Connect with others Spain

2-9 October

Your friends irritate you, you want to change bits of your partner, and your kids' demands and complaints make you bristle. It must be time for a well-earned break. But how about not simply escaping, but rather learning how to make those key relationships better? Or, in the lexicon of the self-aware, to "take responsibility"? The Power of Connection course in southern Spain, run by self-help charity More to Life, promises to give "tools", which it says will "improve relationships with friends, loved ones and colleagues". The course runs on alternate days over a week at La Cuesta del Almendral (The Almond House), a country home in the Alpujarras, and is sure to restore a sweet temper.
• Power of Connection courses cost from €66o, including transfers from Malaga, breakfast, two dinners and three lunches. 020-7240 3864, consciouschange.co.uk/creativity/connect-in-spain

Amazonian psychedelics, Norfolk

7-10 and 21-24 October

You don't have to head into the Amazon, or even the Pyrenees (see feature opposite), to try the "mystical tea" ayahuasca – sign up for a three-day ritual in the Wensum valley, near Norwich. Not a substance to be taken lightly, it causes vomiting and hallucinations, but participants have reported feeling spiritually clean, serene and deeply joyous afterwards. You have to fast for a minimum of five hours before the retreat, and follow a strict diet the previous week. The ritual is held in an open-sided marquee that is also a communal sleeping space.
• A three-night retreat including food and group accommodation costs £175. ayahuasca.me.uk

Goddess workshop, Dorset and Gloucestershire

17-19 September (near Dorchester) and 19-21 November (Forest of Dean)

Women-only goddess workshops involve celebrating your uniqueness as a woman, using ritual and creative play. Anna Ziman, who also offers retreats in Wales, says: "It's a popular form of group therapy, offering women different ways to be – from Hecate to Aphrodite." You will leave with your heart held high, she promises. Courtney Love is apparently a fan.
• From £295 for a long weekend. 020-7515 8752, goddessworkshop.co.uk

Choose life, Greece

25 September-2 October

Skyros is the most southerly of the Sporades (meaning "scattered") islands of the mid-Aegean. Atsitsa Bay is on the island's quiet north-west coast, well away from the capital, Skyros Town, and the port, Linaria, where ferries from the mainland arrive. From a villa surrounded by simple huts in this remote setting, Dina Glouberman, author of Life Choices, Life Changes and The Joy of Burnout, says her Life Choices and Changes course will show you how to "listen to your soul's whispers, find your natural brilliance, overcome fears, solve problems, make wise choices – and go for it".
• The seven-day course, with tuition, accommodation and meals but not flights, costs £645pp. 01983 865566, skyros.com/atsitsa_program.htm

Breath guru, Lanzarote

Flexible dates

Alan Dolan's Transformational Breathing claims to "infuse the body with oxygen and energy, boosting our innate healing systems, and to facilitate openings to higher levels of consciousness, which allow us to tap into our deeper resources and live our lives joyfully and in abundance". As well as courses in London and Cambridge, he runs one-on-one sessions in Famara, Lanzarote. Accommodation is in a two-bedroom self-contained apartment in Dolan's own villa, and vegetarian full-board catering is also available.
• Two-night package from €395pp. +34 690 162426, breathguru.com

Yoga retreat, Spain

1-5 October
Relax in the peace and tranquility of the "real" Andalucian countryside near Granada on this Last of the Summer Sun Retreat. There are two two-hour yoga sessions a day, leaving you time to trek the countless nature trails through olive groves, wheat fields and pine forests or stay by the infinity pool and watch birds swoop amid the banana and palm trees. The average October temperature is 25C.
• The course costs £425pp, including brunch, dinner and yoga. Flights and transfers extra. 01372 459400, whyoga.com/yoga-retreats

Health retreat, Ireland

Flexible dates

The Cloona Health Retreat is a detox centre offering yoga, walking, sauna, massage, wheatgrass, juice fasts, and various other practices and treatments in three- and five-day residential programmes. Cloona offers simple single rooms in an eco-friendly environment just a mile from the sea in County Mayo. There is no TV, radio or mobile phones, and guests are advised to cut down on tea, coffee, sugar, alcohol and meat in the run-up to their retreat.
• Three-day all-inclusive programme from €390. +353 98 25251, cloona.ie