I’m floating in a flower-filled bath scattered with frangipani petals while someone quietly places a cup of ginger tea beside me. Earlier that morning, I’d cried through a subconscious healing session that unearthed emotional wounds I hadn’t thought about in years. Tomorrow, a Balinese healer will press firmly into my stomach and somehow identify health issues that took countless specialists, scans and blood tests to uncover.
This is not your standard wellness retreat, there are no green juices being aggressively pushed into your hands. Nobody is telling you to become your “highest self” before breakfast. And while there are plenty of facials, massages and deeply luxurious spa treatments woven throughout the experience, Goddess Retreats in Ubud offers something much deeper than pampering.
It is healing disguised as beauty, hidden among the dense jungle surrounds of Bali’s spiritual heartland, Goddess Retreats has built a cult-like following among women searching for something many luxury holidays fail to provide: genuine transformation.
You arrive exhausted and slightly disconnected from yourself. You leave softer, lighter and somehow clearer. At first glance, it looks like the sort of dreamy Bali escape filling your Instagram feed. There are tropical villas surrounded by jungle greenery, women floating in floral baths, endless massages, infinity pools and slow breakfasts overlooking rice paddies.
The setting itself feels cinematic, Ubud’s humid air wraps around you like a warm blanket while incense drifts through open-air pavilions and the sound of distant gamelan music echoes softly through the trees.
But underneath the polished luxury lies something unexpectedly profound. The days unfold gently here. One moment you’re having a body scrub using fragrant Balinese herbs and oils, the next you’re sitting cross-legged in front of a healer discussing emotional trauma you’ve carried silently for decades.
And somehow it all feels completely normal, one afternoon I meet Hendra, a respected Balinese healer specialising in cupping, acupuncture and integrated bodywork. I’m led into a quiet treatment room surrounded by greenery where soft chanting hums faintly in the background. What follows is one of the most physically intense healing experiences I’ve ever had.
At times it’s deeply uncomfortable. My body feels tender, sore and strangely emotional as Hendra works through areas carrying obvious tension and stored stress. Yet beneath the discomfort is an undeniable feeling that something is being shifted physically and energetically.
Afterwards I walk out slightly dazed, as though my nervous system has finally exhaled after years of operating in survival mode.
Healing at Goddess Retreats isn’t always gentle, sometimes it feels confronting, other times it leaves you emotional, but almost every woman I speak to says the same thing: “I needed this more than I realised.”
Then there’s Andrea, her Theta Healing sessions focus on subconscious belief reprogramming, and while I arrive slightly sceptical, I leave profoundly shaken in the best possible way. Within minutes, conversations I thought I’d buried years ago begin resurfacing unexpectedly. Old emotional patterns suddenly make sense. Certain fears and behaviours I’ve carried quietly throughout adulthood are gently unravelled in front of me.
It’s emotional, raw and strangely liberating and there’s a moment afterwards where I sit alone beside the pool staring into the jungle thinking about how rarely women are given permission to stop functioning long enough to actually process their lives.
Most of us are simply surviving them, that’s perhaps what makes Goddess Retreats feel so different from traditional wellness escapes. This isn’t wellness as aesthetics, it’s wellness as excavation.
And then there are the more spiritual experiences woven throughout the retreat, one evening I meet Erlangga, known affectionately as Angga, for a tarot reading unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Forget gimmicky fortune telling or vague predictions designed to impress tourists. Angga approaches tarot with remarkable seriousness and depth.
Using the traditional Marseille system, he explains that the cards act as symbolic mirrors reflecting the architecture of your inner life rather than predicting some fixed future. As he lays each card carefully onto the table, he speaks about fragmented energy, emotional patterns and spiritual alignment with such calm certainty that it becomes impossible not to listen intently.
At one point he describes dynamics within my personal life so accurately it leaves me momentarily speechless. There’s nothing performative about the session. It feels grounded, psychologically insightful and deeply intuitive all at once. Less entertainment, more sacred conversation.
But perhaps the most moving experience of the entire retreat comes during the Ruwatan Amerta cleansing ceremony with couple Gali and Imra, inspired by ancient Javanese and Balinese philosophy centred around purity of thought, speech and action.
Held within a tranquil ceremonial setting surrounded by flickering candles, flowers and sacred water, the ritual blends meditation, chanting, energy work and traditional melukat purification practices designed to cleanse emotional heaviness and energetic blockages.
The word “Amerta” comes from Sanskrit and translates to “elixir of life” or “immortality”, symbolising renewal and life force energy. And strangely, that’s exactly what the experience feels like.
As blessed water mixed with flowers is gently poured over me during the ceremony, I feel an overwhelming sense of stillness settle into my body. It’s not dramatic or theatrical. It’s quiet, ancient and deeply calming.
For the first time in a very long time, my mind feels completely silent. Around me, other women cry softly or sit with their eyes closed in meditation. Many arrived burnt out, emotionally exhausted or disconnected from themselves after years of caregiving, corporate stress, motherhood or simply carrying too much for too long.
By the end of the retreat, they look visibly different. Softer, brighter and lighter and it’s not just the facials. One of the most fascinating encounters comes when I meet renowned healer Pak Bagus. Within minutes of speaking to me, he begins describing health issues I’ve experienced with startling precision. Problems that previously required endless medical appointments, specialists and blood tests to properly identify.
Completely stunned, I ask him how he possibly knew. He simply smiles. “Before blood tests, we had ancient healers,” he tells me calmly. “We needed to know things others don’t.” And somehow, sitting there in the middle of Bali surrounded by incense and jungle sounds, it doesn’t feel strange at all.
Later, I sit down with founder Chelsea Ross, the Australian woman who created Goddess Retreats after moving to Bali in the late 1990s. Warm, grounded and deeply passionate about women’s healing, Chelsea explains that every healer involved with the retreat has been personally vetted over many years.
“The spiritual journey and healing that occurs along the path is a deeply personal experience,” she tells me. “At Goddess Retreats, we are committed to providing only the highest quality of care and support.”
Having lived in Bali since 1997, Chelsea immersed herself in the island’s traditional healing culture long before wellness tourism exploded globally. What began as the world’s first women-only luxury surf and yoga retreat has evolved into something far more holistic.
“I trust these healers implicitly,” she says. “I know the transformation they can create.”
You believe her. I also spend time with co-founder James, an intuitive healer himself who somehow manages to combine spiritual insight with the energy of a straight-talking Yorkshireman. With bright white teeth, curly blond hair and an instantly calming presence, he speaks candidly and compassionately about healing without ever sounding preachy or performative.
“We just want to heal people,” he tells me simply. And honestly, after spending time here, I think they genuinely do.
Of course, there’s still luxury woven beautifully throughout every moment of the retreat. There are unlimited spa treatments, daily yoga, nourishing meals, sunset mocktails and dreamy floral baths designed for lingering long after the water cools. Staff remember your name instantly, fresh flowers appear everywhere, time slows down completely.
But unlike many luxury wellness resorts where transformation is marketed as another aesthetic accessory, Goddess Retreats feels deeply sincere.
It isn’t trying to sell enlightenment, it’s simply creating the space for women to reconnect with themselves again.
As my final evening in Ubud unfolds, I sit quietly beside the pool listening to frogs croaking in the jungle darkness while warm night air wraps around my skin. Around me, women who arrived as strangers laugh together over dinner looking visibly softer than they did days earlier.
Nobody wants to leave, and perhaps that’s because what happens here isn’t really about Bali at all. It’s about remembering who you were before life made you so tired.
Cost: Prices start from $2,800 for one week, inclusive of food, unlimited spa treatments and daily yoga.
How to get there: Fly from Sydney, Melbourne to Bali from around $300 with Jetstar
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