September 2026: California desert
The Embodied Medicine Experience
where grown-ups REMEMBER how to play
A medicine journey disguised as the best trip of your life — virtual connection, desert adventures, animal friends, & a whole lot of unbridled, unfiltered, full-body JOY!
What is this magickal thing?
Two worlds. ONE giant permission slip.
This isn't your typical retreat. There are no rigid schedules, no performance, no "healing correctly." This is a full-permission zone — whether you're watching from home or rolling in the desert sand with us. Your inner child has been waiting for this invitation!
The Virtual experience
Road Trip Magick 🚗
Tag along — pajamas totally welcome!
Follow Maria & Sam behind the scenes as they road trip to & through California — spontaneous stops, land channelings, unexpected downloads, & ALL the REAL, unpolished, beautiful moments in between. This is a living broadcast of two INtuitive humans fully trusting the ride!
The in-person retreat
The Embodied Medicine Playground 🎪
Where play becomes a grounded innersperience!
3.5-days in the California desert where your inner child runs the show. Nature, magick, animals, movement, swimming, meditation, arts, & moments you'll be telling all your friends about. Healing has never felt this FUN!
What we're actually doing
Desert adventures
await your inner kid
Every single thing on this itinerary was chosen with one question in mind: what would make your soul light up like a 7-year-old on the last day of school?
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Joshua Tree Adventure
Let Sam & Maria guide you into the magick of the desert — receiving downloads, channeling activations, & facilitating healing right on the land. Nature has been waiting to connect with YOU. Come play in her cathedral!
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Kaleidoscope Desert play
Kaleidoscope Desert is a 5-acre sanctuary where rescued animals, art, & wild desert beauty come together to create a space for healing, wonder, & deep connection. See their website below for more information.
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Resort-style desert home
A newly renovated luxury desert sanctuary with 180° views of Joshua Tree National Park — private, spacious, & stocked with every comfort your inner child could dream up. Pool, hot tub, fire pit, hammocks, & wide-open sky. This is where the magick rests & our inner children play!
The Full Adventure Map
Here's how the story unfolds: 🗺️
Phase 1: Virtual 9/20/26-9/21/26
The Road Trip Begins!🚗
Maria & Sam hit the road separately to meet @ Joshua Tree, and they bring you along for every spontaneous, scenic, sacred moment of the trek west. Behind-the-scenes, unfiltered, & fully alive!
Phase 2: Virtual 9/21/26-9/22/26
Sacred stops & downloads🌀
Multiple intuitive pauses along the route — channeling from the land, receiving transmissions in real time. Virtual peeps get every single download as it arrives. Catch us LIVE or on the replays!
Phase 3: IN-Person 9/22-9/26/26, Twentynine Palms, California
The Playground opens! 🎉
The Playground opens the evening of September 22nd. 3.5 days of Shamanic healing, land adventures, energy activations, & full-permission inner child play guided by Sam & Maria. You'll Leave the morning of the 26th — heart cracked open, soul full, inner kid thoroughly unleashed!
Phase 4: Virtual 9/29/26
The grand finale!🎊
Follow their road-trip journey from Cali to New Mexico 9/27-9/28 & then yin meets the yang on September 29th for a LIVE virtual closing event you won't want to miss. Sam & Maria bring the full medicine — raw road trip stories, retreat integration, live channelings, & group coaching for everyone who rode this journey, in person or from their couch.
Where you'll rest your happy self
Dreamy desert digs
Nestled in the sacred desert landscape with sweeping 180° views of Joshua Tree National Park, our home base for the Playground is nothing short of magickal. This newly renovated luxury retreat house is private, spacious, & thoughtfully stocked for a group that's here to play hard & rest deep. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a fully equipped chef's kitchen, & more outdoor amenities than you'll know what to do with — pool, hot tub, fire pit, hammocks, BBQ, cornhole, giant Jenga, a record player, & a library. We'll gather on the covered patios under the stars, soak in the hot tub after a day on the land and let the desert hold us the way only she knows how. Just 10 minutes from town and 15 minutes from the Joshua Tree National Park entrance, we're perfectly tucked away from the noise of the world — & perfectly positioned to receive everything this medicine journey has to offer. Come as you are. Leave transformed!
A Playground Has No Rulebook
Here's the thing about Sam & Maria— they follow the energy. ALLways. So, while we'd love to hand you a color-coded schedule, the truth is the most powerful medicine arrives when we stop planning & start listening. What we can tell you is the kinds of experiences that may move through our time together, held in the container of two experienced nurses, shamanic practitioners, & certified energy workers who know how to read a room — & a desert.
Come with an open heart & zero agenda. That's where the real magick lives.
"The Medicine Menu"
🎨 Inner Child Activation — Creating, Exploring & Playing
🐾 Animal Connection at the Sanctuary
🌬️ Emotional Embodiment, Breathwork & Energy Healing
✨ Tapping into LIMITLESS Potentials
💗 Heart Connection & Inner Wisdom
🔓 Empowerment & Intuition
🌺 Rediscovery of Passion & Purpose
🎶 Shamanic Journeying & Sound Baths
💃 Music & Dance
🏊Swimming & Movement
🍫 Cacao Ceremony
🔥 Fireside Chats & Real-Life Storytelling
🌵 Connecting with Nature & the sacred Land @ Joshua Tree National Park
💚Remembering YOUR Embodied Medicine
🌟AND so much MORE!!!
before you pack your bags
A Few Things to Know🌵
We want your experience to be as seamless & magickal as possible — so here's everything you need to know before you say YES.
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Getting There
Travel to & from the retreat home is NOT included in your investment. Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation. Whether you're flying into Palm Springs, LAX, or road-tripping yourself — we'll make sure you have all the information you need to find your way to us. Once you've booked your spot, we'll send all details regarding the check-in process etc.
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Food & Nourishment
Light snacks & health conscious refreshments will be lovingly offered throughout the retreat, but participants are responsible for their own meals. You'll have full access to a gorgeous chef's kitchen on-site — perfect for cooking together as a community. Downtown Twentynine Palms is just 10 minutes away with grocery stores, restaurants, and local spots to explore.
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A Unisex Gathering
The Embodied Medicine Playground is a unisex retreat — and that is entirely intentional. Maria & Sam deeply value the harmonious balance that both masculine & feminine energies bring to the healing container. The yin and the yang together create something more whole, more potent, & more transformative than either could alone. ALL are welcome here.
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Our Home, Our Respect
Our beautiful desert Airbnb is a sacred space for the duration of our stay. All participants are required to agree to and honor the house rules of our retreat home — treating the space, the land, and one another with the same care and respect we bring to every aspect of this experience. This is also a substance & alcohol-FREE retreat as we honor the importance of presence & full embodiment.
choose your adventure
Your INvitation to the playground
However you're called to show up — from your couch or in the desert sand — there's a place for you in this experience. Every single option is full of medicine.
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Option 1: Virtual ONLY
The Virtual Experience
Ride along from wherever you are
$199
lifetime access
What's included
Behind-the-scenes road trip footage — both directions, healings/activations & intuitive downloads
Designated Telegram group & channel for all retreat footage & communications
Curated highlights & moments from The Playground
LIVE virtual closing event — Sept 29th (group coaching, channelings & retreat integration)
Watch live or replay — anytime, forever
Lifetime access to all recordings as long as you stay in the Telegram
Kaleidoscope Desert play
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Option 2: IN-Person (with FULL virtual access included)
The Playground — Shared Room
In the desert, in the medicine, in community shared spaces
$2,200
What's included
Full 3.5-day in-person retreat (evening Sept 22nd – morning Sept 26th)
Shared bedroom at our luxury desert Airbnb
All Medicine Menu experiences (to include day trip pass & transportation to & from Kaleidoscope Desert Sanctuary) with Sam & Maria
LIVE virtual closing event — Sept 29th
Complete Virtual Experience — road trip footage, highlights & all recordings
Mega savings on Remembrance Portal Membership, post retreat (if not already a member)
Kaleidoscope Desert play
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Option 3: IN-Person (with FULL virtual access included)
✨Most Spacious✨
The Playground — Private Room
Your OWN sacred space in the desert
$2,800
What's included
Full 3.5-day in-person retreat (evening Sept 22nd – morning Sept 26th)
Private bedroom at our luxury desert Airbnb
All Medicine Menu experiences (to include day trip pass & transportation to & from Kaleidoscope Desert Sanctuary) with Sam & Maria
LIVE virtual closing event — Sept 29th
Complete Virtual Experience — road trip footage, highlights & all recordings
Mega savings on Remembrance Portal Membership, post retreat (if not already a member)
Why we co-created this
The Real Reason
We're Here ☯️
This retreat wasn't born from a business plan. It was born from lived experience — from years of sitting in the dark, doing the hard work, and then one day realizing something that changed everything. Here's the honest truth about why Sam & Maria built The Playground — and why they're bringing it to year two of this potent retreat!
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The Shadow Years
We know what it means to sit in the dark
Between the two of them, Maria & Sam have navigated significant loss, grief, and the kind of life experiences that crack you wide open. For the past 8 years, they've been doing deep, relentless shadow work — diving into hidden traumas, sitting with grief, and facing the parts of themselves that were easier to avoid. They didn't take shortcuts. They went ALL the way IN, and continue to do so on a daily basis.
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The REALization that changed everything
Joy isn't the reward for healing. It IS the healing.
After years in the depths, something shifted. Sam & Maria began to realize that true wholeness isn't found only in processing pain — it requires the other end of the spectrum too. Feeling JOY! Embodying delight. Letting yourself be light. Not as an escape from the shadow, but as an equal and essential part of it. And that's exactly what they bring to YOU at The Embodied Medicine Playground!
"We had spent years learning how to feel the pain.
We finally gave ourselves permission to feel the JOY, because JOY is our rebellion!"
-Shamanic Soul SiSTARs, Samantha Shea & Maria Gingras
Branches of Vibrational Healing LLC
SoulJoy LLC
Peanut Butter & JoyFULL LLC
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The Yin & The Yang
You cannot have ONE without the other. Light needs dark. Joy needs pain. This retreat is a living embodiment of that truth — holding space for the full spectrum of the human experience, not just the parts that are comfortable.
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The Inner Child Calling
Somewhere along the path of deep healing work, Sam & Maria reconnected with something they hadn't felt in years — the curiosity, wonder, & wide-eyed excitement of who they were as kids. Before the wounds. Before the weight. That reconnection was its own kind of medicine.
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A Reflection, Not a Program
The Embodied Medicine Playground isn't a curriculum Maria & Sam designed from the outside in. It's a direct reflection of where they are right now — two humans who have done the shadow work & are NOW saying YES to joy, play, & the magick of being fully, joyfully alive!
🌟2nd Annual retreat🌟
Year ONE proved it.
Year two goes even deeper.
The first Embodied Medicine Retreat showed Maria & Sam something they'll never forget — that when you bring balanced masculine & feminine energy into the same sacred container, something extraordinary happens. Last year's participants didn't just heal. They transformed. They remembered. They discovered how love expresses itself uniquely through them — their own embodied medicine — and they left the experience as different humans than the ones who arrived. That's not something you can manufacture. It's something you create the conditions for AND then get out of the way.
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Balanced Energy
A harmonious mix of masculine & feminine participants created a healing field unlike anything a single-gender space can hold — whole, potent, and deeply transformative.
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Real Transformation
Last year's participants didn't just attend a retreat — they underwent genuine, lasting shifts. Lives changed. Perspectives cracked open. People went home knowing themselves in a new way.
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Embodied Medicine Discovered
Each person uncovered how LOVE uniquely expresses itself through them — their gifts, their healing presence, their medicine. That discovery? It doesn't leave you when you go home.
This retreat exists because we needed it first.
And we have a feeling you might too.
If you've been doing the hard work — the grief, the shadow, the healing — and something in you is ready to remember what it feels like to be truly, fully, unapologetically alive... this is your invitation. Your inner child has been patiently waiting for exactly this moment.
