In Relation with Sam Forbes October 6-13 2025

A Therapist-Led Healing Holiday

Healing Holidays began with a simple commitment: healing should never happen in isolation. In our earliest retreats, we made sure every participant’s own therapist was involved from the beginning — to check the timing was right, to ensure safety, and to support the process from a distance. We knew then, as we know now, that stepping into cultural healing practices in Bali must be done with care, integrity, and readiness.

Veteran Trauma Therapist Brings Decades of Experience to Healing Retreat in Bali

For more than 32 years, Australian psychotherapist Sam Forbes has sat with people in their most broken moments. Her work has spanned continents and crises: helping survivors of child sexual abuse find safety in their own bodies again, walking alongside women who have endured unspeakable violence, and most recently, holding the weight of war with women in Gaza.

Her commitment is not only international. Sam is also a passionate advocate for Aboriginal communities in Australia. She has long studied the injustices faced by First Nations people and continues to highlight the profound impact of intergenerational trauma. This blend of global and local experience shapes the sensitivity and integrity she brings to every therapeutic encounter.

Soft-spoken and considered, Sam carries a strength that does not waver. She refuses to back down from the values that shape her worldview. After decades of working in the hardest human realities, she remains grounded, unjaded, and deeply committed to lifting others.

While one raw conversation with a friend in distress may leave many of us carrying an emotional hangover, Sam has built an entire vocation around showing up for others in these hardest of places. It is this rare combination of courage, skill, and compassion that she now brings to Bali, where she will facilitate an eight-day program of therapeutic interventions and facilitated sessions for women this October.

Hosted by Healing Holidays, the retreat blends Sam’s trauma-focused clinical expertise with Bali’s long-held traditions of purification and renewal. As a cultural bridging service, Healing Holidays connects practitioners with ethical, authentic Balinese healing experiences — ensuring that every ceremony is grounded in respect for local traditions and relationships. Guests will take part in therapeutic interventions led by Sam, supported by Balinese rituals and the care of a local host team. Sam herself will also engage in these healing experiences before and after the retreat, embodying the Healing Holidays ethos that restoration is something we live, not just something we offer.

This retreat brings professional therapeutic care into a space of cultural healing, Sam doesn’t just facilitate recovery — she lives it. Guests will walk alongside her in Bali, held both clinically and culturally.

The retreat is designed for women navigating life transitions — divorce, perimenopause, grief, or long-standing relationship patterns — who are ready for deeper change. With only a handful of places available, it offers a rare chance to experience the kind of therapeutic care usually reserved for clinical settings, in a supportive, culturally rich environment.

Retreat Dates: October 6–13, 2025
Location: Sayan, Ubud, Bali
More information & bookings: www.healingholidays.com/in-relation

About Sam Forbes

Sam Forbes, BA (Psychology), MSW (Social Work), AASW, is an Australian psychotherapist and clinical social worker with more than three decades of experience in trauma recovery and relationships. She has worked with survivors of child sexual abuse, family violence, complex PTSD, and most recently with women living through war in Gaza. Sam is also a long-time advocate for Aboriginal communities in Australia, deeply engaged with the impact of systemic injustice and intergenerational trauma.

Her practice is LGBTQIA+ affirming and sex-positive, inclusive of ethical non-monogamy, poly, and kink communities. She draws on EMDR, Narrative Therapy, Gottman, Family Systems, and attachment-based approaches, always with a trauma-focused lens.

Sam’s private practice is based in Sydney, with telehealth sessions available across Australia and internationally.

At Healing Holidays, we’ve grown from retreats that checked in with outside therapists to retreats where the therapist is in the room, guiding the process. This evolution reflects our ethos: healing held both clinically and culturally, grounded in safety and authenticity.

Bookings for this October retreat close September 30 and places are limited. Please check out the retreat listing here for full details.