Palawan Mental Wellness Retreat: 4-Day Medically Supervised Island Reset

The retreat runs on a private island in Busuanga, in the northern part of Palawan — the island group voted World's Best Island by Travel + Leisure in 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2020. The setting is genuinely remote: you reach it by flying to Busuanga Airport, then transferring to La Estancia resort. Once you're there, you're on an island with mangroves, white beaches and clear water, and the days move between the resort's workshop space, the beach and various spots around the island that the facilitators use for sessions.

Sessions are led by Dr. Noreen Molina, a psychiatrist who trained at the University of Sto Tomas and the National Center for Mental Health and has spent over two decades treating depression, PTSD and anxiety. She works alongside Stephen Yanga, who teaches Ashtanga, Hatha and Vinyasa yoga and trained at Yogmantra Bali, and Mac Balbin, a sound healer and Vipassana practitioner. The three of them split the programme between clinical insight, physical practice and sound-based work. Workshops cover mindfulness, emotional healing, mind management and nature therapy, with practical tools you're meant to keep using after you go home.

What separates this from a standard wellness retreat is the medical layer. A pre-retreat call with the psychiatrist and facilitator sets personal goals before you arrive. During the retreat, sessions are shaped around those goals. And for six weeks after you leave, you can keep checking in with both the psychiatrist and the facilitator as you fold what you learned back into normal life. That structure is unusual — most retreats end when you get on the plane.

The 4-day programme includes room and board at the private island resort with locally sourced meals, daily workshops and classes, yoga, movement and breathwork, a treatment medicine island tour, massage treatments, roundtrip airfare from Manila to Busuanga, and roundtrip airport and boat transfers. The 6-day version expands the same programme with more time on the island. Airfare from your home country to Manila is not included, though the team can connect you with a travel agency for onward arrangements.

The retreat has drawn some well-known Filipino guests who have spoken publicly about their experience, including actress Cristine Reyes, journalist Ces Drilon and athlete Justin Melton. Their testimonials are on the website. Capacity is capped at eight participants per retreat to keep sessions personal; if your preferred date is full, you go onto a waitlist for the next available slot.

What's included

- 4 nights accommodation at a private island resort in Busuanga, Palawan (sea-view rooms) - All locally sourced meals and drinks - Roundtrip airfare from Manila to Busuanga Airport - Roundtrip airport transfers and boat transfers to the private island - Pre-retreat call with the psychiatrist and facilitator - Post-retreat support: up to 6 weeks of personalised guidance - Daily workshops and classes (mindfulness, emotional healing, nature therapy, plant medicine, mind management) - Daily yoga, movement and breathwork sessions - Treatment medicine island tour - Special massage treatments - Sound healing sessions

What's not included

- Airfare from your country of origin to Manila - Travel insurance - Personal expenses - Additional travel arrangements within the Philippines beyond the included transfers (partner agency can assist)