Cambodia: The Creative Reset
Phnom Penh & Siem Reap
Jan 3–11, 2027
A guided journey into creative flow through culture, movement and joyful expressive practices.
In-Person Retreat | Group Setting| Limited Space |
Who Is This For?
For creatives, caretakers, thoughtful travelers, and anyone longing to slow down, reconnect and experience life with more presence, inspiration and depth.
For people who have spent years building careers, caring for others, raising families, creating businesses, supporting communities, or constantly being “on” — and who now feel the need to slow down, reconnect with themselves and return to life feeling more inspired, present, alive, and creatively connected again.
Cambodia becomes the backdrop — and often the catalyst — for that reconnection.
You do not need to think of yourself as “creative” to join this experience.
Creativity here is not about talent or performance. It is about curiosity, intuition, imagination, expression, joy and rediscovering the parts of ourselves, that often get buried beneath routine, responsibility, productivity, and overstimulation.
A Different Rhythm
Cambodia is a land shaped by profound beauty, resilience, spirit, and history. There is something about its pace, warmth and complexity that invites people to slow down, pay attention and reconnect with their life force energy. This land has a way of changing people’s relationship to time, attention, creativity and presence.
Something slows down here.
The senses sharpen.
Conversations deepen.
Inspiration returns more naturally.
You begin noticing things with more presence.
What This Journey Is Really About
Creativity, cultural immersion, constellation work & reflective practices
This is not a typical retreat or curated tour. Through ancient temples, jungle landscapes, vibrant markets, intuitive paint & pour, reflective workshops of BilateralDepth and Jungian dreamwork, movement practices, meaningful conversations and immersive cultural experiences, participants are invited into a different pace of living and being.
The focus is not escaping your life for a week.
It is about returning to your life differently with a few pieces of your own created art as a gentle reminder.
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh — Perspective, Creativity & Human Resilience
Our journey begins in Phnom Penh — a city alive with contrast, creativity, movement, history, art, and human resilience. Through carefully guided experiences, participants are invited to engage Cambodia not only intellectually, but emotionally, creatively and relationally.
Visits to Tuol Sleng (S-21) and the Killing Fields are approached with care and spaciousness. Alongside this historical depth and remembrance, the journey also offers space to witness the resilience, warmth, creativity, and hope that continue to live within Cambodia today.
Our days in Phnom Penh are filled with local art cafés, riverside evenings, markets, Silk Island village life, Cambodian arts and culture, and meaningful conversations. During the traditional midday siesta, the pace naturally slows — offering space to rest, reflect, create and simply absorb a different rhythm of living.
Evenings become spaces for reflection, creative integration, inspiration, music, laughter, and shared experience.
Siem Reap
Siem Reap & Angkor — Inspiration, Wonder & Creative Reconnection
In Siem Reap, the journey softens into a more spacious and imaginative rhythm.
Sunrise at Angkor Wat. Jungle pathways. Waterfalls. Local art. Candlelit dinners. Music, movement, creativity, laughter and long conversations beneath warm evenings.
The Angkor temples invite awe, reflection, inspiration and presence — not only through their beauty and scale, but through the feeling of stepping into spaces shaped by devotion, symbolism, creativity, nature and time itself.
Throughout the week, there is space for creative exploration, intuitive paint & pour, reflection, movement, rest, wandering local markets and simply experiencing a different relationship to time.
Evenings invite shared meals, integration, storytelling, music, creative expression and the simple experience of being fully present with yourself and others.
Accommodation
Participants will stay in carefully selected spaces in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, chosen for their beauty, comfort, peaceful atmosphere, and supportive environment for rest, reflection, creativity, and integration throughout the journey.
The experience is intentionally designed around thoughtfully arranged duet-style shared sanctuary rooms, which often become a meaningful part of the connection, conversations and sense of belonging that naturally unfold throughout the journey. Many participants choose to attend with a friend or partner, while solo participants may also be thoughtfully paired with another participant.
Depending on the location, accommodations include either separate twin beds or two double beds within the shared room setup.
The properties themselves are expansive and designed with many quiet areas for solitude and personal downtime — including gardens, pool areas, yoga spaces, cafés, and peaceful corners where participants can rest, reflect, journal, create, or simply enjoy time alone when needed.
A limited number of Private Solo Room upgrades may be available on a first-come basis for an additional fee.
Phnom Penh — The Bale
A quiet riverside sanctuary offering space to land gently into the journey. The Bale combines simplicity and elegance, creating an environment that supports rest, reflection and integration from the very beginning.
Siem Reap — Navutu Dreams Resort
Surrounded by lush gardens and quiet pathways, Navutu offers a spacious and grounding environment near the Angkor temples. Here, the rhythm of the retreat deepens—balancing exploration, inner work and restoration.
Your Investment
Pricing
$2995 per person
Includes thoughtfully arranged duet-style shared sanctuary accommodations.
Optional Upgrade:
A limited number of Private Solo Room upgrades may be available on a first-come basis for an additional $995 fee.
Included:
• Accommodations in Phnom Penh & Siem Reap
• Daily guided workshops, practices & group sessions
• Intuitive paint & pour and all art materials
• Guided excursions & entrance fees
• Transportation throughout the journey
• Daily breakfast and most dinners
• Selected group lunches during the experience
Not Included:
• International flights
• Visa
• Travel insurance (required)
• Some meals during free evenings and community exploration time
• Optional private sessions with facilitators
A $999 deposit secures your place. Flexible monthly payment plans are available, with remaining balances due prior to the retreat start date.
Application
Apply for the Retreat
This is a guided and intentionally held experience.
We ask all participants to complete a short application before confirming your place.
After acceptance, you will receive booking details and payment information.
A journey to reconnect with a more present rhythm of daily living
Meet Your Facilitators
This work is held by an experienced and carefully attuned team, each bringing their own depth, presence and perspective. This offering has come together through a shared sense of intention, shaped by something larger than any one of us.
Ankea Phem, MS, MA &
Internationally certified Constellation Practitioner,
Certified Breathwork Facilitator & Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher
Ankea’s work blends constellation practice, creativity, movement, cultural identity, and embodied reflection.
Creativity is central to both her life and work — through intuitive paint & pour, music, writing, movement, nature-based art, and creative exploration.
Ankea believes creativity is life force energy: a natural part of being human that can become buried beneath routine, overstimulation, self-doubt, or periods of disconnection, and that sometimes we simply need a different environment and rhythm to reconnect with it again.
Her approach invites people to reconnect with inspiration, intuition, expression, joy, and what lights them up.
Holding a deeply personal connection to Cambodia and its culture, this journey reflects many of the themes central to her work: creativity, reconnection, beauty, perspective, and finding a different rhythm for living.
Learn more:
Catherine Smith, LCSW, PhD in Depth psychology, Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher
Trauma-informed therapist with PhD in depth psychology — weaving together the science of the brain and the language of symbol and story to help people make meaning of their experiences.
Learn more:
Practical Details
A few practical notes to support your planning:
• A $1,000 deposit secures your place upon acceptance
• The remaining balance is due prior to the retreat
• If cost is a consideration, personalized payment plans are available upon request
• Travel insurance is required
• This is an experiential retreat and not a substitute for therapy
If you have questions, you’re welcome to reach out.
This is a small, intentionally held group.
If you feel a resonance, we invite you to apply.
Supporting Local Impact
Community connection; a way of giving back
This journey is also a return to my roots.
As a Cambodian descendant who grew up between cultures, my connection to this place has always lived quietly beneath the surface. Early in my career, I had the opportunity to live and work in Cambodia for several years, contributing to inclusive education projects supporting underserved communities.
Returning now feels deeply personal — an invitation to reconnect not only with the country, but with a sense of ancestral lineage, belonging and continuity.
We are in connection with a Cambodian-led nonprofit Cambodia Children Fund, supporting youth, education and community wellbeing.
If you feel called, you are welcome to learn more or contribute directly to their work.
[Learn About Cambodia Children’s Fund]
We are also in the early stages of supporting an arts-based youth leadership initiative; The Youth Media & Podcast Studio Project — created to amplify young voices and stories from within the community.
If this resonates, you are welcome to support this initiative as well.
“When we see what is and let it be, something new can arise.”
— Bert Hellinger
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