06/07/2026
Why I built something I couldn't find. There is a moment I return to. I am sitting in a beautiful natural setting, soothing ambiance, and farm-to-table meals at a retreat with facilitators who speak in soft, knowing voices and Im thinking about a woman I know who needs this but in a place in life like I was a decade ago that couldn't easily afford to experience this type of experience. Shes exhausted in the way thats deep. Who has been giving everything to everyone for so long she has quietly forgotten what it feels like to want something just for herself.
She cannot afford to be here. She has to choose between this and a vacation. Between this and school supplies or family trip or keeping her car on the road.
That thought sat with me for years. At my first retreat I experienced such an incredible sweet release, calm and clarity like nothing I'd ever felt before and I remember crying warm soothing tears of relief, gratitude for the experience and for the younger me that never would've been able to afford something like that. And it became the seed of everything.
I'd spent over a decade in the corporate world as an experience designer for the largest car companies and agency in the world. I worked in tech innovation labs conducting user research, establishing product strategy. My entire job was understanding people and situations deeply so I could build things that actually served them in a way that was easy to follow. For What they actually needed at their actual moment of struggle.
I became a Certified Workshop Facilitator. I learned Design Thinking, the discipline of starting with the human and problem solve, not the solution. I led rooms through processes that helped teams see clearly, align quickly, decide wisely, and move forward together. I was good at it and loved it.
But something was pulling at me: What would it look like to apply the same principles, frameworks, methods and deep care for the human experience to the most important inner journey? How can we optimize ourselves to live a more restored, thriving life and not just continue grinding it out?
Life answered it at 40, I was navigating multiple autoimmune diseases, and toxic mold exposure. My world became small, quickly. The career I'd built, the pace I maintained, identity wrapped around productivity, all had to stop. I remember saying into the mirror "you're going to look and feel 90 in the next few years if you stay here."
I found myself getting up for work and laying back down on the couch to gain the energy take a shower. Operating as if all of it was my new normal.
In that pause, my designer brain turned entirely inward. I began to ask the same questions I'd asked about users : Where are you? What feels hard? What do you need? What is feels overwhelming, why? What would help you move forward? But this time, I became my own research subject, to prototype and test.
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Why I Built the Retreat I Couldn't Find By Catherine Licavoli, Founder of Rooted Living RetreatThere is a moment I return to often. I am sitting in a beautiful wellness retreat, the kind in a beautiful natural setting, soothing ambiance, and farm-to-table meals and facilitators who speak in soft, kn...
