Step In To Your Medicine:

Spiritual self-discovery for women.

 

Join us for our Women's Retreat this Spring, April 27th-May 2nd, in Asheville

 

By request. Do you find yourself depleted after carrying the energetic needs of others? Have you attuned yourself to the needs of others for years-but now find yourself curious about resourcing yourself?

Do you have a small voice inside you calling you into something more meaningful, for yourself as a person and your work in the world, but feel unsure what to do about it? This gathering is created for you.

Register

We heard you.

First, a thank you...to the many women who have come through our clinical and psychedelic training programs, learned of our backgrounds in more nature-based ceremonial work, and requested this offering. As always, we appreciate you nudging us to create these retreats.

This gathering is a combination of retreats Kara and Signi have been facilitating for years.  You may have attended our trainings for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy using Ketamine and know the impact of experiencing it yourself.  You may have attended our more ceremonial offerings, where we deep dive into how to listen to nature, your own inner knowing, and the voice of spirit in your life- even if all this is new to you.  You may have learned IFS or EMDR skills from us and have been drawn to the idea of connecting yourself deeper to your work in the world. You may have stumbled upon this simply because you are a woman in today's world, under-resourced and exhausted.

Intention

As we move into Spring on the land, we hope to turn inward together and examine ourselves, our relationship to our own spirituality, and ask the question, "What's next"? "What's missing?" How can our work in the world become part of what sustains us in our relationship to Spirit, whatever that be for each of us?

All aspects of this retreat are offerings and not mandatory. Once you arrive, you are encouraged to participate only in the parts that feel right to you. 

The Experience

 

The focus of the gathering includes nature connection, group-held self exploration in a confidential container, and a gentle introduction to medically-supervised psychedelic experiences. There will also be time for quiet reflection and time on the land.

We will take a small cohort of eight women, and you will be supported by skilled facilitators and a closed cohort of women who are on similar life paths, held by confidentiality and mutual respect. 

We have created this offering to use ceremonial and psychedelic experience to focus not on you as a professional- but you as a person.  If you lean into curiosity about your own life’s bigger purpose, the question of what this can mean for your work in the world will naturally follow.  We intend to create a space for women to support each other as we each explore these questions for ourselves.

In addition to your psychedelic journeys, you will be offered an optional opportunity to step into a "Death Lodge" ceremony, as well as help to facilitate this offering for your peers.  You can learn more about this rite of passage here.

Two Psychedelic Ketamine Experiences

We provide a safe context for you to experience psychedelic doses of Ketamine with different routes of administration. 

For your individual session, you will be able to choose between intravenous (IV) or intramuscular (IM) administration, a choice that is rarely available in retreat settings. You will also experience a group intranasal (IN) session, which allows the option to self-titrate your dose, increasing or decreasing during your session, according to your personal preference.

Sessions are supervised by experienced physicians, and preparation and integration are facilitated and modeled as a group.

Why is this so needed?

We often care for others- and care about the opinions of others- by necessity. But some of us do work in our profession or community because of a talent or calling.  If this is you, we believe you had that talent or calling for a reason. Something deep in you has a purpose - or is trying to find one.  

In our current society, it can become easy to lose sight of the magic and gravity of the role of a healer, the community builder, the artist....  Perhaps long ago, we would have been the village medicine women. But being born in a world that doesn't contain such a role, we become therapists, sponsors, or medical providers, advocates- or the person who gathers others together, tells stories, or creates support systems.

Many of us, juggling work and life responsibilities, struggle with burnout, lack of meaning, and frustration, finding ourselves drained by our work rather than restored by it.

Can our calling into our work also nourish us?

April 27- May 2, 2026 

$4,400 Double Room

$4,800 Single Room

Mandatory One Hour Orientation Zoom Call:

March 30th at 7:00 EST

Lead Staff:

About Kara

Kara Baertsch, LMHC, is a Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy provider and clinical skills trainer with training in ceremonial and nature-based group facilitation.

Kara's Website

About Signi

Signi Goldman, M.D., is a Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy trainer, Ketamine-Assisted Psychothapy provider, ceremonialist and trained Rites of Passage Guide.

Signi's Website

Who should not attend:

You do not need prior psychedelic experience for this retreat.  We are experienced in facilitating many women through their first altered state experience. But note that this kind of experiential psychedelic retreat can be an intense experience and can open you to upsetting or challenging inner experiences and emotions.  Our team has held many similar retreats and have expertise in supporting you should this occur. But it's important to understand clearly that this is not a group therapy program, and we are not serving as any participant's personal therapist. 

Therefore, we require all participants to have access to a personal therapist, so that we can be assured that you will have ongoing therapeutic support should you need to integrate challenging psychedelic experiences.  

Please take the responsibility seriously of authentically checking in with yourself about your readiness for this experience. It may not be the right time for you if you have a lot of upsetting events happening in your life or are struggling or feeling fragile in your own mental health.

If you choose to come, you are agreeing that:

1. You have checked in with yourself deeply and feel you are in an emotionally stable state to enter this experience.

2. You have a therapist or similar support person who can assist you if any challenging emotional or psychological experiences emerge following this retreat.

If you have any questions about this, ask to speak with Kara or Signi, so that we can help you assess yourself individually. And thank you for your honesty and authenticity with this vulnerable but critical part of the admissions process. This step helps us care for each other as well as ourselves in such a vulnerable container. We honor your stepping into this conversation. 

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."

-Neale Donald Walsch