What Led Me to Create a Healing Retreat for Pregnancy Loss

The story behind Between the Lines and what I wish had existed when I needed it most

I remember standing at the edge of the Great Sand Sea in Siwa Oasis, Egypt, and feeling something I hadn’t felt in years. Stillness.

Not the exhausted, collapsed-on-the-couch kind. The kind that comes when you finally stop running.

Getting to that moment had taken years.

The Years That Emptied Me Out

In my previous career (one of a few, honestly) I was a technical virtual assistant. I started my business in 2017 with a three-month-old baby on my hip. In March 2019, I terminated my final pregnancy for medical reasons. It was by far my most emotionally charged pregnancy loss, and most of that year was spent processing the aftermath in whatever small pockets of time I could find.

In January 2020, my husband had his vasectomy. Our fertility journey was officially over.

And then the world locked down.

The next almost two years were long working hours, shared workspaces, parenting through chaos and the particular exhaustion of holding everything together when the whole world felt like it was falling apart. My business quadrupled its income that year. I barely noticed, because I was running on fumes.

By November 2021, I was frazzled, depleted and barely recognisable to myself.

The Retreat That Changed Everything

When the opportunity came up for a ten-day retreat to Egypt called Finding Yourself in the Desert with The Maya Company, I grabbed it with both hands.

Eight of us flew to Cairo and were treated to a wonderful combination of sightseeing, motivational coaching sessions, and truly Instagram-worthy scenery. But it was the vastness of the Great Sand Sea around Siwa Oasis that did something unexpected – it invited in a stillness none of us had realised we were seeking.

Through journaling prompts, group coaching sessions and quiet strolls through the immense desert, we each had space to be still and recognise our heart’s desires. I came home with a newfound calm and a set of tools to guide my way forward.

That daily journaling practice I started after Egypt eventually became my book, All of These Lines: My Story of Pregnancy, Loss and Hope, published in October 2025. The retreat gave me the time and space to recognise how much I had suppressed, and the stillness to begin, slowly, to process it.

What the Egypt Retreat Couldn’t Give Me

Although we were all women, and a few of us had experienced pregnancy loss, the retreat wasn’t designed specifically for that experience. I found myself explaining –  a lot. The particular grief of a termination for medical reasons. The complexity of recurrent loss. The way pregnancy loss reshapes your identity in ways that are hard to articulate to someone who hasn’t lived it.

It was a beautiful retreat. But I kept wishing for a space where I didn’t have to explain myself at all. Where everyone in the room already understood. A healing retreat for pregnancy loss parents where they felt seen and held.

And I couldn’t fly to Egypt every time I needed that particular kind of quiet.

Finding My Way to an Answer

After that trip, I kept turning over the same question: how do I bring this quality of space — the beauty, the stillness, the unhurried time — into the communities I was already supporting?

I focused on finishing my book. I ran a virtual retreat called Empowered Journey, which brought together twelve speakers to explore the journey from heartbreak to wholeness. It was meaningful and I’m proud of it.

But it still wasn’t the thing I was actually dreaming of.

The dream was in-person. Intimate. Specifically and unapologetically for pregnancy loss parents. A space where no one needed an explanation. A healing retreat for pregnancy loss in a beautiful space.

The Bigger Vision: Grief Practices from Around the World

The long-term vision for Between the Lines is to offer them all over the world. A healing retreat for pregnancy loss that draws on the grief processing practices of different cultures around the world, in their unique locations.

This ties in beautifully with a previous life as a travel agent — my favourite itineraries to build were always round-the-world tickets. One day I hope to create a months-long one-to-one coaching programme that involves travelling together, participating in ritual practices from various cultures, and integrating grief in some of the most meaningful places on earth.

That’s the dream. And dreams have to start somewhere.

Where It Starts: KZN Midlands, May 2026

It starts close to home, in a part of the world that holds a particular kind of quiet.

The first Between the Lines, healing retreat for pregnancy loss, takes place at Pleasant Places in the KZN Midlands on 22–24 May 2026. A small group of 4–6 participants, a gorgeous garden setting overlooking the Lions River, guided journaling, release rituals and a TRE session.

Between the Lines is the retreat I needed and couldn’t find. It exists because of everything I’ve been through, and because of the thousands of loss parents I’ve supported who needed exactly the same thing.

You can find all the details here.

I hope this is just the beginning.