A PLAYGROUND where grown-ups RECLAIM their INner child
An inner 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!
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!
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 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!
✅You've done the healing work — the therapy, the shadow work, the deep dives, the medicine journeys — but something still feels like it's missing & you can't quite name it.
✅You can't remember the last time you did something just for the pure, unfiltered joy of it — not to be productive, not to grow, not to perform — but just because it felt GOOD!
✅You know you're here for something bigger, something that lights you up from the inside — but somewhere along the way you lost the thread back to yourself.
Then the Embodied Medicine Playground is calling YOU!
Most healing modalities focus on one wound at a time. One chapter. One version of you that needs tending. But The Embodied Medicine Playground was built on a different premise entirely. All of you got here. ALL of YOU heals.
Why We Work with ALL Versions of YOUr INner Child
Your embodied medicine — the unique way love & passion want to express themselves through you in this lifetime — didn't arrive fully formed one day. It was always there. But it got layered over. Covered up. Quieted down. By experiences that happened across every single stage of your becoming.
The toddler who reached for something with pure, unfiltered curiosity — and was redirected. The school-age child who had a way of seeing the world that didn't fit the classroom. The teenager who felt everything so loudly and was handed a thousand different messages about how to turn it down.
Each of those versions of you carries a piece of the puzzle. Each one holds a frequency, a gift, a way of being that is distinctly and irreplaceably yours. And each one, when they don't get to fully express — goes quiet. Waits. Stores that unexpressed energy somewhere in the body, in the nervous system, in the patterns that show up in adult life in ways that feel confusing or stuck or simply heavy.
This is why working with all versions of your inner child isn't just a "cute concept." It's the most direct route to wholeness that exists.
Why Joy IN a Safe Space IS The PORTAL
Here is something that took Sam & Maria years of their own deep healing to truly innerstand — and that NOW lives at the very heart of everything they facilitate:
You cannot think your way to your embodied medicine. You have to FEEL your way there. And the feeling that opens the door — the one that bypasses every defense mechanism, every protective layer, every story the mind has built around why it's not safe to be fully yourself — is JOY.
Not performed joy. Not joy as a "Spiritual concept." But the REAL, unfiltered, belly-laugh, dancing-in-your-living-room, I-forgot-what-time-it-is, my-face-hurts-from-smiling kind of joy that you felt before the world taught you to moderate it. When you experience that kind of joy in a space that is safe — truly, deliberately, carefully safe — something remarkable happens. The nervous system stops bracing. The body stops guarding. The walls that were built to protect the old wounds come down — not because someone pulled them down, but because the inner child didn't need them anymore.
And in that opening — that unguarded, lit-up, fully present state — your embodied medicine rises. Not as something new. As something remembered. The gifts you were always carrying but couldn't quite access. The way love has always wanted to move through you but couldn't find enough room. The version of yourself that was whole before the wounding — and is whole again NOW, but wiser. Deeper. Ready.
That is the transformation. And it doesn't stay in the desert.
How THIS TRANSFORMS Who YOU BECome
When every version of your inner self has been seen, celebrated, and given permission to be exactly who they are — something shifts in the adult, too. The adult who spent years "being strong" starts to remember that softness is also strength. The adult who shut down their creativity starts to let it back in — into their work, their relationships, their way of solving problems. The adult who turned the volume down on their passion starts to wonder what would happen if they turned it back up.
The transformed self isn't someone who has left the wounded self behind. It's someone who has gathered all the versions — the infant, the toddler, the kid, the teenager, the healer, the griever, the dreamer — and learned to walk forward with ALL of them.
Whole. Integrated. Fully, joyfully, unmistakably themselves.
That is your embodied medicine. And The Embodied Medicine Playground is where you go to remember it. 🌵✨

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!
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.
Resort-style desert home
A beautiful luxury desert sanctuary near 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!



📸Picture this: a stunning private desert retreat house surrounded by Joshua Tree magick, a pool calling your name, games that will make your inner child absolutely lose it, and enough space to gather, laugh, rest, and do it all over again the next day. Inside, you'll find cozy shared spaces to decompress, reflect, and have the conversations that happen when the ceremonies are done and the walls are down. Private rooms available (limited) & "slumber" party spaces also an option.
Details and photos coming soon! Worth the wait — we promise.🌵

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
🔥 Fireside Chats & Real-Life Storytelling
🌵 Connecting with Nature & the sacred Land @ Joshua Tree National Park
💚Remembering YOUR Embodied Medicine
🌟AND so much MORE!!!
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.
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. Retreat home is just minutes away from downtown area with grocery stores, restaurants, & local spots to explore.
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.
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.
The Virtual Experience
What's included
Behind-the-scenes road trip footage — both directions, healings/activations & intuitive downloads
Designated Telegram
Curated highlights & moments from The Playground (collective messages)
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
What's included
Full 3.5-day in-person retreat (evening of Sept 22nd – morning Sept 26th) plus virtual road trip
Shared bedroom at our luxury desert Airbnb
All Medicine 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
What's included
Full 3.5-day in-person retreat (evening of Sept 22nd – morning Sept 26th) plus virtual road trip
Private bedroom at our luxury desert Airbnb
All Medicine 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)
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!
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.
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!


*WHAT THEY'VE BUILT*
Branches of Vibrational Healing isn't a business Maria & Sam built for the market. It's the passion & healing they built for themselves first — a reflection of their most evolving, most authentic, most alive versions of themselves — and then opened the doors and invited you IN.
Their signature sessions, their retreats, their workshops/courses — ALL of it was born from the question: what would have helped us, when we needed it most?
The answer became their life's work.
They are still becoming. Every single NOW moment of every single day. That's the part they'll never stop. For they believe that the most powerful healers in the room are always the ones who haven't stopped doing their own work.
And that's WHO is holding space for you in the desert. Two women in full evolution, bringing everything they've walked through — and everything they've walked toward — into the container with them.
Two Nurses. Two Shamanic Medicine Women. Two humans who chose themselves — & built something extraordinary because of it.
They met the way magick tends to happen — in a room FULL of people learning to TRUST what they couldn't yet explain. A meditation event, 2019, led by their psychic development teacher. Two nurses sitting in the same circle of 40+ people, neither of them knowing yet that the very person laying right next to them would become their most important creative partner, their mirror, & ONE of the most significant relationships of their lives.
They didn't plan it. They didn't manufacture it. The medicine introduced them before they even knew they were looking for each other.
What they share goes deeper than credentials, though the credentials are REAL. Both are Registered Nurses who traded the fluorescent lights of conventional healthcare for something their hearts couldn't ignore. Both are Intuitive Mediums & Certified Shamanic Practitioners, trained in the lineage of Sandra Ingerman's teachings & more. Both have spent years doing the kind of deep inner work that doesn't come with a certificate — the shadow work, the grief, the reckoning with who they were versus who they were always meant to be.
And both made the same courageous, terrifying, absolutely necessary decision: to leave the limited spaces behind.
The "9-to-5" that felt like a slow dimming of the light. The relationships that asked them to stay small. The version of themselves that kept waiting for permission to be more. They walked away from ALL of it — not because it was easy, but because staying had become more painful than leaving.
What they walked toward was each other, and a business built entirely on TRUTH.
*THE YIN & THE YANG*
Sam & Maria are opposites in the most perfect way. Where one leads with fire, the other grounds with stillness. Where one channels the electric energy of activation & breakthrough, the other holds the soft, unwavering container of deep healing & Earthly integration. They are yin & yang in the most living, breathing, embodied sense of that word — and what they create together in a healing space is something neither could create alone.
This isn't a metaphor. You feel it the moment you're in their presence.
Their combined energy creates a field that is simultaneously safe enough to fall apart and alive enough to remember how to put yourself back together — in a whole new way.
*WHY TWO NURSES WHO ARE ALSO SHAMANS CHANGES EVERYTHING*
Most healers come from one world. Sam & Maria come from two — and they bring BOTH to every single session, ceremony, and retreat they hold.
Their nursing background means they understand the body. Not just energetically — but physiologically. They know what stress does to the nervous system, what grief does to the immune system, what years of suppressed emotion does to the body on a cellular level. They know how to read a room not just intuitively but clinically. They know when to push and when to hold. They know the difference between a healing crisis & a medical one.
Their shamanic training means they understand what the body can't fully explain. The energy beneath the symptoms. The ancestral patterns living in the DNA. The Spirit that sometimes needs tending before the body can truly heal.
Together? That combination is rare. Genuinely, uncommon rare.
And it is the foundation of everything Branches of Vibrational Healing stands for.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 is where it gets good. And this is what Sam & Maria know from their own lived experience. They didn't build this retreat from theory. They built it from their own transformations. The medicine from The Embodied Medicine Playground doesn't have a shelf life. It doesn't peak on the last day and fade by the time you're back in your regular routine. It does something far more interesting.
It evolves with YOU.
And here's what that looks like in REAL life:
🌅 In the weeks after — you notice things. The way you light up doing certain things. The way your body relaxes into joy in moments it used to brace against. The way your inner child — all of the versions of her, of him, of them — starts showing up uninvited in the best possible way. Reminding you that play isn't something you have to earn. That fun isn't frivolous. That the teenager who wanted to dance at 2am was onto something.
🌿 In the months after — the integration deepens. The downloads you received on the land start making sense in new ways. The relationships you formed in the desert reveal themselves as the kind that grow, not fade. You find yourself making choices from a different place — not from the wounded self that needed to heal, but from the whole self that knows how to feel. The adult wisdom and the child's freedom — finally working together instead of against each other.
🌟 In the years after — you look back at who you were before the desert and you recognize the distance traveled. Not because a single retreat fixed everything, but because it cracked something open that kept opening. A permission you gave yourself that you never took back. The twelve-year-old who got dismissed finally feeling heard. The sixteen-year-old who turned the volume down finally getting to turn it ALL the way back up — wisely, freely, beautifully! 🎉
The retreat is the beginning of something truly special. But your embodied medicine is the rest of your life.


This is what happened when we gathered on the sacred land of Tico Time River Resort for the first Embodied Medicine Retreat, in August of 2025. What began as a gathering of strangers became something far more rare — a community of humans who remembered, together, what it means to be fully alive.
We laughed until our stomachs hurt and cried until our hearts cracked open. We sang and danced without apology. We dressed up in costumes and let our inner children completely take over. We painted rocks, planted a tree, and pressed our hands into the earth to connect with and heal the land beneath our feet. We shamanic journeyed into the depths of ourselves, moved energy through breathwork, yoga and sound baths, opened our hearts in sacred cacao ceremony, and sat around the fire sharing the truths we'd been carrying. We released what no longer served us — in ceremony, in the river, in each other's presence. We cooked and ate family dinners together, swam in the river, and yes — went down waterslides with the kind of unfiltered joy that no healing modality can replicate.
And through ALL of it, something deeper was happening beneath the surface. Each person began to tune into their own embodied medicine — the unique ways love and passion want to express themselves through them in this lifetime. Not someone else's version. Not the version the world assigned them. Theirs. Wholly, beautifully, unmistakably theirs.
This is what the Embodied Medicine Experience looks like when it's FULLY ALIVE. And we're going back, only THIS time we're heading to Cali!
No question is too small. We want you to feel completely confident before you dive in. Here are the ones we hear most often.
Light snacks and health-conscious refreshments will be lovingly offered throughout the retreat — but meals are your responsibility. The good news? You'll have full access to a beautifully stocked chef's kitchen right on-site, making it easy and joy-filled to cook together as a community. Our retreat home is just minutes away from downtown with grocery stores, restaurants, and local spots to explore on your own time.
Travel to and from the retreat home is not included in your investment. Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation (we recommend renting a vehicle so you can explore surrounding areas during your FREE time). Whether you're flying into Palm Springs or LAX, road-tripping from wherever you are, or making your own adventure of the journey — we'll make sure you have all the details you need to find your way to us. PLEASE NOTE: There will be transportation provided the day that we visit The Kaleidoscope Desert Sanctuary. A van will pick all of us up at the retreat home, take us to the sanctuary & then drive us back to the retreat home when our tour has concluded.
We have a small number of private rooms available for those who need their own sacred space to land at the end of each day — these are limited and tend to go first, so if a private room is calling your name, don't wait. For everyone else, we've got what we're lovingly calling the slumber party experience. Think cozy shared spaces, the kind of middle-of-the-night conversations that only happen when you're all under the same roof, and the specific magick of waking up together every morning still buzzing from the day before.
Being mindful that this is a unisex retreat, we are intentionally creating safe, comfortable spaces for everyone. You are always welcome to choose the sleeping arrangement that feels right for you — your comfort and sense of safety is part of the medicine too.
Full bedroom details will be shared with registered participants.
Check-in: From 6 PM on September 22nd — come settle in, meet your people, and let the desert welcome you. Official retreat activities kick off the morning of September 23rd — so your first evening is all about arriving, getting comfortable, and connecting with the community.
Check-out: By 11 AM on September 26th.
Great question — and we love that you asked. Even though it's called the Embodied Medicine Experience, we will not be serving or facilitating any plant medicine or psychedelics at this retreat (with the exception of Mama Cacao, who absolutely counts as Earth's medicine in our hearts 🍫💚).
The intention of this retreat is to guide participants in remembering, activating, and tuning into their own embodied medicine — the ways in which love and passion want to express themselves through you in this lifetime. That is the medicine we're here to work with.
This is a fully sober event. YOU are the MEDICINE. We're just here to help you remember it.
Yes — The Embodied Medicine Playground is a unisex retreat, and that is entirely intentional. Maria & Sam deeply value the harmonious balance that both masculine and feminine energies bring to the healing container. The yin and the yang together create something more whole, more potent, and more transformative than either could alone.
This retreat is for any human who has been doing the inner work — the healing, the shadow, the grief — and is finally ready to give their inner child a turn. If you're ready to reclaim your sense of wonder, joy, and play and weave that energy back into your everyday life to love more fully, you belong here.
The virtual experience officially begins on September 20th — the moment Maria hits the road from New Mexico. She'll be going LIVE with road trip insights, Spiritual downloads, and spontaneous land activations as they come through in real time.
Here's the full virtual timeline:
Sept 20: Maria goes LIVE from the road — documenting her travels & channeling medicine along the way
Sept 21: Maria & Sam come together in Joshua Tree for a LIVE virtual welcome for the entire community
Sept 22–26: Spontaneous moments & highlights from in-person Playground shared with the virtual community throughout
Sept 27–28: Road trip magick continues as both Maria & Sam travel back to New Mexico together — more LIVE content, downloads, & channeling
Sept 29: LIVE virtual closing event — integration, real-life road shares, channelings & group coaching
All moments are available live AND on replay with lifetime access. Not a single transmission gets left behind.
🌟A dedicated Telegram group & chat for ALL virtual & in-person participants to follow retreat phases, watch the recordings & connect with ONE another.
Absolutely — and your couch has never been this sacred. 🛋️✨ The Virtual Experience (for ONLY $199) was built for exactly this. You receive the full journey — behind-the-scenes road trip footage, retreat highlights, the LIVE closing event on
September 29th, access to our dedicated Telegram community, and lifetime access to all recordings.
You don't need to be in the desert to receive the medicine. The container includes you wherever you are.
A few things make The Embodied Medicine Experience genuinely YOUnique:
💻🏜️The hybrid model: Virtual and in-person participants are held in the same container from start to finish — not as an afterthought, but as an intentional design. The road trip, the in-person retreat, and the live closing event are all woven together into one cohesive experience.
🩺🌱Two Nurses who are also Shamanic Medicine Women: Sam & Maria bring the precision of clinical nursing AND the depth of shamanic practice into every space they hold. They innerstand and embody both worlds — the physical and the energetic — in a way that is genuinely rare.
☯️The yin-yang energy: One activates. One grounds. Together they hold the full spectrum — and the healing that happens in their combined presence is something you feel, not just understand.
🌟JOY as medicine: Most retreats focus on the shadow. This one honors both ends of the spectrum. Your inner child runs the show here — and that is not an accident. It is the medicine.
Because your inner child has been waiting long enough. 🌵👦👧
The Embodied Medicine Experience exists for one reason: to help you reclaim your inner child unapologetically and weave that energy back into your everyday life — so you can love more fully, live more boldly, and remember that healing was never meant to be only hard.
This is the 2nd Annual retreat. Last year's participants left Tico Time River Resort transformed — knowing how love wants to move through them in this lifetime. That knowledge doesn't leave you when you go home. The desert is ready. Your inner child is ready. The only question is — are YOU?