Why the right support, new experiences and a change of environment can make all the difference when you're recovering from divorce, heartbreak or loss. How do you heal a broken heart when the life you thought you were going to have suddenly disappears? Whether you've been through a divorce, the breakdown of a long-term relationship or the death of someone you love, heartbreak can leave you feeling completely lost, and sometimes the hardest part isn't accepting what's happened

Have you ever looked at somebody else's life and wondered how they seem to have everything worked out? They're travelling, meeting new people, enjoying new experiences and seemingly living without a care in the world, while you're still questioning your decisions, worrying about what other people might think and wondering whether you're being selfish for wanting something more from your own life. Parental guilt after divorce is something I don't think we talk about enough, pa

Type “best grief retreats in the world” into Google and you'll find plenty of lists telling you exactly where you should go. But after running divorce and grief retreats for more than five years, I think there is a problem with calling any one retreat the best. Best for whom? Someone whose husband or wife has died after 40 years of marriage may need something completely different from somebody whose marriage has suddenly ended. A parent grieving the loss of a son or daughter

We use the words 'broken heart' all the time, usually when a relationship ends or we lose someone we love. But can you actually die from one? It turns out that having a broken heart isn't just a saying. There is a real medical condition called broken heart syndrome, or Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, which can happen after the body experiences extreme emotional or physical stress. Bereavement can trigger it, but so can other major shocks and stressful events. Before anyone starts p

There is a lot written about women and divorce. I know because I was one of those women. I went through betrayal, separation and divorce, and I know what it feels like to watch the life you thought you were going to have disappear. But since running Mending Hearts and spending so much time around people dealing with divorce, grief and loss, I have found myself thinking more and more about the other side of it. What happens to the men? I wonder how many men are sitting alone a

How Do You Build the Confidence to Travel Alone? You want to travel alone. You keep seeing places you’d love to visit, saving hotels, watching other women heading off on amazing trips and thinking how much you’d love to do the same, but there’s one thing stopping you: you don’t have anyone to go with. That doesn’t mean you don’t have friends. One of the things I’ve realised as I’ve got older is just how difficult it can be to pin your friends down to actually go anywhere. Eve

Grief has a way of changing far more than just how you feel. It can affect your sleep, your confidence, your relationships, your ability to concentrate and sometimes even your sense of who you are. And although we tend to associate grief with the death of someone we love, grief can also come from divorce, the end of a long relationship, losing the family life you once knew or suddenly finding yourself facing a future that looks nothing like the one you had planned. One of the

Thailand has become one of the world's most popular destinations for luxury and wellness retreats, and it's not difficult to understand why. Beautiful beaches, tropical surroundings, incredible food, yoga, meditation and some of the most beautiful hotels in Asia make it a pretty wonderful place to escape to when life has become overwhelming. But I think there's a big difference between wanting to escape your life for a week and wanting some help working out what you're going

If you've found yourself Googling “best divorce retreats for women”, chances are you've reached the point where you know you need something more than another weekend away, another self-help book or another conversation with friends who love you but don't necessarily understand what you're going through. I know that feeling because I've been there myself. My marriage ended when I was 48 and, although I knew walking away was the right decision for me, that didn't mean I simply

Could a Grief Retreat for Men in Marrakech Be What You Need? There are a lot of men going through divorce, separation, bereavement and major loss who are quietly trying to deal with everything on their own. They’re still going to work, looking after their children, seeing friends, exercising, travelling and getting on with everyday life, and from the outside they can look absolutely fine. But underneath all of that, many are struggling far more than the people around them rea

Sometimes I sit and think about how lucky we are to be women today. I know that might sound strange when so many of us are dealing with menopause, anxiety, broken hearts, divorce, grief, sleepless nights, ageing parents, children leaving home and trying to work out who the hell we are after spending years looking after everybody else. For many women, rebuilding your life after divorce isn't just about getting over the end of a marriage. It can happen at exactly the same time

For years, I dreamt of owning my own retreat venue. I had it all worked out in my head. I would find a beautiful property somewhere warm, turn it into the perfect place for people to heal and host all my Mending Hearts Retreats there. I also believed that owning the venue was the only way to make real money from running retreats. Then I moved to Thailand and started looking into it properly. I wanted to find the perfect permanent home for our luxury grief retreats in Thailand

There are so many retreats out there now that I'm not surprised people don't know which one to choose. Wellness retreats, luxury wellness retreats, healing retreats, life reset retreats, burnout retreats, yoga retreats, grief retreats and divorce retreats. Most of them look fabulous too. Beautiful swimming pools, white robes, healthy food, yoga overlooking the sea and usually someone holding a singing bowl somewhere in the distance. I'd happily go to one myself. But before ch

At Mending Hearts Retreat, my passion has always been helping people rebuild their lives after divorce, loss and major life changes. Over the past six years, I've been incredibly proud to watch so many of our guests leave with renewed confidence, lifelong friendships and a real sense of hope for the future. One of the greatest privileges of doing this work is meeting other professionals who are equally committed to helping people heal. Every now and then I come across an orga

One of the questions I'm asked more than almost any other is, "How do I avoid ending up with another narcissist?" It's hardly surprising. Spend five minutes on social media and you'll come away believing they're everywhere. Every difficult relationship seems to be labelled narcissistic these days, and while some people genuinely have experienced narcissistic abuse, I sometimes wonder whether we've become so focused on diagnosing other people that we've forgotten to ask oursel

One of the biggest misconceptions about grief is that time heals it. I don't believe that's true. Time doesn't heal grief; it simply teaches us how to live around it. The grief we acknowledge gradually softens, but the grief we avoid has a habit of waiting patiently in the background until we're forced to face it. No matter how busy we keep ourselves or how many distractions we create, grief has an extraordinary way of catching up with us. After hosting divorce and grief retr

One of the questions I'm asked most often is, "How long does it take to heal from divorce?" The truth is, there isn't a simple answer. I've met people who are still angry and bitter twenty years after their divorce. I've also met others who have created fabulous new lives for themselves within just a few years. Healing isn't determined by how much time has passed; it's determined by what you choose to do with that time. The Impact of Unhealed Wounds One reason I feel so stron

One of the biggest misconceptions about divorce is that you're grieving the person. Of course there is sadness when a marriage ends, but looking back on my own experience, I realised that wasn't what I was grieving the most. What I was really grieving was the future I thought I was going to have. During my marriage, I spent hours searching for a large family apartment in Lisbon. It wasn't a fantasy or a passing idea. It was something we had talked about and planned for years.

There’s a stubborn quiet inside too many men—a pressure to hold steady, to keep the wheels turning, to fix what’s broken without admitting it’s broken at all. For decades that quiet was filled with jokes, overtime, late nights at the bar, or numbing routines. Now that silence is cracking. Increasingly, men are choosing transformational retreats instead of carrying private pain alone—and it’s changing how they recover, connect, and rebuild. The silent struggles no one sees Men

Grief is a sneaky visitor. It shows up uninvited, overstays its welcome, and sometimes rearranges your entire emotional furniture. When heartbreak, loss, or divorce knocks you sideways, it’s tempting to just tough it out solo. But what if there’s a gentler, more nurturing way to navigate this storm? Enter grief retreats a sanctuary where healing isn’t just a buzzword but a lived experience. Today, I’m diving into why grief retreats are worth considering, especially if you’re