Retreats | Specials

Empower your teams & catalysts for change >actionable impact<

The only source of knowledge

is experience

★★★★★

Empower your people to deliver actionable impact

Grand Brand Experiences

Experience Design for outstanding brands

Unlock your people's potential with Experiential Learning Journeys

Treat your customers to awe-inspiring events creating lasting memories

"My mission is to work with teams and individuals to activate awareness, ignite curiosity, and energize exploration—cultivating a deep sense of awe, purpose, and connection in their journey of personal and professional development."

- Dorchess de Koning

We are seriously playful

From 27 February until 1 March 2026, Awe Academy is hosting Monastery Mystery - a seriously playful retreat! We take self-leadership seriously, and use humor and art to amplify it. This is your opportunity to define your next chapter!

In collaboration with Jester of the Peace, Eventology and Immersive Theatre of Learning.

"Hosted at an artistic location in a cosy dome made of straw, we warmed up and did reflective exercises after various outdoor activities. I learned about avoidance, leading with clarity and I also got to know my colleagues on a different level."

- Mathilde

For teams reaching for more!

For brands ahead of the game

Building a strong team goes hand in hand with personal and professional development.

Take time away from the office environment, and away from screens to reflect on how you work. We each have different needs, and may function best with different kinds of leadership. Learning about each other, communicating well and creating a culture of learning is important.

Celebrate achievements and co-create the company culture.

Make your organisation a place where people thrive!

Outdoors

Engage in outdoor activities to foster teamwork, communication, and leadership skills in a natural setting. Being in nature opens up our awareness and instills a sense of awe.

More than Team Building

Unleash creativity and enhance team dynamics by our interactive and playful approach. Working with various artists and co-facilitators, we create playful and inspiring days of training.

Experiential Learning

We take teams on outdoor quests, adaptable to what the team needs and to all levels of ability! Improve collaboration and empower your people to work with a sense of purpose.

It's learning by doing, by using all our senses and learning from what happens in nature.

What changes within individuals has a ripple effect and impacts what happens in the team, in your organization and beyond!

Support personal & professional growth at the workplace!

‘As an introverted and intellectual person, I was challenged to do interesting exercises that got me out of my comfort zone and into awareness of my senses and feelings. I learned a lot and am grateful for this experience.’

- Sander

Team Training Retreats/Off sites

Experience team building through nature, art, and experiential learning activities. In working outdoors with playful exercises, people relax and have fun which supports openness to learning. Options range from an inspirational day to a multi-day package in which you combine work, learning together and relaxation!

We go places!

We deliver training and team building throughout Europe and are based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Learn from Experience

Have you found yourself thinking any of these thoughts?

Why does our project feel stuck?

Our communication is misunderstood.

We want to improve the quality of our collaboration.

Our brand wants to make impact.

We want to get things moving in our organization.

How can we get more diversity in our team?

There is overwhelm and burn-out in our team.

'I feel much more connected to my team mates now. And I learned new things about them.'

- Faridah

How we work

What we do

We help build better teams & create a healthy company culture - from corporate companies to public sector - through experiential learning in nature, art, and collaboration for personal and organizational growth.

Our three core ingredients are art, nature and connection.

How

We take your team on a 'workation', which is a wordplay on work and vacation, meaning half days of training and half days of remote work where learnings are put into practice immediately.

A is for Activate

Quests & Co-creation

After a warm introduction, the team themes are explored both verbally and physically, creating a deepened awareness.

The team divides into subgroups and receive a quest & toolbox. The quest is to be completed within a specific time frame.

W is for Work Together

Establish collaboration

In the second part, all teams gather and move through various exercises together.

This rite of passage brings a collective experience in which roles, expectations and assumptions are questioned and re-examined.

E is for Evaluate

Reflective Learning

Digesting & translating: exchange of experiences is facilitated.

Findings are connected to 'real life situations' and participants are invited to describe what should stay, what needs to shift, and plans for action.

Do you recognise the feeling that your team is operating more like a group of islands than as a whole?

Do you sometimes experience difficulty in addressing specific behaviour of individuals that is not helping the team function at its best?

A team manager shares their story here:

"In my team I'd like to help the newcomers that have not been on-boarded properly. I can see them struggling to find their place. There are some long-term employees that find it difficult that our company has grown and changed so rapidly over the last 3 years. They complain that they don't know their colleagues anymore.

"People work remotely more and there is high pressure because of the nature of their work. This team feels a lot of responsibility to deliver without fault.''

- C. M.

With this team, the goals of the team training are to feel more connected, to communicate what each needed for effective collaboration and to become aware of and address behaviours that are not beneficial to the team dynamics.

The team is divided into groups for various outdoor quests. In the process of figuring out how to achieve the goal, the group dynamics become apparent. Next, the groups present to one another and we reflect on the process, feelings and findings encountered on the job. These are then connected to work situations.

The feedback I received after the training was that the team members felt energized and more connected, and learned ways to express sensitive issues.

They made a plan to foster cohesion within the team by deciding on a moment in the week that they would all work in the same place and would take a break together at a specific time.

"By asking questions out of genuine interest rather than offering advice, I feel like I am more open to my new colleagues than I was before."

Testimonial story

What's your perspective? Check out the video for inspiration.

'I must admit, I was skeptical... but Dorchess made me feel at ease and we had a great time away. I now have new energy for work, showing up as myself.'

- Johan

★★★★★

Clients with Awe

‘Dorchess is supportive and enthusiastic and challenged us in a good way.’

• Shiftschool

• Fito Network

• Dutch Design Week

• WxO

• Eventology

• Rijksacademie

• Price Waterhouse Coopers

• Adeno

• College ter Beoordeling van Geneesmiddelen

• Stichting Intermin

• Saffier

• National Cyber Security Centre

• ClickNL

• U-center

• Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap

• Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid

• Turn-club

• Fey Arts Festival

• Hogeschool Windesheim

• InShared

• Mischief Makers

• InMundo

• Wageningen University

• The College of Extraordinary Experiences

• ... You?

We've worked with

'We've booked team days with Awe Academy for several years now, and Dorchess never fails to surprise and engage us with her creative and energizing approach. It's different every time. We love it!'

-Monique

Event Specials

From Art Experiences to Brand Events, anything is possible when entering creative portal!

Showcase

Catch a glimpse of our curated events

Take Five

Brand Experience

An international wine importing agency sponsored the design of a charity event featuring life-size haute couture art portraits, paired with wine tasting and jazz music!

WE AR(E)

Art Experience

An engaging Art Experience combining fashion designs on a catwalk, live performance of poetry, cello and dance and audience interaction!

Monastery Mystery

Learning Experience

A seriously playful retreat at a monastery. For change makers, aspiring leaders and open-minded growth-seekers to define their next steps for impact.

This is only a selection of the wide array of possibilities!

We design learning retreats, brand event specials, celebrations and art experiences. Get in touch to explore what we can design with you!

Connect with us

Team training, team building, personal & professional development, organizational development, special events, experiential learning

Who is Dorchess?

Dorchess is a certified embodiment coach, experience designer, and the founder of Awe Academy. With a background in mental health science, art, systemic work and action methods, she is a highly sought-after facilitator and keynote speaker around the world.

Her purpose is to for people to experience awe, develop personally and professionally and determine their next steps for impact.

Dorchess designs change programs, off-sites and workshops drawing on her previous experience as interim consultant and therapist. Utilizing the power of group dynamics, she loves to help people grow more into who they are.

Book Dorchess for speaking and interactive interventions at your next event. Click the button for more information.

Awe and Impact

Awe Academy is purpose-driven. Our vision is to bring experiential learning in nature to those who seek to live with purpose and who want to be changemakers in their world.

Awe Academy is steward-owned. The aim of steward-ownership is to ensure that decisions are made by people who are closely connected to the company's operations and purpose, rather than being driven mainly by the goal of increasing shareholder value.

We collaborate with purpose-driven companies & brands to co-create and organise learning experiences that truly matter. We help build each other up!

At Awe Academy, we intend to make training available to all who wish to learn about themselves, their team and organization and their why in the world. We aim to design cross-domain learning experiences that allow for intentional and connected collaborations.

In order to expand Awe Academy's reach, we are trying to live by purpose and gift economy structures. You can support this too!