A specialist overnight retreat for women navigating fertility treatment, offering space to rest, connect, create and feel supported.

About Suan

Hosted by Stephanie Farrelly & Stephanie Burke

Specialist Fertility Counsellors · Accredited EMDR Practitioners · EMDR Consultants-in-Training

Bringing together specialist expertise in fertility counselling, psychotherapy and trauma-informed care, with IFS and Polyvagal-informed approaches to support women through the emotional experience of fertility treatment.

Suan is an Irish word meaning rest, repose and peaceful stillness.

Fertility treatment can make life feel organised around appointments, medications, decisions, waiting and uncertainty. Suan offers something different: a space away from treatment.

This restorative overnight retreat at Slieve Aughty Centre, Co. Galway has been created especially for women navigating fertility treatment. It is an opportunity to step outside the medical intensity of the fertility journey for a while and spend time in a beautiful, peaceful setting with women who understand something of the experience.

Across the retreat, we will gently explore three themes: Connect · Express · Integrate.

There will be opportunities for community and connection, including a welcoming circle, reflective pair work, shared meals and time together in nature.

Through creative and embodied practices, participants will be invited to explore expressive arts, and creative reflection.

There will also be quieter opportunities to turn inward through IFS-informed reflection, meditation, sound relaxation and morning integration.

Nothing is compulsory. You are welcome to participate in the ways that feel comfortable for you, and there will be space simply to rest.

What to expect

Suan is intentionally small, gentle and unhurried. It is not a fertility information day, a medical programme or a space where you will be expected to talk about your fertility journey.

Instead, it is a chance to step away from treatment for a night and make room for something that can become difficult to find during fertility treatment:

Time.

Time to rest.

Time in nature.

Time to create.

Time to listen inwardly.

Time alongside women who understand something of the journey.

Accommodation: Single and shared accommodation available on a first come first served basis.

Description supplied by the event organiser.