a five day retreat for women exploring embodiment and sensuality in the quiet landscapes of Normandy, France
we arrive at a 19th-century mansion in the middle of a private park with twelve hectares of old trees and cows in their pastures.
for five days we give ourselves permission to slow down and feel:
we listen to the body and let it release through massage, bodywork, somatic and psychological practices. we enjoy seasonal food, sit in tea ceremony, watch and discuss a film, chosen specifically to explore the roles and different chapters in woman's life, draw 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.
we arrive at a 19th-century mansion in the middle of a private park with twelve hectares of old trees and cows in their pastures.
for five days we give ourselves permission to slow down and feel:
we listen to the body and let it release through massage, bodywork, somatic and psychological practices. we enjoy seasonal food, sit in tea ceremony, watch and discuss a film, chosen specifically to explore the roles and different chapters in woman's life, draw 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.
tender heart
AUGUST 16 — 20
NORMANDY, FRANCE
NORMANDY, FRANCE
what will grow if you plant your heart in the earth?
we rent the entire mansion just for us.
spacious rooms with french vintage details, filled with light and the morning song of birds. a place where you can exhale and rest with your whole body. a large kitchen with refreshing drinks and local seasonal food, a generous living room to gather together during practices or sometimes to be alone with yourself and a book.
outside a private historical park of twelve hectares unfolds around the house. meadows, forest, a linden avenue, an orangery, a grotto, a temple of love and a three-hundred-year-old chestnut tree grown in the shape of a heart — the tree our team fell in love with immediately and from which the name tender heart was born.
in August Normandy is quietly at its fullest with long evenings, warm air and golden and soft light. by this time the harvest is slowly ripening and just as slowly, after the bright and restless summer, our hearts too begin to ripen and bear fruit.
spacious rooms with french vintage details, filled with light and the morning song of birds. a place where you can exhale and rest with your whole body. a large kitchen with refreshing drinks and local seasonal food, a generous living room to gather together during practices or sometimes to be alone with yourself and a book.
outside a private historical park of twelve hectares unfolds around the house. meadows, forest, a linden avenue, an orangery, a grotto, a temple of love and a three-hundred-year-old chestnut tree grown in the shape of a heart — the tree our team fell in love with immediately and from which the name tender heart was born.
in August Normandy is quietly at its fullest with long evenings, warm air and golden and soft light. by this time the harvest is slowly ripening and just as slowly, after the bright and restless summer, our hearts too begin to ripen and bear fruit.
TENDER HEART AUGUST 16 — 20 TENDER HEART AUGUST 16 — 20 TENDER HEART AUGUST 16 — 20 TENDER HEART AUGUST 16 — 20
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.
over five days we practice slowing down and letting go: releasing noise, anxiety, shame, fear and tiredness. we talk about the social and gender roles women carry, about our right to question them and to choose differently. and finally about 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 Paolo Sorrentino’s "Parthenope", 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.
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 Paolo Sorrentino’s "Parthenope", 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.
the retreat begins with a welcome dinner. throughout all five 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 tea ceremony, a tasting of several varieties of chinese and japanese teas.
on the day of departure, breakfast is included.
vegetarian and vegan options are available, please let us know when booking.
each day includes three meals, with a particular focus on breakfast and dinner. we will also share a tea ceremony, a tasting of several varieties of chinese and japanese teas.
on the day of departure, breakfast is included.
vegetarian and vegan options are available, please let us know when booking.
this year I made myself a promise to let my heart fill and overflow like a pitcher, without dividing love between spheres of life and people.
another inspiration came from a poem by the belarusian poet Symeon Polotsky “from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” written in the shape of a heart in 1661.
with a heart full of love, my team and I created this intimate retreat for 10 women, to hold and celebrate our tender hearts.
another inspiration came from a poem by the belarusian poet Symeon Polotsky “from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” written in the shape of a heart in 1661.
with a heart full of love, my team and I created this intimate retreat for 10 women, to hold and celebrate our tender hearts.
what will grow if you plant your heart in the earth?
both options are set within the 19th-century mansion, surrounded by the private park
shared double room with 2 individual beds and shared shower
€1500
private room with ensuite shower
€1800
investment:
to reserve your place:
a deposit of €500
a deposit of €500
included:
not included: travel to and from Verneuil-sur-Avre station
- transfer from Verneuil-sur-Avre station to the house and back
- four nights accommodation
- all group bodywork and psychological practices
- tea ceremony
- 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 Verneuil-sur-Avre station
RESERVE YOUR PLACE
500€ deposit secures your place
I’m a trauma-informed massage therapist and photographer. 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 work with fashion brands, shoot backstage at Paris Fashion week and direct campaigns as an art director with a woman always at the centre of every story.
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.
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 work with fashion brands, shoot backstage at Paris Fashion week and direct campaigns as an art director with a woman always at the centre of every story.
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.
ABOUT MARIA CHEKHOVSKAYA, Founder and lead practitioner of tender heart
