Original Medicine Earth-Based Intensive Retreat
With Carol Cano, Imee Contreras, Janet Roos, Jenn Biehn, Ramón Honea, Carmen Alvarez, Mario Castillo, Kimber Simpkins-Nuccio, & Jonathan Relucio
Saturday, May 11, 2024 - Friday, May 17, 2024 (6 nights In-person)
Arrival Time: 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Departure Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Ben Lomond Quaker Center on Awaswas Land (Santa Cruz Mountains, California)
Retreat Description
Since 2014, we’ve continued to offer our Original Medicine program guiding hundreds of participants towards personal healing through deepening connection with nature as nature itself and cultivating relationships with our beloved ancestors and the Earth. We are thrilled to host the first ever Original Medicine Residential Retreat welcoming participants of all backgrounds to experience the very essence of this unique yearlong healing crucible mindfully distilled into an immersive in-person land experience.
Braiding together the teachings of the Buddha and Indigenous wisdom co-creates a foundation of truth, trust, and love. During this intensive retreat, we will explore ways of coming into the core of who we are, our own Original Medicine, and enhance our personal growth and purpose with nature as our teacher. Held by the magic of the Redwood forest, we will learn and experience contemplative practices that include mindfulness meditation, earth walks, and embodied mindfulness movement.
We will begin our mornings in the sweet territory of silence as we explore our inner landscape while the afternoons provide space for deepening through collective ritual and connection with sacred community. Each day, there will be periods for reflection, rest, and stillness. During our evening sessions there will be wisdom talks and further interactive work together. We will practice opening our hearts to each season, the four directions, and the elements while we ground in and develop the capacity of our inner resources. In the spaciousness of our practice, we create opportunities to courageously meet our beloved shadow sides. From this place, we can honestly investigate and address the patterns and habits that get in the way of embodying our deepest Original Medicine. Participants will experience the depth and essence of Braided Wisdom’s one of a kind yearlong healing program refined intentionally into an intensive, restorative, and heart-opening experience that will deepen and widen the nature of who we are… not separate from nature itself.
We welcome all to consider registering, especially those who have been unable to commit to a yearlong journey.
For more information about the retreat, please view the Retreat Information Packet:
Original Medicine Earth-Based Intensive Retreat Info Packet
We ask all registrants to complete the Participant Information Form:
Original Medicine Intensive Retreat Participant Information Form 2024
ABout THE teachers
Carol Cano, M.A.
Lead Teacher
Carol Cano, M.A., began her practice over 35 years ago at Wat Kow Tahm in Thailand and has actively engaged in building communities and teaching Dharma internationally. She is a teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She is a core teacher and a former board member of East Bay Meditation Center. Carol co-founded Philippine Insight Meditation Community in the Philippines.
Her unique teachings are deeply grounded in Basque, Native American and Buddhist influences that braid the Dharma along with Indigenous wisdom and earth-based practices. Her psychology background gives her a unique view into the human condition, which helps her hold community in a compassionate and confident manner. Carol reminds us to keep grounded in our hearts as we uphold spiritual ideals and encourages us to remain balanced within the demands of modern life. To find out more about Carol, please visit www.carolcano.com.
Imee Contreras
Co-Teacher
Imee Contreras, CMT-P, is the founder of Mindfulness Asia. She is co-founder of the Philippine Insight Meditation Community and Nibbāna Forest Refuge. She is a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach's Mindfulness Teacher Training Certification Program, where she co-facilitates the Third Space in the Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility Program. She is the Mindfulness Teacher of Braided Wisdom's Leadership Training Program and a Co-Teacher for the Original Medicine Yearlong Program.
She develops and facilitates innovative mindfulness programs for international companies, schools, and events. She volunteers to teach incarcerated women serving life imprisonment and supports sexually abused women and children.
She spent a large part of her younger years growing up in the United States and is now based in her motherland, the Philippines. She is mixed-race, adopted, and raised by hard-working, lower-middle-class, immigrant Filipinos. She is a mother, an organic gardener, a health and wellness advocate, and a yoga therapist.
Janet E. Roos
Co-Teacher
Janet E. Roos, PMP, CMT-P, has been recognized as an innovator in Business Technology for over 30 years. She has worked coast-to-coast as a highly respected “In-House” and “Consultant” leader for world renown companies. Janet completed the UCLA Mindfulness Certified Training Program and is a certified member of the International Mindfulness Teacher’s Association. She is a co-teacher for Braided Wisdom's Original Medicine Yearlong Program. Janet is a four time “Hall Of Famer” recognized elite athlete who understands the inherent value of employing Mindfulness Practices for competition, sports preparedness, and training. She has sustained a personal meditation practice for over a decade and has attended numerous training and silent retreats. Janet has volunteered with Non-Profit Organizations and currently serves on two non-profit boards.
Jenn Biehn
Mindful Movement Teacher
Jenn Biehn enjoys being a queer elder mentor and movement meditation teacher for the Braided Wisdom Leadership Training Program. She co-facilitates the Braided Wisdom white awakening & healing pod. She co-facilitates Honoring Eldership - Walking the Path Together at East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC). Through Neighbors for Racial Justice, a community based organization in Oakland, she co-facilitates workshops in Transforming White Privilege on the Path to Racial Equity. Jenn’s spiritual practice includes engaging with nature through cross country skiing and backpacking in the High Sierra, where she also takes younger spiritual seekers on side-by-side solo retreats to overcome their fears of the wild. She delights in sharing Tai Chi Chih - Joy through Movement as a circle practice under the redwoods at Oakland’s Dimond Park and continues to embody awareness and healing movement in her life-long journey of building community.
Jenn was an instructor and administrator at City College of San Francisco from 1977-2011, where she mentored, taught, and actively engaged in collaborative and inclusive leadership skills. As a peer-led sangha builder and movement teacher at EBMC for the past 12 years, she co-founded Restorative Practices for Dharma Practitioners Sangha, Midday Sangha, and Dharma in Motion. She also served on the Board of Directors/Leadership Sangha from 2016-2019 and helped to develop EBMC’s strategic plan.
Ramón Honea
Teacher's Assistant
Ramón Honea is a gay, second generation Oakland Latinx native. He served for 20 years as a teacher/administrator in the Oakland Unified School District. Through therapy, Ramon found meditation and the East Bay Meditation Center’s “POC sangha” where he sat on the board, led several groups, and participated on the center’s coordinating committee. Leading meditation since 2009, Ramon obtained a mindfulness teaching credential through the Mindfulness Training Institute in 2018. He is an Assistant Teacher for the Original Medicine Yearlong Program.
Carmen Alvarez
Teacher's Assistant
Carmen is from the Purepecha lands in Michoacan Mexico. Carmen has a master’s degree in Leadership which she has braided beautifully with her Toltec, Purepecha, and her Mindfulness Training Practices providing holistic approaches to healing and personal development. She received her Certification as a Mindfulness Teacher from the Braided Wisdom Leadership Training Program in 2022. She also has completed two Indigenous Master programs, Nahualismo and Curanderismo. Carmen is a practitioner of Mexican Indigenous practices and she is also part of a Lakota centered community. Coaching and training are her passions as she thrives when working with others. Her belief is that we must heal ourselves and by doing so we heal our family, our ancestors, and our communities. Carmen practices and guides mindfulness meditations, leadership coaching, ancestral healing, trauma-based healing, limpias, manifestations, planting dreams, among many other healing techniques. Her intention is for everyone to find their passion and live their best life.
Mario Castillo
Teacher's Assistant
Mario Castillo (he/him) resides on the ancestral and unceded land of the Bay Miwok-speaking Saclan people (Orinda, CA). He identifies as a queer, cis man of color on a spiritual path and has been a dedicated Buddhist practitioner in the Theravāda and Vipassanā traditions for nearly 15 years. Mario began attending the East Bay Meditation Center’s Alphabet and People of Color Sanghas in 2009. He later co-founded two peer-led Deep Refuge Groups in 2010: Alphabet Brothers of All Colors and Alphabet Brothers of Color. Mario is a graduate of EBMC’s Commit to Dharma Program with Larry Yang (2012) and EBMC’s inaugural Spiritual Teacher and Leadership Training with Noliwe Alexander, Carol Cano, JD Doyle, and Amana Brembry Johnson (2023). Mario practiced as a Buddhist monk in Thailand with Venerable Acharn Tippakorn Sukhito before returning to the Bay Area to complete his graduate training. Mario received his Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley in 2023. His research focuses on organizational diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
Kimber Simpkins-Nuccio
Teacher's Assistant
Kimber Simpkins-Nuccio (she/they) is a white, cis, queer mom and writer who taught yoga and mindfulness in the San Francisco Bay area for more than twenty years, bringing a body love and social justice perspective to her teaching and learning. She has completed the Dedicated Practitioner’s Program at Spirit Rock, teacher training at the Mindfulness Training Institute, racial justice facilitation training with Holistic Resistance, the Spiritual Teacher and Leadership Program at EBMC, Mindfulness Mentor Training with Banyan and is a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock, EBMC, New York Insight, and more recently, Insight Santa Cruz. She is currently learning the Kwan Yin dharmas in the 2 year Dharmapala training and is a member of the 2024 cohort of Braided Wisdom’s Original Medicine program. As a practitioner, Kimber values the intersection of social justice, self-knowledge, and decreased reactivity within Buddhist practice and appreciates how these skills help us increase our ability to connect deeply. Undermining white supremacy internally and externally is a core component of her work. She has witnessed first hand how the practice of mindfulness has brought more compassion and joy to her relationships and life.
Jonathan Relucio
Teacher's Assistant
For a decade, Jonathan Relucio was a Senior Trainer for Niroga Institute, teacher trauma-informed yoga, meditation, and mindfulness in urban schools, mental health clinics and juvenile detention centers. Currently, he teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and East Bay Meditation Center. Jonathan also facilitates transformation in social justice movements as a Trainer for Rockwood Leadership Insitute; integrates mindfulness with restorative circles for healing and racial equity as co-founder of AllThriveEd.org; and serves on the Healing Advisory council for Filipino Advocates for Justice.
With over 20 years of experience in social services, community organizing, training, and leadership development, Jonathan values yoga, dharma, meditation, Indigenous medicine, martial arts, dance, and DJing as practices for liberation that heal us from the impace of oppressive systems.
Sacred Reciprocity
As we build towards a restorative economy, one important way to ensure continued growth and engagement with our communities is through the practice of sacred reciprocity. Sacred reciprocity is a loving and joyful practice that invites you to consider your relationships with the community around you including the earth. This intentional practice invites you to make a contribution that's aligned with your ability and capacity, exploring your unique needs and meeting yourself exactly where you are, with the least amount of harm. Please consider contributing according to your ability and to the greatest extent that feels personally meaningful for your circumstances, with the benefit of others in mind.
In this practice, we also ask you to consider supporting the participation of current and future participants who may not have the same capacity. We recognize most mainstream events and programs like ours are priced at levels far out of reach for many in our community. As a result, we have made our events and programs accessible to all by inviting participants to practice sacred reciprocity to share support with others on the path.
For this Original Medicine Earth-Based Intensive Retreat in May 2024, we welcome the following tiers of contribution to consider:
Benefactor Tier: $2,100
Benefactor tier supports full contribution for you and a fellow community member.
Spiritual Friend Tier: $1,575
Spiritual Friend tier supports full contribution for you and partial for a fellow community member.
Supporter Tier: $1,050
Supporter tier supports you and most of the gathering costs.
Community Builder Tier: $525
Community Builder tier supports the basic costs.
Please note, the increase in requested contributions for each tier thoughtfully accounts for the rising inflation costs of goods, services, and food, which have gone up considerably in the past 12 months. Additionally, there is no grant funding to support the expenses of the gathering. We are actively seeking long-term funding to support this retreat moving forward. With that said, we believe these tiers remain accessible and honor the needs of our community's diverse needs and circumstances. However, if you need other support or arrangements, please don't hesitate to reach out to info@braidedwisdom.org. No one is turned away for lack of funds.
We believe liberation is a collective path that thrives on meaningful relationships and mutual sustainability and sacred reciprocity. We appreciate your collaboration to expand these offerings to more beautiful beings in our community! Thank you for your consideration and continued support.
Braided Wisdom Cancellation Policy
There will be a no-refund policy in effect by Saturday, April 27th, 2-weeks before the first day of the retreat. As you know, there needs to be advance notice to make all the necessary arrangements for someone to take your place. This would greatly impact our community. We create these reciprocity contribution tiers to make this retreat accessible to everyone in our community. There is a $60 non-refundable deposit for retreat registration.
***For people who cancel early on, please consider the practice of sacred reciprocity by donating your contribution. Braided Wisdom is an IRS approved tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law. Our EIN is 85-0813884.***