Aha Retreats — Gotzinger Str. 8, Germany
A career-reorientation mentoring practice, built around Design Thinking, with a hut workshop
Aha Retreats is, on its own pages, less a building than a method. Marion Hochwimmer, who describes herself as a encourager for new paths with value and meaning, leads a practice for people in professional transition. Its stated mission is to help more people become courageous designers of their own lives, so that each uses their potential and contributes to positive change.
The approach is called "Design Your Life & Job" and follows Design Thinking, a creative process for generating ideas. Its starting point is a claim about why conventional coaching often stalls: reflection alone keeps people circling the same thoughts, and clarity comes from trying things, getting feedback and taking small steps. The program therefore moves from understanding oneself (values, strengths, drivers) through ideation and planning to implementation, with prototyping in place of long theoretical planning.
The formats vary. There is a self-paced online course that can be booked as a monthly subscription, a mentoring program that combines online training, live mentoring, feedback sessions and peer groups, and a free online training. The core coaching program has also included a hut workshop and a focus group. One participant, Daniela, wrote in 2020 that at the hut workshop her insights and visions of the future formed a clear picture.
The site reports more than 700 participants and publishes their stories in long form: a cruise-ship department head, a banker, a programmer curious about shamanism and retreat work. The pages give no street address or room details, so what can be said of the place is that it is a practice built around people in transition.
Traditions: Design Thinking, Job Crafting, Peer Group Mentoring
Programs: Design Your Life & Job coaching program, Online course (monthly subscription), Mentoring Programm, Job-Prototyping Live Mentoring, Hüttenworkshop (hut workshop), Fokusgruppe (focus group), Free online training, Community subscription