Personal Healing Retreats

Novelty, beauty, and awe are elements that actively support neurogenesis and a more open mind. Traveling to somewhere awe-inspiring that invites you to slow down, unwind, and be immersed in Nature can deepen your healing process.

Maybe you've been longing to step away — to give yourself a stretch of tropical rest and downtime, with some focused healing work woven through it. This is an invitation to come to the land of the living volcano and work together in person for a few focused sessions, and letting the living intelligence of the 'āina (land) support your inner work.

I am based in the Pāhoa / Puna area on the wetter side of the Big Island — land of fire and rain, jungle and lava, on the Hilo side close to Kehena Black Sand Beach, and home to one of the world's most active shield volcanoes, where the ground you walk on is some of the newest land on Earth.

Ways to Work in a Retreat

A personal retreat is built around what you're working on. We can focus on one approach or blend a few.

EMDR intensives : Focused EMDR over several sessions, so you can drop deeply into working through a particular trauma or event without stopping and starting week to week.

IFS work: Using Internal Family Systems to get to know a particular part, theme, or burden more deeply — spending real time connecting with and lending Self energy to the parts and their dance.

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP): In-person KAP retreats, with dosing sessions held in your own space. You can read all about how KAP works on my Ketamine Therapy page.

An Integrative Approach: we will tailor your sessions based on what works for you — somatic work, EMDR, IFS, and KAP can all be brought into a single arc, sequenced to what serves you.

What a Retreat Can Include

A retreat is shaped around you. You're welcome to come for as long or short a time as you'd like — that could look like a few days, a week, or a couple of weeks — and we'll decide together how many sessions we'll have while you're here. The island is part of the work, so rest, immersion, and integration are woven into all of it.

For folks traveling here, I come to you — your Airbnb, your rental, wherever you're staying. Sessions can happen wherever feels right — your own space, or, if it calls to you, somewhere outdoors for an ecotherapy session where we actively call in the elements of the land.

My usual session rate is the same as always. If a session takes extra travel time, we'll talk that through. You get to build the retreat around what you want, with your therapist meeting you here.

KAP Options in Hawaiʻi

If your retreat includes KAP, there are two paths for the medicine component:

Bring your own prescription: If you already have a ketamine prescription from your home-state provider — sublingual troches or rapid-dissolving tablets — you travel with your medication and we work with what you have. This is the simplest path for most clients.

Access ketamine on the Big Island: For clients who want intramuscular (IM) or intravenous (IV) ketamine, or who need a Hawaiʻi-based medical evaluation and prescription, I can connect you with Kilauea Ketamine Clinic, located right here in Pāhoa. You work with their medical team for the clinical administration; I support you on the therapy side before, during (as available), and after.

The Island as Part of the Container

The sessions are one thread in a larger weave. As in all versions of therapy, the healing happens both inside and outside of the session. Here you will gain a felt sens of inviting the land itself to become part of the work.

Some of the most powerful moments come when the inner work meets the outer world. A burden we've been carrying can be released somewhere real- you might choose to give it to the ocean, release it into a river, or offer it to Pele and the living land. Ritual like this can offer the body a way of making a shift tangible, of letting something actually leave. When you're ready for it, we can shape these moments together.

Within a few miles of the lower Puna / Red Road area, there is a remarkable concentration of healers and practices to draw on. If you'd like, I'm happy to share a curated list of trusted people and places — a kind of choose-your-own-adventure for your time here, so you can create your own marvelous healing journey:

Massage and bodywork practitioners I trust
Acupuncture and other healing modalities nearby
Sound healing experiences
Ecstatic dance and other embodied movement offerings
Warm ocean swims, waterfalls, black sand beaches, and lava fields
Airbnb and rental options near Kehena Beach and around Pāhoa

You get to shape a healing time that's yours — as spacious or as full as you like.

The experience of the island itself is medicinal. And if it calls to you, I'd be happy to help you connect with all it has to offer.