Reset & Rise: RightBrains Women's Leadership Retreat

Leave 2026 lighter. Enter 2027 clearer. 

There comes a moment in every woman's life when the question is no longer: “Can I do this?” The question then becomes: “Is this the life and leadership I truly want?” 

For more than a decade, RightBrains has worked to close the gender gap in digital and technology careers, through the Digital Talent Programme, the Digital Leadership Programme, coaching, mentoring, and a professional community of women building serious careers in tech. 

The women who step away from technology are almost never the women who lack capability. They are frequently the most capable in the room. What they lose isn't skill. It's clarity, the thread connecting the work they're doing today to the life and leadership they actually want. Talent was never the constraint. Space to think was. 

The RightBrains Reset & Rise Retreat is an invitation to pause long enough to hear yourself again. 

26–28 November 2026 | New Eden, Friesland

You have spent the year moving, contributing, deciding, delivering and showing up. And somewhere beneath everything the year has asked of you, a quieter part of you may be ready to exhale. 

To take honest stock of the year you've lived. 

To celebrate how far you've come. 

To release what you don't want to carry forward. 

And to intentionally decide what you want the next chapter to hold. 

For two days, you'll step away from the pace of everyday life and into a circle of women who, like you, are ready to close one year consciously and enter the next with greater clarity and intention. You'll leave with four things that can elevate the way you enter 2027: 

Clarity. Confidence. Courage. Community. 

And beneath them all, something equally important: 

Relief. 

The feeling of finally having had the space to stop, breathe and hear yourself think.

Which woman are you right now?

Every woman's next chapter begins from a different place. As you look towards 2027, you may recognise yourself in one of these three seasons, or somewhere between them?  

The Rising Woman. You're progressing, and you know you're capable of more. What you want is the confidence, the visibility, and the clarity to name your next move and step into it fully. 

The Crossroads Woman. You've built meaningful experience, but you're beginning to question whether the direction you're travelling still fits the woman you're becoming. You're ready to make your next move consciously, rather than simply following the path that's already in front of you. 

The Reinventing Woman. You can feel a chapter ending. You're contemplating something meaningfully different, a new role, a new sector, a business, a new way of leading, a new way of living. 

Different seasons. One shared desire: 

To move forward more aligned with who you are, more intentional about what you choose, and clearer about the life and leadership you want to create. 

You are invited

The Reset & Rise Retreat is an invitation to step away from the pace of everyday life and give yourself something that is increasingly rare: uninterrupted space to reflect, reconnect and choose what comes next. Set in the quiet of the Friesland countryside as 2026 draws to a close, these two and a half days are an opportunity to honour how far you've come, integrate what the year has taught you, release what you don't want to carry forward, and create a clear, intentional vision for 2027. You'll return to your life feeling lighter, clearer and more confident about where you want to go next.

The Reset & Rise arc

The retreat moves you through a deliberate arc, from release, to reflection, to forward motion. This is where rest meets leadership development, and reflection becomes direction. 

Day 1 - Arrive & release (Thursday afternoon → evening). You arrive, exhale, and let the outside world fall away. The first evening is about landing fully: a warm welcome, an intimate opening circle, and the beginning of real connection over a beautiful shared table. No performance. No small talk. Just the quiet relief of being somewhere designed entirely for you. 

Day 2 - Reflect & reset (Friday, full day) The heart of the retreat. Guided leadership sessions on self-leadership, career ownership, and visibility, woven together with a holistic women's wellbeing reset, journaling, deep reflection, honest conversation, sauna and restoration, and a dedicated nervous-system session. This is the day you take stock of 2026, celebrate it, and set down what no longer serves the year ahead.  

Day 3 - Rise & design (Saturday → close) Reflection becomes decision. You'll turn insight into an intentional plan for 2027, clear priorities, courageous choices, and a personal 12-month roadmap you can genuinely stand behind. The retreat closes with a ceremony that marks the threshold you've crossed, and sends you back into your life rooted, clear, and moving. 

What will I carry into 2027

Two days. Four shifts that shape what comes next. 

Clarity 

“I know what matters now and what I want next.” 

You'll step back far enough to see the bigger picture, what 2026 has taught you, what you want more of, what needs to change and where you want to focus next. 

Your clarity becomes practical through a personal 12-month roadmap for 2027, translating reflection into priorities and action. 

Confidence 

“I trust myself to make the next move.” 

You'll reconnect with your strengths, your voice and your ability to make decisions from self-trust rather than comparison, expectation or pressure. 

Not confidence because every answer is certain. 

Confidence because you trust yourself to navigate what comes next. 

Courage 

“I'm ready to act on what I know.” 

Clarity means little without action. 

You'll identify the conversations, choices and steps your next chapter requires—and leave with the courage to begin taking them. 

Community

“I don't have to figure everything out alone.” 

You'll share the experience with a small circle of women navigating their own seasons of growth, change and possibility. 

Not forced networking. 

Real conversation, shared experience and relationships designed to continue beyond the retreat. 

And underneath it all: relief

The relief of stepping out of your usual roles for a moment. 

Of not needing to perform, produce, manage or know every answer. 

Of finally having enough space to breathe, and enough quiet to hear yourself again.

The setting:

NEW EDEN, Friesland, The Netherlands 

Ninety minutes from Amsterdam, and a world away from the pace of everyday life. 

At the end of November, when the year itself begins to quieten, New Eden gives us exactly what this retreat requires: privacy, space, warmth and room to breathe. 

Between sessions, you'll be able to walk through the surrounding forest and landscape, find a quiet corner to journal, gather around nourishing meals, or allow your body to unwind in the wood-fired sauna. 

The accommodation has been created for immersive residential retreats, with comfortable private rooms and en-suite options, while the surrounding nature provides the separation from everyday life that makes deeper reflection possible. 

For these two days, you don't need to commute anywhere, organise anything or rush onto the next thing. 

You arrive. You settle in. And everything you need is here. 

Why does this retreat exist? 

When a woman rises and stays, visible, senior, and leading on her own terms, she does not only change her own trajectory. She becomes the sponsor, the proof and the open door for every woman coming behind her. Your clarity is never only yours. 

This retreat is the next evolution of the RightBrains mission: creating space not only to advance professionally, but to step back and consider the woman, and the leader, you are becoming.

This retreat is for you if: 

• You're a mid-career woman, a rising professional, specialist, manager, leader, founder or entrepreneur, with meaningful experience behind you and possibility ahead. Many of the women in the room will be building careers in digital and technology; all of them will be sitting with the same question. 
• You sense something is shifting, whether that's your career, your priorities, your ambitions or your definition of success. 
• You want greater clarity about what comes next. 
• You want to grow without sacrificing your wellbeing in the process. 
• And you're ready to give yourself the time and space to consciously shape the year ahead. 

What’s included? 

• Two days of expert-led facilitation across the full Reset & Rise programme. 
• Two nights' accommodation at New Eden [room tier of your choice, see below].
• All meals: welcome dinner, full-day nourishing dining, and refreshments, with dietary care.
• A holistic women's wellbeing reset, including sauna and restoration time. 
• A dedicated wellbeing and nervous-system session.
• A beautifully produced RESET & RISE reflection journal and workbook. 
• Your personal 12-month roadmap for 2027. 
• Membership of the ongoing RESET & RISE community. 
• First right to secure your place at the 2027 retreat before you leave.

The investment

Choose the experience that fits you. Early-Bird pricing is available until 15 September 2026.  

Payment plans available. Corporate sponsorship and employer development budgets welcomed, request an invoice suitable for L&D approval.

FAQs

Can I really justify two days away?

The women who most need to step back are the ones who never do. This is a deliberate investment, and you'll return more focused, not further behind.

Is this a wellness retreat or a leadership programme?

Both, by design. You'll rest and reconnect, and leave with a concrete 12-month plan.

I don't know anyone attending. Will I feel out of place?

Most women come on their own. The group is small and warmly facilitated, so real connection happens fast.

Can my employer pay?

Depending on your organisation, the RightBrains Reset & Rise Retreat may qualify for a learning and development, leadership or professional development budget.

Read the full FAQs.

This is the time:

Before 2027 asks anything of you, decide what you want from it. 

Give yourself two and a half days to step away from the pace, honour the year you've lived and become intentional about the year ahead. 

Leave behind what no longer deserves your energy. Reconnect with what matters. Return with the clarity, confidence and courage to move forward on your terms. 

Leave 2026 lighter. Enter 2027 clearer. 

Meet your facilitator: Eslyn Olivia Barends.

Eslyn Olivia Barends is a leadership advisor, strategist and facilitator who supports leaders navigating pivotal moments of growth, change and reinvention. 

Her career spans leadership, technology, business development, social impact and women's empowerment. She holds an MBA from Henley Business School and has held roles at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, where she worked within some of the world's most dynamic technology environments. 

Before returning to the corporate world, Eslyn co-founded and led DreamGirls Academy, a social-impact organisation dedicated to supporting young women in accessing education, opportunity and meaningful careers. 

Today, through Luminary Leadership and her collaboration with RightBrains, she brings more than a decade of experience across leadership development, coaching and women's empowerment to helping people consciously architect their next chapter, from the inside out. 

Her work integrates identity, self-leadership, emotional and nervous-system awareness, career ownership, strategic reflection and practical action.