Vet Empowered Retreats, 2027
Two nights, ten people, phones in a box. One near Manchester, one outside Edinburgh. Be the first to hear when dates open.
Time and time again you asked. We are going to deliver. Built around what you told us you wanted. Workshops on the topics you chose, time in nature, time to connect with people who understand the job without explanation, and time to reset and reflect. The Vet Empowered coaches and guest experts and practitioners will be alongside you throughout.
No commitment. Early access simply means you hear first and help shape it.
When you arrive, your phone goes in the box. We keep one phone between us for genuine emergencies, and your people will have the number. Everything else can wait until Sunday.
Two nights without the low hum of being contactable does something that no amount of reading about rest can replicate.
Drag the phone into the box, or press Enter while it is focused.
The first few hours without your phone are genuinely uncomfortable. Most people reach for a pocket that is empty about forty times on the Friday evening. It passes, and what comes after it is the point.
A weekend is not a fix. You will not come home rebuilt. You will come home rested, with a clearer head and, we hope, one or two decisions you had been avoiding.
You have to actually leave. Two nights away, arrangements made, someone else covering. That is the hardest part of the whole thing, and it is worth doing anyway.
You can only think clearly about your life when you step outside it for a while.
Rest and strategy are not opposites. A rested brain is the one that makes the better decision, and most of us are trying to do the thinking on empty.
Being in a room with people who understand the job without explanation changes the quality of the conversation. You get to skip the preamble and start somewhere useful.
Katie Ford and Claire Grigson, who between them have nearly 30 years of clinical veterinary experience and have spent the last six coaching the people of vetmed. Katie is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and an RCVS Inspiration Award recipient. Claire still locums, which keeps both of us honest about what first opinion life actually feels like on a Tuesday.
Both of us are trained in somatic and trauma-informed coaching. Neither of us will make you do a trust fall.
Depending on the weekend, you may also meet others from our coaching team, all of them veterinary professionals who trained with us, alongside guest practitioners for things like breathwork, sound and movement. We will confirm who is joining each weekend once the dates are set.
Two locations, a small group at each, and you are welcome to come to one or both. We have not fixed which themes belong to which weekend yet, and the early access list will help us decide.
Weekend one
Two nights in the hills, phones away, a small group and plenty of room to breathe. Time to actually rest, and time to think about what a sustainable version of your working life would look like from here.
Conversations we would open
Weekend two
The same shape, a different landscape. Space for the bigger questions about where you are heading, what you would like to build, and what you would need to make that possible.
Conversations we would open
Nothing here is set in stone. That is rather the point of asking you first.
A rhythm rather than a timetable. We are not promising a fixed structure yet, and joining the list is how you hear first as it takes shape.
Arrive, settle, eat together, no agenda.
Facilitated sessions, activities from sound baths to guided relaxation, and evening time together.
A final session, lunch, and away by late afternoon.
Coaching from Katie and Claire, good food, walking, quiet corners, and the option to opt out of anything.
Ten people, and never fewer than two of us. Small enough that nobody disappears into the back of the room.
We asked what people would want from a Vet Empowered retreat. This is what came back most.
Two days of CPD, certificated. Many employers fund this kind of development, and we will provide everything you need to make that case.
“Like a balm for the soul that gives you clarity, comfort, hope and acceptance.”
We know there are two weekends, ten places at each, one somewhere in the hills near Manchester and one outside Edinburgh. We know phones go in a box.
We have not fixed the months, the venues, which theme lands in which location, or how much of the weekend is structured. That is deliberate. We would rather build this around what people actually want than present you with something finished and hope it fits.
That is what the form is for.
Eight quick questions, about a minute. Which location suits you, which of the two weekends appeals, which months could work, and what you would actually want from it.
Nothing to pay and nothing to commit to. You are helping us decide.
Opens in a new tab. We only use your details to contact you about this. We never share them.
No. You take part at whatever depth suits you.
No. This is coaching and CPD, and it is not a substitute for therapy or crisis support.
No. Most people come on their own.
Tell us and we will plan around it. We will share full venue accessibility details before anything is confirmed.
We will share the investment with the early access list first.
Ten, plus at least two of us.
Possibly one of our coaching team, and depending on the weekend, guest practitioners for sessions like breathwork or sound. Everyone on the early access list hears who is confirmed before anything opens publicly.
We are choosing months based on what the early access list tells us. Everyone on the list hears before anything goes public.
No. Plenty of people will be new to us.
That is completely fine, and most people will. Tell us which on the form.
We email you when the dates and venues are set, before anything opens publicly. That is it. No sequence of sales emails.
Vets, nurses, techs, practice managers and support team members who are good at their jobs and quietly running on empty. Whether you have been qualified three years or thirty.
It might not be the right moment if you are in crisis or in the middle of mental health diagnostics. That is not a door closing. Tell us and we will talk about what would help more right now.
