Client Success Stories

I have been practising as a counsellor within the field of addiction for many years now, coupled with me own challenges of severe depression and trauma from the past, I find I can become heavy with the weight of it all. I found this opportunity to join Josh and some other practitioners on the surfing retreat in Morocco – and I can safely reflect, this has not only altered my perspective on my own challenges, but has also invigorated me in a way I hadn’t experienced before. Feeling apprehensively excited over joining such a wonderful group of people has allowed me to tap back into my own inner resources, by allowing a process of healing to take place. Taking part in the early morning Yoga routine, followed by the educational aspect of the course allowed me to stand still and become more grounded whilst learning new skills and techniques that underpin various psychological aspects of trauma and recovery.

The morning sessions were perfectly paced so as to allow, what felt to be, a natural progression into some personal therapy in the other workshops. Josh facilitated the space with care and nurturing, helping each of us to focus on the pain we chose to bring, thereby allowing the healing process to begin. This was immensely healing and rewarding for me, allowing me the time to process some internal pain that was blocking my development. The experience of this balance of Yoga, therapy, and some meditation/breathing exercises was perfectly put together, nothing felt rushed, and I felt completely supported throughout this journey. The physical exercise of the surfing seemed to ground and pull together all of this work as it allowed us to practice breathing whilst in the face of initial stress, learning to slowly let go and be in the ‘flow’ of the moment.

On my arrival back home and to work, everything has felt differently. I work in a ‘front line’ service which can be immensely stressful, demanding and challenging, however using the skills and tools I have learnt whilst on this retreat I have developed a routine of regular Yoga and breathing exercises which has and is helping me to reshape my functioning. I am finding I am more ‘in flow’ and feeling connected, and am also teaching some of these tools to the people with which I work. In conclusion, this experience has been immensely rewarding in releasing some painful trauma, and allowing me to take stock, and refocus both my professional and private life. I feel huge gratitude to Josh and his team, and would strongly recommend that if you are reading this feedback and looking at his retreat – that is not an accident! Go do it!!!

I’ve recently returned from Josh’s first Clinicians Self Care Retreat in Morocco, what a wonderful healing and reviving experience it was for me. I’m a busy psychotherapist who was getting pretty close to burn-out, always there for my clients but not so much for me. Over the years, I’ve referred many clients to Josh for trauma resolution, always with great results. So I took the plunge – literally – and off we went!

In the course of seven sun and sea filled days, I rediscovered my passion for my work, dealt with the tragic recent loss of my beloved sister, and experienced a renewed joy of living. So good to make new friends with others on a similar journey, so good to be cared for by Josh and Youssef and their great team.

I’ll be back next year!

“Working with Susan has been invaluable for my mental well-being. Through gentle processing we uncovered and addressed not only my fear or flying, but also some underlying trauma that I had kept buried for years that was having a significant affect on my general health. After each session I genuinely felt lighter. I cannot recommend Susan highly enough. She walks you through each session in a carefully curated manner, making sure you feel safe and cared for. I was amazed at the speed at which I achieved the results I was looking for” – GB

‘A week on from returning to the UK, I wanted to reach out and say thank you for such a restorative, engaging and re-energising experience in Morocco. I’ve taken so much from it, both personally and professionally. The most immediate benefit has been to my sleep – for what feels like several months prior I’ve had difficulty sleeping well, often waking between 2am and 4am, frequently having night sweats, struggling to get back to sleep and then not feeling rested. Since getting back from Resurface, I’ve either slept through until morning or if I’ve come to, have simply been able to turn over and drift back off, and I feel so much better for it. As a woman of 47 and having tried most things short of pills to get better sleep without much improvement, I’d written it off to peri-menopause and something I’d just have to put up with. Rob has noticed the difference in me, and I’ve felt much more focused and alert throughout the working day too. Something in the NSDR and overall experience has given me the re-set I needed most. Please pass on my thanks to Barnaby too for delivering the sessions so beautifully.

My personal work in the psychodrama has created a real shift in my outlook. It turns out that a wealth of creative classes and communities were only ever a few web searches away! While I wasn’t blocked in any practical sense from finding these at any point in the last few years that I’ve wanted to do more, the inner block was very real. Previous efforts that I initiated myself and while working with a therapist locally, including after doing some work around the same incident at school, felt like forced effort and quickly petered out almost before getting started. Now I am looking forward to a series of creative experiences, with a sense of freedom and relaxation. As I worked through dates for several different regular classes starting in the next few weeks and found each one blocked by too many work and/or personal travel commitments, it felt uncannily like trying to see Barnaby past all the others stood in the group room. At some level I hadn’t seen just how busy this period has become, and it’s crystal clear that I need to prioritise some weekday time for this when class schedules are published for the autumn. If anything, flexing into one-off workshops feels like a better way to get started. The inner shift, as always, sets up space for the outer shift to occur.

It’s clear that you’ve put a huge amount of thought, care and professional experience into the concept, structure and design of the retreat process, finding the right place and people to support the space and experience you provide. You share your knowledge generously and your facilitation of the psychodramas and reviews is outstanding, both sensitive to each person and incisive about where and when to focus while safely holding the energy of the group.

You already know that Youness is a fantastic surf teacher. In addition to gaining surfing knowledge and skills, the presence and attention from Youness and Redouin meant I felt ‘seen’ throughout our time at the beaches and able to practice freely in a way I haven’t experienced before. I would hope for any surf school to take care of the physical safety of learners, but this was more about feeling psychological safety in the learning process and that whatever happened would be OK.

So, another big thank you to all of the team.’ – MO