There are several sound bath options to choose from:

1) Private gong and sound sessions at the yurt: 60 mins.
  1 or two people: £50
  3 people: £60 
  4 people: £80 
Futons/pillows/ blankets and silk eyemasks provided. Arranged for a afternoon/evening/time of your choice.

2) New Moon and Full Moon gong and sound bath sessions in Willow Yurt: reclining floor chairs and blankets provided. (60 mins)   £15 per person.  Sunday evenings, 7-8pm. ( Maximum 8 places available)

5) Group gong and sound baths in Wells (Deeper Balance Studio, Mendip View, South Horrington, Wells):
bring your own mats/blankts/pillows. £16  (60 mins) 12 places available, one Sat each month, 3-4pm

DECEMBER 2024
Sun 1st: New Moon gong and sound bath, Wildwood Yurt, Emborough, 7-8pm, £15, FULL
Sun 15th: Full Moon gong and sound bath, Widwood Yurt, Emborough, 7-8pm, £15, 1 PLACE LEFT
SAT 21st: SPECIAL Winter Solstice sound bath and meditation, Deeper Balance, Wells, 2.30-4pm, £20
Sun 29th: Festive gong and sound bath: Wildwood Yurt, 7-8pm, £15  5 PLACES LEFT

JANUARY 2025
Sun 12th: Full Moon in Cancer sound bath; Wildwood Yurt, 7-8pm, £15, 7-8pm, 7 PLACES
Sun 29th: Aquarius New Moon sound bath, Wildwood Yurt, 7--8pm, £15, 7 PLACES

FEBRUARY 2025
Sun 9th: Full Moon in Leo sound bath, Wildwood Yurt, 7-8pm, £15, 7 PLACES

MARCH 2025
Sun 2nd: Pisces New Moon sound bath, Wildwood Yurt, 7-8pm, £15, 7 PLACES
Sun 16th: Ful Moon in Virgo sound bath, Willow Yurt, 7-8pm, £15, 7 PLACES

Rejuvenating Spring Equinox Retreat
Sunday 19th March, 2pm - 6.30pm
£49 per person. Just 6 places available

An afternoon of relaxation, sacred plant medicine and sound healing, sharing, laughter, intention setting and strong feminine support and friendship, in Willow Yurt, around the firepit and in nature. A true, heart-centred “Women’s Circle”
with Michele Bentley and Peace Ravenwood

• Elemental fire releasing and cleansing ceremony at the firepit
  
• 2hr Sacred Cacao healing ceremony in the yurt
  
• Spring Equinox meditation
  
• Intention setting as we move into the new season
• Crystal-enhanced gong and sound bath
  
• Refreshments and homemade cake

 
To book your place, please email: [email protected]
or call Michele on 07971 910769
Retreat is at The Yurt Sanctuary, Emborough, BA3 4SA (Between Glastonbury and Bath)
www.wildoakceremonies.com

Sunday 19th March 10am-5pm
​
A truly nurturing and rejuvenating women’s retreat day, enabling us to release, recharge, and reset, whilst allowing the sparkling new energy of the Spring Equinox to raise our vibration and our spirits. The retreat will be held at The Yurt Sanctuary, between Glastonbury and Bath in Somerset.
​
In Willow Healing Yurt and out in nature (weather-permitting!), we will gather in circle, as an intimate group, working with a range of relaxing, healing and rejuvenating modalities and ceremonies. In the morning, Nell Brooker will hold an amazing "Inner Dance" session.
This is a restorative and transformational  workshop. You lie down lie down comfortably,
and will then be guided on a meditative journey, with sound, scent, and intent.
In held space supporting letting go; you may experience spontaneous movement as body and mind realign. Participants report a feeling of deep relaxation and wellbeing.

After lunch, we will have a releasing elemental FIRE CEREMONY  and then Peace Ravenwood will be holding a sacred cacao (chocolate) ceremony and heart-opening healing circle.  Various types of cacao will  be available afterwards, if you wish to purchase some to take home.
Michele will then gently lead you further into relaxation with a Spring Equinox visualisation and relaxing gong and sound journey.

Nourishing refreshments will be available throughout the retreat, as well as a simple vegetarian lunch 

This is a wonderful opportunity to give yourself the gift of self-care and healing with a small group of women and three highly trained and empathetic holistic practitioners.

Holistic facilitators for the retreat day

Michele Bentley (Wild Oak Ceremonies) is a “Vibrational Alchemist” creating bespoke programmes of healing and transformation, using essences, crystals and sound therapy. Michele is also a Sacred Celebrant and Priestess of the New Earth. As well as offering retreats and handfasting ceremonies at The Yurt Sanctuary, she also holds monthly New Moon women’s circles, and gong and sound baths, both privately in the yurt and group sessions at several local venues.

Nell Brooker is a heart-centred celebrant,writing and conducting bespoke funeral services and ceremonies for all of life’s milestones. Her vocation is to support people on their path through life with transformative and empowering ceremonies, workshops and bodywork. Also a Priestess of the New Earth and Louise Hay Philosophy teacher, Nell facilitates meditation and Inner Dance - a shamanic journey set to music.

Peace Ravenwood is a nomadic plant spirit medicine practitioner who joins our event to offer us a deep, graceful dive into her Divinely rich Cauldron Cacao Circle offerings; Ritual Cacao, lovingly infused with medicinal herbs and mushrooms, a heart expanding journey home to the wild nature of our Sacred Earth Walk, gentle loving embrace of our own Divinity and soul pathways.

​Accommodation options

If you do not live locally, there a few options…
If you would like to treat yourself to a full weekend away and stay on-site, we are opening up our luxury yurt spaces “Little Oak” and “Wildwood” just for retreaters. Each yurt has its own hot shower, compost loo, kitchen and wood-fired hot tub, set in a private garden. The yurts are usually £145 per night, (Fri-Mon) but we are doing a special offer, staying Friday 18th/Sat 19th/Sun 20th March for just £90 per yurt, per night (Min 2 nights). The yurts have either a king size or double bed and sofa beds are also available, if people would like to share. They have cosy wood burners inside, as well as firepits, bbq and gas rings in the kitchen. Bedding and towels are provided.
If you have your own van/tent and would like to camp, this is also an option (although this is dependent on how wet/muddy the field is)
Finally, there are plenty of B&B's in either Glastonbury or Bath (both 25 mins drive) and a there are also few local pubs/guest houses and Airbnb's.
​
If you have any questions about the retreat, please do get in touch.

JANUARY 2023:
Friday 13th, 7.30pm=8.30pm, Holcombe Village Hall
Thurs 19th, 8.15pm, The Portway Annexe, Wells
Weds 25th, 7.30pm, The Avalon Centre, King St, Glastonbury (NEW VENUE)
Sunday 29th, 7pm, Stratton-On-The-Fosse Village Hall (NEW VENUE)

FEBRUARY 2023
Friday 10th, 7.30pm, Holcombe Village Hall
Thurs 16th, 8.15pm, The Portway Annexe, Wells
Weds 22nd, 7.30pm, The Avalon Centre, Glastonbury
Sun 26th, 7pm, Stratton-on-the-Fosse Village Hall

MARCH 2023
Friday 10th, 7.30pm, Holcombe Village Hall,
Thurs 16th, 8.15pm, The Portway Annexe, Wells
Weds 22nd, 7.30pm, The Avalon Centre, Glastonbury
Sun 26th, 7pm, Stratton-on-the-Fosse Village Hall

SPECIAL EVENTS
Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th March (Sat 18th, 10.30am-4.30pm and Sunday 19th, 10am -2pm)
Spring Equinox Retreat: Release, Rejuvenate and Restart, The Yurt Sanctuary, Emborough (full details to follow over the next week)

Flower, gem and other vibrational essences are amazing at helping us work through and release deep emotions such as grief, shame and guilt but they are equally effective and powerful when we are dealing with everyday worries and concerns. The NHS list of symptoms associated with stress are:

Difficulty concentrating
Struggling to make decisions
Feeling overwhelmed
Constantly worrying
Being forgetful

You may well be receiving help from your GP with these but if not (or as a complementary therapy) vibrational essences offer many options to support you, mentally, emotionally and spiritually too.


From the Bach range, ELM is incredible when we feel overwhelmed.... it really helps us feel we are more in control and can cope. If we have worrying thoughts going round in our head and we can't sleep we can look at WHITE CHESTNUT or if our concerns are about others or issues we can't change, RED CHRSTNUT helps us step back and feel less responsible for everyone else and their decisions. If we are unable to focus and are feeling forgetful, the Austraian Bush Range have a fantastic combination of essences called "COGNIS". If our energetic boundaries are not strong enough (and we are super affected by others moods and energies) we can strengthen them with YARROW from the Alaskan Range.

There are hundreds of essences from around the world, all with their own vibration and ability to help us rebalance..... you just need to find the best combination for you, right at this moment.

With that in mind, (and as we are all struggling with high living costs at present) I am extending my introductory 1-2-1 sessions at the special price of £20 (usually £45) until 31st Dec 2022. I am happy to do weekend or evening appointments and together we will create a bespoke bottle for you to take home, which will be your emotional support ally over the Christmas/New Year period.

Treat your self to a healing self-care session and find out how working with nature can really change how you feel and help balance you, especially during challenging times.

Warm blessings,
Michele

I am still offering your first 1-2-1 flower/vibrational  essence  session for the amazing price of £20 (until the end of 2022). The usual price is £49 for the first session, (£45 for the follow-up session), which usually takes around 1.5 hours, so this really is an offer not to be missed, especially with all the extra worries and concerns we may have going into this Winter period.

Flower, gem, tree and environmental essences are powerful forms of vibrational healing, working mainly with emotional  issues and mental concerns and worries. You may have heard of or tried Rescue Remedy, which is one of the Bach essences, (a range that is very well known in the UK) and is taken after a shock of any kind. I work with this range of 39 essences, alongside many ranges from around the world. They each help in a particular area of your life, so whatever your current worries, emotional anxieties, fears and stresses, there are essences that can help you. As an advanced practitioner, I can work with you to create the ideal combination to support you for the next month and you will go home with your bespoke bottle of vibrational healing.

Do get in touch with further questions or to book your session.... you may be surprised at the power of nature healing!

Holistic Healing Retreat Day
Come and celebrate the Celtic festival of Samhain (Halloween) with a day of self- care and healing at The Yurt Sanctuary.

As we head into Autumn, why not treat yourself to an emotional and spiritual retreat day in Willow Healing Yurt. The day will include a seasonal ceremony around the firepit, hot drinks and lunch with homemade pumpkin soup and yummy cake. There will be a candlelit gong and sound bath (the wood burner will be on, and there are plenty of blankets, so it will be nice and cosy), and we will also create an individual flower or gem essence combination for each of you to take home, as a vibrational ally to support you emotionally during the winter months. The intention will be to clear and let go of anything we no longer need to hold onto and to move into the quiet time of the year with clarity, confidence, peace and gratitude.

Retreat day limited to six people
Sunday 30th October 2022
10.30am-4pm
£65

Having spent the last two years immersed in the world of flower essence healing (as I became an advanced practitioner), I finally emerged into the light, buzzing with excitement and ready to start offering this amazing complementary therapy to the world at large. It came as quite a shock to realise that much of the world at large has no idea what I am talking about and therefore, no inclination to start working with essences. Having undergone so many positive life changes since taking essences myself, I have decided to spread the word as far as I can, hopefully without coming across too evangelically!

Like many people today, I have become more aware of the importance of supporting my mental as well as physical health and have tried a variety of complementary therapies; some fairly mainstream and some positively weird. The two that have been the most beneficial to me personally are vibrational essences and sound healing, both of which modalities I then went on to train in as a practitioner (I am a crystal therapist too but that is also due to my magpie-like obsession with the pretty rocks!) I will be extolling the virtues of sound healing in a separate article, so let’s crack on with this one.

What the heck are flower essences? “Flower essences” is the blanket term for various kinds of vibrational essences now available, including plant, tree, crystal, environmental and experiential (my own name for a few essences that I have made myself). There are no actual “bits” in them, and they have no smell. They are little bottles of “nature magic” containing pure spring water, a little preservative (usually 40% brandy or similar) and the ENERGETIC IMPRINT of the plant, flower etc, that has co-created the essence with the producer. “WHAT???” I hear you splutter, “Are you expecting me to believe that a bottle of water with some energy “imprinted” in it, is meant to heal me?” Well, yes, I am. Some of you may also be aware of studies into the consciousness and amazing ability of water to be influenced by and take on properties/qualities of something in its vicinity (Maybe take a look at the work of Dr Masaru Emoto). With so much of our own body consisting of water, it is hardly surprising that we can so easily be affected by positivity or negativity in our own environment.

I am sure that many of you reading this are much more “science-y” than I am, but most people nowadays are aware that everything is made up of vibration. To put it very simply, “Vibrational Therapy” is a way of helping each part of us vibrate at the optimum level for our own health, effectively resetting our vibration so that our miraculous human body and mind can heal itself (as much as it is able to). We also store memory and trauma in our energy system and sometimes, shifting this stagnancy can have an incredible impact on our well-being. Throughout the centuries, plants have been used medicinally but also in other ways, for example, the ancient Egyptians collected the dew from certain flowers to treat emotional imbalances. The Aboriginal peoples used to birth their children into a hole lined with Boab tree leaves… not for comfort but because this tree had the energic ability to clear negative patterns passed down through generations. There is a Boab essence today, made by Ian White of the Australian Bush range and I took this for three months (just a few drops under the tongue each day). By the end of this I had managed to break a massive (negative) pattern running through the female line in my own family for the past four generations (at least). Flower water healing was widely known to be effective for hundreds of years but then was effectively shut down as an option (alongside many other types of natural healings), with the rise of traditional medicine. Luckily, we are now living in an age again when all types of healing can be used to support us in a more holistic way, for our minds, emotions, and souls as well as our bodies.

Dr Edward Bach is one of the most widely known creators of flower essences in the UK (You may have heard of or tried Rescue Remedy?) He was a Harley Street surgeon and homeopath in the 1930s and during his lifetime created 38 essences, each to help with a specific type of person or emotional condition. Since this revolutionary work with vibrational essences, hundreds of different ranges have been created worldwide, using native flowers, trees and environments. There are also specific combinations for men, women, children and animals.

I have worked with clients with a variety of essences to release anger and trauma as well as anxieties, worries, and fears. Certain essences have boosted their confidence and self-esteem, others have soothed their heart and given solace when grieving or feeing discouraged and despondent. There are wonderful ranges available to support people through life changes at all ages as well as passing emotional states that are troubling us at the moment. You may think (as I once did) that this sounds like a placebo of some kind. Having taken essences in depth over many years, I now know that it is not, and that they actually work. They even have positive effects on animals and other plants! Just to be clear, vibrational essences are not magical cures for our physical bodies. They work with our emotions and mental patterns, when we choose to make changes or be supported in this way. They are not cure-all remedies, and some seem to have the desired affect after just a few doses whereas other may need to be taken for longer, especially when working with something we have held onto for many years.

There is so much more to say about these little bottles of healing goodness, but my suggestion is that you don’t take my word for it, take some and find out for yourself! You can buy many ranges online, but the most comprehensive way is to consult with a practitioner, who will tailor a bottle with specific essences for your own needs. There are more and more of us “flower essence folk” sticking our heads above the parapet now, so see who you feel drawn to and take it from there. I promise you won’t regret it. How wonderful it will be for you to have some little potent bottles of nature as allies, to support you as you face the emotional challenges of life.  Good old Mother Nature just doing her thing!

Michele Bentley
Vibrational Healing Practitioner
www.wildoakceremonies.com
 

We have monthly gong and sound baths in various locations in Somerset. It is £12 per person if you book an pay in advance or £15 cash on the door. Please do let me know if you would like to come, so I ensure you have a space. The sessions are one hour, with 5 mins before to get settled and 10 mins or so afterwards to ground and feel ready to make your way home. Please bring a yoga mat, blanket, pillow and if you have one, and eye mask or scarf. You will also need some water.

August 26th, Gong and sound bath, Holcombe Village Hall, 7.30-8.30pm
August 27th, New Moon Women's Circle, Willow Yurt, Chilcompton, 6-7.30pm (first visit free)

Sun 11th Sept, Gong and sound bath, Chilcompton Village Hall. 7-8pm
Thursday 15th Sept, Gong and sound bath, The Portway Annexe, Wells, 8.15-9.15pm
Friday 23rd Sept, Gong and sound bath, Holcombe Village Hall, 7.30pm-8.30pm
Saturday 24th Sept, Autumn Equinox crystal sound bath, Yoga Bodhi, Bath, 6pm-7.30pm (£15) CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS.

SPECIAL EVENT: Sunday 25th Sept, Autumn Equinox and New Moon mini retreat, Willow Yurt, The Yurt Sanctuary, Chilcompton, 2-4.30pm, £30 per person. Relaxing and rejuvenating mini retreat for up to six women. We will have an  Autumn Equinox ceremony plus relaxing gong and sound bath with crystals, together with a sharing circle and a bit of astrology too, to see how this particular New Moon can support us as we set intentions and move forward into the final quarter of the year (refreshments included). CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS