About us
Retreat Yourself was formed by Tanya, a Ballymaloe trained chef, and Caroline, a qualified Yoga teacher with many years experience running her own yoga studio. The strange events of the pandemic led the two enthusiasts, one for cooking good healthy food, the other for health and exercise to form a strong friendship. The mission statement of REtreat Yourself is simple.
‘We wish to provide memorable experiences of yoga in nature, healthy and nourishing food, fresh air and kinship in beautiful locations.’
The idea is to bring bring small groups of retreaters together to connect with nature, each other and themselves. People are invited to come with friends, meet new people or take time for themselves. Private retreats are also available for groups at any of the retreat locations, Ballyportry Castle, Gortglass Lake, Cliffs of Moher, Clonshire and many more beautiful places.
Caroline
Until 2020 Caroline, originally from Shannon, had been residing in New York for twenty three years. Passionate about exercise and wellness, she ran her own busy and successful yoga studio in the city. In March 2020 Caroline, her husband Sammy and two children traveled home to Ireland for a family wedding. Unfortunately, at the wedding, they all contracted COVID and ended up staying in Ireland to recover from the illness and ride out the Irish and NYC lockdowns. As we all know, things worsened the world over and during this time Caroline and her husband subsequently lost their businesses in NYC. This consequence of COVID left Caroline, and her family with the tough decision to stay in Ireland. They settled in West Clare where Caroline has close family. During the past year Caroline has continued to teach yoga, TRX and conditioning classes via Zoom or outdoors when regulations permitted.
Caroline completed her 200-hour training with YogaWorks and continued with their 300-hour professional program under the guidance of her beloved teachers Jodie Rufty, Jenny Aurthur, Caitlin Casella, Dinneen Viggiano and most recently Carrie Owerko’s online playground. Loving exploring different modalities of movement in all fields & bringing it to her practice and teaching.
Inspired by Functional strength and mobility, self massage, C.A.R.S, Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg, Feldenkrais, Katie Bowman, many more movement specialists, and of course her students.
Caroline is a mother of two and loves teaching all ages and levels. Exploring balance, breath, meditation, functional flow, strength and resilience.
Inspired by Functional strength and mobility, self massage, C.A.R.S, Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg, Feldenkrais, Katie Bowman, many more movement specialists, and of course her students.
Trainings
Yogaworks NYC 200 hour
Yogaworks NYC 300 hour
Yoga international 20 hour Anatomy
Cross fade mentorship -Caitlin Casella
Retrain for back pain – Dinneen Viggiano
TRX Certified / mat pilates certified
Ongoing Yin certification- Jennifer Elliot
Carrie Owerko Play it forward
Tanya
Tanya is a whole food chef currently residing in Co Clare. After many years in the corporate world, she went to Ballymaloe Cookery School in 2012 in order to take a new direction in life and follow her passion for good food.
On leaving Ballymaloe Tanya started up her own food business, The West Coast Food Company, concentrating on making chutneys and preserves. In 2016, she won a great taste award for her Sweet Chilli and Lemongrass sauce.
In 2014, Tanya joined the small team of chefs at The Cliffs of Moher Yoga Retreat in Co Clare. This role gave her a great opportunity to explore and develop her love for cooking healthy vegetarian food. The retreat centre had its own organic gardens and had a highly praised reputation for the meals that they produced for guests. During this time, Tanya also had the opportunity to cook on overseas retreats.
In 2018, Tanya began work at Little Fox. A small cafe in Ennistymon, Co Clare which attracted big attention for delivering flavoursome, colourful, exciting food using great ingredients from local suppliers. As the menu changed daily, Little Fox was a very exciting and creative experience and gave Tanya a great opportunity to work with some very talented chefs and develop her passion for good food further.
Tanya believes that eating well is paramount to our health and wellbeing so cooking healthy, flavourful and delicious meals using great ingredients is her simple food philosophy.