This retreat will be led by Andrea Capon and John Foster
This three-night, four-day retreat is an invitation to step out of survival mode and into a more grounded, present way of being. Join retreat leaders Andrea Capon and John Foster to explore the ways that energy moves through your thoughts, emotions, body, and nervous system. Working consciously with energy is a cornerstone for improving everyday life.
Change Your Energy, Change Your Life! is not about bypassing challenges or forcing positivity. Throughout our time together, we’ll explore how lived experience, trauma, stress, and unprocessed emotions shape our inner world — and how that inner world shapes our health, relationships, and behavior. By bringing awareness to our energetic patterns, we begin to recognize where energy is being held, drained, or stuck, and we can learn how to shift it back into balance for healing to evolve and unfold.
The retreat blends teaching, experiential practices, time in nature, creative expression, and energetic healing. All of these practices empower us to experience real, embodied change. By embracing them. we develop new opportunities recognize, feel, and harness energy. Our focus is on moving out of constant reaction and into a steady, regulated midline — where clarity, peace, and choice become more accessible.
This retreat is not about becoming someone new. It’s about learning how to be without drawn away from your center. As we change how we relate to thoughts, emotions, and energy, our life begins to respond differently.
What to Expect
Before the retreat, Andrea and John will ask you to fill out a personal survey. This will help them get to know you before our work begins.
During the retreat, we’ll learn about the following themes:
Mind is your tool, not the other way around
Understanding Energy — what it is, how it lives in us, and how it influences our energetic state
Dis-ease and Energy — how prolonged stress and unprocessed emotions can manifest physically over time
Feeling Energy — learning to develop awareness of our energy and recognize what it’s communicating to us
Strategies For Changing Your Energy — working with triggers, including moments of anger, frustration, or activation
And we will engage together in the following activities:
Forest Bathing — using nature as a regulator to help ground our energy, reset the nervous and energy systems, and reconnect with the present moment
Individualised guidance — opportunities to schedule one on one consultations with Andrea and John
Meditation Deconstructed — changing your idea of traditional meditation. This is a radically different way to meditate, without the clutter, leading us on a path to our true inner self
Intuitive Doodling—by using creativity and journaling as tools for processing and insight, you can free up your connection to Self
Collective Healing — a group energetic healing session to support integration, release, and restoration. One creates integration
Closing Guidance and Wrap Up
About the Venue
Our retreat will occupy the entire main house on Willow’s property. We may also occupy Willow’s beautiful four season treehouse and enjoy exclusive use of the grounds. The main house includes 6,000 square feet of space: a large practice studio, two grand living rooms, a 14-person dining space, six bedrooms with en suite or dedicated baths, and a grand south-facing porch with rocking chairs, lounges, and outside dining. Read more about the main house here.
The grounds include gorgeous mountain views, fields & walking paths, a large pond, and direct access to mountain trails . Miles of dirt roads, hills, and bucolic farm are accessible just a few steps from Willow’s driveway.
Ravi and Tom, WIllow’s owners, live in the main house with Scratch and Bear. their two cats. They will be on hand the entire weekend. Ravi is a self trained chef specializing in Indian and vegetarian American cuisine. He will prepare three delicious, locally-sourced, and lovingly-made vegetarian meals a day. Locally roasted coffee is served at breakfast and tea and fruit are available for snacking all day.
What’s Included
““With Andrea and John’s patience and support, my thinking moved past trauma, toward peace””
3 nights stay in a single or double room. All rooms have ensuite or dedicated bathrooms
All meals, snacks, coffee, tea: a welcome meal on arrival day, three meals each full day, and a brunch on departure day
All workshops with Andrea and John
Evening firepit
Opportunities for free time to explore the foothills of the Green Mountains, nearby conservation land, and downtown Newfane and Brattleboro (20mins drive). Read more about area attractions here.
Willow ‘s owners are happy to organize your visit to a local pottery studio, a general store packed with local farm goods and crafts, an antique store, or other local small businesses.
Fee Options
Fees cover all accommodations, meals, and activities during the retreat. There are three options:
Main house, double occupancy—$1280, inclusive of taxes and fees. You may book a room together with a friend or be matched with another participant by the retreat instructor. All rooms have two beds and one dedicated bathroom.
Main house, single occupancy—$1,875, inclusive of taxes and fees. For this retreat, one single is available.
Payment schedule: A 25% deposit is due at booking. A second installment of 25% will be charged 60 days before arrival. The remaining balance will be charged two weeks before arrival. The second installment and final balance will be charged on the designated dates to the card on file, unless you call in advance to change your payment option.
Early Bird Discount
Get a $100 discount if you register by April 15, 2025
Refund Policy
We understand that travel plans may change. We offer a number of refund options.
Grace Window: Willow offers a full refund minus applicable credit card charges for cancelations made within 24 hours of booking. Credit card charges are 3% for most cards or 4.5% for Amex and are applied by your bank on all transactions, including deposits and refunds. Additional charges may be incurred on international cards.
Early Cancelation Window: When you call or email to cancel at least 60 days prior to a retreat, Willow offers a 75% refund of the deposit.
Travel Insurance and Late Cancelations: Our travel insurance partner, ResNexus, offers partial to full refund options right up to the day your retreat starts. Travel insurance must be purchased at booking. If you opt not to purchase travel insurance at booking, refunds are not possible after the early cancelation window closes.
In very rare circumstances—such as a natural disaster or global pandemic—Willow may be required to cancel the retreat. If we cancel the retreatfor any reason, you will receive a full refund of all payments made to date.
The Schedule
FRiday — Arrival Day
Guest arrival 3-4pm
Welcome, introductions & heroes’ journeys
Dinner
Fire gathering - setting intentions for the weekend
Saturday
Breakfast
Session I - Understanding energy in our thoughts, bodies, and dis-ease
Lunch
Forest bathing
Free time: meditation, journaling, social silence
Dinner
Fire gathering - contemplation
Sunday
Breakfast
Session II: Stretgies for changing your energy
Session III: Deconstructing meditation
Lunch
Session IV: Intuitive doodling + working in journals
Free time: meditation, journaling, social silence
Dinner
Free time
Monday — Departure Day
Breakfast
Closing session - group healing + wrap up
Departure by 1pm
What to bring
Day and evening clothes for exploring, hiking and hanging out
Refillable water bottle
Walking and hiking shoes for forest bathing
Warm slippers or socks. Willow is a shoeless household
A personal journal that is large enough for artwork/doodling on Sunday.
Your own art supplies: colored pencils, crayons and paper (no markers please)
Headlamp or flashlight
Rooms and Amenities
Willow is a comforting and nurturing environment — furnished with a harmonious combination of custom contemporary and vintage furniture, rugs, artwork and crafts.
We provide comfortable overnight accommodations in double occupancy rooms. All rooms have dedicated ensuite or hall baths. We are outfitted with all the comforts of a typical guest house — linens, blowdryers, individually controlled heating and air conditioning. Our mattresses, pillows and furniture are exceptionally comfortable. Our soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and lotions are organic. We support local craftspeople by supplying Willow with handmade and high quality goods — everything from lamps to rugs have been made by hand. You will feel very much at home.
The Colonial Revival main house offers open living space on the first floor: a grand foyer with sitting area and library, a spacious and light-filled living room with fireplace, a sunny veranda, a dining room, and a 14-person yoga studio painted in soft colors of the willow tree. The studio is fully outfitted with yoga mats, cushions, straps, blocks and blankets.
Meals
Meals are provided throughout the retreat, including dinner on arrival day, 3 meals each full day, and brunch on departure day.
Our menu is Indian, Tex-Mex and American-inspired vegetarian dishes with balanced proteins, fats and carbs. Our meals are healthy, filling, and made of local organic and natural ingredients. Please let us know at registration if you prefer vegan or gluten-free options. Please let us know if you have any food allergies. We cannot accommodate last minute requests during the retreat.
Coffee is served with breakfast at no charge. Tea is available all day at no charge.
Espresso, cappuccino, and fresh-pressed juices are available for purchase throughout the retreat. A menu of options will be posted in the dining room. Charges will be added to your account and billed at the end of the retreat.
Meet our cats
Willow is home to two sweet and friendly cats, Bear and Scratch. They love our guests and they absolutely adore being petted. But we ask that guests not pick them up. Too much of that and they will become stressed little souls.
We do our best to keep cats out of the guest rooms so that people with allergies can comfortably stay with us. Please help with this by discouraging the cats from entering or napping in your room.
Want to stay longer? Extend your retreat experience!
Willow encourages retreat participants who wish to stay in the area longer to book rooms or book the treehouse on nights before and after the retreat at sharply reduced rates. Extended bookings include a hearty continental breakfast.
Individual rooms are $150-375/night for up to two people. A discount of 10% automatically applies to bookings of 3 or more nights.
Traveling to Willow
Willow is located in the beautiful and quintessential village of South Newfane (population 300), a satellite of Newfane (population 1,700). We are located 20 minutes northwest of Brattleboro, 20 minutes northeast of Wilmington, and 20 minutes east of Dover and Mount Snow.
By car:
From Brattleboro, take Route 30 north about 9 miles. Go left on Depot Road where the West River and Rock River meet; travel 2 miles on Depot Road until you cross a small bridge over the Rock River; go left on Dover Road through the village of Williamsville; after passing through Williamsville you will cross a covered bridge. Willow is exactly 1.2 miles on your left. If you come to a stop sign you have gone 300 feet past our driveway.
From Wilmington, take Route 100 north toward West Dover about 3.5 miles. A half mile past the River Valley Market, take a right on East Dover Road; travel 1 mile. Take a right on Dover Hill Road; travel 8 miles on Dover Hill Road and E Dover Road (they are continuous) until you reach a 3-way stop sign in the village of South Newfane. Willow is 300 feet past the stop sign on your right.
By train: the daily Amtrak Vermonter stops in Brattleboro as it travels from Washington DC to Montreal and back. You can pick it up in New York, Hartford, Springfield to the south or in Montpelier to the north. Taxis are available in Brattleboro or Willow’s owners will pick you up in Brattleboro on the Vermonter’s arrival at 5pm (note this is after check in time).
By plane: Travelers may find Hartford (BDL—64.4 miles, 90 minutes) and Boston (BOS—85.7 miles, 2 hours 20 minutes) to be most convenient. Other nearby airports to check are Rutland VT (RUT, 55 miles, 1 hour 20 minutes), Manchester NH (MHT—85 miles, 2 hours), Albany NY (ALB—73 miles, 1 hour 40 minutes), and Worcester MA (ORH, 81 miles, 1 hour 50 minutes).
A note on driving: We are located in rural Vermont! You may have spotty cell service in areas throughout our area. Be sure to set your GPS before leaving from home. Set it by typing our business name “Willow Vermont Retreat” into your search bar. Please don’t use our address, as most GPS engines get rural addresses wrong. But don’t worry one bit, just remember this: following our guidance will land you safely with us; following Google to our address will lead you 4 miles off target.