January 28–31, 2027 · Saugatuck, Michigan · Limited spots available
A weekend retreat for the high-performing woman who needs to run away from home.
Three days outside your regularly scheduled life.
Take the time after the holiday season has taken everything from you.
Fall in love with winter.
Reserve Your SpotBefore you continue
What follows is not a description of the weekend.
It's a closer look at the woman walking into it.
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You make the decision.
Remember the appointment.
Find the missing thing.
Smooth over the strange energy in the room.
Notice what everyone needs before they have the decency to need it out loud.
You have become exceptionally good at being the woman everyone can count on.
The question is what happens when being needed becomes the only way you know how to be.
Somewhere between “I've got it” and “Don't worry about me,” competence stopped being something you do.
It became the role you play.
The role became a reputation.
And the woman underneath it became very easy to postpone.
When nobody needs anything from you, do you still know what you want?
For three days, you are not the planner.
The decision-maker.
The keeper of the details.
You do not choose the meal, make the appointment, manage the mood, or figure out what happens next.
You arrive.
We take it from there.
For once, the experience does not depend on you.
This is a deliberate interruption.
Not an escape from your life.
Not a makeover.
After the interruption
You know how to take care of people.
You can anticipate the need, make the reservation, bring the extra charger, regulate the room, and find the nearest acceptable lunch option before anyone else has noticed they are hungry.
This is not that weekend.
This is your lovingly enforced time to run away from home.
To step outside the roles that know exactly how to find you there.
To be fed without planning the meal.
Tended to without earning it.
Given enough quiet to hear what has been trying to get your attention.
You do not need to return transformed.
Just rested. Reconnected. And clearer about what you do not want to lose when life gets loud again.
Because soon, there will be lists.
Plans. Gifts. Deadlines. Traditions. Travel. People asking what they can bring while somehow still requiring you to decide what they should bring.
Before all of that, we are making room for you.
Why this retreat
You could book a beautiful room, order room service, and promise yourself you will spend the weekend thinking about what you need.
You might even do it.
Or you might answer email, wander around deciding where to eat, watch six episodes of something forgettable, and return home having changed locations without ever fully leaving your life.
Out of Office is different because the experience is already waiting for you.
The care has been arranged.
The meals have been planned.
The questions are better than the ones you ask yourself on repeat.
The creative work gives your mind somewhere new to go.
And the women around you bring perspective, laughter, and connection you cannot manufacture alone in a hotel room.
You only have to arrive.
We take it from there.
The experience
There is a specific kind of relief in being cared for without first completing seventeen tasks.
You will have a private room, beautiful meals prepared for you, room to rest, and a personal-care experience created with Urban You.
No squeezing an appointment between obligations.
No rushing back to the car.
No pretending a ten-minute shower was self-care because you locked the door.
Just time set aside to receive.
Your Urban You experience includes:
Elise will lead a private creative experience built around seeing yourself with more curiosity and less criticism.
Photography and art become the starting materials, but this is not about being photogenic, artistic, exposed, or brave on command.
It is an invitation to look differently. To move out of evaluation and into interpretation.
To make something with your own hands without needing it to be useful, impressive, or good enough to show anyone.
You choose your level of participation and visibility throughout the experience. The point is not the perfect image or finished piece.
The point is what becomes possible when you stop trying to get yourself right and become curious instead.
Anna will guide thoughtful, grounded conversations and exercises designed to help you notice what has been getting lost beneath competence, responsibility, and momentum.
Before the retreat, you will complete The Human Solution’s FSDI assessment and receive your individual report. It will give you language for the patterns that tend to appear when life becomes demanding—and a meaningful place to begin your reflection with Anna.
This is not therapy.
There will be no forced disclosure, dramatic public breakthrough, or request to become a different woman before Sunday.
There will be good questions.
Time to hear your own answers.
And space to decide what deserves your attention before the rest of the year begins deciding for you.
The feeling
Slow coffee in a place you did not have to clean.
Personal care you did not wedge into a lunch hour.
A meal arriving without anyone asking what everyone feels like eating.
Making something simply because you are allowed to.
A conversation that begins somewhere more interesting than your job title.
A private room when you want quiet.
Women to laugh with when you do not.
Enough structure that the time matters.
Enough space that it still feels like yours.
The shape of the weekend
Here is the rhythm.
Day One
No agenda. Just appetizers.
Arrive in the afternoon and settle into your private room before joining us for appetizers, drinks, and the easy beginning of meeting the women around you.
We will gather for dinner, walk you through the shape of the weekend, and answer the practical questions so you can stop wondering what happens next.
No programming marathon.
No opening-night confessions.
Just good food, new faces, and time to let your nervous system realize you are officially out of office.
You arrive. That is the whole assignment.
Begin with optional movement and a slow, self-serve breakfast before gathering with Anna to explore your FSDI report, the patterns it named, and what those patterns may be asking you to notice now.
After lunch, the pace shifts.
The afternoon is intentionally spacious, with private Urban You appointments, individual creative sessions, and time to rest, wander, talk, or close the door to your room and become briefly unavailable.
We will come back together for dinner with plenty to discuss—and no requirement to discuss any of it.
Day Two
The report doesn't lie.
Day Three
Paint. Wine. Repeat.
Saturday begins slowly, with optional movement, breakfast, personal-care appointments, and room to enjoy the property without being summoned by a color-coded agenda.
After lunch, we will gather again for reflection before moving into the creative heart of the weekend: happy hour, paint, music, and a guided experience with Elise that invites you to interpret what you see rather than evaluate it.
No artistic experience required.
The day ends around the table with dinner, conversation, and whatever your painting has decided to become.
Sunday morning brings everyone—and everything created throughout the weekend—back together.
Over breakfast, we will share a private gallery of the work, reflect on what surprised us, and make room for the things we want to carry home.
Then you pack your bags, say your goodbyes, and return to your regularly scheduled life.
Fed. Tended to. More connected to yourself.
And perhaps a little less willing to disappear inside everything you know how to manage.
Day Four
Pack light. Leave lighter.
Food
Private Chef Abbey will prepare the main meals, creating food that is generous, beautiful, and meant to be enjoyed together.
Breakfasts will be easy and self-serve.
Wake when you wake.
Make coffee before speaking.
Stand quietly beside a piece of toast while your personality loads.
Nobody will ask you what everyone wants for dinner.
You will be fed by someone who has already decided.
Who it is for
You do not need to be burned out.
You do not need to be in crisis.
You do not need a dramatic reason to leave.
Wanting the time is reason enough.
Who you bring
Some women will arrive knowing nobody. Others will come with someone they love.
Both are welcome.
The weekend is designed so connection does not depend on being outgoing, excellent at small talk, or willing to confess your life story beside the cheese board.
There will be thoughtful ways into conversation, time in smaller groups, and plenty of permission to close the door to your private room when you have had enough humanity for one afternoon.
You will be cared for as an individual and held as part of the group.
Worth naming plainly
This retreat includes facilitated reflection, emotional-intelligence work, role-play, and honest conversation. It is not individual or group therapy. You will never be asked to disclose personal experiences you do not want to share. You are responsible for deciding what feels appropriate to explore in a retreat setting and what belongs with a qualified mental-health professional.
Depth is welcome. Emotional demolition is not on the itinerary.
Nobody is waiting to reveal the improved version of you on Sunday morning. Urban You’s care is not included because your face needs correcting. The creative session is not included because you need to become more artistic. The FSDI is not included because your personality needs repairing.
You are not the before picture. The weekend is designed to help you encounter yourself with more information, more care, and fewer automatic judgments.
You may pass. You may take time alone. You may decide that a question deserves reflection rather than an immediate public answer. You may close the door to your private room and be unavailable for a while.
Participation matters. So does agency. We are creating conditions where honesty is possible, not demanding a performance of it.
There will be meaningful work. There will also be meals, privacy, unstructured time, care, laughter, and sleep. We are not scheduling every minute because you did not pay a premium price to attend a beautifully branded hostage situation.
The hosts
Anna creates space for women to notice the patterns beneath their competence.
Through The Human Solution and the FSDI, she gives language to what happens during stress, discomfort, and change. She will guide the weekend's reflection and self-awareness work with warmth, clarity, and no appetite for forced breakthroughs.
Elise believes creativity is one of the most direct paths back to yourself: a way of noticing what usually gets skipped over in the rush to be useful, competent, and fine.
She will guide the private creative experience and make sure nobody needs to arrive feeling photogenic, artistic, or particularly brave.
Nicole and the Urban You team understand that care can begin at the surface without being superficial.
Their role is deliciously practical: skilled personal care, thoughtful service, and the experience of having an appointment exist entirely for you.
Together, we are creating a weekend where you can be cared for, creatively expressed, nourished, thoughtfully challenged, and given room to breathe.
Not in separate appointments scattered across six months.
In one deliberately designed experience.
Accommodations
Every guest will have a private room.
No roommate matching.
No negotiating bedtime with a stranger.
No lying perfectly still at 3:17 a.m. because you are afraid turning over will reveal that you are awake.
Your room gives you somewhere to stop.
To write. Nap. Think. Stare at the ceiling productively. Leave clothes on the chair without explaining your personal organizational system to another human being.
Privacy is not separate from the experience.
It is part of the care.
The setting
Tucked into the dunes and shifting grasses of Michigan’s Art Coast, Frieden is a new design-forward cabin resort created for gathering, unwinding, and staying a little longer than planned.
Which is convenient, because our entire premise involves making it slightly difficult for you to rush home and resume being useful.
Frieden’s modern cabins are designed around privacy, natural texture, open living spaces, and actual rest.
Every retreat guest will have a private room. The group will have spaces to gather for shared meals, facilitated sessions, creative work, and conversation.
Between experiences, you may find yourself moving between forest paths, the hot tub, sauna, local art, slow mornings, and the revolutionary experience of having nowhere else you are expected to be.
Saugatuck’s relationship with art and nature makes it more than a beautiful backdrop. It belongs inside the experience.
A weekend about seeing differently. Making something that's actually yours. Stepping outside the identity you perform at home. And settling somewhere designed to let people stay, gather, and exhale.
What's included
Your retreat experience includes:
Intentional time for rest, connection, and absolutely zero useful errands.
Transportation to and from the retreat, alcoholic beverages, optional services, and personal purchases are not included unless explicitly stated.
This is not a collection of activities stacked on top of one another and held together with a gift bag.
Each part has a purpose.
The assessment gives you language.
The reflection helps you notice.
The creative experience gives you another way to see.
The care lets you receive.
The group reminds you that you are not the only woman holding more than anyone can see.
And your private room gives you somewhere to close the door afterward and think, “Well. That was illuminating,” in complete peace.
Investment
$2,700
One payment. One decision. Your place is yours.
Click Reserve Your Spot and complete your payment of $2,700. Your retreat agreement, questionnaire, and welcome email arrive right after.
Once your payment is complete, your spot is officially yours.
This is a small, highly considered experience with private accommodations, skilled personal care, chef-prepared meals, original creative work, guided reflection, and three days in which the details have been handled for you.
You are not paying for the greatest possible number of scheduled activities.
You are paying for privacy, attention, expertise, care, and enough space for the experience to mean something.
Spots are reserved in the order completed bookings are received.
Questions
Yes. Some women will arrive alone. Others will attend with a friend. The weekend is intentionally designed so you will not need to manufacture connection through small talk or immediately select a retreat best friend near the appetizer tray.
Yes. You may attend together, but you will also be invited into the wider group. This is a shared experience, not twelve individual weekends occurring near one another.
No. The retreat includes facilitated reflection, self-awareness work, and honest conversation. It is not therapy or a substitute for mental-health care. You decide what you want to share and what belongs in a different setting.
No. You may pass, take time alone, or decide that a question deserves private reflection rather than an immediate public answer. Participation matters. So does agency.
No. This experience is designed around a way of moving through life, not a job title. You may lead a company, team, household, family, community, or simply a life that has become very practiced at needing you.
Perfectly fine. This is not an art class, and nobody is being graded. The creative experience is about curiosity and expression, not technical ability. You will be guided through it, and no previous experience is required.
Photography is one element of the guided creative exercise, not a traditional portrait session. You will receive complete details before the retreat. Your clothing, participation, and privacy choices will be discussed clearly and respected throughout. You will not be required to undress or permit public use of your images.
Each guest receives a wellness consultation to design a personalized Wellness Journey, a medical-grade facial, a B12 boost shot for immune support, and a NuCalm neuroacoustic reset (choose Flow, Power Nap, or Activate).
We will collect dietary restrictions and allergy information before the retreat and work with Chef Abbey to accommodate guests safely and thoughtfully wherever possible. If you have complex or medically significant dietary requirements, we will discuss them with you before confirming your place.
No. Alcohol will not be provided. There is no expectation that you drink.
Yes. Every guest will have a private room.
Sign up for a retreat and you will receive a welcome email with what to expect over the coming months. Included in this email is a link to purchase travel insurance.
We have partnered with two companies to provide you with extensive coverage at very affordable rates.
If you follow through with your end of the work and purchase travel insurance, you will be covered during your retreat or your investment will be reimbursed if you can no longer attend your retreat.
Click Reserve Your Spot and complete your one-time payment of $2,700. Your retreat agreement, questionnaire, and welcome email follow right after. That is it. No application, approval process, or essay about why you deserve to leave home for three nights.
Closing
This is your invitation to step away from handling everything for a while.
The year will keep moving whether you rest first or not.
The lists will be made.
The plans will happen.
People will need things.
Before they do, take three days that belong only to you.
Come be fed.
Come be cared for.
Come make something.
Come hear yourself think.
Then go home to your life without having disappeared from it first.
Fall in love with winter.
Out of Office
Three days outside your regularly scheduled life.
The waitlist
Drop your email to get first dibs on the next dates.
