Journey to self
Rediscover the power within
Uventures is a dream with a long history from moons ago…
Initially, it was simply for women to get away for weekends, to have fun, travel, and for high adventure. But the dream evolved with my spiritual journey over the years, into something much deeper and profound.
The development of the name was a challenge. Working in advertising for the past seventeen years I know and value the significance and resonance of naming a new venture. It progressed from Utreat to Ladycations – ha-ha I must laugh!
Sitting on the beach in Australia, the name came to me. The U represents the uniqueness of each of us and the desire to celebrate that, along with the journey to discover more of U.
U is where joy and love wait to be rediscovered. We travel outwards to journey inwards… the journey back to self.
What I do
Corporate Packages
A journey beyond the boardroom — where teams reconnect with vision, purpose, and one another. These experiences awaken creativity, inspire unity, and return you renewed for the path ahead.
Work & Playshops
Sacred spaces for women to pause, breathe, and rediscover the power within. Here, laughter, stillness, and adventure weave together, guiding you back home to yourself.
Women Retreats
Immersive gatherings that open the heart and spark transformation.
Each workshop offers gentle tools and timeless wisdom to bring clarity, balance, and joy into everyday life.
I am Karen.
Dreamer, Starseed, Cosmic Dancer, Indigo, Spiderwoman, the Curious Mongoose… a spiritual explorer, retreat leader, connector, and collaborator.
I grew up a West Coast farm girl, playing with dolls, dogs, and horses, sipping high tea on big rocks with friends, and creating art with my grandmother. My childhood was filled with fields, trees, and curiosity about the unseen. That curiosity eventually led me across the world, from Pyramids of Giza Egypt to Mexico and Flores Tikal Guatemala, where sacred sites awakened me to deeper truths.
Life brought me challenges too. When my parents divorced, I was thrust into adulthood, running the family farm while navigating illness, responsibility, and what I now call my seven-year Dark Night of the Soul. Out of that hardship came healing – hypnotherapy, regression, breathwork, crystal healing, yoga, and quantum practices. The seed of my dream was planted then: to host retreats where women could rest, rediscover, and transform.
Over the last two decades I have lived many lives — advertising creative, wife, mother, entrepreneur, healer, and student of countless modalities, from Holotropic Breathwork to Vision Quests, Sound Healing, Soul Collage, and the teachings of Dr. Brian Weiss, Carolyn Myss, and more.
But one thread has always stayed with me: dance as medicine. From Zumba to Nia, and now Biodanza – which I have studied and practiced for over seven years – movement has been my way home, my deepest healing tool.
I am a forever student of life, here to connect, uplift, and remind others of their light. My vision is to help people (and myself) to awaken to truth, freedom, love, and oneness. Embracing both shadow and light, embodying the highest version of ourselves.
My Collaborators
Zephne van der Merwe
Biodanza Didactic Teacher | Asemskep Embodiment Coach | Medicine Women & Ceremony Leader
Handri Victor
Body Alignment Therapist
Physiotherapist | Healer
Simone Eiman
Consciousness Coach & Guide (Authentic
expression of your higher truth)
Sonja de Wit
Art therapist | Neurographic Art |
Photographer | Reiki Master | Access Bars | TRE facilitator
Trudy Joubert
Body alignment therapist | Healer
Soul Essence Photographer
Almarie Venter
Sound Healer | Yoga Nidra Teacher
Breathwork & Meditation Guide
Uventures is for women of all ages, to ignite and restore themselves back to factory setting through dance, fun, movement, joy, and laughter (the raucous, unladylike kind).
To connect with a sisterhood, with nature, and to reconnect with yourself; to let your hair down, no judgement, and to celebrate our uniqueness. Uventures is a place of safety where you can find your way back to your authentic self and your unique expression in this world, a place to find new friends of like-hearted women, a tribe (for a lack of a better word), a community and your rightful place of belonging.
The Story behind the Logo
IN UNITY WE ARE PERFECT
The design was inspired by the Aboriginal art I saw. It means women who dance around the fire with clapsticks, a resonating image. As we designed the logo, the U’s in equal sizes didn’t work.
Once we made each U different sizes it came together as a unified design.
It was such a meaningful, emotional moment because it symbolised to me, in our unique authenticity – when we come together in unity – we are perfect.
Wellness Journeys
Langebaan
April 2025
Goddess Retreat on Nirvana Houseboat, celebrating my 50th birthday with ceremony and dance by Zephne and Sound healing with Almarie Remind Wellness. 18 Goddesses dressed up and had the most amazing time under the full moon.
Yzerfontein
June 2024
Essence of you co-hosted with Yvonne Heathcote. 3 nights of Dance, Sound Bath with Remind Wellness, Neurographic art with Sonia, Cocao ceremony with Handri and ice-cold ocean swims…lovely food prepared by myself and Tonja Ellman.
