"I've done the therapy. I've done the work. So why do I feel like I'm standing at a door I haven't opened?
If you know that feeling—the sense that healing has carried you somewhere real, but there's still something past it you can't quite name—this retreat is for you.
Healing happens here. But it's no longer the destination. What we're moving toward is something larger: the becoming of a person who can carry this work, hold it for others, and live it as their own.
Who this is for:
This retreat is for people who:
Have done meaningful personal work and feel ready for what comes next
Sense they're being called to help, guide, or hold space for others—even if the shape of that isn't clear yet
Are drawn to grounded, experiential practice rather than more concepts
Want to spend three days with a small group going somewhere honest
It's not a first introduction to inner work. It's not a healing intensive. It's not trauma work. It's for people who have already crossed those thresholds and are asking what comes next.
What to Expect:
Over three days at The N.E.S.T., a small group will move through a carefully held sequence of practices rooted primarily in the curanderismo tradition—the Mexican folk-healing lineage Bob has trained in for decades.
We'll sit in plática, the curanderismo practice of sacred listening, where what needs to be spoken finds its way into the room. We'll work with story as a tool for transformation, learning to hear the deeper pattern in your own life and in the lives of those you may one day support. We'll move through guided journeys and embodied practices that bypass the analytical mind and let something older speak.
You won't just learn about these practices. You'll be inside them.
The fire ceremony:
Saturday night, we gather around fire.
Fire carries an alchemical power nothing else does: what goes into fire does not come back the way it went in. Across cultures, healers have worked directly with this—not as metaphor, but as medium.
What we do Saturday night draws from the curanderismo tradition of fire work and limpia—ceremonial cleansing. Through drumming, song, and prayer, the circle moves into a space where real healing becomes possible. Each person, in their own way, brings what no longer serves them—old patterns, old grief, what they're ready to be done carrying—and offers it to the fire, often with a tobacco offering, in their own words.
Everyone present receives healing in this circle. And three people will step into the center to receive a more direct ceremonial healing—a deeper encounter, held by the rest of the group. Who those three are tends to become clear in the moment. The group's presence is part of the medicine.
This is active ceremonial healing work, in a tradition that goes back further than any of us. We do it together, in the dark, with intention.
What this work tends to open up:
After this kind of retreat, people often describe:
A new and more reliable trust in their own intuition
A greater capacity to regulate their own energy and emotions, especially in difficult moments
A felt sense, not just an idea, of being able to support others
Seeing their own story as a source of authority rather than something to overcome
The ability to take in wisdom teachings and actually live them, rather than collect them
A spiritual dimension that no longer sits apart from daily life, but informs how they move through it
About Bob Vetter:
Robert Vetter is a cultural anthropologist, healer, and storyteller. He holds a master's in Cultural Anthropology and has spent decades in the field, training with Indigenous elders and traditional healers—particularly within Native American traditions and Mexican curanderismo. He has taught in the University of New Mexico's Curanderismo program.
He is the founder of Soul Medicine: Journey from Calling to Healing Practice, where he mentors aspiring and evolving healers in developing their presence, intuition, and capacity to support others.
His work rests on a simple premise: healing isn't something done to us. It unfolds in relationship—through story, through presence, and through connection to wisdom that's older and deeper than any of us. His retreats are known for their depth, their warmth, and an unforced quality—ceremony done with full commitment, never for show.
Costs:
We are doing our best to offer programming that is accessible.
Our sliding scale is guided by the “Green Bottle” approach, inviting you to reflect on your current financial capacity—whether your resources feel abundant, balanced, or limited—and choose a contribution that is both honest for you and supportive of the wider community, helping keep these offerings accessible to all.
The sliding scale offers three ways to contribute: a community rate for those with limited financial resources, a supporters rate for those who can comfortably meet their needs, and a sustainers rate for those with greater financial abundance who wish to help sustain the space and make it accessible for others.
Take a look at our Green Bottle Comparison to help you identify yourself on the scale.
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