Community partnership · Sept 2026
The inside work of midlife. Held in a room, then held online.
The Inside Work at The Healing Institute — a five-day residential retreat on Gabriola Island for women in peri, meno, and post. Nila is the digital bridge: pre-arrival prep, symptom guides, and somewhere to land the questions that surface once you’re home.
Coming up
The Inside Work — a women’s menopause retreat.
Co-led by Bryn Meadows (MPCC, RPC — certified Daring Way™ facilitator, clinician, counsellor) and Dr. Tracy Rodgers (FRCSC, OB-GYN). Small cohort. Hormone-literate medicine woven through recovery, identity work, breath, rest, infrared sauna and cold plunge.
What this partnership looks like
A room to arrive in
The Healing Institute at Taylor Bay holds the residential container — a mental-health and addiction-treatment centre on Gabriola Island with small cohorts, senior clinicians, ceremony, rest, and intimate identity work.
A bridge home
Nila keeps the work alive after the ferry leaves — 82 symptom guides, peri / meno / post pathways, the practitioner directory, and the Nila chatbot.
Retreat, then real life
A pre-arrival read, a post-retreat continuity plan, and a quiet place to land the questions that only surface once you’re back at your kitchen table.
What the five days hold
Three dimensions of healing, usually treated in isolation — held in one room, at one pace.
The biology of midlife
How hormonal transition shapes sleep, mood, stress tolerance, cravings, and emotional capacity — because when women understand what’s happening in their bodies, shame begins to loosen its grip.
Integrated medical & clinical care
Evidence-based, trauma-responsive psychotherapy and person-centred counselling adapted to midlife — led by an OB-GYN and clinicians with more than four decades of combined experience in women’s health.
Identity & shame resilience
The stories, beliefs, and expectations that shape how women see themselves — grounded in Dr. Brené Brown’s research and the Daring Way™ methodology.
Each day weaves facilitated group work, clinical education, somatic practice, guided reflection, creative expression, time in nature, and restorative experiences — infrared sauna and cold plunge included — paced for rest and integration, not overwhelm.
Who it’s for
You don’t need a diagnosis. You need a map — and company for the road.
For women questioning whether what they’re experiencing is “normal.” Drinking more than they’d like. Struggling with food, body shame, burnout, anxiety, or perfectionism. Coping through work, achievement, caretaking, or constant busyness. Navigating relapse or recovery. Feeling like a stranger in their own body.
Recovery here is understood broadly — from substances, yes, but also from self-abandonment, people-pleasing, and the quiet erosion of a life spent meeting everyone else’s needs.
Maximum 15 women per cohort
The details
- Where
- The Healing Institute at Taylor Bay, Gabriola Island, BC
- Length
- Five days · Sunday arrival, Saturday departure
- Cohort
- Maximum 15 women
- Investment
- $8,500 CAD · all-inclusive
- Includes
- Accommodation, nourishing meals, all programming, infrared sauna, and cold plunge access.
Meet the team
Co-facilitator
Bryn Meadows
MPCC, RPC · Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator–Clinician (CDWF)
A counsellor with more than 25 years walking alongside people through the messy, meaningful, and magical parts of being human. Trauma-informed, body-celebrating work grounded in Dr. Brené Brown’s research on vulnerability, shame, and courage. Founder of the Menopolooza movement.
Co-facilitator
Dr. Tracy Rodgers
FRCSC · Obstetrician-Gynaecologist, surgeon, educator
25+ years in women’s health across the lifespan. Integrative care that meets hormones, nutrition, lifestyle, and emotional wellness at once. Known for translating complex medical science into clear, warm language. Co-founder of Menopolooza.
“You’ve spent years being disciplined, productive, resilient, and in control. The Inside Work is an invitation to set that story down — and listen instead to what your body has been trying to tell you.”
Who we’re with
The Inside Work at The Healing Institute
One offering, one home — a women’s menopause retreat on Gabriola Island.
The Healing Institute is a residential mental-health and addiction-treatment centre at Taylor Bay. The Inside Work is its five-day women’s menopause intensive — trauma-informed care, evidence-based therapy, and hormone-literate medicine, held in one small cohort. Facilitated by Bryn Meadows (MPCC, RPC — certified Daring Way™) with Dr. Tracy Rodgers (FRCSC, OB-GYN).
Start with the retreat, or the reading.