Leaders
Leading with questions.
You've built experience, responsibility and influence. Now you're looking for the space to reflect, renew your perspective and lead with even greater presence.
You know how to lead. This is where you remember how to feel.
Experience nine days in the Sahara desert to disconnect from the noise, sit with the silence, and step back into what truly matters.
Submit your interest
Early bird until 15.10.2026 · March 4–12, 2027 · 9 days in the Sahara
The world got louder.You got quieter.
You have built the career. Carried responsibility. Led people through complexity and change.
Meanwhile the world has become noisier, more connected, more uncertain, more demanding of our attention.
Most of us are not lacking knowledge or technique.
What we lack is space.
Space to quiet the constant movement of everyday life.
Space to reconnect with ourselves.
Space to hear what has been waiting beneath the noise.
For thousands of years, when people needed to see more clearly, they went to the desert.
Not to escape life. To return to it differently.
The journey goes two ways.
Into the Sahara,
and into yourself.
The Sahara has always been a place of emptying and letting go of old patterns. A place where the pace slows, the mind settles, and something deeper begins to emerge.
Alchemy is the old word for turning base metal into gold, and here it means the same thing done inwardly: the ordinary material of your life, met with full attention in the desert, comes back changed.
Sometimes the rarest thing we can give ourselves is the space to invest in who you are becoming. Nine days offline, deep in the desert, with a small circle of people from around the world who are ready to let go of the noise and listen more deeply.
What might be waiting for you in the silence?
You are somewhere near
a crossroads.
Perhaps you have achieved much by the world's standards, yet still find yourself longing for something you cannot quite name. We believe peace is not something you go out and find. It is what remains when the noise begins to fall away.
As you journey inward, beneath the expectations, distractions and constant doing, you may discover what has always been there—a quiet sense of meaning, contentment and wholeness, waiting patiently to be noticed.
Seekers
You are still climbing.
You don't have all the answers, and that's exactly what draws you here. You're curious about what becomes possible when you slow down and listen more deeply.
Practitioners
Holding space for others.
You coach, facilitate, teach or guide others. This journey is an opportunity to step out of that role and experience what it feels like to simply be held yourself.
“The journey was not new. It was a reunion.”
Kristiina, Finland
Early bird pricing available until 15.10.2026.
Submit your interest
The shift from doing
to being.
That is the quiet shift these nine days are built for. What you take home is not a framework. It is clarity, deeper calm, and a way of being present that the people around you notice before you do.
I feel relaxed for the first time in a very long time, and a peace inside that I have not felt for decades.
The biggest shift was to intentionally stop acting and create yourself into a being that allows clarity to arrive.
When you take everything off, you realize how little you actually need to carry in your field.
Life has become easier in this accepting space. Certain situations have become less stressful, less urgent.
A voice from the journey.
A short reflection on what the Sahara asked of him, and what he carried home.
“No one goes into the Sahara and comes back the same. Follow her ancient footsteps into the sand and you will find peace and clarity that will change your leadership forever.”
Could this be the invitation you've been waiting for?
Fifteen places, one departure. A short note is all it takes to begin the conversation.
Stillness sets everything in motion.
Go inward. Return carrying what you found.
Deep inside the secluded desert where only Bedouins and camels dare go, we will invite you to experience the expansion of life and eternity, both in shared moments and in solitude. The desert's calm and peace offers a unique setting for deeper reflection and contemplation, creating space for insights about what lies ahead.
We will spend 9 days deep inside the Sahara Desert with a small, select group of like-minded explorers as part of this deep developmental Journey. Together, we will have the opportunity to explore the innermost chambers of our mind, body, and spirit.
Then we slow down into stillness. We spend two days in solitude, cooking on an open fire, walking with a question, sleeping under the stars, and return to share what we found. On the last evening, together, we mark the crossing.
This is not a survival trip. The practical side is fully handled, so your attention stays on the work you came to do.
Nine days, one arc.
In the Sahara we slow down into stillness. We spend two days in solitude, cooking on an open fire, walking with a question, sleeping under the stars, and return to share what we found. On the last evening, together, we mark the crossing.
- 1Arrival
Leaving the modern world behind
From Marrakesh, over the Atlas, into the desert.
- 2Arrival
Opening the field
You land in the desert and let its pace begin to work on you.
- 3Opening
Exploring and preparing
A group of individuals becomes a group.
- 4Opening
Into solitude
A deeper look at the masculine and feminine within.
- 5Solitude
Being in solitude
You depart for silence and deep contemplation, alone.
- 6Solitude
Returning and sharing
A full day of solitude and reflection.
- 7Return
Integrating the gifts
You rejoin the group and share what solitude gave.
- 8Threshold
Celebrating
A last ride, warm showers, a celebratory dinner.
- 9Threshold
Returning anew
The world is now different… so there is no back, there is going forward.
“
I am finally relaxing. Just sitting here and being okay, without that constant pull of anxiety and worry.
Aaron Meder
CEO · USA
01 / 11
The one investment in you.
Everything that matters is handled, so your attention stays on the journey. One price, one departure, one small circle.
- When
- Nine days · March 4–12, 2027.
- Where
- Deep in the Sahara near Mhamid, Morocco, a day's drive from Marrakesh. You begin and end in Marrakesh.
- Places
- 15 participants. One departure a year.
- Included
- All facilitation and logistics; desert-camp accommodation and all meals; four-wheel-drive and camel transport to and from Marrakesh; two individual coaching sessions; peer group coaching; pre-journey online gatherings; and reading materials.
- Not included
- International flights, and lodging in Marrakesh before and after.
- Payment
- Instalments available on request.
Questions people ask
What people actually ask.
The desert is one of the most secluded and lowest-risk places you can travel to, and the journeys are run with the people who have lived there their whole lives. Johan, one of your hosts, spent more than twenty years in security and is trained in pre-hospital care. Medical support, evacuation routes, and an emergency contact are arranged before we leave. There is a working phone at basecamp throughout. Scorpions and snakes are shy, nocturnal and rarely seen.
The desert where we travel is remote and very sparsely populated. The people of the area make their living from welcoming travellers, so there is every reason to keep it safe and hospitable, and in all our years of running these journeys there has never been an incident.
If that reaction is strong, it is usually a sign you need it. If you cannot find nine days for yourself in a year, that is the very pattern worth interrupting. It is an investment in you, and the people who make it rarely regret the time.
Most of the journey is shared, in a small group, with time to talk, reflect and eat together. The solitude is two days near the middle. The rhythm moves between the two on purpose.
You have your own tent and you are never far from the main camp, and your hosts keep watch through the night. The desert is so quiet that a voice carries a great distance, so you can be heard if you ever need anything.
There may be some phone reception, but phones stay at basecamp during the two days of solitude. There is a working phone at camp throughout, and your family will have an emergency number that reaches us at any time.
Yes. We ask everyone to have travel insurance that covers Morocco, including medical care, evacuation, and trip cancellation, and we confirm this before departure.
Days are warm and nights are genuinely cold, so you bring light natural layers and something warm for the evenings. We send clear guidance on exactly what to pack. You travel with one soft bag you can carry, nothing on wheels.
You do not need to be spiritual or religious. Several of the people who have valued this most are pragmatic chief executives. There is no dogma. There is space, silence, and good questions.
Basic fitness is enough, meaning you can walk. Participants well into their sixties have made this journey.
Neither. The group usually spans a wide range of ages and countries, and much of the value comes from that mix. What matters is readiness, not age.
You are free to leave, and your hosts can drive you to the nearest airport. In practice, the urge to leave usually comes in the first days and passes.
Yes. Many organisations now sponsor this as senior leadership development. Request the Sahara Journey Overview here and share it internally.
Yes. Paying in installments is possible — just ask, and we will arrange a plan that works for you.
Clarity, and usually a deep calm. Not a framework or a toolkit. As one CEO said, a peace inside that he had not felt for decades.
That is worth a conversation. Reach out, and we will be honest with you about whether this is your year.
Held by two who have walked this ground for years.
Heidi Gutekunst
Initiator & co-founder, Amara
Heidi is the co-founder of Amara Collaboration and Shifting Horizons, created to bring more aware, transformative leadership into the world. Before turning to individual and organisational development, she spent over a decade as a senior leader in strategic advertising and digital service design. Today she guides leaders and organisations through breakthrough change internationally, chairs the board of a Finnish construction company, and is a PhD candidate in organisational change at Hult Ashridge. With Jane Allen and Bill Torbert, she co-authored Street Smart Awareness and Inquiry-in-Action. Heidi is known for her subtle yet powerful presence and her capacity to let deep change emerge.
Johan Mellerup Trækjær
Originator of the journey
Johan created this journey after his first research trip to the Sahara. For more than twenty years he worked in frontline security, from protection work to threat assessment alongside government intelligence services, and is trained in pre-hospital care. He then moved into academia, researching and teaching cognitive science and organisational psychology. He brings both worlds to the desert: how people actually change, and how to keep them safe in a wild place.
A journey into the Sahara, with Henrik.
Nine days condensed into a few quiet minutes. The dunes, the silence, and the people you might one day walk beside.
If this journey has caught your attention and knocked on your door even a few times…
Do not hesitate. Trust yourself.
Most who go say the same thing afterwards: they wish they had gone sooner.
15 places only9 daysMarch 2027 · Morocco
Connect and share a bit about yourself. We will reach out to arrange a call, unhurried and without obligation.