Rising Tides Veterinary Wellness & Leadership Retreat

Rising Tides

Veterinary Wellness & Leadership Retreat

Join us at Nature Space Resort for a small-group veterinary wellness and leadership retreat.

This is a CE-approved retreat (15 hours of approved CE from the NSVMA, NBVMA, PEIVMA and OVMA).

The veterinary profession can be physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing. The demands of caring for animals, while managing the complexities of practice can leave many veterinary professionals feeling overextended and burned out. With this retreat, our goal is to provide a space for vets to unwind, recharge, and enhance their leadership skills in a way that prioritizes their wellness.

At Nature Space Resort, attendees will experience a carefully crafted program that includes mindfulness sessions, leadership workshops, team-building exercises, and wellness practices—all designed to help them not only heal but also grow into stronger, more confident leaders within their field.

This three night, four day retreat includes all of your meals, snacks, and non-alcoholic beverages. In addition to continuing education, it features several incredible wellness experiences, including a sound healing event with the talented Trevor Grant, forest bathing, and yoga. All this while staying in beautiful, unique accommodations with private hot tubs, on-site hot cold therapy with saunas and cold plunges, walking trails, a meditation walking labyrinth, and much more.

Date – June 5-8, 2025

This is an intimate retreat with space for only 15 amazing veterinarians. Keeping our group size small allows you unparalleled opportunities to interact with your facilitator and each other for a deeply meaningful weekend or personal and professional growth.

Let us take care of you during this all-inclusive retreat experience

All inclusive retreat package includes:

3 night stay in Authentic Mongolian Yurt or our Eagle’s Nest Loft perched above the boathouse. All accommodations have private hot tubs
15 hours of approved CE in relationship intelligence, conflict resolution, mindful wellbeing, resiliency, and core values
Personalized Strength Deployment Inventory Assessment and access to the Core Strengths platform
SoundEscapes experience with Trevor Grant
A chance to explore nature in a unique forest bathing experience, a deeply immersive, meditative forest walk to truly enjoy the signs of spring and to use nature to combat stress
A creative opportunity to make a beautiful keepsake bracelet based on your weekend experience
Yoga, movement, breath work and meditation practices
All supplies, and retreat materials
All meals included (able to accommodate most food sensitivities including dairy-free, gluten-free & vegan)
Bonfire and S’mores at Lighthouse Beach
Restorative healing through connecting to nature in a unique setting with Mongolian yurts, hot tubs, sauna, cold therapy elements, and a chance to explore natural elements on our trails, meditation labyrinth and our lakeside setting
Optional Lake Explorer kayak tour with Jarrod

Weekend Itinerary

Thursday, June 5, 2025

3:00-5:30pm – Check in’s

6:00pm – Welcome supper & introductions

7:00pm – Keynote: Reframing Resiliency

8:15-9:30- Sound bath: Sound healing event with SoundEscapes

Friday, June 6, 2025

Relationship Intelligence and Working with Conflict

8:00-9:00am – Breakfast

9:00-11:00am – Understanding your motivational value system (SDI)

11:00-11:15- Break

11:15-1:00pm – Understanding your conflict sequence (SDI)

1:00-2:00pm- Lunch

2:00-3:45pm – Conflict communication for career longevity

3:45-4:00pm- Break

4:00-5:30pm- Exploring your strengths (SDI)

5:45-7:30- Oysters 101 with Jarrod and local charcuterie supper

7:45pm- Optional kayak experience with Jarrod (Sunset Explorer tour – weather dependent) (Add-On)

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Mindfulness in Veterinary Medicine

7:00-8:00am- Sunrise yoga

8:00-9:00am – Breakfast

9:00-10:30am- Using mindfulness to manage stress and burnout in veterinary medicine part 1

10:30-10:45am- Break

10:45am-12:15pm- Using mindfulness to manage stress and burnout in veterinary medicine part 2

12:30-1:30pm- Lunch

2:00-3:30- Forest bathing walk: Using nature to combat stress

4:00-6:00- Reframing the stress mindset

6:30-7:30- Sharing & supper

7:30-9:00pm- Beach bonfire with s’mores

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Living and Working with Intention

8-9am- Yoga

9-10am- Breakfast

10am-12:30pm- Core values, living with intention and personal mission statements. Includes intention bracelet workshop

1:00-2:00- Lunch and closing activity

Retreat Pricing

The Rising Tides Retreat has multiple accommodation types and a variety of pricing options based on the size of your group. The prices below are all-inclusive and include accommodations, retreat registration, food & activities. Groups must be pre-arranged with friends/family as we do not sell single beds for our retreats.

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Mongolian Yurts

Our authentic Mongolian Yurts are suitable for up to 3 adults (one queen bed and 2 twin beds)

Group of 1 in a Yurt-$1849+tax total – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $1599+ tax
Group of 2 in a Yurt – $2998+tax total ($1499/pp) – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $2598+tax ($1299/pp)
Group of 3 in Yurt – $4200+tax total ($1400/pp) – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $3597 ($1199/pp)

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Eagle’s Nest Loft

Our Eagle’s Nest Loft is a self-contained suite with own kitchen & washroom. Suitable for 2 adults (one queen bed and 1 daybed with luxury mattresses).

Group of 1 in the loft-$1999+tax total – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $1749+ tax
Group of 2 in the loft – $3148+tax total ($1574/pp) – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $2748+tax ($1374/pp)

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GlowBug Cottage

Our GlowBug Cottage is a 2 bedroom cottage with it’s own kitchen & washroom. Suitable for 2-4 adults (one queen bed, 2 twin beds on an adult bunkbed and 1 daybed with luxury mattress).

Group of 1 in the cottage- $1999+tax total – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $1749+ tax
Group of 2 in the cottage – $3148+tax total ($1574/pp) – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $2748+tax ($1374/pp)
Group of 3 in the cottage – $4197+tax total ($1399/pp) – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $3747+tax ($1249/pp)
Group of 4 in the loft – $5396+tax total ($1349/pp) – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $4746+tax ($1,186/pp)

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Off-site participant

No accommodations, but all retreat programming with all meals and experiences and access to resort amenities.

The no accommodation option is $1199/pp+tax – Early Bird Pricing until April 5, 2025= $999+tax

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Want to stay longer? Retreat participants can extend their stay either before or after the retreat and receive 20% off accommodations.

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Meet Your Facilitators

Dr. Heather Gunn McQuillan served as the Assistant Dean of Clinical and Professional Programming and Director of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital from 2015 to 2023. She currently holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management at AVC, where she oversees the Professional Foundations Curriculum. Dr. Gunn McQuillan teaches students on vital topics including veterinary well-being, business practices, communication, conflict resolution, leadership, and resiliency.

She holds a Master’s certification in Mindfulness-Based Teaching and Learning from the University of the Fraser Valley, communication training from the Institute for Healthcare Communications, and an Interest-Based Mediation Practitioner certification in conflict resolution. Additionally, she is a facilitator for the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) and a certified instructor in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). As a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance, she integrates wellness practices into her work.

Dr. Gunn McQuillan has presented at numerous regional, national, and international conferences on topics related to well-being, leadership, resiliency, conflict resolution, and communication skills. She and her family own Nature Space Resort in beautiful Prince Edward Island.

Trevor Grant

Trevor Grant has been performing his magical SoundEscapes sound journeys here at Nature Space Resort since we opened. Trevor says "I have been fascinated by sound for as long as I can remember, be it the wind in the trees, a metal railing echoing in a great hall, a rock band in full flight or the most delicate tap of a cymbal, it all speaks to me. As a percussionist I get to explore and release all sorts of frequencies, from primal beats of a drum to the gentle sparkle of tiny bells, Adding the breath of wooden flutes creates a palette of sounds that allow for a full range of expression. For me, music is a multi-sensory experience, something that is not only heard, but felt. My hope for my SoundEscape sessions is for people to experience sound and music in a deeper more attentive way than usual and to bring attention to the important role our sonic environment can play in our daily lives."

Jarrod Gunn McQuillan

Jarrod is the co-owner of Nature Space Resort and brings a wide variety of life and work experiences to their project at the resort. His educational background includes Commerce and Science degrees and early in his career his work focused on sustainability & localizing food systems and he worked closely with primary food producers, community groups, sustainable food advocates and First Nations communities in Ontario and British Columbia. More recently, prior to opening the resort, he spent more than 10 years as the Oyster Biologist for the Province of Prince Edward Island and still grows his own oysters and shares experiences and his passion for oysters with guests at the resort. Jarrod has used cold water therapy for years through his athletic career, but recently has begun to implement many of the breath work and mindfulness strategies to broaden his understanding and use of cold water. He is currently completing his Cold Water Therapy Diploma and has begun training on the Wim Hof Method. He is also a passionate naturalist and outdoor leader. He is one of the most highly certified sea kayak instructors in Atlantic Canada with Paddle Canada and has had the pleasure of leading programs & expeditions as well attending sea kayak gatherings as a guest coach all across Canada, the United States and beyond through his sea kayak instructional business – Cloud 9 Adventures.