A six women retreat at the House of Rain villa in Ubud is attracting those looking for inner peace and transformation
Sunrise in Ubud feels like a film. Mist drapes itself over a valley of rice terraces, roosters and dogs call from somewhere beyond the palms, and in the stillness, six women meander barefoot around the open air lounge along the edge of a stone infinity pool. This is how my five days at the Energy Alchemy retreat begins: not with a bold promise of transformation, but with quiet spaciousness, and an invitation to simply arrive, reflect and set intentions.
At a time when so many “wellness” experiences feel like performance – hot schedules, hashtags, and hustle in softer clothing – Energy Alchemy, founded by Bali-based Weiley Chen Walter, is quietly radical. It is deliberately unhurried, designed not as a boot camp for self‑improvement but as a sanctuary for recalibration and reset. Weiley, a Chinese Brit who has lived in Wuhan, Cambridge, Philippines, Phuket and Bali, and burnt herself out in years of fintech, set out to create something targeted to women much like herself.
It’s niche? It might be prescribed as a place for high functioning women (especially in Asia) who are used to holding space for others to have the focus turned on themselves and their inner worlds. Hosted at the luxurious Rumah Hujan private villa just outside central Ubud, each private retreat is capped at an intimate six.
Ceremony as a gateway
The days unfold like long exhalations. There is a suggested rhythm, starting with early morning meditations, but this isn’t compulsory. We begin with Sunrise Silence: a loosely held container where some journal by the pool, others meditate, and a few of us simply cradle coffee and watch the valley below shift from indigo to gold. It is striking how extravagant simple stillness feels in this setting.
Later comes Morning Movement, with gentle, intuitive practices that might be yoga by the pool or a walk along the quiet, green ridges nearby. No one is trying to fold themselves into a better version of their body. Instead, movement is framed as medicine, a way of letting the body speak to you after years of the mind running the show.
Meals here, catered by the in house team at the private villa, are a nutritious art form of their own. Breakfast arrives as platters of ripe papaya and mango, soft eggs, and often herbal tonics and teas fragrant with lemongrass and ginger. Lunch is a generous pause in the middle of the day, often followed by reading in shady nooks, floating in the pool, or watching dragonflies stitch patterns into the air. In the five days at Energy Alchemy we ate wonderful Indonesian, Balinese, Chinese, European, Thai meals – all sharing and family and barely a dish was repeated.
And usually in the afternoons, the deeper work begins. On our first full day, we gather in the villa’s pavilion for an opening cacao ceremony. Ceremonial cacao, rich and dark, is poured into small handmade cups, and we are invited to drink slowly, to notice its warmth spreading through the chest. This isn’t about chasing a high, but about softening the mental chatter long enough to actually feel what’s been waiting beneath the surface. For some women, tears arrive quickly; for others, it is a quiet widening, a sense of becoming more available to their own lives. The practitioners leading this ceremony also lead the group in song, humming and voice work. This was surprisingly not at all cringey to me, and helped the group of strangers open to each other.
Another day is devoted to Melukat, a traditional Balinese water purification ceremony held at a famed nearby temple. Dressed in sarongs, we step one by one under the gush of holy spring water flowing for over a thousand years, each space bringing a different blessing as the local guide explains. The experience is both visceral and symbolic: a tangible sense of handing back what we need to release, of letting stories and expectations stream off our skin and into the river. And whilst this is in ways a spiritual retreat, it is less about religion than ritual and ancient local traditions.
Inner alchemy
If the ceremonies are the bones of the retreat, the breathwork, sound healing and hypnotherapy sessions are its nervous system.
In the main led breathwork journey, I lie on a mat in the softly lit shala, eyes closed, guided into waves of deep, conscious breathing. Tingling moves through my hands, face and jaw; at some point tears arrive, not dramatic but steady. Colours pulsed behind my eyelids, memories surfaced and receded. This was personally my most powerful therapy “session” in the retreat – shifting something visceral but quite hard to describe and not unlike the feeling of plant medicine retreats that I had been on before.
Sound healing offers a different kind of surrender. Carefully tuned bowls and chimes send vibrations skimming across the room, landing in the spaces that language doesn’t reach. I hover somewhere between waves of emotiveness and a lucid dream, aware of my body yet untethered from the restless stream of thought. The joy here is that you’re not really focused on achieving anything; but your nervous system unwinds and exhales.
A group hypnotherapy session invites us to meet our inner child or younger selves – the girl we once were before achievement, comparison, and caretaking took over. The guide asks you not to relive trauma; but instead treat your younger self with tenderness. The insight is simple but seismic for some, and a lighter tread for others like me who took a walk down memory lane.
Story, scent and sisterhood
One morning we are treated to a few hours at a beautiful local spa: aromatherapy, massage, scrub and long floral bath. That afternoon we move from the realm of breath and sound into scent. In collaboration with Oiland – a natural perfumery based in Ubud, we spend hours in a workshop exploring essential oils including earthy vetiver, lavender and bergamot, and try to notice which ones light up memories, emotions, and even resistance.
Evenings are for integration. Dinner is a shared table laid with fragrant curries, crisp vegetables, and coconut‑rich desserts, prepared by the Rumah Hujan team with care and intentionality. Afterwards, under a sky bright with stars, our host and retreat founder Weiley gathers us for themed conversations.
We might talk about burnout and belonging, what it means to be ambitious without abandoning ourselves, and the weigh of responsibility, both familial and societal. And much is said about the secret grief of successful women who can often feel like strangers in their own lives. And somehow, surprisingly to all those invited, over the course of five days, six strangers become confidantes.
By the final sunrise, something subtle has definitely shifted. My to‑do list is still waiting in Hong Kong, my three inboxes all unapologetically full. But my body feels less like a vehicle for productivity and more like a home. Energy Alchemy does not send you back as a completely new person; but rather shifts my perspective on where I am in life, how I want to operate going forward.
We are told that the work doesn’t stop when you leave the villa, the retreat, the women and Ubud – follow up group and individual sessions are meant to integrate what you’ve learnt and felt. But, at least for me, you leave clearer, kinder, and better able to hear your own quiet wisdom.
