A four-day experimental Vipassanā retreat exploring insight through meditation, relational mindfulness, somatic awareness and movement. Together, we investigate how wisdom can unfold not only in stillness, but also through the body, relationship and movement.
Vipassanā is a meditation practice that invites us to investigate moment-to-moment experience.
Traditionally, it is cultivated through silent sitting meditation (and sometimes walking), together with mindful awareness in daily life.
Over time, the practice can reveal the constructed nature of experience—opening space, reducing suffering, and allowing for greater clarity, freedom and compassion.
In this retreat, we explore how Vipassanā insight may unfold through less traditional yet complementary forms of practice. We are interested in integrating insight across the whole of our lived experience.
Mind
Perception, Attention & Cognition
Heart
Relationship, Interbeing & Compassion
Body
Embodied felt sense and Movement
Relational Dimension
Dr. Andrea Galvan shares an intersubjective approach to Vipassanā through phenomenological dialogue — investigating experience together in real time.
A practice that brings the investigative stance of Vipassana in the space between us, through language and content instead of bypassing them, thus adding a bridge for the integration of insight into our lives.
Embodied Dimension
Reimar Wen Shen draws on his experience in Somatics and Contact Improvisation to explore the embodied and co-emergent dimensions of experience, creating a non-verbal moving laboratory for Vipassanā insight.
“Movement is not something the body does.
Movement is how body, mind, and world meet.”
This may include explorations of:
• the body through sensation, in both stillness and subtle movement, as well as in more energetic activity
• the mind through the body, investigating how intention, agency, and imagination manifest as sensation
• the subtle embodiment of relationship, and the interplay of listening, action, self, and other
• Authentic Movement dyads, with moving and witnessing as intersubjective insight practice
Photos of past retreats
Structure of the Retreat
Over the four days, Andrea and Reimar will guide sessions in:
• sitting meditation
• dialogical insight practices
• somatic and embodied explorations
There will also be periods of shared silence.
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Retreat Schedule
Thursday | Arrival between 5-6 PM / Dinner and Meditation
Friday | Full Day of Practice
Saturday | Full Day of Practice
Sunday | Morning Practice and ending at Lunch
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Nature of the Space
This retreat is facilitated and experimental. It brings together two distinct but related approaches that have not previously been combined in this way.
Rather than offering a fixed method, we open a space for exploration, direct experience and mutual learning.
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Language
The retreat will be facilitated in English with translation into Italian.
Photos of Venue and Rooms
®Tana del Tasso 2026
Accommodation & Venue
La Tana del Tasso is a charming boutique guesthouse in the beautifully preserved medieval village of Cornello dei Tasso. Set within a lovingly restored historic building, it offers comfortable rooms, peaceful gardens, mountain views and a calm atmosphere surrounded by nature—an ideal setting for retreat, reflection and slow living.
Food
There will be three healthy daily vegan and gluten-free meals prepared by a chef.
How to get to the venue
https://maps.app.goo.gl/cRWAPnP2mx5J7THd8
Nearest Airport: Venice
There will be a Whatsapp group to self-organise sharing transport.
For further questions please email Andrea.
Pricing
3 Nights of Accommodation
2 Full retreat days, 2 Half days for arrival & departure
includes 3 vegetarian meals per day (dinner on arrival day and lunch on departure day)
The retreat fee is based on the actual costs of running the retreat—venue hire, food, accommodation, travel and organisational expenses. Once these costs are covered, the remaining income is shared between the facilitators in recognition of the time and care invested before, during and after the retreat.
Price for Food & Accommodation
395 EUR // Shared Room
495 EUR // Single Room
Deposit & Cancellation Policy
100 EUR Deposit is non-refundable.
Participants & Accessibility
You do not need to have any specific experience in meditation, just a curiosity to learn what this practice is about. The practices we explore are very gentle and do not require any physical fitness or ability.
However, the space is not wheelchair accessible due to stairs and nature paths.
The Facilitators
Dr. Andrea Galvan is a psychologist, meditation teacher, and founder of Fenomenologia Dialogica. His work integrates Vipassanā meditation with psychology, phenomenology, contemplative science, and relational mindfulness, bringing together rigorous personal practice with contemporary scientific perspectives. (fenomenologiadialogica.com)
Drawing on humanistic psychology, cognitive science, and embodied approaches to learning, Andrea facilitates online courses, long-term practice groups, and retreats that explore how insight develops through both meditation and authentic dialogue. His approach emphasises the inseparability of mind, body, and relationship as pathways for deep personal transformation.
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Reimar Wen Shen is a Vipassanā meditation teacher, dancer, and father based at Quinta Ten Chi near Sintra, Portugal.
He has practiced Vipassanā for over a decade across the Goenka, Mahasi, and Northern Thai traditions, including more than 30 weeks in intensive silent retreat.
Before teaching full-time, he worked in investment management at Vanguard, shaping his commitment to a practice integrated with everyday life.
His teaching brings together classical Theravāda Vipassanā with contemporary approaches to insight, embodiment, and emptiness. In 2021, he founded Vipassana at Home to make deep meditation practice more accessible beyond traditional retreat settings.
Sandra Fleischmann is an osteopath, movement practitioner, and meditation practitioner based in Hamburg, Germany.
Since 2016, she has trained and practised in osteopathy, completing a five-year degree while developing an approach that integrates manual therapy with an understanding of the body’s innate capacity for self-healing.
Alongside her clinical work, Sandra has a long-standing practice in Contact Improvisation, tango, Body-Mind Centering, and Buddhist meditation. Her work explores the relationship between movement, awareness, and health, creating spaces where body and mind can reconnect through presence, touch, and embodied attention. (osteopathie-sandrafleischmann.de)
She will be assisting the retreat and offering Osteopathic treatments (not included in the program).