Whatever heals is medicine. A long walk can be medicine. So can a breath held for years that is finally released, a dance that moves past the point of thinking, or the slow medicine of being deeply known by another person. Rivers, cedar trees, drums and a grandmother’s soup carry medicine too, because every living thing holds a power of its own and offers it. The plant teachers also belong to this family.
Every retreat I offer is a medicine retreat of some kind. What differs is which medicines are woven in. One may be built from movement, ritual and long conversation. Another may include the plant teachers. Most weave many medicines together. What weaves in rests on what is right for you and on what the law allows.
How a Medicine Retreat Unfolds
A medicine journey is a process far larger than any single day of ceremony. Here the whole arc is held.
Preparation comes first and can take weeks, with attention to your history and your body, to what you hope to meet and to all the other parts that surround the upcoming journey. That means who will be present and where it will happen, down to how you spend the days just before, so that every piece supports what you are about to enter. The journey itself follows, with careful attention to set and setting, which means the state you bring and the space that holds you. Integration comes last, in the days, months and years afterward. It is how a revelation becomes embodiment.
Small Groups, or Just You
I don’t generally hold medicine groups larger than ten, and I bring in others to help hold the space. Many retreat centers south of the border gather fifty or more people in one room. The size makes a lot of money, and the facilitators rarely number enough to match. In any group, people are deeply affected by the experience of those around them. In a group of fifty that influence is far greater, and not every center has a room where someone can go for one-on-one attention. With ten, no one is lost in the crowd. A medicine retreat can also be just you and me.
Renting the Sanctuary for a Gathering of Friends
Sometimes a group of friends wants to journey together and has no place for it. The Soul Medicine Sanctuary can be rented for that purpose and is fully supplied with mats, eyeshades, musical instruments, snacks, blankets and much more, everything you would need to feel supported. Renting a space to journey with your friends is legal. What friends share among themselves is theirs, within Colorado law, which lets adults 21 and older share natural medicine with one another and does not let anyone charge for the medicine itself. The rental covers the space and its supplies. I do not sell medicine, and neither should you if you want to stay within the confines of Colorado law.
To Learn More
The words, the law, preparation and safety are being gathered on one page: Psychedelic Harm Reduction. I try to keep up with laws and research, but check the updated date on each document. Everything there has been gathered from websites, talks and experts I have spoken with. I am not a medical provider nor a researcher, so, as with any fact you meet on social media, do your own due diligence to check for accuracy.
Where My Work Sits
This is spiritual and ceremonial work, offered outside psychotherapy, which puts it outside my counseling license, and outside Colorado’s licensed natural medicine program. I offer integrative medicine retreats only to people I already know and trust, and only where it is legal, so a conversation is where it starts.