Balmoral Retreat is set in the natural rainforest surrounds of the QLD Blackall Range, located in the beautiful hinterland region close by to the popular townships of Maleny, Montville and Mapleton.
We are a uniquely specialised getaway focused on mental health and personal growth. We offer a discreet, safe and thoughtfully facilitated experience which can offer a profound and unique opportunity for growth and personal development. Our offering is not for everyone, and our guests are almost exclusively referrals from past visitors.
A deeply personal experience, with the added security of a professional and considerate guide.
A visit to Balmoral Retreat is, first and foremost, a deeply individual experience. All aspects of your preparation and stay are about your own personal journey and growth. In order to support you during this time, your stay will be facilitated by a guide. The role of your guide is to provide basic direction ahead for your stay, and oversee and support your wellbeing throughout your visit. This facilitation strictly does not involve active therapeutic intervention or “talk therapy” during a guests visit, rather it provides pre-visit advice and discussion into how you can best prepare yourself to have an intentional and positive experience, and during your visit provides a reassuring and neutral presence to ensure a safe, secure and reassuring environment in which you can relax without concern.
As part of any visit to Balmoral Retreat, facilitation will involve a meeting and planning discussion, generally held with your guide ahead of your stay either online or over the phone, your guide being present and providing any necessary support during your visit, and a follow up discussion/debrief before your departure.
Your guide
Hi, I’m Sam, your guide at Balmoral Retreat. I hold an Honours Degree in Psychology, although I am not a practicing Psychologist. Instead, after my studies, I moved into a professional career for 10+ years until, most recently, we decided to relocate our young family to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland to slow down our pace of life and enjoy time more connected to nature, close friends and family.
To provide you with some further insight into myself, I am someone who is much more comfortable in a cafe by the beach with a juice and an interesting news story than in a tie dye t-shirt at a psychedelic drumming circle. Despite this rather vanilla lifestyle, along my own journey I have had experiences which most would associate very much with “alternative” and “spiritual” culture, and found them to be extremely moving and formative to both my sense-of-self as well as my views of the world around me. I have since created Balmoral Retreat in an effort to offer a safe and private space for others to practice these experiences.
Balmoral Retreat exists as a more neutral and unbiased alternative to commonly found group “ceremonies” or “spiritual experiences”. It is instead tailored to those inquisitive individuals seeking to explore these ideas and experiences, but in their own private space and personal style.
While my own personal nature certainly informs why and how I have set up Balmoral Retreat, it is important to reiterate that my real aim is to play a supportive yet broadly neutral role in your visit. My commitment is to remain unbiased as to your own individual background, interests, passions or beliefs and similarly never seek to impart my own beliefs or biases onto you.
A solo traveller or a shared experience?
Although every visit and experience at Balmoral Retreat is deeply individual, we do welcome enquiries from two people wishing to share their experience. Please note, we do not cater to groups.
Accommodation and food.
The setting for your stay will be in a private mountain-side two bedroom villa with woodfire heater and adjoining rainforest gardens, overlooking the Sunshine Coast with ocean views stretching from Bribie Island to the lights of Maroochydore. This beautiful and popular accommodation site on the Blackall Range is booked out exclusively for your stay, providing a private and neutral space. Home made vegetarian meals will be provided throughout your stay, including lunch, a light dinner and breakfast. While one night is included in all visits, additional accommodation-only nights are available to extend your stay subject to availability.
What we are, and what we are not.
Balmoral Retreat is a place for the inquisitive and conscientious explorer seeking to broaden their creative mental toolkit through the experience of an altered state of consciousness. A place for self-development and new experiences.
While this exploration very often brings with it the unpacking of both positive and negative emotions, we are not a place for addressing severe mental health conditions such as acute PTSD or clinical symptoms of trauma and depression. We are also not a suitable destination for those with a family history of schizophrenia.
Rates.
Our rates are commensurate with the time, accommodation, energy and security that goes into offering the experiences we do. We also maintain a subsidy program which sees 25% of proceeds from regular guest fees go towards subsidising the visits of those in need; typically those suffering serious or terminal physical health conditions. Our rates will be shared in response to your enquiry.