Episode Description - The Women's Retreat Built for Life's Big Changes
What if the fastest way to figure out your next chapter wasn't to spend years in therapy, but to spend a week cooking, healing and having fun in a beautiful European venue alongside strangers who quickly become friends? That's the idea behind the women’s retreats led by Hannah McKitrick, founder of Dolce Vita Experiences. Her retreats are built around food, coaching, and connection for women navigating big life changes.
Unlike a traditional vacation, a retreat combines time away with coaching, reflection, new experiences, and the support of other women. Hannah explores why that combination can quiet self-criticism, create surprising connections, and help you recognize patterns and possibilities that can be difficult to see when you’re handling everyday responsibilities on your own.
You’ll also discover why simple experiences - from cooking and sharing meals to spending time at the spa, hiking, or simply having someone else handle the details - can play a bigger role in personal growth than you might expect.
Whether you’re questioning what comes next, in the middle of a difficult life transition, or you’re just ready to build a new chapter, this podcast episode offers a different way to think about what it takes to get out of your head, reconnect with yourself, and move forward with greater clarity.
Show Notes
About Hannah
Hannah McKitrick is the founder of Dolce Vita Experiences—a travel, wellness, and personal growth company that helps purpose-led women live, lead, and nourish from deep alignment. Through immersive experiences and retreats that combine foodie travel, coaching, and connection, Hannah supports high-achieving leaders and women in transition to recalibrate their nervous systems, reclaim joy, and build a life that feels as good as it looks. Her work blends the energetics of ease and intuition coaching to help women gain clarity and have more fun after a major life transition.
Connect with Hannah
You can connect with Hannah on LinkedIn at Hannah McKitrick and on Facebook at Hannah McKitrick. You can follow Hannah on Instagram at hannah.mckitrick. To learn more about how to work with Hannah, visit her website at Dolce Vita Experiences. And you can learn more about her upcoming Dolce Vita Reset Retreat in Samos, Greece here.
Key Takeaways From This Episode with Hannah McKitrick
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Transcript
The Women's Retreat Built for Life's Big Changes
SPEAKERS
Karen Covy, Hannah McKitrick
TRANSCRIPT
Karen Covy: Hello, and welcome to Off the Fence, a podcast where we deconstruct difficult decision-making to try to figure out what keeps us stuck, and more importantly, how do we get unstuck? I'm your host, Karen Covy, a former divorce lawyer, mediator, and arbitrator turned coach, author, and entrepreneur.
With me today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Hannah McKitrick. Hannah is the founder of Dolce Vita Experiences, a travel, wellness, and personal growth company that helps purpose-led women live, lead, and nourish from deep alignment.
Through immersive experiences and retreats that combine foodie travel, coaching, and connection, Hannah supports high-achieving leaders and women in transition to recalibrate their nervous systems, reclaim joy, and build a life that feels as good as it looks. Her work blends the energetics of ease and intuition coaching to help women gain more clarity and have more fun after a major life transition.
Hannah, welcome to the show.
Hannah McKitrick: Thank you so much, Karen. I'm so excited.
Karen Covy: I'm excited to have you here. Anybody that makes or has fun for a living is amazing to me. But I'd like to start in the beginning. What got you into doing retreats for women all over the world? Because you've led people in retreats in a lot of different places. How did you get started?
Hannah McKitrick: I've gone through many transitions myself. One in particular was post-grad: I was going through a really bad breakup and I was in the corporate world. I had lost all my joy, and I was in a season of heaviness.
What was really calling my name was culinary school in Europe. My degree was in economics, so it made no logical sense why I should quit my job, go to Europe, and get a culinary degree. But there was such a soul pull towards it. After working for a couple of years, I decided to do it. I quit my job, packed my bag for Italy, and went to culinary school.
It wasn't until I got there in this immersive experience—away from my usual environment, back to myself, back to the joy of what I love doing like food, cooking, being with like-minded people, and having expansive views of the sea—that it brought me back to myself. It brought me back to my favorite version of myself and to a euphoria that I didn't know was possible in life.
That was my first retreat-like experience. The more I dove down the rabbit hole of personal development and self-growth, the more I learned about coaching, shifting your brain's neural pathways, and learning tools through experiences that actually change how you feel.
For me, I went from feeling so heavy with a lack of love for life to experiencing a light, effervescent joy. It was through coaching and retreats. The desire really got placed on my heart before I even consciously knew that's what I was going to do. Even hearing you read my bio, I'm like, "I can't believe that's my company."
Karen Covy: It's such a funny thing.
Hannah McKitrick: But I created it by following my Dolce Vita, which means "sweet life." So many women suppress what brings them joy because of the "shoulds," family obligations, or expectations. Yet, what brings you joy is a signal that it is for you. It is your path of most alignment, creates the path of least resistance, and connects you back to your most vibrant self. Dolce Vita Experiences helps immerse women in these types of experiences that bring them back to the joy of life and the truth of who they are.
Karen Covy: I love that. But culinary school—I don't know how long your program was, but it had to be more than a week, right?
Hannah McKitrick: It was.
Karen Covy: So the question is: can somebody really get a transformative experience by going on a retreat for just a week?
Hannah McKitrick: 100%. I went on my first week-long retreat in 2021, and it changed me at the core. Oftentimes with retreats, it's these subtle micro-changes that you get to implement and integrate throughout an entire week. A week is a long time for a behavior pattern that has been operating your whole life.
For me, on that particular retreat, I had a lot of shame around everything about myself. Throughout the week, it just got stripped away and stripped away. By the end, I thought, "Yeah, I'm not perfect, but I'm human, and what of it?"
It acts as a marker in time—a before and after. A lot of my clients have been with me for multiple seasons of retreats year after year. We just started a program, and we talked about how each retreat really is a chapter of a before and after that builds on itself.
For them to be able to show up as their highest self for an entire week really changes them. That's especially true for women who have been operating from a place of "go-go-go" and constant routine. When you're stripped out of your routine for an entire week, it's transformative.
It's not just a typical vacation where you're sitting on the beach in Mexico. We bring intentionality into the container during coaching sessions so you don't miss the transformations happening. You're journaling about them, getting insights, and asking yourself how to integrate them post-retreat. It brings a lot of conscious awareness into what you want to create. The retreat acts as a portal or container that helps accelerate what you want to build.
Karen Covy: That's interesting, because it brings up a question I had for you. Let's say I'm a woman facing a major life transition. Maybe I'm a professional thinking of a career change, or someone who's just been through a divorce trying to start my next chapter personally. Why not just go on vacation? Couldn't I achieve the same objective by going on my own vacation somewhere?
Hannah McKitrick: Absolutely, but there are a few different pieces. One is what we call "container magic." This might sound a little metaphorical, but anyone who has been on my retreats knows it's so real. As the coach and facilitator, I hold a container the entire time that acts like guardrails and bumpers. It gets infused with intention for the group.
Throughout the retreat, so many synchronicities and serendipitous events happen that make your jaw drop. For instance, on one retreat, someone needed $1,500 to pay for something and was feeling stressed about it. That evening, she received an unexpected check for $1,500—the exact amount—from a random book royalty from years ago. Countless stories like that happen within the retreat container because people have committed to the program and are in that energy. It's hard to describe with words, but retreat container magic is one part of it.
The other part is the community of women. You can read a book about your next steps after divorce or your next big pivot all you want, but until you're actually on the field with other women witnessing you, it only makes a fraction of the impact.
If you're going through a divorce and share your insights with the group, and they reflect that back to you, it's so powerful. They hold you accountable and witness your growth. You can't un-know the shift created by having a group of "hype women" supporting you.
A lot of the shame women carry gets wiped out because when someone shares what they're going through, others in the group realize they are experiencing it, too. It normalizes the human experience, which takes away the heavy self-criticism and pressure. Retreats help wipe that away so we can remember that we're all doing the best we can and deserve to have a good time.
Karen Covy: I'm curious when you say this because there are different women in every group. For example, I know next year you're taking a group of women to Greece. Some women might be transitioning from divorce, others from a career shift, and others from the death of a spouse. How do you hold that container for everybody when they're all navigating different transitions?
Hannah McKitrick: Leading retreats is my favorite thing in the world. One of my gifts is tuning into the energy of the group and pulling through the exact message that needs to be shared at that moment in time. The right people are in the group at the perfect time, so there's never a coincidence about who attends. Everyone connects in some way.
Sometimes the theme will be on shifting your thoughts—like last night's pre-retreat call—focusing on how we torment ourselves in our brains or create unnecessary suffering. We learn how to train our brains so we don't add extra suffering to our life circumstances. Adjusting that inner landscape helps you feel better. That's an example that applies to anyone because we're all human. It's specific enough to address negative thoughts during transitions, but broad enough that it doesn't alienate anyone.
Karen Covy: That makes sense. You mentioned the community aspect earlier. How does that work? Does someone just sign up and meet you in Greece, or is there more to your program leading up to it?
Hannah McKitrick: I love having a pre-mastermind program leading up to the retreat. It can be scary to sign up with a stranger on the internet and meet her in Greece!
Karen Covy: Yeah, exactly.
Hannah McKitrick: I don't ask anyone to do that. First, I like to meet with each person one-on-one, have a conversation, see what they're looking for, and make sure it's a good fit, because it's not a fit for everyone. Usually, there's a soul-knowing on the call where they realize, "I have to be there."
I'm very particular about the women I let into the container because it's a sacred and intimate environment. One of my top priorities is that the women are open—open to other women and open to all walks of life. That quality makes for a powerful and welcoming retreat.
There's a vetting process beforehand, and then we meet virtually with the group leading up to the trip. We hold group coaching calls and virtual group cooking classes. That might sound random, but with my culinary background, I find that cooking is an incredible way to connect with other women and get out of your head and into your body.
My specialty is healthy gourmet. We create nourishing, healthy, whole-food meals that are super flavorful. It raises people's vibration on a physical and energetic level and acclimates their system to receive even more on the retreat.
Karen Covy: I have to jump in and share with the listeners that I've been on one of your virtual cooking classes, and it was amazing! I still use your recipe. I love to cook, and it was so flavorful and healthy.
Hannah McKitrick: Which recipe did you make?
Karen Covy: It was the pesto with spaghetti squash.
Hannah McKitrick: Oh, yeah!
Karen Covy: It was to die for!
Hannah McKitrick: Simple and good.
Karen Covy: I loved it! So I can personally attest to the quality of your cooking classes. Is there a cooking component on the actual retreat as well?
Hannah McKitrick: Yes! I like to have a cooking component on my retreats because food is so much fun, and learning about it is like positive TV for your mind. On the Greece retreat, we do a traditional Greek cooking class where we make tzatziki, souvlaki, pita bread, and a classic Greek salad.
The recipes and ingredients are simple, but prepared with intentionality. It's just like the teachings on retreat: simple tweaks you can make to bump up the flavor within your life.
Karen Covy: I love that. For thousands of years, women have bonded over cooking. How many times do you go to a party and everyone ends up congregating in the kitchen? There could be a whole living room and patio, but everyone hangs out in the kitchen whether food is actively being cooked or not.
Hannah McKitrick: It really has been the center of gatherings since the dawn of time.
Karen Covy: As a pseudo-foodie, I really appreciate that. Could you walk us through what a typical day on the retreat looks like? How much time is structured activities, and how much time do people get to be by themselves, think, go to the beach, or relax?
Hannah McKitrick: It's a balance of both because I don't want people to feel like they need a vacation after the retreat. We aren't trying to wear you out. It's structured enough that each day feels like its own little adventure.
A typical day starts with a breakfast buffet from 8 to 10 a.m. People can sleep in, go for a walk, run, or swim, and enjoy Greek yogurt, coffees, or made-to-order eggs from the chef. That time is on your own.
Afterward, we might head to the spa for water therapies and a 20-minute massage treatment. You have time on your own in the sauna and reflection room while still being together as a group. Then, we gather for lunch by the sea, followed by a group coaching session. After the spa, we might reflect on questions like, "What did you release at the spa? What insights did you receive, and what are you ready to leave on the island?"
After coaching, there is another break to walk, hit the beach, or hang by the pool before dinner. Some nights we go out to dinner in town, and other nights we eat on the property. Since I'm an early bird leading the retreat, we never stay out too late!
On other days, we might do the cooking class, go on an all-levels hike to a waterfall, visit a winery, or shop in town.
Karen Covy: That sounds amazing! I appreciate that it's not a marathon. I've been to conferences where you go from dawn until the wee hours of the night and end up completely exhausted.
Hannah McKitrick: During the downtime, some of the women buddy up to go for walks together. It's not a forced structure, but if you want company, there is always someone available.
Karen Covy: How long is the retreat? Is it a full week or a weekend?
Hannah McKitrick: It's a full week—six nights and seven days. I find that is the perfect amount of time to strip yourself away from your normal environment, acclimate, shed different layers, and step into who you want to become.
Having led many six-night retreats, the transformation journey is remarkably predictable. The first couple of days, you're getting your feet wet, and things might still feel a bit unclear as you think about everything you're dealing with.
By day four, things shift. People start saying, "Now I see it clearly! Here is my 10-year plan, and I already know what steps to take next." By day five, they don't want to leave, and by day six, they're saying, "You are my best friends for life, let's do this again!"
Karen Covy: You mentioned that some women have attended multiple retreats. Have you ever had a situation where a core group already knows each other, and a few new people feel like they don't fit in with a clique?
Hannah McKitrick: The way that gets prevented is that each retreat is a completely unique container with its own energy and mix of people. Every person there is meant to be there, and no one knows each other better than anyone else because we are all meeting ourselves anew each time.
Open-mindedness is the primary requirement. The women who return are open-minded to meeting new people, and the new attendees are open-minded as well. That allows genuine connections to form without any hierarchy between returning participants and first-timers. I hold that container strongly, and everyone rises to it because we're all friends here. Each year creates a new collection of soul sisters.
Karen Covy: That's a beautiful thing. How does the travel logistics work? Do people book their own flights to Greece and meet you there?
Hannah McKitrick: Everyone books their own airfare since people fly in from all over the country. Then, we arrange to pick everyone up from the airport. Since there aren't thousands of flights into the Samos airport daily, people naturally end up on the same connecting flights.
If people are coming from the same state, I can connect them beforehand so they can coordinate travel if they wish. Otherwise, most participants come on their own, send me their flight arrival times, and I send a car to pick them up.
Karen Covy: That works great! Once people arrive, how much do they have to plan or worry about?
Hannah McKitrick: I tell people that the hardest decision they have to make all week is choosing between white wine or rosé!
Once they arrive, I encourage them to turn their brains off. Everything is planned, coordinated, and taken care of. I want participants to relax as much as possible so they can drop out of their overactive minds and connect back to their soul and spirit.
Many women say that not having to worry about a single detail—not even choosing what to order off a menu—is one of the most impactful parts of the experience. We handle dietary preferences ahead of time and serve meals family-style.
Karen Covy: Unplugging from social media, emails, and daily busyness seems wonderful, but it might intimidate some people. Is internet access available if someone needs to check in?
Hannah McKitrick: Yes, there is internet access. I don't ask people to disconnect completely because what naturally happens is that they become so present in what we're doing that they stop mindlessly scrolling for stimulation. They have so much positive, real-life stimulation that when they do log on, they're just sharing vibrant photos of their experience.
Karen Covy: I've seen the photos from your retreats, and I get jealous every single time because it looks like so much fun! You can see the energy radiating from everyone.
Hannah McKitrick: It raises their frequency and their joy just spills out of them.
Karen Covy: I work with people at all different stages of divorce. Which women are good candidates for a retreat like this? If someone is in the middle of a divorce, are they ready, or is a retreat exactly what they need?
Hannah McKitrick: I've worked with women at every stage. Some are in unhealthy marriages and come on retreat simply because they aren't happy, without knowing yet if divorce is in their future. Others are in the thick of legal proceedings, name changes, or settling child support, and desperately need a break for themselves. Others have gotten past the initial trauma, the dust is settling, and they are ready to figure out their next chapter.
It comes down to what the individual needs. If you know you need to focus on yourself, pour into your own growth, seek clarity, and have some fun without taking yourself too seriously, it's a great fit regardless of the exact stage you are in.
Karen Covy: So if a person feels called to this, the specific stage of transition doesn't matter.
Hannah McKitrick: Exactly. While this retreat is tailored for women navigating a transition, it's really for anyone who wants more clarity, connection, great food, and more fun in their life. It's especially potent if you are seeking clarity, redefining yourself after a role shift, or intentionally creating your next chapter.
Karen Covy: How has leading these retreats changed your own life?
Hannah McKitrick: I go through my own transformation on every single retreat because I'm in it with the participants. Each retreat has a theme, and I often find that my own life events mirror that theme.
For example, with this upcoming retreat, I am navigating my own transition right now—going through a breakup and redefining aspects of my business. I created the retreat theme before any of that happened! I go through the transformation first so that I can teach the message from an authentic, embodied experience. It's not just theoretical; I've lived it, experienced it, and can share what actually works.
Karen Covy: That makes so much sense. Hannah, this has been such an exciting and fun conversation. Where can listeners go to learn more about your retreats?
Hannah McKitrick: You can visit DolceVitaExperiences.com and click under the "Retreats" tab. The upcoming Greece retreat details are listed there, and the link will be in the show notes.
Karen Covy: I will definitely link everything in the show notes. If you reach out to Hannah, be sure to let her know you heard about her here. Thank you so much for joining us, Hannah!
Hannah McKitrick: Thank you so much, Karen!
Karen Covy: For those watching or listening, if you enjoyed today's conversation and want to hear more like it, please give this episode a thumbs up, subscribe to the podcast, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. I look forward to talking with you all again next time!
