Love is What We
Came Here For

A 10-Day Love, Sex & Relationship Shadow Work Immersion
July 5 – 15, 2026
New Eden, The Netherlands
View Pricing & Apply
The only retreat with Maanee and Christian in 2026 · Application required

We say we want love, but most of us have never actually been taught how to love.

We were taught

How to attract.
How to seduce.
How to secure.
How to perform.
How to protect ourselves.

We were not taught

How to stay open when we feel hurt.
How to stay present when desire fades.
How to stay honest when fear rises.
How to stay sovereign when attachment pulls.

So instead — we love from the shadow.

We relate from the wound.

And then we wonder why it doesn't work.

In the safety of a trauma-informed sanctuary, held in community, we invite you to join Maanee Chrystal and Christian Pankhurst in rewriting the story of love.

A story where sexuality is honest, sensuality is embodied, and relationship is built on truth, safety, and connection — rather than fear, strategy, or survival.

Love is meant to expand you.
Not destabilize you.

Deep down, we know love is meant to expand you — to widen your breath, to soften your nervous system, to make you more you.

Not destabilize you.

And yet we stay in loops — of contraction, of despair, of control, of avoidance, of neediness, of trauma bonds disguised as passion.

We call intensity chemistry. We call anxiety devotion. We call volatility depth.

All in order to feel chosen. To feel safe. To feel worthy. To avoid the unbearable ache of being alone with ourselves.

Real love does not collapse you into survival. It does not demand you abandon your truth to keep it.

Love, when it is clean, does not feel like a rollercoaster.

It feels like ground. Like breath. Like expansion.

And most of us are still learning how to stand in that.

This retreat is a place to get brutally honest about the story we carry about love — and to be seen in the deepest parts of our humanity.

Here, the younger parts… the dark parts… the wild parts… the shame-filled parts… the destructive parts… and the deeply vulnerable parts…

are not exiled.

They are welcomed.

They are given space to be felt. Space to be witnessed. Space to soften their grip.

So they can finally begin to liberate.

And from that liberation, we meet something new — a more relaxed, more grounded, more mature part of ourselves that can relate with safety, clarity, and presence.

This is not about fixing yourself. It is about integrating yourself — so love no longer feels like survival, but like choice.

This retreat is born from the meeting of two lineages of work.

Maanee brings the somatic — the body's untold story, the places where love, sexuality, and wounding live below language.

Christian brings the relational field — the capacity to be met, held, and seen in real time, in community, through what Heart iQ calls emergent group Circle Work.

Together, they create a container where shadow isn't just named — it's felt, witnessed, and given space to transform.

This retreat is for those ready to grow up in love.

  • A deep dive into your own personal & collective shadow around love, sex and relating
  • Powerful & confronting practices in somatic shadow work
  • Group Circle work
  • Nervous system regulation & trauma-informed practices
  • Somatic Movement practices
  • Sensual and Erotic Temple spaces for integration
  • Ritual Shadow Theatre
  • Exploring emergence & the amplified group field

Trauma-Informed Container

This retreat is held by expert trainers along with a team of nervous system informed assistants to create personal & group somatic safety throughout the program.

Community Building

The program includes building a supportive community, which will not only help you in your personal growth but also provide lifelong relationships and mentors.

Embodied Leadership

In this space, there is no podium. The facilitators don't stand apart from the process — they step into it. The entire team, including assistants, brings their own humanity into the room. This is how we model what we teach: not from above, but from within. Leadership here is not a role. It's a lived practice — one that dissolves hierarchy and invites the group to become a single, breathing organism.

Who is this retreat for?

If you've ever felt like no matter how much inner work you've done… there's a part of you that's still numb, ashamed, or secretly aching for freedom — this retreat will change your life.

You've tried to "fix" this part of yourself. You've read the books, done the therapy, maybe even tried Tantra… but something still feels locked inside.

This retreat is tailored for those who are already on the path but ready to open to healing within a community setting.

Seekers of Depth in Practice
Practitioners not satisfied with surface-level techniques, seeking a more profound, embodied approach to transformation.
Ready for a Challenge
Individuals not daunted by the intensity of deep personal work, ready to commit to an immersive experience.
Willing to Be Vulnerable
Individuals open to exploring and sharing their own process, understanding that vulnerability is a strength.

This retreat is not for those who have active and unresolved sexual trauma and trauma in general. More details in the application form.

Your Guides

Maanee Chrystal Lynn Joy

Maanee Chrystal Lynn Joy

Maanee is a Somatic Psychotherapist, Dance Therapist, Somatic Integrative Teacher & Erotic Educator. With her innate capacity for deep feeling and sensing, Maanee weaves together a tapestry of modalities including shadow work, somatics, trauma resolution, nervous system health, dance therapy, non-duality, eco-somatics, embodied leadership, sensuality & the erotic.

As the visionary founder of The Somatic Institute for Women, Maanee has created a space for women to reconnect with their bodies and reclaim their power through somatic practices. Her work centers around truth-based living, starting her ecological community project where she runs month-long community residencies on Truth Based Living in Thailand, where she has lived for the last 11 years.

Christian Pankhurst

Christian's focus is not self-improvement or therapy, but the cultivation of depth — in presence, relationship, and lived truth. For over two decades, he has worked with individuals, couples, and groups to explore what becomes possible when attention is shared, defences soften, and consciousness is met directly.

The Heart iQ work emerged through lived experience and long-term study, integrating Eastern and Western wisdom traditions with modern understanding of group dynamics, intimacy, and embodiment. At its core is Heart iQ Circle Work — a precise and demanding practice that uses the group field to accelerate insight, integration, and capacity.

This work is not gentle by default, nor is it designed to confirm existing narratives. It is guided, confrontive when necessary, and oriented toward what is real rather than what is comfortable. Christian holds these spaces with care, clarity, and strong leadership — not to provide answers, but to create the conditions where something truer can emerge.

In 2015, he established "New Eden," an idyllic transformational retreat centre in the Netherlands, spanning 10 acres of quiet land — the home for this retreat.

Christian Pankhurst

Retreat Registration

A Fully Immersive, All-Inclusive Retreat Experience

The only retreat Maanee and Christian will facilitate together in 2026

Accommodation Standard Rate Alumni Rate
Shared Room · Ensuite €3,500 €3,000
Private Room · Ensuite €3,850 €3,350

Alumni rate is available if you have participated in a previous shadow work retreat with Maanee and Christian.

All options include full retreat tuition, meals, and applicable taxes.

Payment plans available.

For those ready to begin early

If you register by the end of March 2026, you'll receive access to the Heart iQ 90-Day Challenge — a guided daily practice of relational exercises, somatic tools, and communication foundations, with live calls alongside Christian. It's a standalone programme usually offered separately, and it's designed to build the capacity that makes immersive group work land deeper.

The challenge runs from April through June, so you'll arrive at New Eden with three months of practice already in your body.

This is not a prerequisite for the retreat — the immersion stands entirely on its own. But for those who want to begin the work before they walk through the door, it's a powerful way to prepare.

How to Apply

  1. Click 'Begin Application' below and complete the application form. This includes a few details about you and a series of questions that help us understand your background, readiness, and intentions for this work.
  2. Our team will review your application. In some cases, we may reach out for a brief conversation to explore whether this retreat is the right fit for you at this time.
  3. Once accepted, you'll receive a personal invitation with a link to register and choose your accommodation. Full payment and payment plan options are available.
Begin Application

The Venue

Held at New Eden, a unique residential retreat centre surrounded by 50 acres of calm and quiet land, 90 minutes from Amsterdam.

Testimonials