our group sound journeys. For individual work between retreats, see coaching or 1:1 sessions.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Stellar retreat like?
According to Stellar Sound, a Stellar retreat is a bespoke immersive experience designed and held by two guides – Vanessa Fernandez and Nic Robertson – drawing on nervous-system research, somatic practice, shamanic ceremony, and over twenty years of combined work in sound and embodied facilitation. It is not a packaged product. The form is shaped to who you are and what you came for, anchored in three named shapes (The Pause, The Reset, The Immersion), held in small numbers, and built around the depth of attention that two fully present guides can give.
How long is a typical retreat?
Stellar retreats range from 1–2 nights (The Pause) to 2–3 nights (The Reset) to 4+ nights (The Immersion). The shape and length are chosen during the initial conversation based on what the group or individual is resetting from and what they want to come away with. Single-night formats sit at the entry point; week-long international Immersions sit at the deeper end. There is no fixed standard length – it is fitted to the work being asked for.
How much does a wellness retreat cost?
Stellar retreats start from $550 per person for The Pause (1–2 nights local), from $1,400 per person for The Reset (2–3 nights regional), and from $4,500 for a solo intensive or $5,000 for a small group on The Immersion (4+ nights, anywhere). Pricing reflects the small caseload, the two-guide model, the venue, and the time investment of design and delivery. All retreats are quoted bespoke after the initial conversation.
Where are Stellar retreats held?
Locally in Sydney’s Northern Beaches for The Pause format. Regionally in coastal and hinterland NSW – Blue Mountains, Byron, north coast, south coast – for The Reset format, typically 1–4 hours from Sydney. Internationally for The Immersion format, in Bali, Thailand, or wherever the brief requires. Venue is selected to match the format, the group size, and the depth of work intended.
Who are Stellar retreats for?
Stellar retreats are designed for high-performers needing a circuit breaker, couples wanting structured time to deepen, friends ready for a different kind of vacation, people navigating a long chapter of chronic illness or change, and small teams or founding crews. They are not for wellness-tourism shopping or for buyers looking for the lowest-cost provider. The values gate is honest and self-selecting – the right person recognises themselves immediately.
What should I look for in a retreat?
Look for guides whose lived experience matches the work they are holding. Look for small group sizes – depth does not scale. Look for clear post-retreat integration support, not just the days themselves. Ask what happens between sessions and after the retreat ends. Be cautious of fixed itineraries that do not adapt to the group, and of guides whose credentials sit only in observation rather than personal practice.
Are sound healing retreats worth it?
For people whose nervous systems are running in chronic activation, sound work in retreat format can produce measurable shifts in vagal tone, breath, and stress markers within a single session – and compound across multiple days of immersive practice. Effectiveness depends on the practitioners, the container, and the participant’s willingness to drop in. Sound work is not a clinical intervention but is a reliable way to access regulation states that talking alone often cannot reach.
Can I bring a partner, friends, or my team?
Yes. The Pause is designed for individuals, couples, or small groups of close friends. The Reset accommodates groups of 4–8, including teams. The Immersion can scale up to twelve people, including founding teams or organisations on off-site. For larger team and corporate retreats, see for organisations where the work shifts to team-shaped intentions and outcomes.
Short notes when something new lands. Around once a month.