A private retreat for the conversations your forum rarely gets to have.
Custom SkillfullyAware® retreats for EO/YPO forums, founders, and leadership groups — designed for deeper trust, clearer self-awareness, better conversations, and practical growth.
You choose the dates. We help shape the experience, hold the process, and handle the details.
- ·6–15 participants
- ·One-day SAAQ Forum Immersions or 2–5 day private retreats
- ·Signature location: Tubac Ranch, Arizona
- ·Custom private locations by request
Your forum is not looking for another keynote, team-building activity, or beautiful property with a loose agenda.
You are looking for a setting where people can be themselves, speak honestly, listen to each other, and do meaningful work together.
Each retreat is designed around your forum’s actual needs — deeper trust, leadership clarity, pattern work, conflict repair, transition, burnout, or renewed connection.
Tubac Ranch is the signature Arizona retreat setting. Retreats can also be designed for your forum’s preferred destination or another carefully chosen private location.
Designed for the Person Behind the Title
At Tubac Ranch or another carefully chosen private setting, Dr. Mark Pirtle creates fully private retreat experiences built around one question: what does this forum actually need right now?
The work is practical, personal, and carefully held. Depending on the group, the retreat may include the SAAQ, a shorter participant questionnaire, or both. When the SAAQ is included, each participant receives a private developmental reflection before the retreat, giving the forum a deeper map of strengths, blind spots, stress reactions, growth edges, and practical next steps.
Participants leave with more than a shared memory. They leave with clearer trust, a stronger shared language, and practical insight into the patterns shaping how they lead, relate, decide, and respond under pressure.
What high-responsibility people rarely get to say
The identity pressure.
When work carries your name, your reputation, or decades of sacrifice, the role can become difficult to separate from the person. Dr. Pirtle's retreats create space to examine that honestly and carefully.
The isolation problem.
At a certain level, honest feedback becomes harder to find. People tell you what they think you want to hear, or they say nothing at all. The SAAQ can provide a structured mirror before the retreat; a well-held forum retreat creates the conditions where honest peer input can actually be spoken, heard, and used.
The pattern problem.
Every leader has patterns that show up under pressure — over-control, avoidance, defensiveness, people-pleasing, conflict, shutdown, urgency, or self-protection. The SAAQ can help name these patterns; SkillfullyAware® practices help people work with them more skillfully.
The deeper question.
Is this still the way I want to lead, relate, and live? Dr. Pirtle's retreats create the space to ask that question with enough honesty, safety, and support to let something useful emerge.
What Each Retreat Can Include
Every SkillfullyAware® retreat is custom-designed around the forum's goals, location, timing, and level of readiness. Some elements are core to the work. Others depend on the venue, selected format, and group context. Below are the elements core to most retreat designs.
Custom planning call with Dr. Pirtle
Pre-retreat questionnaire and/or SAAQ intake
Depending on retreat design
SAAQ assessment and private participant reports
When included in the retreat design
Facilitated group dialogue and coaching circles
Guided reflection, pattern work, and leadership exercises
Meditation, awareness, and SkillfullyAware® practices
Belief Audit, Pattern Work and Parts Dialogue, Narrative Flip, or other practices
Selected for the group
Shared language and practical next steps for post-retreat integration
Post-retreat integration guide
What may also be available, depending on the venue
Depending on the venue and retreat design, your experience may also include the following. A one-day SAAQ Forum Immersion will not include lodging, meals, fire circles, nature-based amenities, sauna, or venue-based experiences unless it is attached to a broader retreat design.
Private accommodations or lodging coordination
Meals, snacks, and non-alcoholic beverages
Included at Tubac Ranch, coordinated separately at custom locations, or handled by the host forum depending on venue and agreement
Nature walks, desert reflection, or equivalent location-based practices
Evening fire circle or equivalent closing experience
Nordic sauna, wellness amenities, or nature access
When available
Music, drumming, or live music
When appropriate for the group
Outdoor excursions
Based on location and schedule
Equine-assisted leadership
When the venue and facilitator team support it
Bodywork or somatic sessions
By arrangement
Guest facilitators
By request
Custom dining experiences
Where available
Simple for You. Powerful for Your Forum.
Tell us about your group
Fill out a short inquiry form. No commitment — just enough context to begin shaping the right conversation.
Planning call with Dr. Pirtle
Mark personally connects with you to understand your forum, your goals, the group dynamic, and what kind of retreat or SAAQ immersion would serve you best.
Your custom proposal
You receive a tailored proposal with recommended format, itinerary or immersion design, experiences, logistics, and pricing.
Lock it in
Sign the agreement and place your deposit. We handle the planning details from there.
Show up
Arrive at Tubac Ranch, your selected private retreat setting, or the agreed SAAQ immersion location for a focused experience with no unnecessary distractions.
Leave with shared language and next steps
Your forum leaves with clearer trust, practical tools, and a shared experience you can keep building on.
Choose the Format That Fits Your Forum
Every forum is different. Some groups want a private destination retreat with space for depth, restoration, and shared experience. Others want a focused SAAQ-based immersion that gives the group a clear developmental map and a practical 90-day plan.
Private Forum Retreats
$3,000–$6,000 per person
Custom-designed experiences for EO/YPO forums, founders, and leadership groups. May include facilitated dialogue, SkillfullyAware® practices, leadership reflection, pattern work, nature-based experiences, shared meals, integration planning, and venue-specific amenities.
Signature retreats at Tubac Ranch, Arizona. Custom private locations available by request.
SAAQ Forum Immersion
Starting at $12,500 per forum
A premium developmental experience built around the SkillfullyAware Awareness Quotient. The process starts with a one-hour online tutorial. Over the next month each member completes the SAAQ and receives a private developmental report. The following month the group comes together for a facilitated six-hour immersion covering strengths, blind spots, stress patterns, growth edges, and practical next steps.
Generally includes up to 8 participants, individual confidential reports, pre-immersion setup, a facilitated one-day immersion, group themes, a 90-day practice and accountability plan, and one follow-up call.
Premium SAAQ Forum Immersion
From $18,000
For forums wanting deeper individual attention. May include individual pre-immersion debriefs, a more customized group summary, additional follow-up coaching calls, and more hands-on 90-day integration support.
Custom pricing based on scope and participation.
Common Logistics
6–15 participants for most private forum retreats
Standard SAAQ Forum Immersion generally includes up to 8 participants
Additional SAAQ participants, individual debriefs, venue costs, travel, lodging, meals, and follow-up support may be quoted separately depending on format
Signature location: Tubac Ranch, Arizona
Custom private locations available by request
Final pricing depends on format, group size, location, customization, travel, venue costs, and follow-up support
Dr. Mark Pirtle
Dr. Mark Pirtle has spent almost 30 years helping leaders, founders, forum members, and growth-minded people understand the patterns that shape how they lead, relate, decide, and respond under pressure.
His SkillfullyAware® approach integrates mindfulness, neuroscience, developmental psychology, somatic awareness, shadow integration, and practical tools for working with patterns in real life.
Mark knows what it takes to hold a room where high-responsibility people can be honest without feeling exposed, challenged without being shamed, and connected without forcing vulnerability.
Why Forums Choose This Work
Private, carefully held space for conversations that rarely happen in regular meetings
A retreat process designed around the group's actual needs
SkillfullyAware® tools for trust, self-awareness, pattern recognition, and practical integration
A setting that supports depth without unnecessary performance, pressure, or spectacle
Frequently Asked
Give your forum more than another good trip.
Create a private, carefully held retreat that helps your group deepen trust, see patterns more clearly, and leave with language and practices you can keep using.
Tell us about your group
A few details are enough to begin. No commitment — this just gives Mark the context to shape the right conversation.