Kathryn Kupillas is a depth-oriented psychotherapist, supervisor, and intuitive guide based in Los Angeles. For the past decade she has supported individuals and groups through profound transitions, weaving Jungian psychology, trauma-informed care, EMDR, and somatic presence. She is the founder of Inner Vision Psychotherapy, a collective dedicated to tending the unconscious and guiding creative, soulful transformation.

Kathryn’s work is grounded in relational depth and symbolic attunement, shaped by her training in EMDR and her ongoing study of herbalism and animist traditions. She orients to the seen and unseen worlds with equal respect, inviting people into deeper contact with their inner life, their body’s wisdom, and the living intelligence of the natural world.

Her approach is both spacious and steady—helping participants widen into the truth of who they are while staying rooted enough to meet whatever arises. She is known for her capacity to hold complexity with warmth, clarity, playfulness and grounded containment.

Throughout the retreat, Kathryn will carry the inner arc of the journey: facilitating daily process circles, guiding somatic and imaginal practices, and tracking the unfolding of each participant’s personal process. She will be tending both the group field and the subtle individual transformations that emerge, offering consistent support alongside Lizzie’s facilitation of the outer, land-based work.

Lizzie Mackenzie is an award-winning documentary director and land-based practitioner rooted in the Morvern Peninsula. Her work moves at the meeting point of connection, ecology, and embodied creativity, shaped by deep listening, sensitivity, and gentleness - qualities honed through years of living closely with horses, cattle, and the rhythms of the land. These same capacities form the backbone of her facilitation.

Grounded in years of intimate animal-kinship and a life lived in rhythm with the elements, Lizzie’s guidance is built on attunement, slowness, and a profound respect for the natural world. Her facilitation is embodied and experiential - using place, weather, movement, and animal presence as ways of stirring the deeper layers of the psyche.

Throughout the retreat, Lizzie will hold the outer arc of the journey: leading land-based sessions, facilitating quiet and relational time with the horses and cattle, and guiding participants in consent-based horse work that cultivates sensitivity, energetic awareness, and somatic listening. She will also guide the group through one of the retreat’s central rites - walking the herd from their winter grazing to their summer pastures. This full-day transhumance requires attunement to the land, to the animals, and to the body’s own intelligence, creating a shared herd energy field that naturally awakens instinct, presence, and deep relational awareness.

Through her guidance, the land, animals, and living world become active participants in each person’s unfolding.

Clare Holohan is a herbalist, forager, and plant medicine practitioner from the Morvern Peninsula. Her work arises from a lifelong devotion to plants, nourishment, and the healing intelligence of the natural world. With training in herbal medicine, aromatherapy, and holistic massage, she blends practical knowledge with sensory, embodied learning.

She grows and gathers medicinal herbs, raises animals naturally, and teaches from a place of lived ecology — inviting participants to meet the land through taste, scent, touch, and deep presence. Her approach weaves herbal knowledge with nourishment, community, and the quiet, steady medicine of place.

During the retreat, Clare will spend a half day with the group, offering an introduction to local Scottish plants and herbs. She will lead a guided herbal meditation and create a personalized herbal offering for each participant to support their unfolding journey throughout the week.

Holly Welsey is a chef with a deep passion for building community around the producers and growers of Argyll. She begins with what the land offers - vegetables from a nearby croft, herbs from a forager, a seasonal ingredient gathered on a morning walk - and creates dishes that let those flavours truly shine. Though her early culinary life was shaped by sourdough baking and slow-crafted pastries, her heart lies in simple, elemental cooking that nourishes body and spirit.

When she’s not in the kitchen, Holly is often out in the woods with her dog Mara, gathering wild ingredients and turning her finds into comforting meals for friends and family. Her food is rooted in seasonality and care: thoughtful, grounded, and full of quiet creativity.

Throughout the retreat, Holly will prepare meals that support the rhythm of the work - dishes that are fresh, wholesome, and deeply connected to the Highlands. Her cooking is part of the medicine of the week: food that brings us back into our senses, nourishes tired bodies, and weaves the group together around the table.

Alec is a conservationist rooted in the wild ecology of the Morvern Peninsula, who works with ancient cattle breeds as powerful ecosystem engineers. His work explores the quiet intelligence of animals living natural lives, and their role in shaping healthy, living landscapes.

During the retreat, there will be an opportunity to be led by Alec into the wilder corners of Morvern, and welcome us into a conversation between cows and the ecosystem they are a part of. There will be a special focus on the bird life that his work aims to enhance.

Alec helps participants attune to the ways animals, people, and land interact in an intricate ecological dance.

Paul divides his life between Edinburgh and a wee croft on Mull, carrying with him a deep affection for land, people, and the stories that connect them. After years guiding journeys through the Highlands, he brings an intuitive sense for place — and a belief that landscapes invite transformation when we arrive with openness and care.

His work has taken him from Scottish islands to Palestinian hill villages, shaping a lifelong commitment to cultural exchange, food sovereignty, and shared humanity.

As our guide on the road, Paul will be driving the group throughout the week, offering steady presence, local insight, and a gentle welcome into the wider spirit of the retreat. And if we’re lucky, he may join us by the fire to share a story or two!

Brochan is sunshine distilled into the form of a rather big, fluffy dog. Born on the Isle of Skye and with Lizzie ever since he was a pup, we think of his service as being a (spiritual-) guide dog.

Never without a smile, he has a gift for lightening the mood and reminding us — especially in serious moments — that joy and play are essential parts of being alive.

Got a stick? One look at his eyes and he’ll make you throw it.

Faolan - “little wolf” - began life as a highly sensitive steel-grey colt, wary of people and full of sharp instincts. These characteristics supported him to become Lizzie’s lead adventure horse. Now thirteen, he has matured into a gentle, trusting presence and a very affectionate member of the herd.

Faolan carries the medicine of one who has travelled from hyper-sensitivity and reactivity into grounded gentleness. His journey is his teaching: that sensitivity and sharp instincts are intelligence from a body that wants to keep you safe, yet that trust can grow from fear, and that sensitivity can mature into wisdom given the right conditions.

Ossian, Faolan’s half-brother and lifelong companion, is a bold, strong and playful surfer-dude. When moving across land, he’s the one running ahead and chasing butterflies.  Always ready for connection and a good scratch, Ossian is a clear communicator who brings humour and attitude to the herd.

Ossian’s medicine for humans may be in him being a natural boundary-tester. He asks humans to stay grounded, clear and strong in their own energy; without that, he’ll nudge or slip into cheeky play. His presence teaches the art of gentle strength: holding firm without hardening, and meeting the world with both joy and embodied clarity.

Olwen is named for the Welsh goddess of sun and flowers, said to spread flowers wherever she walks. Though she has only recently joined the herd along with Lughnasa, she already carries a bold, friendly presence and a healing feminine energy. We’re only beginning to know her, but her curiosity and quiet luminosity are already clear.

It’s early days for Olwen in the growing herd, but perhaps her medicine lies in her warm curiosity and her steady, sunlit energy. Maybe she’ll teach the strength of gentle openness, the healing that comes from meeting the world with interest rather than fear, and the quiet power of feminine receptivity. We hope her presence will reminds people that connection can be tender, trusting, and bright.

Lughnasa is a young Welsh filly who carries a brightness that feels almost otherworldly. So she’s named after the Celtic festival of light and first harvest. The youngest of the herd, she shows early flashes of boldness woven with a natural wariness around people. We’re giving her time and space to reveal herself, and already she feels like a quiet, fairy-like presence on the land.

We’re excited for Lughnasa’s medicine to reveal itself. Perhaps it’ll be the reminder that sensitivity is a form of intelligence, that unfolding slowly is sacred, and that intuition becomes clearer when we honour our own timing. In time, we see her inviting people into subtle perception, soft boundaries, and the magic of becoming visible at one’s own pace.

Our herd of seven cattle - a mix of mothers, daughters, and a few young newcomers - live here as partners in land regeneration. Their grazing restores soil and supports the health of the wider ecosystem.

They move in what we call cow time: slow, spacious, deeply calming. Warm, trusting, and full of personality, they join us in a gentle transhumance across the land, offering a kind of grounded, meditative presence that’s healing simply to be near.