Welcome
Meet our founder and dedicated team. The people behind the heart and soul of our retreats. With passion, care, and attention to every detail, they create meaningful experiences where you can slow down, reconnect, and feel fully supported in a warm and inspiring environment for body, mind & soul
About Founder Elise
At the age of 28, just after graduating from Hotel Management School, I was faced with the life‑changing challenge of breast cancer. What could have been the end of my dreams became the beginning of a new path. Alongside the exceptional medical care I received, I realized something was missing: holistic guidance. That support was not available in the hospital, so I had to seek it out myself. Exploring, trying, and embracing practices that gave me strength, peace, and trust in life again. Yoga, meditation, sound healing, stress management, balanced food and reconnecting with myself opened a whole new world.
After recovery, I set out to explore the world. My career as a hotel manager took me to extraordinary destinations, where I learned to balance professional life with a deep connection to nature and inner wellbeing.
Through multiple hospital visits and surgeries, I carried with me deep admiration for the doctors who cared for me, but as a patient I felt lonely and at some point wondering if I was the only young adult dealing with breast cancer. Despite the statistics, I rarely encountered other women who had faced or overcome breast cancer.
Life eventually brought me to Southern Portugal, where together with my partner I founded a private chef company. Working in stunning locations for private retreats, I witnessed the transformative power of healing, connection, and celebration of life. It was here that the vision for our retreats was born: creating spaces where women who have experienced breast cancer can come together, find community, and rediscover joy in beautiful surroundings.
Our retreats are more than a getaway, they are a place to feel relaxed to connect, and to embrace life with renewed strength. We believe in the power of community, the beauty of nature, and the courage of women who choose to live fully after breast cancer.
Our Mission
Our Retreats are to support women after breast cancer in reconnecting with life, joy, and serenity.
At Eliviate Retreats, our mission is to create holidays designed specifically for women after breast cancer. We know this time in life can feel intense and overwhelming. When treatments are finished you may feel ready to return to “normal life”, yet from experience, we understand that this transition can also feel scary, different, or too fast.
That’s why we created retreats just for you: to offer the space and time to gently reconnect with your body, mind, and soul. Our commitment is to empower every guest to cultivate balance, harmony, and vitality, while rediscovering joy and strength in a safe, uplifting environment.
Through our personalized programs and the expertise of our practitioners, we aim to create a supportive space where each individual can be herself, rest and recharge with power & strength. We choose retreat locations close to nature where we can rest at our best.
Meet the Team
We work with a team of powerful, positive women from diverse backgrounds. Each location may feature a different mix of team members, but all share the same open mindset, expertise, and passion for supporting other women
Founder & Hostess & Nutrition
Elise
Elise is the founder and heart behind Eliviate Retreats. With her warm presence, positive outlook on life, and natural ability to connect with people, she creates an atmosphere where guests can truly relax, recharge, and feel at home. She welcomes and guides guests throughout each retreat and plays an active role in many of the experiences. With her background as a private chef, Elise brings extensive knowledge of food, holistic living, and Ayurvedic principles, always focusing on balance, wellbeing, and conscious enjoyment.
Hostess
Janna
Our hostess Janna is a specialist when it comes to holding space together. She is a ray of sunshine. She has worked at big yoga events throughout Germany, worked for a specialist focused on healthy lifestyle and is currently in training to become a somatic experiencing practitioner. Now she is living in Portugal to feel and embrace the simple natural lifestyle.
Yoga & Meditation
Miri
Miri is our Yoga, Meditation & Pranayama teacher, a warm and deeply grounded soul with a gentle, calming presence. With over 800 hours of YTT experience and years of teaching around the world, she intuitively understands how to help people release tension, reconnect with their bodies, and find inner balance.
Her teaching style is soft, mindful, and nurturing, while also encouraging strength, stability, and confidence within the body. Through a beautiful combination of movement, breathwork, and awareness, Miri creates classes that feel both restorative and empowering
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Creative & Realisation
Marije & Jelmer
Together with Elise, Marije and Jelmer play an important role in shaping the creative and organisational foundation of Eliviate Retreats.
Marije is a designer at heart, with a strong passion for aesthetics, branding, and user experience. Together with Elise’s vision and creative direction, she helped bring the visual identity and atmosphere of Eliviate Retreats to life in a refined and inspiring way.
Jelmer brings structure, clarity, and organisation to the process. From Amsterdam, he coordinates the development behind the scenes and helps ensure everything runs smoothly and efficiently.
Alongside the website and creative development, Marije and Jelmer also support Elise with the back office and daily operations, forming a strong and dedicated team behind the retreat experience
Hostess
Claire
Meet Claire, a warm and uplifting presence with a natural gift for hospitality. We met her in the south of Portugal, where her positive energy and effortless elegance immediately stood out. Claire combines creativity with an entrepreneurial spirit, bringing together softness, confidence, and genuine connection. She has a natural ability to make people feel welcome, comfortable, and truly seen
Chef
Bas
Meet Bas, our chef with a passion that goes far beyond cooking. For him, food is about feeling, connection, and creating an experience. Every dish tells a story, inspired by the people, places, and flavors he discovered while traveling the world.
Over the years, Bas has cooked in exclusive private chalets, boutique hotels in the Alps, and unique destinations in South Portugal. His international experience is reflected in his refined yet honest style of cooking, where simplicity and quality always come first.
Several years ago, Bas consciously shifted towards a healthy sport lifestyle, making nutrition an essential part of overall wellbeing and balance. Since then, he has been cooking at a variety of retreats where food plays a central role in the journey; nourishing body, mind & soul.