Back to Self Desert Retreat

Josie Santiago

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Josie is a Certified Co-Active Coach, a Certified Yoga Instructor, and an experienced facilitator  with over a decade of experience in cultivating healthy relational practices within diverse communities.. Many years ago, Josie began her journey to wellness through the ancient practice of Yoga as a way to recharge from the daily stresses of work-life.  With the wear and tear of cumulative stress, a full work schedule, and a severe back injury; Josie was immobilized-not only in her body but in her mind’s relationship to her body. She turned towards wellness to regain her strength and connect back to her wholeness.  ​

 

 An interdisciplinary practitioner, Josie utilizes her expertise in holistic healing modalities to encourage self-awareness, self-care, and collective transformation.Josie draws on Ayurveda, somatics, co-active coaching methodologies, to encourage self- awareness, self-care and personal transformation.

Nita Sims

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Nita Sims is a Somatic Psychotherapist, with a master’s degree in psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, who has been working clinically since 2018. She is also a Reiki Master, attuned in Tera Mai Seichem lineage and has been practicing Reiki since 2016.

 

She’s a certified Yoga instructor and former collegiate athlete with a deep love for and connection to bodies. She is deeply intuitive and believes that all bodies hold great wisdom and capacity for healing, that validating natural ways of being human can be deeply transformative, and that reconnecting with one’s soul creates peace.  Her approach to healing and to life, is to support people in finding more confidence in their authenticity and to feel more freedom in their bodies and souls. She does this by supporting people to remove blockages to vitality and help them reconnect with their own divine nature.

 

She is mixed race with mixed practices and utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to learning and healing. She overlays Psychology with Astrology, the Chakra System, Ayurveda, and Trauma Theory, in order to consider the whole being of the people she works with. She also believes that healing happens best when people have community. She is a recovering perfectionist and practices self -love and self-accountability whenever leading others.

Ashley Ramos

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Ashley Ramos is a holistic career and financial coach who is currently pursuing her Master’s in Social Work after over a decade of supporting diverse populations in higher education, educational technology, and her coaching practice.

 

Ashley built her financial coaching practice in 2020 after recognizing that her generation was deeply unprepared for the financial crisis many experienced. She didn’t believe the voices of financial advice supported the unique differences and experiences of culturally different populations.

 

Ashley believes that our values serve as our primary decision-maker for how we approach our money, while acknowledging the inherited trauma of our family’s generational experiences financially. She is trained in the Trauma of Money method and operates from a holistic viewpoint of how trauma affects the whole person, including their relationship with money.

 

Ashley is a white-passing Mexican American who is the product of her parents’ financial cycle breaking. Her strongest desire to help culturally diverse first-generation professionals establish their financial well-being towards generational wealth-building. Ashley believes in affirming what is and was, and identifying safe practices towards change.

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Barbara Collier

 

Barbara  trained as a nurse and worked in the Intensive Care Unit in the early and mid-nineties. Barbara  has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and several post graduate three-year training certificates. 

She uses  knowledge of biology, physiology, psychology and somatic approaches, as she work with children, adults and families to build resilience and capacity within their systems. She partners with the wisdom that animals have taught me over five decades to join with and support clients in deepening and broadening their connection with Nature in honor of our mammalian heritage.

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Jeanie Shepherd

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Horses teach us about spirit—and the ability to go beyond our spirit to reach places within and outside of ourselves we never dreamed about. I've devoted my life to protect the spirit of the horse and to find ways to be the best friend I can possibly be to them—and I assist others who have the same goal. ​

 

Through my years of interacting with horses, and humans and their horses, it's my belief that the horse is an amazingly spiritual animal. I believe that they will innately do their best to communicate with us, if we just listen.

Helping horses emotionally and physically is what my work is all about. By teaching the horse as well as the human, I'm able to help them become the best partners they can be. 

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Roni Alexandria- 

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Original Team Member and Behind the Scenes Consultant

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