This archive conversation explores the thinking behind a Liberated Living residency experiment at New Eden. It records an earlier model of shared living and practice, rather than a current residency offer.
Why a Residency, and Why Not Just Another Retreat
Christian described the seed of this idea as something that has been present since he and his former partner first arrived at New Eden years ago. The property, a renovated farm surrounded by forest, became the base for years of retreats. But retreats, he explained, have a particular shape: you leave your life behind, receive a concentrated dose of insight or healing, and go home to integrate it alone.
A residency works differently. You bring your life with you rather than leaving it at the door. Work, projects, relationships and daily rhythms continue, but now they happen inside a container of people practising the same relational and somatic skills alongside you. The intention isn't a peak experience followed by a return to isolation. It is ordinary life lived, for a period, in company.
Christian was direct about a personal motivation behind this: after years of facilitating for others, he found himself asking where leaders themselves get held. Many people who hold space professionally rarely have a place to be met peer to peer, without being the one responsible for everyone else's process. The residency, for him, is partly an attempt to answer that gap, not just for himself but for anyone doing similar work.
Three Reasons Behind the Model
He named three pillars that shape the residency. The first is about leaving isolation and being met in tribe, restoring a kind of interconnectedness he feels has been eroded in modern culture over a long period of time. The second is about having an everyday playground to actually use the relational tools many people learn in workshops but rarely get to practise in daily life, because home, work and family environments aren't usually set up to meet you there. The third is about co-creation: working alongside other facilitators and visionaries rather than building projects in isolation, which he described as both a stretch and a source of real inspiration for him.
The rhythm the team imagined
The team described shared meals, optional morning practices and communal check-ins alongside time for personal or professional work. Some evenings would be structured; others would leave room for rest or what people wanted to offer.
They also described different kinds of circle: time to address friction, time for individual exploration and less structured gatherings centred on shared presence. The underlying question was how to support both ordinary living and more intentional practice without making participation compulsory.
The Larger Vision
Beyond any single gathering, Christian spoke of a longer-term ambition for New Eden to become a year-round living project, where people might eventually stay for periods ranging from two weeks to several months, always with the intention of returning home afterwards rather than relocating permanently. He also described an evolving idea of themed periods, where a residency might carry an additional layer such as facilitator training, relational skill-building for couples, or health and embodiment work, layered onto the core communal structure rather than replacing it.
The enduring distinction is between a concentrated retreat and a period of bringing ordinary life into shared practice. Neither format guarantees ease or change. The conversation asks what kind of setting might help people carry the work beyond a single event.
Retreat versus Residency
Retreat
You leave your life behind for a concentrated period, receive intensive input, and go home to integrate it alone.
Residency
You bring your life with you and practise relational and somatic skills inside an ongoing community, without the intensity of a retreat edge.
