Retreats
Retreats provide an opportunity to step off the fast track, and:
- Pause, reflect and gather insights on the road travelled, thus far
- Ensure you’re paying attention to what (and who) is important
- Take some time to delve, explore and experiment
- Contemplate what is calling you
- Start to distil the version of you that wants to emerge
- Create a roadmap for the next phase of the journey
It’s also a perfect opportunity to stop DOING, and JUST BE.
We partner with fellow systemic facilitators across the globe to offer enchanting, provocative retreats where a safe container is built from the moment you sign up – we absolutely believe that the space we create together, matters.
We very much look forward to welcoming you soon.
Arise, Arrive, Ascend
Pebble Ledge Ranch, Novelty, Ohio USA
A Transformational Journey Into Your Next Chapter
Step back. Go deeper. Lead better. A retreat for senior leaders ready to grow into what
their next chapter asks of them — and shape the teams, organisations, ecosystems and
communities around them.
April 20th - 23rd 2027
(Tuesday morning - Friday Mid-day)
Guided by Tess Cope and Jackie Stevenson
A Journey To:
Arise with Courage
Honour the past, the path that has brought you here, and the gifts, experiences, and relationships that have shaped your journey.
Arrive with Confidence
Honestly explore your current reality, uncover hidden dynamics and patterns, and deepen your awareness of what is influencing your leadership and life.
Ascend with Clarity
This highly experiential retreat is an invitation to pause, take stock, and reconnect – discovering your unique presence, the gifts awaiting expression, and what life and leadership are genuinely calling from you. Leave with renewed purpose, clearer direction, and real hope for the road ahead.
Together, we will explore how to thrive as leaders amid chaos and uncertainty by deepening our capacity to listen, sense, trust, and respond creatively.
Guided by horses, nature, ancient wisdom traditions, a systemic whole-system lens, and the collective intelligence of community and field, we will enter a spacious realm of reflection, discovery, and transformation.
We will tune into the intelligence of body, heart, mind, spirit, and field and create space to release patterns that no longer serve us and cultivate the conditions for breakthrough.
Why Attend This Retreat?
Executive transitions remain among the most consequential and costly moments in an organisation’s life and underpin or undermine the reputation of the leaders themselves. Despite decades of good intention, outcomes remain inconsistent.
Why? Because what truly drives a system is often invisible. Every individual, team, and organisation carries its own hidden architecture — histories, loyalties, patterns, and dynamics operating largely outside conscious awareness, yet shaping behaviour, trust, and readiness for change at every turn.
This retreat creates the space to see what’s been hidden — and the capacity to move toward your highest potential, your organisation’s highest potential, and the future that is ready to emerge.
The Three Phases of Unlocking Potential
HONOUR
Acknowledge the origins, founding principles, and all those who have contributed to bringing the system to its current state.
HONEST
Bring into awareness the visible and invisible patterns influencing the system while exploring its current health, vitality, and performance.
HOPE
Release limiting patterns at their roots and create the conditions for renewed energy, innovation, and movemen
What We Have Learned
Several practices consistently support successful leadership transitions:
1. Create space to understand the organization as a complex living system, including its history, culture, stakeholders, and hidden dynamics.
2. Give as much attention to healthy endings as to new beginnings.
3. Allow realistic timeframes and avoid quick-fix approaches that create unsustainable change.
4. Establish a clear, intentional, and consistent transition process.
5. Invest in relationships, trust-building, and cultural understanding during the earliest stages of transition.
Why This Matters
Senior leadership transitions are not administrative events; they are systemic inflection points. New leaders do not simply enter roles – they enter living systems with established histories, loyalties, expectations, and interdependencies.
When organizations intentionally attend to the human, relational, and systemic dimensions of transition, they shorten time-to-impact, strengthen culture, increase engagement, and significantly improve the likelihood of retaining top leadership talent.
This retreat offers leaders, teams, and organizations a unique opportunity to slow down, step back, and see the larger system at work. Through systemic inquiry, reflection, dialogue, nature-based practices, horse-guided experiences, and experiential learning, participants will develop the awareness, insight, and capacity needed to navigate transitions with greater wisdom, resilience
Senior leadership transitions are among the most consequential systemic inflection points in an organization’s life cycle.
New Leaders don’t enter a blank slate. They step into living systems — with established histories, loyalties, patterns, and relationships that will either accelerate or quietly undermine their effectiveness.
A systemic approach to the first 60 days provides a paradigm shift. By balancing the human, relational, and systemic dimensions of transition — and creating real space for cultural immersion, stakeholder connection, and dynamic learning — you can accelerate your integration and effectiveness.
Throughout our time together, we will journey into each of these dimensions – providing you the opportunity to explore your transition and set you up for the chapter that is awaiting you.
Whether you are stepping into a new leadership role or supporting leadership transitions, this retreat will help you see the larger system, honour what has come before, and prepare for what is coming next.
This is perfect timing for you if you, or the wider system you inhabit, are entering a phase of transition. You may be:
– Preparing for a significant step into new territory, personally or professionally
– Relishing the opportunity to step back, evaluate, and make informed choices about your leadership in this next chapter.
What you can expect
Together, we will enter a living and dynamic inquiry – paying attention to what is seeking our awareness, what is asking to be released, and what is longing to be born.
Walk beside horses, gather in community, and discover the dynamic presence that can help you meet the future with courage, confidence, compassion, and clarity.
Everyone will have the opportunity to experience the realm of constellation work – where we help bring the often invisible and deep rooted patterns to the surface for you to explore, discern and decide what serves you for the next chapter of your life and your
leadership.
Arise. Arrive. Ascend.
The journey is already calling.
Pricing:
$2,500.00
Early bird pricing –$2,220.00
To qualify for early bird pricing, $400.00 deposit required by end of July
Price includes:
– Lunch and Dinner & refreshments
– Transportation from Lodging to retreat site
– 1:1 integration call (via zoom) post event
– Group call post event – fostering the community spirit & integration.
We suggest lodging at Punderson State Park Manor (a group of rooms are held for you)
If you’d like to talk this through – please contact us here:
Tess Cope: tess@thetransformationagency.com
Jackie Stevenson: jacalynstevenson@gmail.com
For registration email Jackie at Jacalynstevenson@gmail.com
Meet Your Hosts:
Tess Cope
Tess Cope, Founder and Director of the
Transformation Agency, established since 2010 to help leaders positively impact the working lives of their people – they work with senior leaders across the UK, US and Europe.
Through her systemic approach that gets to the root cause of issues, Tess works with Senior Leaders from a whole person and whole system perspective.
So whether you are a leader who needs to pause and delve deep within, OR figure out how you can shift your leadership to the next level, Tess will help you cut through the noise and get to the essence of what’s needed. Her success speaks for itself – 91% of her coaching clients go on to exceed expectations in their roles OR progress to the next level.
Since setting up The Transformation Agency she has established herself as a Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, an Accredited Systemic Leadership Coach & Facilitator and Systemic Horse
Coach. She leverages over 25 years’ experience of Leadership Development experience across a wide range of sectors and is passionate about setting leaders up for success – grounded in the knowledge that when they are operating at their best – the rest of the system thrives.
Her third book, Your First 60 Days, is due to be
published 3rd September 2026.
tess@thetransformationagency.com
Jackie Stevenson
Jackie Stevenson is the founder and CEO of
Spirit of Leadership LLC providing coaching,
leadership and team building training and
seminars for corporations and not- for-profit
organizations. She specializes in unique coaching sessions and leadership and team
building retreats through experiential learning with horses and nature.
Jackie teaches at Case Western Reserve
University Weatherhead School of Management Executive Development Program and the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. She is on the Weatherhead School of Management coaching staff and is a Board-Certified Coach (BCC) and LISW.
Jackie is author of the book “Someday We’ll Live Like Horses: Authentic Presence in Leadership and Life”
jacalynstevenson@gmail.com
www.spirit-of-leadership.com
Retreat: Wadi Rum (Jordan)
October 25th - 30th 2026
Payment Includes:
- 3 x days of Retreat, under the guidance of Tess Cope & Sandra Jelly
- This includes: One magical night under the stars – camping & fire ceremony in the desert, with a dedicated local Bedouin guide.
Food, Travel & Accommodation:
- 5 Star, Landmark hotel upon arrival in Amman (B&B) – for an overnight stop before heading to Wadi Rum – landmark
- Full board accommodation, Wadi Rum at Rum Planet Camp, in panorama room with ensuite – Rum Planet Camp – Unlike any other camp in the desert of Wadi Rum
- Half board accommodation, luxury room Little Petra Bedouin Camp
- Group transfers throughout our stay in air-conditioned minivans with English speaking drivers (including from & to Amman airport)
Guided Tours
- Licensed guide in Petra plus guided hike to Petra Monastery
- Visit the Moevenpick Dead Sea for lunch & float
Itinerary
Sun 25th – Arrive Amman – overnight stay at 5 Start hotel
Mon 26th – We will make our way to Wadi Rum, for opening ceremony of The Retreat
Tue 27th – Morning in the camp, then heading to the desert for our night under the stars, with a local Bedouin Guide
Wed 28th – Wadi Rum Camp
Thur 29th – Early departure for our guided tour of Petra, and overnight stay at Little Petra Camp
Fri 30th – Dead Sea Float – then directly to Amman airport for an evening flight home (with the option to extend your trip, if you prefer)
* n.b. Payment does not include return flights, additional meals or expenses
YOUR NEXT LEVEL IS CALLING
When: 25th October - 30th October 2026
Duration: 3.5 days
Location: Wadi Rum, Jordan
Price: £3,500 - Payable in full or 3 x £1167 monthly instalments
– Full payment must be made prior to Retreat
Let yourself be embraced and held in a heart centred, safe community
Step into the unknown field – we invite you to get acquainted with your deeper purpose.
This is not about incremental tweaks.
This immersive experience – deep in the sacred desert of Jordan - is designed to stimulate and call forward your ‘Next Level.
We’ll explore, reflect AND help you prepare for the life that wants to be lived through you.
Join a group of brave souls – delving beneath the cognitive layers, way beyond ego & the ‘should do’s – breaking free of others’ expectations.
This is about opening your heart & soul to the exponential potential deep within you, that is ready to be unleashed.
Join us for 3.5 x immersive days to…
- BE COURAGEOUS – Get clear, honest & comfortable with what is – Stand in your truth
- BE CURIOUS – What are the deeper patterns? What signals & insights are emerging? What is the bigger why of this journey, called life, for you?
- BE CONFIDENT – To step forward – Move towards your deeper calling & your next chapter
Meet Your Hosts:
Tess Cope
Tess’ passion is to help leaders positively impact the working lives of their people because she knows that magic happens when healthy systems and great people come together.
Through her systemic approach, Tess works with the whole person and the whole system – so whether you are a leader who needs to pause and delve deep within, OR figure out how you can take your team and your organisation to the next level, she wil help you cut through the noise and get to the essence of what’s needed.
Her unique gift is to translate leading edge, breakthrough methodologies and make them accessible for all. She will help you strip back the noise, work at the roots and move you to towards an embodied knowing of what’s needed.
Tess is a Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, an Accredited Systemic Leadership Coach & Facilitator, Systemic Horse Coach and an Award Winning Leader in her own right. She leverages over 25 years’ experience of Leadership Development across a wide range of sectors in the UK, US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pac. She has been a business leader herself with Board level responsibility and works with organisations across multiple sectors and contexts, including family owned, not for profit, publicly listed and PE backed.
Sandra Jelly
Equine-Assisted Wellness Coach, Systemic & Shamanic Practitioner, Designer & Social Entrepreneur
Sandra is a somatic and systemic coach with over 15 years of experience guiding women into embodied leadership and inner alignment. Through her Soul SPARCK Method — Soul Power Alignment & Rooted Creative Knowing — she weaves embodiment, presence, systemic constellations, and ritual practices to reveal hidden dynamics and support deep inner truth.
Working in collaboration with nature and horses, Sandra creates a grounded, intuitive space where women reconnect with their inner vision, power, and flow. Her work is rooted in lived experience and offered through retreats and journeys in the sacred landscape of Wadi Rum.
Is your transformation agenda at risk of being derailed?
Ready to get to the bottom of what's really going on?
Join The Systemic Leadership Retreat
Develop your Systemic Leadership lens
Wednesday 6th – Friday 8th December 2023
Click below to learn more about this Retreat:
In a ground-breaking collaboration with
Retreat Hosts
Tess has over 25 years’ experience of leading cultural transformation from the inside, but also as an external guide.
Having held a variety of senior roles, including Board level responsibility herself, she is committed to the leadership agenda.
Tess has experience of working globally and with the public sector, public limited companies as well as large family owned organisations in multiple sectors.
Tess is an ICF accredited coach and has been deeply involved in constantly building her systemic capability since 2011.
She delights in helping senior leaders, look at a challenge from a new dimension and ultimately support them to find a path through to breakthrough.
Tess published her first book on systemic coaching (HARNESS – a systemic approach to revolutionise your coaching) in 2021 and is looking forward to her second publication (about working with teams) in September 2023.
She has a passion for building the systemic lens with senior leaders in service of helping them create a positive environment for employees and ultimately strengthening the organisation.
Tess Cope
The Transformation Agency
Barbara studied Business Administration and worked over a decade in financial organisations in management positions in the Netherlands and abroad.
‘I am constantly curious to find out what the good (systemic) reasons are that things are the way they are.
Zooming out to wider systems is part of my natural way of being and doing.
Always ready to be courageous ánd vulnerable.
Not afraid of harsh reality ánd in service of mildness and gratitude.
I love to spread systemic work as a healthy virus, through trainings, workshops, constellations and coaching.’
Then she worked as independent mediator in organisational and family conflicts for 11 years until 2015, when the systemic work fully took her into service.
She lives with her husband Michiel, three children and dog Tex in the beautiful old countryside of Texel.
‘I enjoy how the Texel sheep are hopping funny in the meadow and I feel vital, partly thanks to the year-round swimming in the (Wadden) sea.’
