Thank you for your application!
How do we choose our guests?
It’s the question that we get asked the most - how do we decide, from all of our applications, the women who attend our retreats? As a very small organisation, we are currently able to offer a handful of retreats on set dates each year - so one of the first elements is to see who from our list is available on those dates. However, the first element that comes into play is where each applicant lives, which is why we ask this on our application form.
This is because one of our core principles as a Community Interest Company (CIC) is to build communities and networks of like minded women in each area where we host a retreat. As a female team who gain such deep joy and nurturing from our own supportive networks, we know how valuable these connections can be. The guests who come on our retreats bond over the experience and we set them up with a WhatsApp group so that they can continue to stay in contact and support each other as a tribe once they leave and head back into their busy lives. We also ensure that we use local practitioners so that our guests get to experience, for example, yoga, or breathwork, or a guided meditation, from someone who lives nearby.
We also take into consideration any specific needs of our applicants and their suitability to each retreat centre that we are offered. Some accommodation has steep stairs, for example, which is not suitable for everyone. Some retreat rooms have twin or bunk beds, so we can accommodate friends or sisters who are open to sharing. That’s why our team takes the time to interview each potential guest to ensure that the retreat is right for them.
As we continue to expand our retreat offering, we hope to support many more women in the future. However we are so thrilled that thanks to the generosity of so many kind folk out there, 100 women will experience the deep joy and connections of a We Free Women retreat in 2024.
The We Free Women Team