A residential retreat in Montecito, California

Five days for the work that keeps waiting.

Peace and Productivity at La Casa de Maria, a historic spiritual sanctuary and gorgeous old stone manor in the Montecito foothills, newly reopened. Twenty guests. Teaching in the mornings, protected time for your own work in the afternoons, and daily practice throughout.

Apply to hold my place See the week

Early bird pricing until December 31. A $500 deposit holds your place and is applied to your tuition.

The stone manor at La Casa de Maria, seen across the rose garden

DatesApril 28 to May 2, 2027Wednesday to Sunday, four nights

PlaceLa Casa de MariaMontecito, California

GroupTwenty guestsLed by Amrita Ahuja

TuitionFrom $2,650 USDEarly bird until December 31, all meals and lodging included

An invitation

Most of the people I work with are capable, committed, and carrying a great deal. The work that matters most to them keeps sliding to next week, behind everything louder.

This retreat gives that work five days. In the mornings you’ll learn the Groundwork method, or deepen it if you’ve been through the series. In the afternoons you’ll work on the thing you brought, with support close by. Around all of it: practice, good food, quiet grounds, and a small group of people doing the same.

It is an honour to be invited to teach at La Casa de Maria. For seventy years it has been a place where people come to renew their purpose, and I feel lucky to bring this work here: helping people restore peace to the practical parts of their everyday work and lives.

Amrita Ahuja

From past retreats

Working with Amrita is like a cocoon for metamorphosis, unlike anything I’ve experienced: completely spiritual while being completely practical, deeply joyful and non-judgmental.

I’ve spent over three decades in the field of transforming trauma for others. Groundwork is what I needed for me.

Cathy SalserFounder, A Window Between Worlds

“I’ll admit I felt some initial resistance. Maybe just some skepticism, living in a world full of ‘quick fixes.’ But what you’re offering is the opposite of that. Groundwork felt honest, grounded, and deeply human. In just two days, something clicked.”

Cody MetzgerDirector of Donor Impact, Harvesthome

“As a non-profit executive leader, with limited resources and lofty goals, this system incorporates both my personal and my organization’s values, mission, and priorities, helping me be accountable while finding a path to ease.”

Nancy Cottingham PowellExecutive Director, Gibsons Public Market

“Feeling easeful and empowered. Discovering the freedom of decoupling the thought of a task from the need to get it done in that moment.”

Retreat participantBig Bear

What to bring

Bring the work that keeps getting displaced.

Everyone arrives with one piece of work that matters and hasn’t had room. The week is built around giving it that room.

A project

A manuscript, a course, a proposal, a strategy, a body of creative work.

A decision

A direction you’ve been circling, a stuck problem, a change you need to plan well.

A system

Your calendar, your inbox, your commitments, the way you work from week to week.

How the week works

Three strands, woven through every day.

A method you can take home, real time to use it, and the practice that keeps it steady. Each one makes the others work.

Mornings

Teaching

The Groundwork method. New guests learn it from the ground up in the Foundations track. Returning alumni review the work and move into new modules in the Deepening track.

Afternoons

Deep work

Long, protected hours on the work you brought. One-to-one sessions and open office hours with Amrita keep support close whenever you want it.

Throughout

Practice

Mindfulness each morning, optional evening sits, periods of silence, and the labyrinth, creek and gardens for walking and thinking.

The place

A historic sanctuary of peace.

La Casa de Maria has been a sanctuary of peace since the 1950s. At its heart is a gorgeous old stone manor, designed in the 1920s by architect Mary Craig, set on 26 acres in the Montecito foothills among heritage oaks, gardens, walking paths, a working citrus orchard, a chapel and a labyrinth.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart first opened it as a retreat house. In the 1960s they pursued a renewal of religious life that the Los Angeles archdiocese would not accept, and in 1970, 220 of them formed the Immaculate Heart Community, a lay community open to all. The artist and teacher Corita Kent, a USC graduate, came from that same community of sisters. La Casa grew into an interfaith, inter-spiritual retreat centre, welcoming around 12,000 guests a year: faith communities, nonprofits, schools, healing organizations and social justice groups.

In January 2018 a debris flow damaged much of the campus. The community has rebuilt with patience and care, and in December 2025 La Casa reopened as a gathering place, with revitalization of the campus now underway.

The people who shaped La Casa understood peace as something you practise: in how you work, how you serve, and how you act in the world. There could be no more fitting place to bring peace and productivity together in your own life.

“A sanctuary of peace for individuals and groups as they renew purpose, strengthen community, and increase their effectiveness in the world.”

La Casa de Maria’s mission

1920sMary Craig designs the stone manor
1943Novitiate for the Immaculate Heart sisters
1950sA retreat house opens
1970The Immaculate Heart Community forms
2018Debris flow; careful rebuilding begins
2025La Casa reopens

The stone manor in evening light, framed by bougainvillea and Norfolk pines — The manor at golden hour

Arched stone entrance to the manor — The manor entrance

A wood-panelled library opening onto an arched stone hallway — Inside the manor

A blossoming tree in the orchard with the Santa Ynez mountains behind — The orchard in spring

The week

A steady rhythm, each day building on the last.

A typical day

7:30: Morning practice
8:15: Breakfast
9:30: Teaching, in two tracks
12:30: Lunch
2:00: Deep work and office hours
6:00: Dinner together
7:30: Evening, optional

Wed, Apr 28ArrivalSettle in from mid-afternoon. Welcome dinner and an opening circle.
Thu, Apr 29ClearingCapture and park what you’re carrying so the days have room, then clarify what matters most in the work you brought.
Fri, Apr 30DepthThe longest stretch of uninterrupted work time, with one-to-one sessions through the afternoon.
Sat, May 1CompletionA slower morning and time to reach a clear stopping point. Then write what you finished, what you parked on purpose, and what you’re taking home. The labyrinth at dusk.
Sun, May 2ReturnA final review, a plan for your first Monday back, and a closing brunch. Depart by early afternoon.

Hospitality

Everything around the work is taken care of.

Harvesting oranges in La Casa’s citrus orchard — From La Casa’s citrus orchard

Meals made for you

Three meals a day, prepared on site and planned around your dietary needs.

A room that’s ready

A handwritten welcome, your materials at the desk, and something from the garden.

A page each morning

The day’s rhythm and one question to carry, slipped under your door.

One shared agreement

Meetings, email and client requests wait until you’re home. Family and emergencies can always reach you.

A small group

Twenty guests, gathered with care, so conversation goes somewhere real.

Dinner together

The one fixed point of every day. Everything else, you can join or skip as you need.

Before and after

The retreat begins before you arrive, and continues after you leave.

March and April

Before

Two small-group sessions online. Clear your open loops so you arrive with room, and meet the people you’ll spend the week with. An arrival letter with everything you need.

April 28 to May 2

Four nights at La Casa

Teaching, deep work and practice, in one of the most storied retreat settings in California.

May and June

After

Two integration calls, at two and six weeks. A standing alumni review session to keep the practice going. A personal note a month out, about the work you brought.

Your host

Who you’ll spend the week with.

Amrita Ahuja

Creator of Groundwork · Visiting Teacher, Mindful USC

Amrita is the creator of Groundwork, a practical system that brings clarity to your inbox, calendar and to-do list while addressing the deeper patterns that drive stress and overwhelm. Since 2010 she has brought mindfulness-based ease and flow into startups, enterprises and mission-driven organizations in technology, health and wellness, music, social justice and the creative sector.

Raised in a mixed-race family navigating the edges of poverty, Amrita brings a deeply lived perspective to her work. A former equity task force lead on the Board of Directors at Vancouver Opera, she was named a Top 100 Rising Star by Chatelaine and Profit Guide in their ranking of Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs.

She teaches at the intersection of mindfulness and productivity: at Mindful USC, in mindfulness-based retreat centres, in Indigenous communities, and in recovery programs serving marginalized populations.

This week is for you if

There’s work that matters to you, and it keeps moving to next week.
You’re responsible for a lot, at work, at home, or both.
You want a method you can take home, along with time to use it.
You’re ready to step away from ordinary work for five days.
You value quiet, good company, and being well looked after.

You’ll be among

Alumni of the Peace and Productivity series at Mindful USC, and of Groundwork training
Faculty and staff from universities, schools and other institutions
Founders, executives and nonprofit leaders
Writers, artists and others with a big project underway
People who look after other people, and want a week to look after their own work

Rooms and tuition

Everything is included.

Four nights, all meals, all teaching and practice, both pre-retreat sessions and both integration calls. The only difference between tiers is where you sleep. Prices in USD. Apply by December 31, 2026 for early bird pricing.

Shared bath

Shared room

Early bird until December 31$2,650$2,950 from January 1

Share a room with one other guest, with a shared bathroom nearby.

Ensuite bath

Shared room

Early bird until December 31$3,050$3,350 from January 1

Share a room with one other guest, with its own bathroom.

Ensuite bath · Two available

Private room

Early bird until December 31$4,150$4,450 from January 1

A room of your own, with its own bathroom.

Payment plans. Can be arranged for your balance. Just ask when we speak. Rooms by conversation. No one shares a room without agreeing to it first. Professional development funds. We provide an employer letter, a program description and a receipt.

Apply

Apply to hold your place.

Twenty places. Your application comes with a $500 deposit, which holds your place and is applied to your tuition.

Apply with a $500 depositThree short questions and a secure payment.
Talk with AmritaA short call about the work you’ll bring and where you’d like to sleep. If the retreat isn’t the right fit, your deposit is refunded in full.
Receive your room offerYour room, any roommate, and your final tuition, confirmed in writing.
Confirm your placeYour balance is due when you accept your room offer, and your place is confirmed. Payment plans can be arranged.

Hold my place

You’ll go to a secure checkout to apply and pay your $500 deposit. We’ll ask three short questions there:

Have you taken the Peace and Productivity series or Groundwork training?
Where would you like to sleep?
What work would you bring?

Apply to hold my place · $500 deposit

Secure payment by Stripe.

Questions

Good to know.

Do I need to have taken the series or Groundwork training?

No. New guests learn the Groundwork method from the beginning in the Foundations track. Alumni move into new material in the Deepening track.

How do I get there?

La Casa de Maria is in Montecito, just outside Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara Airport is the closest; Los Angeles International is about two hours by car. We’ll share arrival details and help coordinate rides.

What if my plans change?

If the retreat isn’t the right fit after our call, your deposit is refunded in full. Once your place is confirmed, payments are non-refundable except in emergencies, and you can transfer your place to someone you choose. We recommend trip cancellation insurance.

Can I bring my laptop?

Yes. Use whatever tools your work needs. We ask that meetings, email and client requests wait until you’re home.

Can you meet dietary needs?

Yes. Tell us when you reserve and we’ll share them with La Casa’s kitchen.

What’s at La Casa?

The historic stone manor, home to the Center for Spiritual Renewal, set among heritage oaks and specimen trees. A working citrus orchard, gardens, walking paths, a chapel and a stone labyrinth, all on 26 acres in the Montecito foothills.