Invite us to co-create a retreat for your leadership team, designed to build presence, clarity, and resilience in times of change and uncertainty.
Drawing from her doctoral research and her book, An Invitation to Contemplative Leadership (published in 2023), Dr. DeMarsay offers a leadership model rooted in presence, self-awareness, and emotional resilience. She invites leaders to lead from within. This approach centers the leader’s inner state as the foundation for navigating uncertainty, disruption, and change with steadiness and clarity.
The Contemplative Leadership Retreat offers leaders an immersive experience to explore and embody these principles in practice.
Make thoughtful, centered decisions even amid ambiguity and disruption.
Better understand yourself, your triggers, and how to lead with emotional insight.
Develop practices that sharpen your attention to how you show up as a leader.
Learn to stay grounded and responsive, not reactive, in high-stakes environments.
Build authentic connection, trust, and mutual understanding within your team.
Reconnect with your values and lead from what matters most.
The Contemplative Leadership Retreat is an immersive experience designed to support leaders and teams who are serving others in a time of profound uncertainty. Today’s landscape—marked by social disruption, political division, economic strain, and resource limitations—has placed extraordinary pressure on organizations committed to community care, justice, and equity.
For many leaders, the pace is unsustainable, budgets are tightening, and the ability to fulfill their mission is being tested. This retreat offers a necessary pause—a chance to reconnect with what matters most, regain clarity, and lead with steadiness from within.
Through mindfulness-based practices, guided reflection, and meaningful discussion, participants cultivate resilience and emotional intelligence, core leadership capacities supported by neuroscience and essential for making thoughtful decisions, fostering connection, and sustaining well-being in high-impact environments.
More than a retreat, this experience is a re-centering. Each offering is co-created with your organization to reflect your unique goals, values, and realities, ensuring that what emerges is both personally renewing and mission-aligned.
This 3 – 4 hour retreat offers a practical and accessible way for leadership teams to pause, reflect, and reconnect. Whether facilitated virtually or in person, the half-day retreat is ideal for organizations seeking meaningful engagement without the time commitment of a full-day experience.
Participants are introduced to core contemplative leadership practices—such as mindfulness, intentional breathing, guided reflection, and presence-based communication. While the session is not as in-depth as a full retreat, it provides space to slow down, strengthen emotional intelligence, and begin cultivating resilience in the face of stress and change.
Each retreat is co-created with your organization to align with your unique context, challenges, and goals.
– A co-designed retreat experience tailored to your team’s current needs
– Introduction to practical mindfulness and resilience-building tools
– Space for personal and group reflection
– Opportunities to strengthen emotional intelligence and team connection
– A renewed sense of focus, clarity, and presence
The full-day retreat offers a rich, immersive experience designed for leadership teams ready to take a full step back from their daily responsibilities to reflect, reconnect, and realign. Spanning six to eight hours, this in-person retreat provides the time and space to engage deeply with contemplative leadership practices and to cultivate the qualities needed for steady, values-aligned leadership.
Facilitated in a setting intentionally chosen for presence and reflection, the retreat is structured yet spacious—allowing for personal insight, meaningful team interaction, and strategic exploration. Participants engage in mindfulness practices, guided visioning, and reflective journaling, alongside facilitated group discussions and interactive exercises that strengthen trust, emotional intelligence, and leadership clarity.
This experience is ideal for CEOs, executive leaders, leadership teams, and mid- to senior-level managers navigating change, seeking renewed focus, or working to rebuild cohesion. Each retreat is co-created to align with the organization’s values, goals, and current challenges.
For organizations seeking an immersive experience outside the U.S., we also offer destination retreats in Barbados, Cape Town (South Africa), and Accra (Ghana), in addition to locations throughout the United States.
The two-day retreat is a fully immersive experience designed to support deep reflection, personal renewal, and meaningful transformation for leadership teams. It allows the time and space needed to move beyond surface-level engagement and into the heart of how individuals and teams lead, connect, and collaborate.
Over the course of two days, participants explore the full arc of contemplative leadership—cultivating self-awareness, emotional intelligence, presence, and clarity. This retreat blends contemplative practices with experiential learning, reflective dialogue, and strategic visioning. There is space for slowing down, re-centering, and reimagining what leadership can look like in today’s complex and demanding environment.
The retreat includes a variety of learning formats to support different needs and learning styles:
– Guided mindfulness and somatic grounding practices
– Deep reflection through journaling, visualization, and storytelling
– Facilitated group discussions and partner dialogue
– Quiet time for rest, integration, and renewal
– Structured exercises that support team cohesion and alignment
– Visioning sessions to clarify individual and organizational direction
Ideal for CEOs, executive directors, senior leadership teams, and cross-functional groups, the two-day retreat provides the time and spaciousness needed to address not only leadership development, but team dynamics, communication challenges, and organizational clarity.
Each retreat is custom-designed in partnership with the organization to align with your goals, values, and context. We can support venue planning or work with a location you select. Many of our clients use this retreat as a reset point—for recalibrating strategy, renewing purpose, and healing from the impacts of burnout, fragmentation, or mission drift.
– A two-day, fully in-person retreat tailored to your organization’s needs
– Extended practice with contemplative leadership tools and principles
– Space to build trust, deepen relationships, and strengthen alignment
– Tools to support sustainable leadership and team resilience
– Opportunities for visioning, creative thinking, and reimagining the future
– Individual and collective reflection to support clarity and insight
– Greater emotional, mental, and physical energy
– Improved communication, stronger collaboration, and renewed sense of shared purpose
We also offer destination retreats for organizations seeking a fully immersive experience. Locations include Barbados, Cape Town (South Africa), Accra (Ghana), and select cities throughout the United States.
Your team is craving deeper trust, connection, and cohesion
You’re committed to leading with emotional intelligence and self-awareness
You believe resilience and clarity come from within — not more hustle
You want to lead with calm, courage, and compassion in uncertain times
When your team needs space to pause, reflect, and lead forward — this is where it begins.
© 2025 Thulani DeMarsay. All Rights Reserved
This offering is where organizational wellness meets measurable, lasting results. We care deeply about the work we do—and about the people and organizations we serve. That’s why we intentionally track progress and evaluate the effectiveness of every engagement. Using a range of assessment tools and feedback methods, we measure growth over time—not just in performance metrics, but in the overall health, well-being, and cohesion of teams.
The most meaningful indicator of success? When individuals and organizations feel stronger, more connected, and more aligned with their mission. Our goal is always sustainable transformation—not surface-level change.
This offering supports leaders and teams in cultivating a more intentional, balanced relationship with technology. Using a mindfulness-based approach, we help individuals engage with digital tools in ways that reduce stress, prevent burnout, and foster presence. With a doctoral concentration in media technology and innovation, Dr. Thulani DeMarsay brings a deep understanding of how technology shapes modern work and well-being. She has led technology initiatives across mid-sized and large organizations to help them better serve their mission—while also witnessing firsthand how constant digital engagement can lead to overload and disconnection.
Through this work, we guide teams in rethinking their digital habits, using tech more mindfully, and creating a culture of clarity, focus, and purpose.
We see energy and flow as essential for sustainable, effective leadership—and for how individuals show up in every aspect of life. This offering is grounded in the science of flow by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the research of Dr. Jim Loehr, co-author of The Power of Full Engagement. It’s inspired by the idea of the “corporate athlete,” acknowledging that today’s leaders often work long hours with increasing demands, yet struggle to maintain energy and focus over time.
Combining insights from elite athletics and human performance science, we offer practical tools to assess personal energy, recover effectively from extended effort, and create the conditions for deep flow. Leaders gain strategies to stay clear, grounded, and resilient—no matter what the pace of life requires.
Led by certified integrative health coaches, this offering provides personalized, holistic support to nourish the body, restore vitality, and sustain high energy levels. Rooted in the principle of bio-individuality, we partner with individuals and teams to co-create nutrition and lifestyle plans tailored to their unique needs and leadership goals. It’s not just about what’s on your plate—it’s about cultivating the energy, mental clarity, and resilience needed to lead with presence, focus, and strength.
This offering provides individualized support designed to meet each person or team exactly where they are. We begin with a guided visioning process to clarify your desired outcomes and long-term goals. From there, we work collaboratively to co-create a personalized wellness plan that supports your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Whether in one-on-one sessions or group settings, our coaching is rooted in a holistic, client-centered approach that honors each person’s unique path.
The result is sustainable growth and meaningful change aligned with what matters most to you.
our approach to Stress Resilience and Emotional Mastery empowers individuals to stay grounded and clear-headed even in the most demanding situations. Participants learn to regulate their nervous systems, manage emotional triggers, and cultivate presence under pressure. Through mindfulness-based practices and science-backed techniques, we guide people to transform stress into strength—fostering calm, confident decision-making, emotional intelligence, and a deeper sense of inner stability.
This offering is ideal for teams and leaders who thrive in fast-paced environments but seek tools to prevent burnout and sustain well-being.
Kamogelo, based in Pretoria, South Africa, is a vibrant and solutions-driven professional who brings enthusiasm, adaptability, and a human-centred approach to his role at Thulani Consulting Group. As the Executive Assistant, he plays a key role in keeping operations running smoothly, supporting both the administrative and strategic needs of the team. His calm presence, attention to detail, and ability to manage complex logistics make him an essential part of the organisation.
He is also a skilled technical producer for online events, using a variety of platforms and digital tools to deliver well-coordinated and engaging virtual workshops. Beyond the screen, Kamogelo is an insightful facilitator, passionate about creating spaces for reflection and growth, and supporting teams through behaviour-focused interventions that improve how people connect and work together.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human Geography and Anthropology, along with an Honours degree in Environmental Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. His academic journey deepened his interest in how people navigate and shape the environments they’re part of—insights he continues to apply in his work every day.
With over two decades of experience, Octavia is a dynamic force in the realm of transformational learning, guiding individuals and organizations toward deep self-awareness, healing, and authentic growth. As a seasoned facilitator, she has masterfully led personal development and self-discovery workshops across South Africa and the United States, empowering individuals to reconnect with their essence and embrace their full potential.
With a strong foundation in business development and strategic facilitation, Octavia bridges the worlds of corporate leadership and deep inner work. Her expertise lies in crafting innovative programs, developing strategic objectives, and aligning organizational structures with human-centered growth.
As a senior facilitator at the Sankofa Institute for Collective Wellbeing, Octavia curates and leads healing circle gatherings, fostering spaces where personal evolution and collective healing intersect. She is also a visionary leader in corporate wellness, having served as Head of Wellness & Spirituality within multi-billion-dollar organizations. In this role, she has spearheaded initiatives that cultivate a culture of holistic well-being, integrating psychological, emotional, and spiritual wellness into the corporate fabric.
Having studied under international pioneers in energy work and human consciousness, Octavia brings a profound understanding of the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit. As a counsellor, strategic facilitator, and life coach, she helps individuals and organizations uncover the emotional, psychological, and physical roots of dis-ease – guiding them toward transformation, balance, and true empowerment.
Octavia’s mission is clear: to create meaningful change by helping people and organizations unlock their full potential, fostering healing, and cultivating a life and workplace rooted in authenticity, wellness, and purpose.
I’m Thulani DeMarsay, and for nearly three decades, I’ve worked at the intersection of leadership development, contemplative science, wellness, and technology and innovation. Over the past 25 years, I have consulted with leaders from diverse sectors across the United States and, more recently, in West and Southern Africa. My mission is clear: to help leaders and teams maximize effectiveness while honoring well-being. I firmly believe that our ability to be effective is directly tied to our emotional, spiritual, psychological, and physical health.
I earned my PhD in Human Development, with a concentration in Technology, Media, and Innovation. My dissertation research focused on contemplative leadership, exploring how reflective practices such as mindfulness, meditation, silence, yoga, and other practices build resilience in leaders and help them thrive during times of disruption. My research revealed how these practices enhance decision-making, emotional intelligence, and organizational well-being, equipping leaders with the tools they need to navigate complexity and foster both individual and organizational resilience. My concentration further explored how organizations can leverage technology to advance their mission effectively.
An Evening with Thulani: Wednesday, February 28th
Time: 10:00 AM (EST), 1:00 PM (PST), 8:00 PM (SAST) Duration: 1 Hour
Location: NY, 222-3344
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