Burnout Retreat in Wiltshire — Realign at Botswicky Copse

Burnout is an increasingly common challenge for professionals. This two-night burnout retreat in rural Wiltshire offers space to step back, reset and regain clarity in a quiet, nature-led setting. Easily reached from London, Oxford, Bristol, the Cotswolds and Swindon, Realign is designed for those experiencing stress, exhaustion or decision overload — and who need more than a weekend away.

June 26th-28th & July 13th - 15th - Botswicky Copse, Bishopstone, Nr Swindon, Wiltshire

A space to pause and reset

Some of the most capable people are also the most stretched. If you’ve been running hard for a long time — carrying responsibility, navigating change, or simply feeling like something needs to shift — this is for you.

Realign is a two-night restoration experience set within a quiet corner of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape. Not a wellness programme. Not a corporate away-day. Something quieter and more considered: time and space to let your mind settle, with the right people and the right place around you.

Why this exists

“I spent 25 years in the technology industry and for much of that time I believed genuinely in what I was doing. Then, during lockdown, I lost my beloved Dad. I couldn’t be with him when he died. I couldn’t hold my husband’s hand at the funeral or hug my Dad’s sister as she sobbed quietly. Weeks later, my young daughter was seriously injured and ill in hospital and again, I faced this trauma largely alone.

I went back to work too soon. It caught up with me eventually, as these things do…

Last September I spent two days alone at Botswicky, building fires, chopping wood, doing simple physical tasks. It set me on a course I hadn’t expected. What I discovered was that my burnout hadn’t arrived all at once. It had crept up on me slowly — the way trauma does — winding itself around the grief and the isolation of lockdown, the years of carrying on because I loved my work and because people depended on me. Over time, what had once felt purposeful began to feel like something I was simply going through the motions of. When the workplace finally became somewhere I no longer recognised, I had nothing left in the tank. Not because I was weak — but because I had been running on empty for far longer than I had admitted to myself.

The work hadn’t changed - I had.”

— Emma Velle, co-founder, Nordic Glamping at Botswicky Copse

Realign is built from that lived experience.

What happens during your stay

• Arrive in the late afternoon — no check-in desk, no programme, just space

• Settle in, gather wood, light the fire together

• A gentle opening conversation around the fire — a simple invitation to arrive and perhaps let something go

• Quiet supper and an early night in your handcrafted yurt

• Optional dawn walk through the meadow and woodland

• Morning group coaching session with Kay — to help you hear yourself more clearly

• Afternoon your way — a deeper conversation with Kay, or working more practically with your hands alongside Vidar

• Cook supper together in the evening

• A slow, nature-inspired making session with Emma

• A quiet closing circle — what are you taking home?

• Unhurried departure whenever you're ready

Also available

• Cold plunge pool

• Sauna for group bookings

• Long unstructured evenings around the fire

You won't be asked to perform, produce or have anything worked out. For many people that takes some getting used to — and then becomes the whole point.

What you're likely to leave with

Most people arrive not quite knowing what they need, and that’s fine. What they tend to leave with is harder to put on a list — but it usually includes a clearer sense of what matters, a quieter mind and a steadier feeling about what comes next.

The people who hold this space

Emma Velle creates the conditions for each stay — attending to the small details that make Botswicky feel easy to settle into. After 25 years in high-pressure technology environments and her own experience of burnout and recovery, she understands what it means to need a genuine pause. She leads the nature-based making sessions — a way to slow down and reconnect through creating something real with your hands.

Kay Henderson is a certified ICF and Co-Active coach with over 30 years of experience in leadership and organisational transformation. She works with mid-career and mid-life professionals who feel stretched, restless or at a crossroads — people who have often achieved a great deal and are asking what comes next.

Vidar Velle built Botswicky Copse from the ground up, designing and crafting each yurt by hand. Before this, he spent many years in Norway as a nature-based youth therapist, supporting people through challenge and change in outdoor settings.

Together they bring professional coaching depth, lived experience and a place built quietly and carefully to hold exactly this kind of work.

Is Realign right for you?

It might be, if any of this sounds familiar:

•  You’re close to burnout, or heading that way

•  You’re carrying responsibility that leaves little room to think

•  You’re at a crossroads and need space to work out what you actually want

•  You simply know something needs to change and haven’t had the quiet space to figure out what

Realign works as a weekend retreat or a midweek escape — for those who find it easier to step away Monday to Wednesday than to give up a weekend.

Dates & pricing

26–28 June 2026 — weekend

13–15 July 2026 — midweek

£595 per person - all inclusive

Places are limited - This is an introductory offer for our first retreats at Botswicky.

Price includes two nights in a handcrafted yurt, all meals from Friday evening supper through to Sunday lunch, the full Realign programme with Kay and Vidar, guided woodland walks and Emma’s nature-based making session.

Optional 1:1 coaching with Kay is available at an additional cost.

Get in touch

If this feels like what you need, we’d love to hear from you. No hard sell, no pressure — just a conversation to see whether Realign is the right fit.