Midlife Women’s Retreat in Vermont

Dr. Duncan will offer clear, evidence-based guidance on women’s health, including hormonal changes and the role of hormone therapy in whole-body health during midlife and beyond, with time for thoughtful, open Q&A.

About Laura Duncan, MD

Laura Duncan, MD, MPH, MSCP is a board-certified internist with over 20 years of experience in direct patient care, specializing in chronic disease management, women’s health, and shared decision-making. She earned her medical degree from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and completed her Internal Medicine residency at Harvard Medical School’s Cambridge Health Alliance.

Dr. Duncan has served diverse populations in both inpatient and outpatient settings, including work with the Indian Health Service on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and in rural Utah, where she was also Medical Director of an Elderly Care Center.

She is the founder of Reclaim Menopause, PLLC, a practice dedicated to helping women across New Hampshire and Vermont navigate midlife transitions and reduce long-term health risks associated with hormonal decline.

Midlife can bring questions that are difficult to explore in the midst of daily life. This retreat gives you time, space and guidance to understand the emotional, personal and hormonal shifts that often accompany this stage. Through guided sessions, reflective practices, experiential exercises and gentle conversation, you will explore themes that help you understand where you are and what feels important now.

You will look at the patterns and beliefs that have shaped you over the years, and begin to understand which ones still serve you and which ones you are ready to release. You will explore the space created when children grow up and leave home, and how this change can reshape identity, purpose and emotional rhythm.

Together we explore:

• understanding who you are beyond long-held roles
• emotional literacy and the most effective ways to relate to your emotions
• boundaries and the quiet resentment that can build when they are missing
• guilt and shame and how they influence behaviour and decision making
• rest and clarity
• reconnecting with joy and widening your emotional range
• listening to your body as a source of wisdom, not performance
• meeting fear and possibility with grounded courage

These themes are approached gently and practically. You are guided to reflect, understand and move towards clarity at your own pace. Nothing is forced, and there is no expectation to share more than feels comfortable. This is a space for honest insight, experiential learning and genuine reconnection.

Time in nature creates a kind of clarity that is difficult to access in the middle of everyday life. The Vermont landscape offers space, quiet and perspective, helping you step back from familiar patterns and hear yourself more clearly.

The surroundings accompany the reflective work of the retreat in a gentle, grounding way. Walking a quiet trail, sitting with a view of the mountains, or pausing in an open landscape can help you connect with what you feel and understand what is changing within you. Nature becomes a companion in the process, offering steadiness, honesty and a sense of possibility.

Vermont’s green mountain landscape holds a unique blend of calmness and openness. It helps women experiencing midlife transitions, identity shifts or the early stages of an empty nest to feel spacious, steady and reconnected.

This retreat is designed for women in their fifties and sixties, and for some in their forties who are beginning to feel the early shifts of midlife, who feel that life is changing in ways that are hard to name but impossible to ignore.

You might be entering a new stage of life, feeling the impact of children growing up and leaving home, or noticing changes in identity, purpose, emotional rhythm and hormones. You may feel a sense of space that is both welcome and unsettling. You may be asking new questions about who you are beyond long-held roles, or wondering how to reconnect with yourself after years of caring for others.

You do not need to identify with labels such as “empty nester”, or even have children, to find this retreat meaningful. This space is for women who simply feel the change of this life stage and want to understand it in an honest, compassionate way.

• your children have grown up or left home
• you are navigating midlife changes
• your sense of identity feels in transition
• you feel stretched, tired or disconnected from yourself
• you want a retreat that goes beyond surface-level wellness
• you crave reflection, depth and real conversation
• you want grounded, evidence-informed guidance
• you prefer a calm, inclusive, accessible retreat setting
• you want time in nature without pressure to perform
• your career goals have shifted and you want clarity

This retreat offers a rhythm that supports reflection without overwhelm. The days are structured enough to hold you, yet spacious enough for you to move at your own pace. There is no pressure to share more than feels comfortable, and no expectation to take part in anything that does not feel right for you.

You will experience:

• guided ACT-based sessions
• reflective practices for journalling and self-understanding
• experiential exercises based on group needs
• gentle movement supporting presence, not performance
• time outdoors for grounding and perspective
• steady, meaningful conversation with other women
• optional activities for exploration or rest
• moments of calm, stillness and integration

The content is tailored rather than standardised, shaped both by what participants share beforehand and what the group needs in the moment.

By the end of the retreat, you will have created space to hear yourself more clearly and understand what this stage of life is asking of you. The experience does not promise grand transformation. It offers something quieter and more sustainable: clarity, steadiness and a renewed relationship with yourself.

You will leave with:

• a clearer sense of who you are beyond long-held roles
• emotional tools to support midlife shifts
• insight into the patterns shaping your decisions
• a grounded understanding of what matters to you now
• renewed confidence in your next steps
• a calmer inner rhythm and more spacious perspective
• a sense of belonging with women on similar paths
• practical ways to continue this reflective work at home

This lasting shift is supported by the retreat’s neuroscience-informed phases of Deep Rest, Exploration and Integration.

The retreat is held at the von Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont, a setting known for its wide horizons, natural beauty and quiet sense of grounding. The landscape surrounding the lodge creates a feeling of spaciousness that supports reflection and steady internal work.

You will have access to:

• peaceful communal areas for reading, journalling or quiet conversation
• walking trails, skiing (depending on conditions), and open outdoor spaces
• spa and wellness facilities
• comfortable rooms designed for deep rest
• quiet indoor and outdoor spaces for reflection

Everything about the surroundings is chosen to encourage clarity, calm and reconnection. It is the kind of place where your thoughts have room to soften and settle.