The Rooted Rebirth Retreat
Step into the un-lived chapters of your legacy
A wellness retreat and cultural immersion for
humanitarian hearts moving through life transition.
Around 80,000 years ago,
a massive volcanic eruption
formed the legendary Lake Atitlán.
From your room, you can view 4 volcanoes, one of which is still active.
Watch the occasional lava spill at night,
and the steam rise during the day,
while you do the inner work
to step into the un-lived chapters of your legacy.
What you'll explore
Day 1: The Gap Between (the life you've lived and the unlived chapters of your legacy)
a. Gratitude for gifts and blessings
b. The Challenges that shaped you
c. The Inner Gifts you've claimed
d. Embracing the Grief for what is changing or what has completed
e. Embracing Disillusionment as a Compass
f. Intro into the Daimon ...
g. Preparing to Embrace the Shadow
h. Seeds and Weeds - Part 1
i. Foot Soak / Plant Limpia while star gazing
Day 2: Embracing the Shadow - Cocao accompaniment optional
a. Day of private session diving into the findings from the Shadow Assessment
b. Pool, sauna, massage
c. Writing Exercises
d. Optional hike with local guides (chosen based on ability level)
e. Music during dinner
f. Camp fire and star gazing
Day 3: Embracing the Daimon - Adventure in Panajachel - Optional afternoon Zipline
a. Early morning breakfast at Lomas
b. Private lancha to Panajachel
c. Morning Beach hike and guided inquiry
d. Lunch
f. Waterfall hike and play, fun, self-guided experience
g. Learn about ecosystem
h. Optional zipline
i. Live music option in Pana -
Day 4: Cultural Exposure
a. Guatemala recent history - handout to review over breakfast
b. Pick-up ride or walk through Tzununá - visit Chi Tz'unun Choy, Walk along the beach.
c. Decompression Writing Circle on lawn at Adobe Casa
d. Lunch at Lomas
e. Afternoon Talking Circle - Inquiry on power, money, privilege, colonialism, modernization, ecological loss
f. Sunset mocktails or cocktails & dinner at Picnic & meet Gaby & Jochen
Day 5: Taa'pi't Visit
a. Breakfast at Lomas
b. Lunch with Taa'pi't
c. Optional San Juan visit
d. Dinner at Lomas
e. Star gaze, night swimming, sauna, and fire
Day 6: Embodying your Nature - Individuation and the Collective ... Your Energy Signature and Legacy
a. Morning lancha to Santiago
b. Hike with guided self inquiry on daily themes
c. Post up at Bambu - Kayaks, pools
e. Dinner and fun
f. Optional hot tub, sauna, massage
Day 7: Optional private sessions with Amanda and moto rides with Dain and visit to San Lucas
Optional Continuation of retreat for 2 days in Antigua...
After 20 years of experience in healthcare, clinical mind-body healing, and
cross-cultural social development, I've learned that human health and wellness are interwoven with the health of our cultures and ecosystems. Yet, when a patient is diagnosed with a mental or physical health condition, their culture and ecosystem are rarely taken into account as contributing factors.
In specialize in supporting persons with trauma and syndromes and chronic sickness, I worked almost exclusively with person who had struggled for decades with symptoms and found no relief from standardized treatments. In our work together, they found liberation from those conditions. The common denominator in each of their cases, was that they began to assess whether the norms of their culture were helping or hurting them.
Most of them found that their culture had normalized disocciation from their natural human design, and disconnection from the ecosystems that provide the sustenance required for balanced brain and body chemistry.
Healing ourselves, and healing our planet, is a holistic process that requires us to not only look at micro details at a chemical and cellular level, but also macro details on a cultural level.
I've designed Rooted Rebirth cross-cultural retreats for the individuals who want wellness not just for themselves, but for the planet.
These trips are for those committed to seeding a counter-culture of safety, dignity, and vitality on this planet. If that's you, then let's plan your next trip here on Lake Atitlán.
Amanda Blain, psycho-social educator, clinical mind-body healing practitioner, and former Peace Corps South Africa volunteer. Today, I live on Lake Atitlán, in Guatemala, where I collaborate with indigenous organizations striving to preserve their culture, restore their ecosystems to support future generations, and strengthen the socio-economics of their communities.
This retreat is for:
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bleeding humanitarian hearts
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people craving a life-altering, truly authentic cultural experience
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the disillusioned who are looking for a path of higher service on the planet
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people craving a life-altering, cultural experience
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retirees looking for inspiration for the next chapters of life
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empty-nesters who are redefining their direction and purpose
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people amid big life transition who are unclear about their next steps and need heavy doses of inspiration to move forward
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people feeling called to an alternative way of living
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people who've come through the other side of a long healing journey and are experiencing their new self for the first time
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People looking for a personal rebirth
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People who deeply care about the health of the collective, and who are committed to pouring energy into improving that.
This retreat is not about escaping reality. It's about seeing it with new eyes.
Un-lived chapters of your life's legacy will begin to take shape.
What will you learn and how will you grow?
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Regenerative Health - almost always requires a massive perception shift. Requires the person to re-evaluate their relationship with themselves and the world.
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Neuroplasticity. Perception altering experiences that enrich your relationship with the world.
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Reclaiming the lost parts of self diminished by colonialism, manufactured culture, and trauma.
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Stories of indigenous and colonial history that expand understanding of modern systems and and how they help and harm.
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Building inner resilience, adaptability, and agency for community action and evolution. Healing is not the end destination, regeneration and evolution are.
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Regenerative Health as an integrated lens of human health, ecological health, and cultural health.
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Inner inquiry: Relationship with sickness, health, power, money, your body, the earth, community
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Ecological tours and relationship with the plants.
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Community project tours
Where will you stay and where will you explore ?
Hotel created by former United Nations workers who played key roles in the Peace Accords to end the
36-year Civil War that was instigated by the United States.
And the neighboring luxury tree house hotel and restaurant created by a native Guatemalan architect and German engineer who have spent years learning the Kaqchikel language, and who support local women entrepreneurs in an annual Christmas market and provide consultation and support for youth programs and the project of transforming the grounds of the Community Center into community gathering space.
A 15-minute walk through a traditional and conservative indigenous village to Chi Tz'unun Choy.
Hike to nearby towns along the lake, guided by the people born from these lands. Hike to nearby waterfalls.
Take the lanchas to nearby villages and hear the varying Maya languages and customs.
Walk in old growth forest.
See active volcanoes.
Visit Taa'pi't a 20-year old Tz'utujil organization striving to revive its culture, regenerate the health of the lake and surrounding ecosystem for future generations.
Reserva Panajachel - zip lines and ecological and historical education
Antigua - a World Heritage Site.
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This lake formed from a volcanic eruption nearly 80,000 years ago.
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Civil War 1960-1996. You will stay at a retreat center that was built and created by 2 United Nations workers who both worked in the Peace Accords to end the civil war. They were the first foreigners in the pueblo of Tzununá, and the hotel is the first ever hotel, built in 2000.
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The owners also started Chi Tz'unun Choy, Library & Culture Center, where I serve on the Board of Directors. You will visit this center.
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You will take private boats to visit other towns on the lake.
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Each town has its own culture and language / dialect.
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You will spend a day with a Tz'utujil organization that is striving to revive its culture and regenerate the health of the lake.
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You will learn about the local ecosystem and how it is a microcosm of challenges we face globally.
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You will hike to waterfalls and visit beaches full of volcanic rock.
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You will have access to a pool, sauna, fire pit, yoga shala, restaurant and bar.
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Therapies offered: bio-psycho-social, massage therapy.
Who will guide the experience?
I'm a Mind-Body Healing Practitioner specializing in Trauma and Neuroplastic Conditions. I pioneered this path out of necessity, while striving for liberation from my own complex, often debilitating trauma and bouts of chronic illness that once drained my quality of life.
I spent my 20s working inside of mainstream healthcare, and then carefully chose a non-traditional path - beyond the standardized limitations and colonial structures that have left humanity so disconnected from the truth about the origins of sickness and the possibilities for healing.
While working in Chicago as a Patient Care Specialist, I helped dialysis clinics improve patient outcomes by implementing mind-body education and depression management services. At this time, I also worked as a lead advocate for the Cancer Action Network, a role that led me to meet with lawmakers in Washington D.C. In 2013, I became disillusioned by cultural norms that prioritized profit over impact and decided to join the
Peace Corps.
While serving in South Africa, I met David Patient, who in 1983, became one of the first people in the world to be diagnosed with AIDS. Doctors told him he'd be dead in 6 months, and there were no treatments available. But David pioneered his own health plans and lived another 34 years - an outcome that baffled medical experts around the world. He became an award winning United Nations consultant, and co-authored the book, The Healer Inside You, Using PNI Mind Body Science to Help Heal Your Body. David was my mentor from 2013-2017. During this time, I also trained with his colleague, a research psychologist specializing in psycho-neuro-immunology.
In 2015, I entered what would become a 10-year private mentorship with a body-centered therapy practitioner (The Hakomi Method). I have learned from some of the world's leading psych and trauma experts in Dr. Bessel van der Kolk's Traumatic Stress Studies Certificate program, through the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, and multiple courses on body-based trauma support with Dr. Pat Ogden (Sensorimotor Psychotherapy) and Dr. Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing). I have over three years of training in trauma-specialized therapeutic movement and hold certification in Hatha Yoga, Primal Vinyasa®, and Primal Therapeutics®.
I have lived and learned with families who grew up under political apartheid in South Africa and in the Middle East. They taught me truths about trauma and healing that cannot be learned in a class, but only witnessed in real life - realities about our human capacity for healing, adaptability, and perseverance.
From 2016-2020, I led a media project in which I interviewed military veterans about the psychological aftermath of service to promote healing and understanding about the human aspect of war. Many of those interviewed were combat vets who had served in the Korean, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq conflicts, who opened up about experiences they had never spoken with anyone about since being discharged. Most reported feeling tremendous psychological relief from their participation in the project.
In my childhood, I endured multiple adverse events as the daughter of a teen mom. Overcoming trauma and stress-related chronic illness has been a survival necessity for me, which led to my now 17 years of professional experience and studies in Applied Mind-Body Science and Advanced Trauma Support Skills.
Today, I specialize in helping people who previously struggled for decades in unsuccessful treatment to find liberation from neuroplastic conditions including chronic illness and syndromes, chronic pain, and trauma. It is an honor to help people create new chapters of their life in which their symptoms do not define them.
I currently meet with clients remotely while living among the Maya people of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, where I serve on the board of directors of an indigenous-led NGO.
