This is an open call for our upcoming EMPOWERmental Retreat Training | Body-Mind Balance through Arts. Find details on the event below and don’t forget to apply until November 15. We can’t wait to welcome you!

When & Where?

20 – 27 of January, 2025 + travel days

Paloznaki Meseközpont, Paloznak, Hungary

About the training

EMPOWERmental Retreat Training is an 8-day retreat training designed to guide youth professionals to mental balance, and creative expression through arts. This retreat is an invitation to pause, reflect, and connect with yourself and others while learning practical, art-based embodied methods to support both you and the young people you work with. 

EMPOWERmental is rooted in the belief that youth workers, just like the young people they support, deserve tools to cultivate their own mental well-being. By caring for ourselves, we’re better able to care for others. 

During the retreat training, we’ll explore mental and physical well-being through movement, creative expression, and theory. In addition to practical tools like dance, theatre, yoga, breathwork, TRE® (Tension& Trauma Releasing Exercises), and sustainable design principles, we’ll share our personal journeys with mental health and discuss how our bodies manage stress. This nurturing space will help you explore how embodied practices can support both yourself and those you work with.

Together, we’ll create a collective toolkit—one that’s simple, accessible, and filled with practices you can share with your communities back home.

For Whom?

We invite you to apply if you support young people in your professional work as a facilitator, social worker, mental health professional, educator, coach, health professional, and freelancer related to youth and social empowerment. This retreat is also for students engaged in studies in the above-mentioned areas. 

We welcome you to join if you’re seeking practices that can help nurture a sense of inner balance, resilience, and well-being in your professional and personal life.

The minimum age limit is 18, but no maximum limit exists for this call. 

We are looking for participants from Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, and Spain.

The language of the training is English. 

Please only apply if you’re available for the entire time of the training. 

Also, to complete the training you will have to carry out a small event or workshop in your local community – but don’t worry if you haven’t done anything like that before, we will be there to prepare and guide you through the process.

What You Can Expect?

The training is designed to offer both personal and professional growth. In the first half of the retreat, participants will immerse themselves in a variety of well-being practices, experiencing firsthand the tools that can enhance their own mental and physical balance. This time also provides a space for participants to share their own working methods and approaches. As we progress, the focus shifts towards applying these tools in a professional context. Participants will explore how to guide these exercises, adapt them to their unique settings, and integrate them into their youth work.

By the end of the retreat, participants will have created their own personalised workshops or small events, which they will implement in their home countries. 

Together, we will also co-create a toolkit that compiles all the methods and exercises introduced throughout the training, ensuring these valuable approaches can be shared and applied in diverse contexts for lasting impact.

We start the day with a Gentle Awakening session that can be a walk in nature, a yoga class or breathing practices. After breakfast, we have a Thoughts & Visions workshop, where one of our trainers presents an inspiring vision coming from a specific practice, professional field or personal experience connected to physical and mental well-being, which is completed by common reflection within the group. In the afternoon we have another workshop that provides very practical tools and practices that can be further used and developed to create your own well-being toolkit by the end of the programme. The daily routine will be completed by personal Care Time. Local programs will also be incorporated into the week’s schedule to get to know the beautiful surroundings of Paloznak and Lake Balaton.

The schedule remains flexible and open for discussion according to the needs of the participants. 

Vegetarian and vegan breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided on-site.

Timeline

Application period: 15 October to 15 November 2024

Participants notified by: the end of November 2024

Retreat dates: 20 – 27 January 2025 + travel days

Local workshops: March-April 2025

Conditions

For selected participants, the Erasmus+ programme supports:

• Travel costs from and to your home country according to Erasmus+ guidelines. We’re supporting green travel options, offering both logistical and financial assistance.
• Accommodation for the duration of the training. By selecting this venue, we’re contributing to the education of children in state care in Hungary.
• Three vegetarian (vegan) meals during the training days are provided by a small local enterprise that uses healthy, locally sourced ingredients.

How to apply

By filling in the application form by the 15th of November

Application form: https://forms.gle/pX5Tp2tSSojifbod7 

Partnership

EMPOWERmental Project, Hungary 

Priestor Súčasného Tanca, Slovakia 

Studio SHIFT, Italy

Asociación Dinámica, Spain

Trainers

We are an international team of youth and arts professionals who believe in the power of connection, creativity, and care. Our work is inspired by a deep commitment to mental and physical well-being and a desire to support those who support others. 

Flóra Eszter Sarlós (HU), with over a decade of experience in contemporary dance and body awareness, is a certified TRE® provider, offering workshops that integrate yoga, dance, and breathing exercises to promote stress relief and balance.

Fanny Hajdú (HU) is a facilitator and creator with eight years of experience who creates trust-based safe spaces for creation and development, using playful, sensory, and instinct-centred exercises, blending mindfulness, creative expression, and improvisation to support individual and group growth.

Tímea Szőke (HU) is a PhD researcher, yoga teacher, and urban practitioner focused on regenerative communities. With over 10 years of experience, she creates spaces for connection and reflection—whether public spaces, workshops, learning journeys, or participative experiences—blending movement, arts, and grassroots initiatives.

Elena Giunta (IT) art-therapist, PhD in Design and Multimedia communication. Professor at Design School – Politecnico di Milano and at Ecosocial design Master, in Bolzano. Co-founder at SHIFT, she deals with social innovation and community-centered design. Expert in creative techniques (e.g. LSM method), co-design practises, and visual recording.

Kat Rampackova (SK) is a choreographer, dance activist, and co-founder of PST – Space of Contemporary Dance in Kosice, Slovakia. Currently based in Barcelona, she enhances her somatic knowledge through Body Mind Centering. Since 2009, Kat has been focusing on inclusion and children. She creates a variety of dance and site-specific performances in both theatrical and non-theatrical settings. 

Vicky Del Río (ES) is an enthusiastic being currently completing a master’s degree in art therapy. She is deeply interested in the study of neurodivergence. Her work centres on empowering adults with special needs through art therapy, advocating for their right to self-determination. With four years of experience in the Erasmus+ program, Vicky has focused on integrating visual arts, mindfulness, body expression, meditation, music, conscious breathing, and community-based practices. She aims to bring a fresh perspective on well-being, seen through the lens of a neurodiverse person.

Contact

We’re excited to share this training with you, and we look forward to creating something beautiful together. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us.

E-mail: empowermentalproject@gmail.com

Phone: +36702540744 (Tímea Szőke)

Supported by

The project is supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.