top of page

6-Day Retreat
"Encounters Beyond Human –
an Elemental, Place-Based Journey
"

Nature-based mindful self-compassion (MSC) supporting the cultivation of inner developmental goals (IDGs)

Photo_8323982_DJI_910_pano_15220371_0_202392284746_photo_pano.png

View to MonViso Institute and Monte Viso 3841 m asl

logo-center2.png
unnamed.png
IDG_Logo_FINAL.png
MVI_logo_black.png

MonViso Institute 

(MVI)

​

Retreat in the Italian Alps – Reconnect, Reflect, and Reclaim Your Inner Peace

​

6-DAY RETREAT "Encounters Beyond Human – an Elemental, Place-Based Journey" 

When:  July 20th - July 25th, 2026 (6 days / 5 nights) from Monday afternoon - Saturday noon

Where: Italy, Piedmontese Alps, village of Ostana, at Monviso Institute (MVI) at 1.500ml asl
Group size: max. 15

Your Co-facilitators: Mirjam Luthe & Anaïs Sägesser, supported by the local and international MVI Team with contribution of Sylwia Orczykowska (Art Now Founder) and local project leaders

Course Cost: 1.350 - 1.650 EUR (depending on your choice of accommodation) 
Includes course fee of all facilitators and material; all meals (breakfasts / snack/ lunches / dinners); rent of MVI campus with MVI team support and indoor meeting room at the Cultural Center, as well as support to local project places upon visit and transport, where needed. Also includes  accommodation in a range of nature camping, Foresteria hostel, or shared / individual apartments with bathroom and kitchen in walking distance or higher end individual options. We will help you with the booking. 
Request options and detailed cost with us here.

 


​​​

​

​

​​​​​​​

​

Captura de pantalla 2026-01-22 a la(s) 17.11.23.png

An invitation for re-connecting, re-generating, and re-membering our place in the living world.

1.png

​​You are invited to a transformative journey of self-care, renewed nature connection and enlivened motivational energy for engagement. Join us to deepen your agency for contributing to the world you want to live in.

 

“Encounters Beyond Human” is an immersive 6-day retreat that invites you into a deeper relationship with yourself, other humans and the more-than-human. Informed by an ecocentric worldview and the Inner Development Goals (IDG) Guide, we explore the inner capacities needed to engage with the challenges of our time - self-awareness, presence, compassion, being-in-connection, complexity awareness, perspective taking, courage, and intraconnectedness - through the elemental forces that shape our lives.
 

Each day, we will focus on one element and invite it to become our teacher. Through relational awareness and mindful self-compassion practices, (gratitude) rituals, insight dialogue and dyadic inquiry, as well as place-based nature meditation and dialogue, we learn to listen deeply to mountains, water streams, the breeze of air, the sun’s energy, the subtle movements of our own hearts and those of others and encounter the other as part of our self.

​

Rather than a retreat away from the world, this is a return to it.
A return to our senses, our aliveness, and our kinship with all that lives. 

 

You are warmly welcomed to slow down, to breathe, and to experience what becomes possible, when we meet the world beyond the human with curiosity, wonder, and embodied presence. 
 

Join us for a transformative learning journey connecting beyond human beings, encouraging a profound shift in meaning perspective that aligns with regenerative cultures. With such an empowerment stemming from experience, you will be able to encounter the challenges of the world with discernment and foster the ability to respond instead of simply react.

​​

​

​​​​What is in it for me?

​

Deep Reconnection — with Nature and Yourself as Nature
You’ll step out of the noisy, demanding routine of everyday life into a space where you're encouraged to slow down and tune in. The retreat offers grounding practices, nature immersion, and space for inner reflection, helping you reconnect with the natural world and your own inner compass.

​

Personal Renewal & Self-Care
If you’re feeling drained, scattered, or just in need of a reset, this retreat is built around self-care in a deep, meaningful way — not just pampering, but truly restoring your energy and clarity.

​

A Shift in Perspective
This experience is designed to help you move away from competition, burnout, and short-term thinking toward a more spacious, long-term, and connected way of seeing your life and your role in the world.

​

Tools for Living with More Purpose and Resilience
You’ll gain practical tools and embodied experiences to carry home into daily life - ways to stay grounded, be creative, and resilient even amid chaos or pressure.

​

Community and Collective Intelligence
Rather than walking alone, you’ll build bonds with others who are also seeking meaning and transformation — a taste of community that could stay with you long after the retreat ends.

​

 

What will be different after the retreat?

​

You’ll likely feel more grounded, clearer, and more energized.
The overstimulation and disconnection that sneak into everyday life so easily will have been interrupted by a meaningful pause, feeling your presence, and rejoicing nature connection.

​

You may carry home a new rhythm and inner spaciousness.
Through practices of self-compassion, you learn to shift how you approach your work, your relationships and yourself when something gets into the way with more ease, kindness and understanding.

​

You’ll have a stronger sense of your role and belonging in the bigger picture.
Rather than feeling isolated or helpless about global challenges, you will return with a renewed sense of agency, connection, and clarity about how to engage meaningfully.

​

You’ll likely feel less alone.
The experience of being in community with others on a similar journey can be deeply nourishing, and that feeling of mutual support and purpose might ripple forward into your life. We all share so much in our common humanity, yet we need safe enough spaces like this retreat to tap into the remembering of where we come from. 

​

This retreat is a chance to step away in order to return to yourself and to re-emerge with more clarity, creativity, and community. A kind of inner recalibration that the outer world rarely gives us time for. The majestic mountains and pristine waters will support us.​​​​

 

​​​​​​

​

Captura de pantalla 2026-01-27 a la(s) 18.25.34.png

Participant testimonials 

Discover the logistics of our retreat in Ostana 

Ostana_and_Po_Valley_drone_view_03_thumb.jpeg

Location

Ostana is a small village in the north-western Italian Alps in the Po Valley, facing the Monviso mountain (3841m a.s.l.).

Like many places around the world it has changed tremendously during the past century and is now being revived.​​​​

65075404_2209955272393147_6896873821245014016_n.jpg

Accommodation
and food

Piemontese food, the birthplace of Italy’s slow food, is delicious!
We will often savour it at local family owned restaurants in the village to support the local economy and bake our pizza in the pizza oven 'a legna' and cook a typical polenta dish at our fireplace.
​​​​​​

Captura de pantalla 2023-08-01 a la(s) 10.38.13.png

Cost of Retreat

1.350 - 1.650 EUR
including course fee with all facilitators' guidance, all meals (breakfasts / snack/ lunches / dinners), campus and meeting room rent, support to local projects visited, plus lodging in a range of camping, shared hostel or shared apartments with bathroom and kitchen in walking distance or higher-end individual apartments (self-booked). ​

​​

Maximum number of participants: 15

Please register early.​

​

YOUR FACILITATORS

Mirjam and Anaïs are from many walks of life, crossing paths in overlapping fields.​

5ff3468a89c03e1c4f8440b1_IMG_7479_web_edited_edited.jpg

Mirjam Luthe

Mirjam Luthe supports individuals, groups, teams and projects with awareness- and compassion-based interventions to reconnect with self, others, encompassing the natural world that we are part of. MA European Studies, BA Development Cooperation and NGO management (Spain). Certified Teacher in MBSR, MSC, Hatha Yoga, “Awake in the Wild” Nature Meditation and "Mindfulness-Based Sustainable Transformation - Inner Green Deal Journey". Intervention trainer for dyadic meditation at Social Neuroscience Lab Max Planck Society, at Monviso Institute, ETH Zurich CAS "Resilient Systems" and UC Irvine.

 

Trained in various other inter-personal mindfulness formats like council, Bohm dialog, and Time to Think to create safe spaces for equity and diversity.

+15 years of consultancy work in international development cooperation in capacity building and evaluation, working and living on many continents. Since 2008, integrating those life-changing experiences into teaching mindfulness and compassion as socially engaged practices in a trauma-sensitive way to re-connect and inspire a mindset of openness for change. Co-facilitating various EcoDharma initiatives. Co-created the Global IDG Empathy & Compassion Network in 2022; engaged in the "Inner Development Goal" circles (IDG) and the Deep Transformation Network. Co-coordinating the European Grateful Living network since 2012 (Dankbar leben), founded by Br. David Steindl-Rast). Contributing to ETH Zurich's program "Regenerative Systems" and the Living Systems Lab "Monviso Institute". Teaching MBIs at the UC Irvine Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. Coordinated the areas of teacher relations and inter-national engagement at the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion (California) during seven years. Mirjam speaks German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and basic Portuguese. A lover of being in the outdoors, hiking long distance, creating arts, practising shakuhachi and handpan and exploring life.

_H3A3925 (2)_edited.jpg

Anais Saegesser

Dr. Anaïs Sägesser is a process steward at the World Ethic Forum and a lecturer and researcher in Societal Transformation and Transformative Leadership at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH). Trained in management studies, and a scholar of African, religious and environmental studies, with a strong grounding in embodied and contemplative practices, Anaïs works at the intersections of socio-ecological transformation. She designs and facilitates (transformative) learning spaces that integrate inner development, systems thinking and more-than-human perspectives.

She is involved in weaving together academic work, civic initiatives and experimental learning formats, driving transdisciplinary projects and communities of practice which integrate the more-than-human. Her teaching and facilitation emphasize participatory methods, dialogic processes and cultivating spaces of shared inquiry, unlearning and co-creation, with attention to power, inclusion and epistemic diversity.

With many years of experience in consulting and program design as well as research and further education, she has cofounded scaling4good and STRIDE – unSchool and collaborated with many initiatives and networks exploring systemic innovation and socio-ecological futures. She has been engaging with social practice change, critical ecofeminist thought, relational ontologies and experimental governance,
contributing to discourses and practices that seek to align institutional structures with planetary boundaries and eco-social justice.
Fluent in German and English, proficient in French and Italian and experienced in intercultural and interdisciplinary collaboration, she brings a reflective, relational and practice-oriented approach to her work. She feels most at home outdoors and is drawn to practices and communities that nurture presence, creativity, and long-term commitment to socio-ecological transformation.

Guest facilitators

SylwiaOrczykowska.jpeg

Sylwia Orczykowska

MVI Design Associate.

Systemic Transformation Designer, ETH Zurich. Transformative Art Curator, Art Now.

 

“Nudgin Senses” - turning culinary experiences into multisensory journeys of

(self-)regeneration

WhatsApp Image 2026-01-09 at 16.00_edite

Roberto Miretto

Farmer, livestock breeder, and manager of the agriturismo ‘A Nostro Mizoun’ in Ostana together with his wife Marina.

​

“Living a way of life in harmony with nature”, keeping Alpine traditions alive with herbal cultivation and raising alpaca and cashmere goats for weaving with wool

WhatsApp Image 2026-01-09 at 16.00_edited.png

Veronica Greco

Anthropologist, early childhood educator, researcher, traveler and to-be Heilpraktiker. Working at MVI and Viso a Viso community cooperative in Ostana.

​​

“Beekeeping and saffron growing” - bridging between nature-related local projects, inhabitants and guests

WhatsApp Image 2026-01-09 at 16.00_edited.jpg

Bruno Bossa

Background in pharmacy and herbal medicine; author and creator of the ‘Enchanted Forest’ in Ostana, a nature trail born from his deep connection with the living world.

​

“A journey through nature, philosophy, and imagination” encounters with trees and the worlds beyond human

IMG_20200802_144107.jpg

Meet the MVI team

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision.

Please meet the Monviso Institute team.

bottom of page