Muldersdrift, Johannesburg · Five nights
Burnout Recovery Programme
Five days of measurement, treatment and structured rest for people who have been running on reserve for longer than they will admit.
HOMA-IR
Insulin resistance, a decade early
VO₂ MAX
Cardiorespiratory fitness to maximal effort
GLUCOSE
Continuous monitoring across all five days
hs-CRP
Systemic inflammation, quantified
AHI
Overnight sleep and breathing study
CBI · PHQ-9
Scored burnout and mood instruments
Burnout is not a character flaw. It is also not a diagnosis.
The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition, and we think it matters that we say so plainly. What sustained, unrelenting demand does produce is a set of changes you can actually measure: disturbed sleep architecture, rising inflammatory markers, declining glucose control, falling cardiorespiratory fitness, and scored deterioration in mood, concentration and emotional reserve.
Those are the things this programme measures on your first day, and the things it works on for the four that follow.
It also means being honest about the boundary. Exhaustion, low mood and cognitive fog are not exclusive to burnout. They are equally consistent with thyroid disease, anaemia, obstructive sleep apnoea, insulin resistance and clinical depression — all of which we test for, precisely because a recovery retreat is the wrong treatment for any of them.
What we measure, and why.
Your blood panel is collected roughly ten days before you arrive, at a partner laboratory in your own city, so your results are interpreted with you on your first day rather than posted to you a fortnight after you leave.
Your DEXA scan, VO₂ max test and resting metabolic rate are performed at our accredited diagnostic partner nearby, completed in a single accompanied morning. Everything else takes place at Vivari.
- Continuous glucose monitoring
- A sensor worn for the full five days. It shows how your own body responds to your own meals, in real time — which foods spike you, how poor sleep degrades your glucose control the following day, and what stress does to your numbers. Nothing else on this programme changes behaviour as reliably as watching your own data move.
- Overnight sleep study
- Obstructive sleep apnoea is the most common physical cause of exactly the symptoms that bring people here, and it is substantially undiagnosed in this population. On this programme it is standard rather than optional. If you have it, that finding is worth more to you than anything else on this page.
- Validated psychometrics
- The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, PHQ-9, GAD-7 and an insomnia severity scale, scored before you arrive. They quantify what brought you here, determine which psychological pathway you follow, and give a fair comparison point at twelve weeks and six months.
- VO₂ max
- A cardiopulmonary exercise test to maximal effort with continuous ECG monitoring, conducted by an exercise physiologist and reported by a physician. Cardiorespiratory fitness is among the strongest measured predictors of long-term mortality risk, and it produces the individual heart rate zones your training is prescribed in.
- DEXA body composition
- Weight conceals the two things that matter: visceral fat, which is metabolically active regardless of what the scale says, and lean muscle mass, which underwrites your physical independence later. Bone density is captured on the same scan.
- Resting metabolic rate
- Measured directly by indirect calorimetry rather than estimated from a formula — how much energy your body actually uses at rest. It is what makes your nutrition plan yours.
- ApoB and Lp(a)
- ApoB counts the particles actually capable of depositing in an artery wall, which a standard cholesterol result can miss. Lp(a) is inherited, largely unchanged by lifestyle, and measured once in a lifetime.
- Fasting insulin and HOMA-IR
- Insulin resistance is detectable years before blood sugar becomes abnormal, and chronic stress accelerates it. Routinely left off standard executive medicals.
- hs-CRP
- A quantified measure of low-grade inflammation — a real number to work against, re-tested at your twelve-week review.
- Thyroid, iron, liver and kidney studies
- Thyroid dysfunction, iron deficiency and fatty liver change are common, treatable, and must be excluded before exhaustion is attributed to work.
- Hormonal profile
- Testosterone, and where clinically appropriate the female hormonal profile, are directly relevant to energy, sleep, mood and body composition, and are read alongside your DEXA result rather than in isolation.
The psychological work is the centre of this programme, not an accompaniment to it.
Your screening questionnaires are scored before you arrive. What they show determines which practitioner you work with across four sessions during your stay — the choice is made clinically, not by preference.
Clinical psychologist
Where your scores indicate significant burnout, low mood or anxiety, you work with a clinical psychologist across four sessions using structured cognitive behavioural techniques — identifying the thinking and behaviour patterns sustaining the problem, testing them, and building a specific plan for the situation you are returning to. Where ongoing therapy is indicated, we say so and refer you properly rather than pretending five days is a course of treatment.
Mindfulness coach
Where your scores sit below clinical thresholds and the picture is sustained pressure rather than illness, you work with a mindfulness coach across four sessions on attention, stress regulation and recovery practices — built to survive a working week rather than only a retreat, and rehearsed here until they are habit rather than theory.
Your five days.
Sequenced around the biology, not the diary. Fasted measurements come before food. Exercise testing follows clearance issued before you travel. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and a restorative spa treatment happen every single day. Recovery is scheduled, not left to chance.
Measure
You are collected from OR Tambo or Lanseria if you are travelling, and taken to our diagnostic partner nearby. DEXA establishes body composition, visceral fat and bone density. Indirect calorimetry measures your resting metabolic rate. Grip strength and anthropometry follow.
Breakfast, then your VO₂ max test at the same facility — a graded cardiopulmonary exercise test to maximal effort with continuous ECG monitoring. All instrumented testing is complete in this single visit.
You arrive at Vivari for lunch, and your continuous glucose sensor is fitted — from here, every meal of your stay is recorded against your own metabolic response.
Your extended physician consultation. Pre-arrival bloods and the morning’s results are reviewed together — the whole picture in one sitting, rather than in fragments.
Your first hyperbaric oxygen session, then the first of your daily spa treatments.
An anti-inflammatory dinner. Your sleep study is fitted, and your devices are handed over for the night under our digital rest protocol.
Understand
Your first training session, prescribed in the heart rate zones established the day before. Breakfast follows.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, then your first psychological session — cognitive behavioural work or mindfulness coaching, assigned by your screening scores.
Hydrotherapy and lunch, then your consultation with a registered dietitian — built on your measured metabolic rate, your body composition, your blood results and the first day of your own glucose data.
Your daily spa treatment. Sleep study results are reviewed by the physician.
Dinner, then the evening is your own. Structured sleep protocol — light, temperature and timing.
Restore
Your second training session, progressing load and movement quality. Breakfast.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, then your second psychological session — the working session, where the patterns identified on Day 2 are tested against real situations from your own life.
Lunch, then unstructured time. Nothing scheduled, deliberately.
Your daily spa treatment, followed by hydrotherapy.
Sound therapy. Dinner. Sleep protocol.
Rehearse
Your third training session, focused on what you will realistically sustain at home rather than what looks impressive here. Breakfast.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, then your third psychological session — boundaries, workload, and the specific conversations you will need to have on your return.
Lunch with your dietitian, reviewing four days of your own glucose data against what you actually ate. Your nutrition plan is finalised here, not written for you in advance.
Your daily spa treatment. Time in the estate.
Dinner. Sleep protocol.
Integrate
Your fourth training session and a final hyperbaric oxygen session. Breakfast.
Your final psychological session — the return plan, written down, with what to do when it starts slipping. Your final spa treatment follows.
Your results consultation. Every measurement explained: what it means, how it sits against reference ranges for your age and sex, which numbers matter most for you, and precisely what to do about each one. You leave with a written recovery and return-to-work plan, and scheduled reviews at twelve weeks and six months.
Nothing for you to arrange.
Diagnostic imaging and exercise testing take place at our accredited partner facility nearby, in a single accompanied visit. Every other element is delivered at Vivari. Airport transfers, booking, sequencing and scheduling are handled for you.
Assessment
- Pre-arrival cardiometabolic, endocrine and inflammatory blood panel
- Extended physician consultation on your first day
- DEXA — body composition, visceral fat, bone density
- VO₂ max test with ECG monitoring
- Resting metabolic rate by indirect calorimetry
- Continuous glucose monitoring, all five days
- Overnight sleep and breathing study
- Scored burnout, mood, anxiety and insomnia instruments
- Accompanied transfers to and from the diagnostic partner
- Physician results consultation on departure
Programme
- Five nights in a luxury suite
- All meals and soft beverages, anti-inflammatory and seasonal
- Four sessions with a clinical psychologist or mindfulness coach
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy daily
- A restorative spa treatment daily
- Daily hydrotherapy access
- Four personalised training sessions
- Registered dietitian consultation and mid-programme review
- Sound therapy
- Structured sleep and digital rest protocol
- Return transfers from OR Tambo or Lanseria
Afterwards
- Written recovery and return-to-work plan
- Training prescription in your own heart rate zones
- Dietitian-prescribed nutrition plan built on your measured metabolic rate
- Sleep and recovery protocol
- Onward referrals where indicated
- Twelve-week physician and dietitian teleconsultation
- Repeat inflammatory, glycaemic and lipid testing at twelve weeks
- Six-month psychological review
Employers, EAPs and occupational health.
A significant proportion of guests are referred by employers, employee assistance programmes and occupational health teams — usually at the point where a senior person is visibly running out of road and signing them off for a fortnight will not fix it.
We take those referrals, and we handle them on strict terms.
What you receive as the employer
Confirmation of attendance and completion. That is all. No assessment results, no questionnaire scores, no clinical findings and no diagnosis are released to an employer, funder or referring manager without the individual’s separate written consent. This is not a courtesy — it is required under the Protection of Personal Information Act and under health practitioner confidentiality rules. It is also the reason employees agree to come.
How a referral works
You make contact, we speak to the individual directly, and pre-admission screening establishes whether this programme is the right intervention for them. Where it is not — where what is actually presenting is a psychiatric condition needing treatment rather than a recovery programme — we say so and help route them properly. Invoicing is handled with your finance or benefits team and kept entirely separate from clinical care.
What the individual leaves with
A written recovery and return-to-work plan covering workload, boundaries, sleep, nutrition and training, rehearsed across four psychological sessions rather than handed over as a document. Where the individual chooses to share elements of that plan with their manager or occupational health team, we will support that conversation.
Multiple referrals
Organisations referring several individuals across a year can arrange scheduled programme places and negotiated rates. For leadership teams, we can structure a cohort across consecutive weeks so that no two people are away simultaneously. Speak to us about what your organisation actually needs.
Who it is for.
- Persistent exhaustion that rest no longer resolves
- Disrupted or unrefreshing sleep
- Mental fatigue, poor concentration, decisions taking longer than they used to
- Emotional flatness, irritability, or a sense of distance from work you used to care about
- Physical symptoms accumulating — weight change, blood pressure, headaches, recurrent illness
- A pattern that has been building for months or years rather than weeks
This is a structured clinical wellness programme. It is not psychiatric or psychological treatment, and it is not a substitute for either. If you are experiencing severe mental health symptoms, please speak to your treating doctor before booking — and if our own pre-admission screening indicates that ongoing treatment is what you need, we will tell you and help you arrange it rather than proceeding.
What five days can, and cannot, do.
Five days is enough time to measure your physiology thoroughly, to interrupt the pattern, to do real psychological work, and to leave with a plan you have rehearsed rather than received.
It is not enough time to change your body composition or your cardiorespiratory fitness, and it will not change the conditions you are returning to. Those depend on the work that follows — which is why this programme includes reviews at twelve weeks and six months rather than ending at the gate.
Guests commonly report better sleep, reduced mental fatigue, steadier mood and restored energy across the stay. Responses vary with starting health, engagement, and what the assessments find. Where your results point to a condition needing further investigation or treatment, we will tell you plainly and refer you properly.
Considering something shorter first? The 72-Hour Reset is a three-day assessment and restoration programme, and many guests use it as a way of establishing a baseline before committing to a full recovery programme.
Everything above is included.
Five nights, all meals and soft beverages, the complete diagnostic suite, four psychological sessions, four training sessions, daily hyperbaric oxygen therapy, daily spa treatment, airport transfers, your written recovery plan and your twelve-week and six-month reviews. Aesthetic procedures, should you want them, are quoted separately at consultation.
Programme numbers are limited each week so that clinical attention is not divided.
Every guest completes a pre-admission medical and psychological screening questionnaire. Together with your pre-arrival blood results, this establishes clearance for maximal exercise testing and for hyperbaric oxygen therapy before you travel, and identifies anything requiring the programme to be adjusted or a different intervention to be recommended. Consultations are held in confidence and there is no obligation to proceed.
Before you enquire.
Is this programme suitable for an employee referred through our EAP?
Yes. A significant proportion of guests are referred by employers, employee assistance programmes and occupational health teams. Referral, invoicing and reporting are handled separately from clinical care, and what the employer receives is strictly limited — see the section on confidentiality above.
What information does the employer receive?
Confirmation that the programme was attended and completed, and nothing else. No assessment results, no questionnaire scores, no clinical findings and no diagnosis are shared with an employer, funder or referring manager without the guest’s separate written consent. This is a legal requirement under the Protection of Personal Information Act and a professional one under health practitioner confidentiality rules.
Is burnout a medical diagnosis?
No. Burnout is classified by the World Health Organization as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition. What it does produce is a cluster of measurable physiological and psychological changes — in sleep, metabolic markers, inflammation, mood and cognitive performance — and those are what this programme measures and addresses. Where assessment identifies an underlying medical or psychiatric condition, we say so and refer you appropriately.
Can this replace psychiatric or psychological treatment?
No. This is a structured clinical wellness programme, not psychiatric care. If your screening or your time here indicates a condition requiring ongoing treatment, we will tell you plainly, and we will help arrange the right care rather than continuing a programme that is not the right intervention.
We are travelling from outside South Africa. What is included?
Return transfers from OR Tambo or Lanseria International Airport, five nights of accommodation, all meals and the full programme. Most nationalities do not require a visa for short stays, but confirm your own position before booking. We can provide a letter of confirmation for visa or corporate travel purposes on request.
How far in advance should we book?
Programme numbers are limited each week. Pathology must be collected roughly ten days before arrival, so a minimum of three weeks’ notice is needed. For organisational referrals we can usually work to shorter timelines.
What happens after the five days?
You leave with a written recovery and return-to-work plan. A physician and dietitian teleconsultation follows at twelve weeks with repeat inflammatory, glycaemic and lipid testing, and a further psychological review at six months. Relapse after burnout is common when nothing changes structurally, which is why follow-up is part of the programme rather than an upsell.
Can a partner join?
Yes. A partner may share the suite with accommodation, meals, spa access and hydrotherapy included, or complete the full clinical programme at the rate quoted on this page.