About Magic & Medicine
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Magic & Medicine is a purpose-built retreat for women, tucked away in a North London garden.
A beautiful space to focus on you
Magic & Medicine retreats happen in our purpose-built, self-contained garden retreat in Barnet, on the edge of North London.
Magic & Medicine
We’re in the burbs, at the end of a pretty normal cul-de-sac. But when you come through the gates, into our healing garden, you’ll feel the magic start.
A Magic & Medicine retreat is just for you. There are no group dynamics to deal with, no need to make small talk. It’s your time, your space, your healing.
We created Magic & Medicine because we had both had life-changing experiences on retreats: Tara in Peru, Bernadette in Dorset.
We want you to have that, too.
Why ‘Magic & Medicine?’
We believe in magic, and our work feels magical (as well as being very grounded in the ‘real’ world). ‘Medicine’ is about Tara’s work with plant medicines, the healing food – and our intention that your time here is medicine for your mind, body, spirit and soul.
Helping you heal mind, body and soul
There might be several things you’d like to change about your life. Most problems aren’t caused by one thing or event. What seems like a single issue might have roots in childhood trauma, the culture you live in, energy blocks, beliefs, and stuff going on with your body.
When there’s more than one cause, we need more than one therapy to tackle it.
We use psychotherapy, shamanic healing, nourishing food, ceremony and health coaching – plus a touch of magic – to help you heal on all levels. So you feel empowered, inspired, and hopeful about the future.
Therapies we use
The four pillars of Magic & Medicine: Mind, Body, Energy, Spirit/Soul. Your retreat brings all of these together.
Want to come?
Meet Tara
Welcome! I'm a trained shamanic healer, soul purpose guide and health coach. My life changed when I decided to follow the call of my soul.
Once upon a time, I was a copywriter, writing words for the websites of big companies in London.
I loved writing, but I craved something more. I kept hearing the word ‘truth’ in my head, but I had no idea what it meant.
I didn’t know what to change, so for five years, I ignored that niggling voice in my head. I didn’t know then that my restlessness was my soul trying to get my attention! Instead of trying to ignore it, I needed to listen to it.
I was being called to my live real life – as we all are, at some point.
Eventually, despite years of therapy and workshops, the trauma of living in an alcoholic home as a child manifested as illness and burnout. At the age of 42, out of ideas and desperate for change, I finally followed the call of my soul, not knowing where it would lead.
I travelled to Peru to work with plant medicines, in the Amazon jungle. I planned to stay for two months. That turned into a year.
I never went back to my old life.
I managed a retreat, and learned about shamanism, right there in the jungle, where it still flourished. I met unconventional people, and had my mind blown open by the power of Ayahuasca, Coca and many other plant medicines.
I learned that when I followed my inner guidance, magic happened. There really was more to life!
That faith in following my soul’s guidance was about to be tested.
While I was in Peru, the spirit of Coca, a powerful teacher plant, told me I needed to sell my flat. Why? I asked. Where will I live?
Silence 😬.
When I returned to England, I took a deep breath, and did what I was told.
I moved around for three years, unsure of where I was supposed to be. I trained as a soul purpose guide and shamanic healer. Eventually, I met Bernadette, and started a new business.
Through that one decision all those years ago to listen to my inner guidance, I had begun to live a life my mind would never have even been able to imagine.
It feels important to say that learning to listen to your soul’s guidance doesn’t always mean you need to give up your whole life!
If Magic & Medicine is calling you, trust that your time here will give you exactly what you need – and that you’ll never get more than you can handle.
Meet Bernadette
I'm a psychologist and psychotherapist, as well as a shamanic healer and Reiki healer.
I’ve been a psychologist and psychotherapist my whole life. It’s in my bones. As Tara will tell you, I’m never off duty!
Shamanic healing and Reiki came later, as I navigated a big midlife transition.
I had an epiphany several years ago, when a friend of mine was dying of cancer. I trained in Reiki to support her. I also realised that if I were in her shoes, I would have regrets about my life. I had lived a much smaller life than I knew was possible. I had been shrinking in the suburbs!
Over the next couple of years, I left my marriage and moved home. I did a training in shamanic healing, to honour my intuition and creativity.
The course helped me find new ways to heal the deep wounds that filled my family’s story. My grandmother hadn’t raised my mother, and my mother hadn’t raised me. I was carrying a heavy burden of broken connections and trauma.
Ritual and ceremony are powerful means of making sense and releasing, and I used the ‘death of the warrior’ ceremony – where I dug my own grave and spent the night in it – to release some of this intergenerational trauma. I am now researching adoption, and it is so rewarding to meet and talk with other adoptees.
Soon after the ceremony, I had the idea for Magic & Medicine. I was inspired to go beyond what my mind could imagine by Carl Jung’s account of building his home. He had fantastical dreams and visions about it, which he felt compelled to bring to life. I thought, “Well, if Carl thought it was okay to just do it, then I do too.”
The building work took place during that first lockdown, when the world was at a strange standstill, and we wondered if we would ever properly live again. I grappled with a fear that, after this was over, the building would be silent and redundant.
Thankfully, life returned. Magic & Medicine has opened its doors – and its heart – to women who want to heal and find peace and purpose. I feel that now, more than ever, the world needs us to work for healing, personally and globally.
I hope to meet you here soon!
Testimonials
