Confluence Retreats

I came in struggling, and I'd been struggling for a long time. I never understood my own trauma. What I could actually remember seemed too minor to be causing an effect that large, so I assumed I must be repressing something worse. That wasn't it. What happened on this retreat is that I experienced the pain emotionally instead of remembering it logically. I connected to it, gave it respect, acknowledged it properly for the first time — and that allowed me to release it. Ten years of serious wellness practice and three years of therapy had moved that only slightly. This moved it.

I've spent my career as an executive in the wellness industry, including as a trained practitioner at a luxury wellness center where we partnered with a very wide range of modalities and practitioners. I've seen a lot of programs. I don't say this lightly. I was impressed before I ever arrived — on the first Zoom call, the depth of experience on the team was immediately obvious. These are absolute professionals, not people improvising their way through profound work.

The single most important thing I can tell anyone considering this: the preparation and integration sessions are not extras. They are the program. A standalone experience is very difficult to extract real value from — something powerful can happen and then simply evaporate, because there's no structure to land it in. What this team has built around the journey multiplies the benefit several times over. If you're weighing this against a single one-off psilocybin session, you're not comparing like with like. It isn't the same thing at a different price point. It's a different thing entirely.

One practical recommendation: if you have a long-term therapist, you will get even more out of this. They already know you deeply, and they can help interpret the experience in a way that multiplies the benefit further. Bring it to them.

The group format is the other thing I'd underline. Sharing with strangers sounds awkward, and honestly it feels that way for about an hour. Then it becomes the secret ingredient. By the second day I was genuinely bonded with the people I was there with, and they with me. I can't imagine having done this alone. What the group gives you — the reflection, the recognition, the sense that you are not uniquely broken — is something a solo experience can't replicate. The facilitators know exactly how to hold that container.

It's also designed with real skill for both ends of the spectrum. Someone arriving with no experience is met properly. Someone arriving with experience, as I did, is not condescended to or handed a watered-down version. That's harder to pull off than it sounds.

Life-changing is an overused phrase. I'm using it deliberately.

I attended a retreat with Confluence earlier this year to work through anxiety that I had struggled with for years. I had tried other treatments, but I knew I didn’t want to rely on medication for the rest of my life. I was nervous about the entire process—from being away from my family and friends to the treatment itself—but Myles and the entire team made me feel supported from the very first interview through the final integration session.

The team is incredibly warm, thoughtful, and well organized. Everything is carefully planned, and participants are thoroughly educated about what to expect. Having an agenda for the entire retreat helped me feel prepared and safe, especially when I was walking into something so unfamiliar.

The integration sessions were meaningful, spiritual, and incredibly valuable. The therapeutic centers themselves felt like peaceful spas—clean, calm, beautiful, and welcoming. Every facilitator, both with our group and at the center, was compassionate and supportive. Everyone’s experience is different, but the team handled each person’s journey with such care and grace.

And I have to mention the food! The personal chef prepared the most wholesome, delicious meals, and you could truly taste the love and thought that went into every dish. The cabins were clean, comfortable, and nestled in the most majestic forest setting. After a long day filled with so much newness, coming back to the cabin felt peaceful and comforting. My roommate ended up being one of my favorite parts of the experience, too!

Most importantly, I never felt like I was going through this alone. The support, preparation, and genuine care from Myles and the entire team made a huge difference in my experience.

Honestly, if I were rich, I would do this every year—a mental vacation, a reset, and an opportunity to reconnect with myself.

Thank you, Myles and the entire Confluence team, for creating such a thoughtful and supportive experience. I’m incredibly grateful I took the leap.

With the perfect setting in the mountains of Ashland.
The music played the most profound experience for my journey. Not only can you see the vibration of the violin in the music you become the spirit of the violin 🎻 The pure airborne frequency swaddles you in comfort and joy.
Love and light to all, Myles, Heather, Tsana, Gina, Thunder Eater, Arin, and Marion for the beautiful food that nourished our souls.

As a DARE kid I had a lot of reservations and fear around taking psychedelics, but I became interested in doing a retreat when I felt like I was sinking in quicksand in my life and wasn't making much progress in therapy and meditation. From the start, the staff was very professional, caring, and down-to-earth, from the intake all the way to post-retreat and beyond. My group had people from all walks of life and everyone was treated with respect and understanding. The most impactful things about taking these journeys in a group/formal retreat were that I could finally access some long repressed (depressed?) feelings of human connection and safety, and that when the journey got rough, there was someone experienced who was there for me and coached me through it.

The retreat center and lodgings are beautiful settings surrounded by nature. Every location was imbued with a sense of peace and aliveness and was every bit as supportive as the human element. The food was also incredible, nourishing and delicious and cooked fresh each day by a wonderful private caterer.

If a psychedelic retreat is the right move for you, I cannot recommend Confluence highly enough. The support and care I received at each step truly made my experience as comfortable and safe as possible, and the insights I gained on my journeys are still unfolding to this day.

To Myles, Alix, Tsana, Thunder Eater, Mariane, and the entire Confluence Retreats team,

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for creating such a safe, nurturing environment where healing is possible. This retreat was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. I will miss you all, but I am deeply grateful that I get to carry each of you with me in my memories.

May we meet again.