How to choose a course in personal development
The formats differ more than the prices, which is easy to miss when you sit down to compare them. Here are the differences, with our own course measured by the same yardstick as the others.
| Format | Length | Strength | Limit | Suits you if you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend course | 2–3 days | Small commitment, a good way to try it out. | Rarely gets further than the insight itself. | want to find out whether this is for you. |
| Evening or online course | A few hours a week over some months | Fits alongside a job. | Easy to let slide. Hard to go deep between two sessions. | want to learn gradually, at your own pace. |
| Retreat | 3–5 days | Rest, a change of scene, time to think. | Aims at recovery, not at change. | are worn out and need to settle. |
| Residential course | A week: 7 days, 8 nights | Long enough to build trust in the group, work on the pattern, and carry it home. | Requires a whole week off. Costs the most. | want to change something and can set the time aside. |
The difference between a retreat and a residential course
A retreat is usually about getting away. Meditation, quiet, nature, sleep. You go home rested, and that is exactly what a retreat is meant to give you.
A residential course is about work. You do something with yourself, in a group, with leaders present throughout. You do not always go home rested, but you go home with something else, and it also takes longer, a week against three to five days.
Both are reasonable choices, they simply solve different problems, and marketing often blurs the two. That is why we have set them side by side here.
Many people looking for a retreat find their way here, and then it is good to know that the week with us is work on yourself, not rest.
Our own course, measured the same way
So that you can put it beside the others without hunting for the numbers.
If you want to know what the course rests on, with names and sources, it is on What we rest on.
Seven things to compare, whichever course you choose
Length
Patterns built over a lifetime rarely give way in a weekend. Ask yourself whether you want to be inspired or whether you want to change something, because the answers point to different formats.
What the leaders trained in
Serious providers write it out. Look for formal training in therapy, psychology or education, ideally alongside many years of working with groups. Ours are on the page Who we are.
Group size
Over twenty participants it becomes hard to give each person room. Over fifty it becomes a lecture with exercises. Our own group is a maximum of twenty.
Reviews
Read both the score and the number, because five out of five from nine people says less than 4.9 from a hundred and fifty.
What the price contains
A weekend at SEK 6,000 without meals or lodging can cost more per day than a week at SEK 39,000 where everything is included. Work out the cost per day before you compare.
What happens afterwards
Ask about follow-up, and whether there is a next step. Without one, the course becomes an event rather than a beginning.
The place
A conference floor in a city offers different conditions than a venue where the group has the place to itself. If the work is meant to go deep, how easily it can be interrupted matters.
Others who do this in Sweden
- HumaNova
- Training in coaching, leadership and personal development. Part-time with in-person meetings, clearly oriented towards professional practice.
- Gestaltakademin
- A therapeutic and academic orientation, gestalt therapy and organisational development. Often aimed at people working in therapy, HR and leadership.
- Framgångsakademin
- Leadership, business development and personal success. Seminars and coaching tied to career.
- Baravara
- Retreats focused on presence and meditation. Shorter formats, three to five days, in rural settings.
This page is written by us, and we sell one of the alternatives. We have tried to describe the others as they describe themselves, and do check what we say against what they say.
And if you cannot take a whole week off, do not choose a week-long course. A shorter format that you actually complete is better than a long one that you leave. If you are not sure what suits you right now, do call us, and we will say so if we think something else would be better for you.
The courses, step by step Common questions What participants say Dates and price