Upcoming Event
5 -day Trauma Recovery Retreat at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY
June 11–16, 2023
Join us to find peace with your past and reconnect with joy, self-love and clarity.
The Stress Is Gone Method is a powerful healing technique that helps you quickly release pain, trauma and tension and reclaim inner peace and freedom.
Through group release work, laser coaching, movement, music, and meditation, you'll be guided to open your heart and release emotional pain from your body, mind and spirit
Most people leave feeling restored, empowered and ready to re-engage in life.
This is for you if you want to:
>> Recover from emotional pain, past trauma, or loss
>> Release the fear that fuels stress & anxiety
>> Reconnect with joy, inner peace and self-love

Meet Your FACILITATORS
Retreat facilitator Brett Cotter has over 20 years experience helping people heal traumatic memories and overcome fear, stress, and anxiety. He has taught his signature method in Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, schools, nonprofits, military bases, and disaster sites.
Movement facilitator Stefanie Cotter will lead Qigong-inspired movement sessions each morning before breakfast.
You'll be supported after the retreat with two online follow-up sessions 7/5 and 8/2, as well as a lifetime access to the Stress Is Gone Academy.
Partial scholarships available for veterans, first responders, and front-line healthcare workers. Contact registration at 877.228.8003 to inquire.
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Our retreat is at the beautiful Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, less than 2 hours from NYC.
You're stay includes choice of accommodations, 3 delicious farm-to-table meals per day, and access to hikes, lake, and many activities.
Our retreat is at the beautiful Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, less than 2 hours from NYC.
You're stay includes choice of accommodations, 3 delicious farm-to-table meals per day, and access to hikes, lake, and many activities.
What people are saying
“Battling depression, anxiety & PTSD for decades led me to several counselors but Brett was different. His technique was exactly what I needed.”
Rhonda Stockstill
Ret. USAF
“Brett’s unique system reaches deep within the soul, alleviating stress and trauma. He is a lifeboat in the storm.”
Debra Duneier
CEO, Eco Chi
“"Brett creates a safe space to open up and has an innate ability to get to the core issues so you can process them and feel them leave your body. It was a life-changing experience.”
Sarah Stanczewski
Mother
A Message From Brett
FAQs
FAQs
If you have additional questions, please contact Brett@StressIsGone.org
If you have additional questions, please contact Brett@StressIsGone.org
This retreat is for anyone overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, or traumatic memories and is ready to let go. This work helps you process and heal the most painful events of your life. You will be in a safe place and must be willing to answer Brett's discovery questions and repeat the releasing affirmations to heal your pain.
If you're feeling any of these, this Stress Is Gone Retreat is definitely for you:
- Overwhelming anxiety, doubt and fear
- Depressed, disconnected, alone
- Emotional pain from heartache or lost loved ones
- Things feel out of your control
- Like you're missing out on life
- Recent life changes
- Traumatic memories that block you from feeling empowered, confident and happy
Typical Day
- Morning Movement (optional)
- Healthy & Delicious Breakfast
- AM Group Healing Session
- Healthy & Delicious Lunch
- PM Group Healing Session
- Healthy & Delicious Dinner
- Evening Dance (optional)
First Group Healing Session
- Includes an introduction, each person shares what they want to get out of the retreat and we begin.
Subsequent Group Healing Sessions
- Are typically 2 1/2 hours with a break in the middle.
Final Group Healing Session
- Includes learning tools and techniques from the workbook and an expanded Q&A session.
The emotional relief is something participants say they have never felt before but thats only the beginning. The real difference is the after-care to help you seamlessly integrate the practices into your everyday life. Your retreat includes:
- The Masterclass, 22 short videos that help you re-access the healing energy for the rest of your life.
- Private Facebook Group, includes you in a community of likeminded people that access Brett’s live training every week.
- Guided Meditation Class every MWF @ 9am ET to cultivate your new stress free state.
The Workbook, which contains all the tools to effectively manage stress, anxiety and heal traumatic memories. - Stress Is Gone App, which predicts and stops stress in seconds and helps you commit to your meditation practice.
Group Structure
- The group is arranged in a carefully spaced circle. Participants can sit in a chair or backjack, or lay down on a yoga mat with a blanket and pillows.
Discovery Phase
- Brett asks questions to quickly surface the original memories at the source of your pain. For example; if you are experiencing stress with your spouse, often the pattern stems from not receiving the love you wanted as a child from one of your parents. For years these older memories have been buried deep in our subconscious and make every day stress overwhelming. As the original memory surfaces participants feel tension arise in their body, then they raise their hand and are guided through the release phase.
Release Phase
- Brett leads the group through easy-to-follow affirmations he intuitively receives in the moment to release tension from the body, mind, and original memory. Imagine a simple game of “Simon Says” for stress relief. These affirmations hold the opposite energy, frequency and vibration of the pain, and reconnects the individual with their higher-self and energy source. During this phase participants release deep layers of emotional pain and feel powerful waves of self-love throughout their body, often describing warm tingling sensations, suddenly feeling lighter and having wide open space where there was tension.
The miracles that happen have to do with the healing energy your spirit has been waiting to bring you. My favorite part of the work is witnessing waves of unconditional self-love heal a persons body from the inside out. You are forever reconnected with your essence as the experience becomes part of who you are, you own it and can access it again and again.
I do my very best to get out of the way, to let your spirit guide me in what to say to release the old pain from your body, mind and soul. Since 1999, I’ve been working with this healing energy and learning from it. For almost 25 years I’ve been honing my ability to hear and feel your pain while listening to your spirit how to heal it.
Music and movement help integrate the emotional transformation throughout the body and strengthen joy, confidence, and the feeling of freedom.
Guided Meditation helps us clear the mind so the body can let go. Our cells want to let go of stress while our minds tend to hold on.
As you release old traumas & beliefs, you'll no longer get upset by the triggers you walked in with.
Walking out the door, most people feel lighter, empowered, and confident to navigate through life effectively.
Relationships will naturally shift as you leave more secure and at peace inside your body.
Then you can open up to all the possibilities life can offer.
After attending an in-person retreat you have a lifetime membership in the Stress Is Gone Academy. This includes:
- 3 Live Meditation Classes per week
- 1 Live Training per week
- The Masterclass / Workbook / Mobile app
- Monthly Scorecard and Access to our growing S.I.G. Family
The S.I.G. Family is a private community of over 1,000 like-minded people that support one another throughout the journey.
The Academy provides aftercare and support for the rest of your life.
After attending a retreat you receive large discounts on 1-on-1 coaching for you and your entire family.

Meet Brett
In the past 20 years, I've helped thousands of people heal from the most traumatic events of their lives.
My coaching helps you find peace with your past as I guide you step-by-step to help you let go.
I've taught in Fortune 500 companies, hospitals, schools, military bases, and disaster sites. I'm the trauma expert for Meditation Magazine's Teacher Training Program and I certify students in the Stress Is Gone Method.
I'm certified by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, my method is certified by the American Institute of Stress and I am accredited by the International Mindfulness & Meditation Alliance.
Past Retreats



Honor's Haven, Luxury Catskills Resort
Dec 2-4, 2022
If you're overwhelmed with stress and anxiety, come join us for a life-changing experience at Honor's Haven, a luxury retreat center 90 miles from NYC.
The Stress Is Gone Method is a transformational healing technique that helps you quickly release old layers of pain, trauma and tension and reclaim inner peace, joy, and freedom.
Immerse yourself in a supportive format that includes coaching, music, movement and meditation to facilitate deep emotional healing of inner pain, emotional blocks, traumatic memories, relationships, and lost love.
As the group releases layers of old emotions, the body begins to feel lighter and the mind becomes clear. Most people leave feeling restored, empowered and ready to re-engage in life.
You'll be supported after the retreat to seamlessly integrate the practices into your everyday life, with access to ongoing meditation classes & live trainings, and the SIG Workbook, Masterclass and App.
Stress Is Gone Retreat at the Omega Institute
May 29-June 3, 2022
Overcome fear, anxiety and traumatic memories in this 5-day retreat at the beautiful Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY.
Through group release work, one-on-one coaching, movement, and meditation, you will:
• Release pain from past trauma, difficult relationships or lost loved ones
• Dissolve the hidden blocks to self-love and happiness
• Feel uplifted, empowered, and most importantly reconnected to yourself

MEN'S HOLISTIC RETREAT
Woodridge, Catskills NY
Oct 13-16, 2022
Join me at this 3-day men's retreat as a team of powerful teachers share tools for reduced stress, sustained energy and overall wellness to keep you balanced and thriving, especially during times of transition.
Through cutting-edge modern science and ancient Eastern methods- such as yoga, tai chi, breathwork, meditation and mindfulness - experience the power of healing and transformation and learn powerful practices that offer long term relief from what ails you.
Our “Fire” retreat is carefully designed to eliminate that which may be weighing you down (extra unwanted weight, poor patterns, negativity, anxiety) and ignite your true potential within.
LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP: Break Free From Stress and Anxiety
Weds, March 30 2022
Learn simple, powerful tools to release stress & anxiety with the Stress Is Gone method.
In this 2-hour workshop, you learn how to:
- Stop your body’s stress reaction
- Release layers of accumulated anxiety
- Identify and heal the unconscious memories fueling your stress
- Move through your day with a steady sense of peace and clarity
Experience a deep guided meditation and walk away with valuable tools to help you continue reducing stress in your life.
