Summer Mindfulness Retreat
With Stephen Archer
Bookings are made through Te Moata Retreat Centre
Begin 2027 with space to breathe, rest and realign.
This 7-day silent retreat offers a rare opportunity to step away from noise, deadlines and everyday pressures, and settle into the quiet that’s already within you. If you’re feeling the pull toward stillness or renewal, this week with Stephen Archer provides a supportive and spacious environment to reconnect with yourself in the peaceful sanctuary of Te Moata.
This meditation retreat introduces the core principles and practices of mindfulness in the beautiful and peaceful setting of a Coromandel nature sanctuary.
On this retreat we will create an environment of safety, silence and tranquillity in order to help everyone relax and realign with themselves in a natural way. Through a series of guided group sessions, we will explore how to engage with focused attention, self-compassion and spacious awareness practices, and learn how they can assist us to self-regulate, gain insight and reclaim our authentic self.
The retreat will consist of a supportive and simple structure of group sessions and regular instruction periods and includes delicious vegetarian meals. It is suitable for beginners as well as those more experienced in meditation. Please see our FAQ page for our cancellation policy. Stephen’s fee is not set and consists entirely of your Dana offering. Dana (meaning generosity) invites each individual to develop their own capacity to be generous according to their means. There is now Eftpos at Te Moata so Dana payments can be made the end of the retreat or made online.
NZ Olympic Team, Tokyo
“Stephen is an exceptional mindfulness teacher. He tailored the workshop really accurately to the unique needs of our team, helping a group diverse in age and experience—Olympic athletes, sports coaches, health team, sport managers—to connect to mindfulness in a practical, enlightening and fun way. Stephen has a way of keeping the practices and approaches fresh, new, and fascinating. He channels a significant body of experience and knowledge into relatable, usable and often hilarious observations and descriptions, with authenticity and authority. Personally, I’ve practiced mindfulness for a decade or so to help me get more out of life and work. Whenever I spend time with Stephen I find my motivation to practice is renewed and revitalised, and my understanding of why and how to do this whole mindfulness thing becomes clearer and simpler. Nga mihi nui Stephen from me and the NZ Team.”
The Kindness Institute
“As a non-profit working in the mindfulness education and mental wellbeing space, it’s important for us to ‘walk-the-talk’ and develop our own practice and deep understanding of mindfulness. Aware of Stephen’s amazing experience and accessible teachings, our core team of five recently attended his 7-day mindfulness intensive and experienced incredible individual learnings as well as an immense team connection. Collectively we found Stephen’s teachings insightful, inclusive and ultimately transformative. Individually our team have shared this was extremely beneficial for their own connection to self and came away with tangible tools to practice themselves and pass on to the marginalised communities we support”.
About Stephen Archer
Stephen Archer is a mindfulness educator, presenter, principal of Mindfulness Training and lead trainer and supervisor for Mindfulness Works for Organisations, the largest network of Mindfulness Facilitators in Australia and New Zealand. He is passionate about helping people to learn mindfulness and discover its benefit. Stephen is an engaging speaker and trainer providing practical and original perspectives on practicing mindfulness in the digital age.
He has been involved with mindfulness for over 35 years and began practicing while he was finishing a degree in Eastern studies in the UK. At the age of 23 Stephen was formally trained in mindfulness as an ordained Buddhist monk in the Thai forest tradition. His training included working closely with different teachers and completing a number of long solitary retreats to strengthen his practice. Thirteen years later he emerged from the monk-hood with the intention to offer his skills and learnings to the general public.
During the last 20 years Stephen has run workplace mindfulness trainings for organisations including Westpac, Kiwibank and Air New Zealand, delivered courses in healthcare and prisons, and assisted the Mental Health Foundation of NZ to develop their approach to mindfulness. He has worked at the Leadership Development Centre in Wellington running year-long mindful leadership programmes, and is also a trustee of Te Moata where he has led over forty public 7 day residential mindfulness intensives since 1996.
Summer Mindfulness Retreat
5 January - 12 January, 2027 · Tuesday - Tuesday · 7 nights
Bookings are made through Te Moata Retreat Centre
This retreat has finished. See upcoming Public Courses