Indigenous Healing Retreat

Meet Your Guide

I grew up on the grounds of the Anasazi Indian Village State Park in remote southern Utah, a village whose indigenous inhabitants disappeared about 800 years ago. My dad spent his career there as the lead archeologist. I spent countless days by his side digging in the dirt and learning the ancient traditions and rituals of the Southwest indigenous populations. I loved it! It was magical. I didn’t realize until much later how lucky I was to have my first life lessons take place in such a sacred place.

Like most young adults, when it was time to launch, my hometown felt more limiting than magical, so I headed off to the big city to try to make my mark (or at least figure out how to afford rent). When I chose to be a therapist, I figured my career would never again overlap with my childhood love of archaeology and the Indigenous cultures of the Southwest.

Over the next decade or so I finished my schooling, helped establish my family, and launched my career. I loved my work as a therapist and professor, but it took me years to acknowledge that something was missing in my work. It took me even longer to realize that “something” had been in me all along, written in my bones as a child digging in the dirt next to my dad.

I first realized what was missing when my colleague, Dr. Jason Platt, invited me to teach a couples therapy course in Mexico City. As part of this course we traveled to Malinalco, a remote village held sacred to many spiritual traditions over the years, to participate in ancient Toltec warrior ceremonies. As I participated in a temezcal, everything came full circle for me. I felt complete. Up to that point I hadn’t even fully articulated that my work felt incomplete, but as I sat in the temezcal my soul came alive. Everything I had been about clicked into place. Sort of like when you don’t realize how hungry you are until you start eating – that’s what that trip was like for me. And I’ve never been the same since.

Rooftop dinner in Malinalco

As I shared my experience with others, I was surprised to hear how many of my colleagues felt a similar void. So I started taking friends and students along on the trip a few times each year. Usually they had the same experience as I had. I remember one typical instance in which a friend, someone who I knew had carried heavy burdens for many years, started crying in the temezcal and didn’t stop it seemed until days later. She was so much lighter. Just the other day, years later, she reached out to me and told me that trip was one of the most meaningful experiences of her life. Whatever their experience, most say that even though they can’t quite put their finger on why, their work has changed subtly yet significantly.

Not everyone has that experience, of course. Some people come, shrug, and think whatever. But for most, it’s a trip they remember forever. I don’t know what experience you’ll have, but I do know that in bringing you along, I’ll be fulfilling one of the most meaningful aspects of my calling as a healer.

Here’s what a few past participants have said: