a six day retreat for women exploring embodiment and sensuality in the wild mountain landscapes of southern France

we arrive at a cinematic chateau in a medieval bastide village held by forests and mountains with morning mist in the valleys, blue lakes and a deep silence

for six days we give ourselves permission to slow down and feel:
we listen to the body and let it release through warm oil massages, bodywork, somatic and psychological practices. we enjoy seasonal food, sunrise walks in the mountains with cocoa, watch and discuss a Bergman’s "Autumn sonata", chosen specifically to explore the deep and complex bond between a mother and a daughter, and share our stories and experiences with other women.


at the end of the retreat, each woman receives a personal photo session with Maria Chekhovskaya as a memory of being seen exactly as she is.

mother tongue

NOVEMBER
07 — 12
OCCITANIE, FRANCE

we have the entire chateau to ourselves for these days.

with spacious rooms filled with soft autumn light, an old piano that will be played in the evenings, warm wood and marble fireplaces, and artworks gathered from different parts of the world. a large kitchen where we will cook and share cozy warm meals, drink herbal infusions and cocoa.

a dining room with stone columns and candles, and deep baths in the evenings after massage with warm oil. a house where you can exhale, rest with your whole body, be with others or gently on your own with a book.

over six days we practice slowing down and letting go: releasing noise, anxiety, shame, fear and tiredness. we explore how mothers shape a woman’s relationship with her body, through somatic practices and work with the voice we will return to our first language, share evenings with live piano music, and finally return to pleasure, reclaiming the body as a place of joy, rest and sensory experience.

each day holds both body-oriented and psychological practices: massage, bodywork, breathwork, dance and somatic meditations, alongside group circle work, art therapy and a shared screening and discussion of Ingmar Bergman’s "Autumn Sonata", explored through the lens of psychoanalytic feminism.

each participant will receive a personal one-on-one bodywork session and a photo session with the retreat leader, Maria Chekhovskaya.

NOVEMBER 07 — 12 NOVEMBER 07 — 12 NOVEMBER 07 — 12 NOVEMBER 07 — 12 NOVEMBER 07 — 12 NOVEMBER 07 — 12 NOVEMBER 07 — 12

the heart of the retreat is the restoration of our connection to the body, learning to trust it again, to turn toward it with care and attention.

the retreat begins with a welcome dinner. throughout all six days, a talented and inventive chef will be with us taking care that food brings us both nourishment and pleasure. every dish prepared from local and seasonal ingredients, surprising us with combinations of flavour and colour.

each day includes three meals, with a particular focus on breakfast and dinner. we will also share a silent cocoa ceremony, warming the body and gently opening the senses.

on the day of departure, breakfast is included.

vegetarian and vegan options are available, please let us know when booking.

investment:

to reserve your place:
a deposit of €500

included:

• transfer from Toulouse or Carcassonne to the house and back

• five nights accommodation

• all group bodywork and psychological practices

• three meals a day prepared by a professional chef using local and seasonal ingredients, including a welcome dinner and a farewell breakfast

• one personal bodywork session and photo portrait session with Maria

not included: travel to and from Toulouse / Carcassonne

I’m a trauma-informed massage therapist and artist. for more than 8 years I have been working with women, exploring embodiment through bodywork, photography and psychology. I’m interested in how our experiences, memory, stress and trauma shape our relationship with the body. in all the changes a woman’s body carries through life: fertility, cycles, motherhood, birth and everything in between. and in how culture and society shape the way we see and feel ourselves.

I'm certified in working with PTSD and psychosomatics through an integrative approach and completed a trauma-informed massage certification in Toronto in 2025. my training also includes work with Bessel van der Kolk, whose research explores how trauma lives in the body.

as a photographer, I have spent more than eight years making personal photoshoots of women and participating in documentary projects about the female body after birth, through transformation and time.

I'm a speaker and the creator of courses, lectures and interviews on photography, embodiment, feminism and art. now I live and work in Paris, seeing clients for trauma-informed massage and shooting personal and brand photography in my own visual language.


I'm so exited to welcome you to tender heart, a retreat my team of wonderful women and I have been building with care and our whole hearts.

© COPYRIGHTS MARIA CHEKHOVSKAYA