For years I’ve been writing and reflecting on intergenerational living, what it means to create spaces where adults can rest without leaving their families behind. Growing up in Salzburg, I lived in an environment where grandparents, cousins, and neighbors across ages were woven into daily life.

Later, as a single mom, I longed for that same sense of support and belonging. One memory remains vivid. Ten years ago, in the aftermath of the Valley Fire, a time when our family had endured so much loss, I returned to Austria with my children. We hiked up to a mountain hut and rented it for ourselves. In those days my kids learned how to milk a cow, how to make cheese, and how to immerse themselves in the rhythms of nature.

Something shifted for all of us on that trip. It wasn’t just a vacation. It was restoration. We had been through the fire, through devastation, through the ache of starting over. And yet in that hut, with the mountains around us and the simple work of daily living, we found soul rest together. Even now, a decade later, my children still talk about that experience, and they allow me to share those photos because they know how formative it was.

That memory planted the seeds of what I now call Soul Rest.

How Consider Yourself Credentialed® and Soul Rest Belong Together

My practice, Consider Yourself Credentialed®, is built on the truth that we already hold within us the wisdom, resilience, and renewal we seek. We don’t need to be given credentials from outside, we already carry them.

Soul Rest is the lived expression of that belief. These retreats are not about adding something to you, but about creating the prepared environment, Montessori-inspired, nature-based, and stage-of-life aware, where what is already within you can rise again.

The Soul Rest Retreats

-Panama Soul Rest Intensive (March 15 - 20, 2026)
A Montessori-inspired retreat for adults on a private island in Panama. This all-inclusive intensive is designed for deep restoration and intention, while honoring your rhythm. You can immerse yourself in sound baths, guided imagery, snorkeling, and island adventures - or choose stillness, journaling, and quiet by the sea.

-Austria Solstice Soul Rest Retreat (June 19 - 26, 2026)
An intergenerational retreat welcoming families, couples, singles, and friends. Not a children’s camp, but a micro-community where different life stages coexist. With supportive childcare at select times, adults can rest while children are included in the rhythm. This retreat is directly inspired by that hut experience, where restoration happened side by side.

-Austria Soul Rest Intensive (Fall 2026 - September/October)
A boutique, women-only retreat for 5–8 participants. Intimate and deeply restorative, this circle is for those who give much and are ready to receive. Click HERE to join the waitlist.

Pathways to Renewal: Which Speaks to You?

I believe soul rest is not one-size-fits-all. Some people long for immersion and intensity. Some need the richness of community across generations. Others seek the intimacy of women’s circles. Each pathway is necessary.
I’d love to hear your reflections: Do you see a need for retreats that honor different walks of life, sometimes welcoming families, sometimes holding space just for adults? Which speaks most to you?

Beyond Retreats

Not everyone is in a season of life where attending a retreat is possible. These are ways to create pockets of renewal right where you are, because rest is essential at every stage of life.

Free discovery sessions to explore coaching through Consider Yourself Credentialed®.

Free resources, including my Home Retreat Guide. Contact me for the free download!

*My daughter sifting through the ashes in what used to be her bedroom..*

A Poetic Reflection

In the aftermath of the Valley Fire, I wrote this poem. It continues to remind me that from loss can come renewal, and from ashes, the invitation to rest more deeply.

Valley Fire: Gratitude for the Life We Almost Lost
Ten years later, a reminder to live with intention

Nobody knew that morning
how quickly a sky can turn against you,
how wind becomes omen,
how ash can fall like a prophecy.

We stood beneath a mountain that burned
not in patches, but in a wall of flame -
a freight train of heat and roar,
devouring horizon after horizon.
The world split open in firelight,
and fear took the shape of my children’s cries.

We drove straight into the unthinkable.
Highways became furnaces,
escape became a question mark.
Shelter in place? they said -
but there is no place safe
when the air itself is burning.

So we threaded through chaos -
gas tanks bursting like war,
neighbors stranded at gates,
time slowed to a terrible stillness.
One daughter whispered we would die.
Inside, I prayed a wordless prayer.

And yet -
somehow, we made it through.
Scarred, singed, shaken -
but alive.

Ten years later,
the freight train still echoes.
Not only in memory,
but in the marrow of my choices.

Life is too fragile for postponement,
too sacred to be half-lived.
The fire taught me this:
gratitude is not passive.
It is urgency -
to love fiercely,
to pause for beauty,
to hold those we cherish
as if every breath could be the last.

I live now with intention,
because on that day,
we were given back our lives -
and the gift of fire’s shadow
is knowing how quickly
it can all be taken.

With roots and realness,
Karin

Soul Rest: Pathways to Renewal - Why Intergenerational Soul Rest Matters

The Season of Letting Go