Understanding never brought you back into your body. And your body is where you feel your whole life, every single day.
You may understand your patterns, your stories and everything you have already worked through, and still feel far from the life you are living.
Your life can look fine from the outside while pleasure, joy and your own answers remain just beyond reach.
This isn’t a crisis. It’s a reset.
You may be moving out of the field where something in you always needed fixing, and into the field of liveness, where your body answers before your head has time to analyse.
The Sacred Valley
Samadhi Sacred Valley sits among the mountains of Peru, surrounded by nature and held away from the rhythm of ordinary life. For ten days, you have space to practise, rest, eat, walk, feel and notice what becomes audible when nothing is asking you to rush.
The Oracle Woman experience
Ten days in Peru open the experience. Seven weeks help you meet it again inside ordinary life. The practices remain yours.
01 · Ten days in Peru
Somatic and energetic practice
02 · Seven weeks at home
Integration in ordinary life
03 · Practices to carry for life
Key details
Pillars of the retreat
Your body sends you signals every day. Ease, tension, pleasure, fatigue and shifts in energy can help you recognise what nourishes you, what drains you and what you want. These four passages give the retreat its shape and become practices you can bring into everyday life.
Recognise sensations, movement, pleasure, contraction and expansion. Develop your capacity to perceive your vital energy and work with what you feel.
Learn to consult your body, explore intuitive communication and bring discernment to the messages and impressions you experience. Recognise your own response among the expectations and opinions around you.
Explore breath, movement, sound and voice. Recognise your desires, express a need or a boundary, and take a step that reflects what matters to you.
Stay connected to yourself in your relationships. Recognise your rhythm, notice what nourishes or drains you, and make room for what helps you feel present and alive.
How it starts
With a conversation. We're going to spend a lot of time together, so it's worth meeting first.
You ask whatever has been turning over in your head. I answer straight. If I don't think this is your training, or your moment, I'll tell you.
Prices, payment options, what's included and the cancellation terms are further down this page.
Education and accredited training behind Oracle Woman
In retreats, workshops, training, and private sessions.
Tharrie T.
Peru retreat 2025
Peru let me put down a weight I had carried my whole life. Something larger than me. I am lighter now, even on the hard days. Making peace with my ancestors, honouring what they gave me, and living in line with what makes me come alive. The fog lifted. I can see clearly.
Mélina gave me a safe space, through a presence of infinite gentleness. I reconnected with gifts I thought were sealed inside me forever. She taught me how to come back to myself. Simply to myself. To my intuition. To my truth.
Shanny B.
Peru retreat 2025, and private sessions
I kept saying I needed clear answers. A yes or a no. Someone to show me my perfect path.
She simply brought me back inside, to where all my answers already were. My answers, for my perfectly imperfect path. My soul's answers. She held a safe space with a disarming calm, and asked the questions that land.
It isn't about searching further or working harder. Just about coming back to your own source.
Annie Leclaire
Peru retreat 2025, workshop and private session
I came ready to release my emotions hard, to scream out everything that no longer needed to be there. What I found instead is that my body holds all the answers. You just have to ask.
I tried asking my body directly, and it's surprising how well it works. Since then there has been a real awakening of curiosity in me. Coming back to yourself means a lot more when it goes through the body and not only through the head.
The body is a remarkable instrument, and Mélina helps you understand it. If I had to sum it up in one line: an awakening of awareness, held with kindness.
Vanessa Massicotte
Private sessions. Now a facilitator on this retreat.
Before this, I was carrying too much. Emotions right at the surface, stress, doubt taking up all the room.
My body took over. I released more than I thought I was holding. Anger, sadness, joy, in every form: screaming, crying, laughing, dancing. I let go without trying to control it, trusting whatever wanted to come out.
My thoughts are much clearer. I am at peace with myself and genuinely aligned with what I feel inside.
Jody Thériault
Vital energy activation
I was skeptical, but curious enough to try. It took about half an hour before I felt anything. And when it came, it was wild. There was discomfort, and then a real release.
Today I feel calm. Very calm. It is a thousand times worth letting yourself into the experience, even when you aren't convinced.
Sarah Graham
One to one coaching, six months
She helped me hear my intuition again, and catch the emotions hiding behind my old reflexes of performing and self-criticism.
I move forward with more confidence now.
Your Oracle Woman journey
From the first conversation to the practices you bring into your life.
A note on the rhythm: guided somatic and energetic practice is balanced with meals, rest, time in nature and space to yourself. Women who come to the Oracle Woman retreat share that they leave energized, not drained.
IS THIS RETREAT FOR ME?
You may understand your patterns and still feel far from the life you are living. Here, you practise going to your body first and recognizing your own signal.
No prior somatic or energetic experience is required. You already have a practice of caring for yourself that you can return to. You must be 21 or older and able to take part in English. This is a personal retreat, not a professional certification. We can talk about your situation on the free call.
The team
Oracle Woman founder and facilitator
I teach the somatic and energetic foundations of Oracle Woman: learning to recognise your body’s signals, explore your energy and develop your own practice.
My approach brings together Holosomatic Bodywork®, breathwork, vital energy activation, movement and intuitive exploration, and is informed by my training in Spinal Energetics. Through teaching, guided practice and time for questions, I help you connect what you experience with how you live, so your body becomes an instrument of guidance you know how to consult. I studied the somatic, energy, the nervous system and channelling, and I learned from traditions that have been working with the body far longer than research has. I want to keep learning about it, because it fascinates me, and I don't think that ever stops. Today I live in my body, and most of the time I find my answers myself. I still consult, still ask, still get read. What changed is that I always start with me, and each time I strengthen a little further the fact that the answer was already there. What I know how to do, concretely. Recognize what a body is holding and where. Work on it with my hands, through holosomatic bodywork. Activate vital energy. And teach you to do, on your own, the practices I pass on to you. My Spinal Energetic training isn't something I pass on, it's something that helps me understand. It is through that training, along with bodywork and the somatic, that I learned how energy moves and how emotions release through the body. My trainings, and the organizations that accredit them: You're allowed to be tired of working on yourself. I was. For years I did everything right, and somewhere in there, taking care of myself had become one more task on the list. The stops, here they are. A burnout, then a herniated disc, then partial paralysis at an age when no one expects it. Later, a depression, and a grief that arrived in a form I didn't recognize. None of that is what I am. They were stops, and I call them that today because each one was my body saying the same thing a little louder. You don't have to go that far. It's the opposite, really. The sooner you learn to read your body, the less it needs to raise its voice. I spent years collecting answers. Every one of them was accurate. None of them held, because none of them came from me. My body had been saying the same thing for ten years. I had no language for it, and I had been trained from very young to trust anything that sounded more official than my own chest. More answers were never going to be the solution. The ones that would hold were already in my body. What I had to learn was how to reach them, and then how to actually do what they said. So I went and learned that language. The somatic, energy, the nervous system, channelling, and the traditions that never needed research in order to know. I am not further along than you, and I don't perceive anything you can't perceive. What I have is a way of reading the instrument, and I can teach you to read yours. I am not here to make you need me less. I am here so you trust yourself more. Nothing brings me more joy than bringing a woman back to her own inner guide. It would be a pleasure to welcome you into this space and begin this journey with you.Read my background
I'm 36. Life experiences, including moments when my body simply stopped, led me to explore somatic and energy work, and to go looking for my own answers rather than someone else's.InnerCamp, Holosomatic Bodywork®The Complementary Medical AssociationThe International Breathwork FoundationThe CPD Certification ServiceVital energy activation facilitatorSpinal Energetic practitioner, level 1Reiki, level 1
Facilitator
I support you as you explore the practices, put words to what you notice and learn to respect your own pace.
My background in nursing and clinical simulation informs how I listen, explain and accompany learning. Within Oracle Woman, my role is to facilitate and support your experience. I bring particular attention to your comfort, your boundaries and the way you relate to yourself as you learn something new. What I do best is listen. Not the kind of listening where someone waits for her turn to talk. My own life taught me one half of this, and my work taught me the other. Between the two, I know how to stay with a woman and keep the ground steady under her. You will not have to explain yourself, or arrive tidy. Most of the women I sit with are hard on themselves in a way they no longer even notice. I am not going to argue you out of it. I am simply going to be gentle with you long enough that it starts to feel normal, and then it becomes yours. I am a clinical nurse. Today I work in clinical simulation at Université Laval, where I train doctors. I know what a body looks like when something is genuinely wrong, and I know what it looks like when something is simply moving through. Those are not the same thing, and telling them apart is what lets you go all the way in without holding back. Where I come from: So I put it down. I built a life that worked and left that part of me in a drawer. The last two years took the drawer apart. I started choosing myself, and what I had stopped trusting came back with it. My intuition. The messages I used to explain away. The coincidences that stopped looking like coincidences. I have been on the table. I received the vital energy activations and the hands on work along the spine, week after week, and I did not expect much from it at first. What happened is that things I had been carrying without ever naming them started to move. A veil came off several areas of my life. It gave me support, and it gave me direction at a time when I had none. For a long stretch of my life I made myself smaller so I would be loved. I believed my desires were too big and my needs too much, and that the life I actually wanted was not something available to a woman like me. I was wrong about that, and finding out took years. I am still in the middle of all this. I am not writing to you from the far side of it, and I think that matters. You are allowed to be softer with yourself than you have been.Read my background
The invisible is not something I went looking for. It has always been in the house. I feel energy the way other people feel temperature, and for years I treated that as a quirk of mine rather than something worth listening to.Bachelor of nursing, Université du Québec à Trois-RivièresTeaching and research in clinical simulation, Université Laval
Photographer and videographer
I document the experience of Oracle Woman through photography and video, giving you personal images to return to after Peru.
My approach is discreet and attentive to what you are living. You can stay involved in the experience without performing for the camera. Being photographed is optional, and permission to receive personal images is separate from permission to publish them. Your choices guide my work throughout the stay. Most of the time you will not notice me. I have a way of walking into a room and letting it stay exactly as it was. That is the whole craft, as far as I am concerned. The moment people start performing for the camera, the real thing is already gone. So the images you come home with are not posed. They are you in the middle of your own life, in moments you would never have thought to photograph. What women tell me afterward is that it is the first time in years they have looked at a picture of themselves and seen what is actually there. Your limits come first. If you tell me you would rather not be photographed, that is the end of the conversation. Nothing you appear in is published or shared without your yes, and each woman receives the images she appears in. And if you change your mind partway through the ten days, you only have to say so. Nothing of yours goes anywhere. I am not there to document a product. I am there so that afterward, you can see the woman who was there. This is about my camera. Mélina records the bodywork sessions herself, for safety reasons, and she explains that in the questions and answers further down. Where I come from: You get to be seen the way you actually are.Read my background
Most women tense up when they hear there will be a camera. I understand that completely, so let me tell you what I am actually there for. You are about to live ten days that shift something in you, and you will be far too deep inside them to see yourself. My work is to hand you back what I saw.Maison Créative WavyPhotography, videography and aerial work
For the mothers
Last year in Peru, there were sixteen of us. Fourteen were mothers.
Two were not. Every one of the others had the same conversation before leaving. With a partner, with an ex, with their own mother, sometimes with a child who didn't understand why.
None of them found it simple. None of them came back saying she should have stayed.
. . .
The hard part isn't the logistics
You already know how to organize ten days. You have been organizing everyone's life for years, usually without anyone noticing.
What catches is the sentence you have to say out loud. “I'm leaving for ten days and it's for me.” Not for a training, not for a contract. For me.
And it's normal for that to tighten a little as you say it. For a lot of women, it's the first time.
. . .
What I take care of
The airport transfer, the accommodation, all the meals, the activities, the train tickets, the entries and every piece of logistics on the ground. You get a packing list, a masterclass before departure, and you can write to me any time between now and January.
What stays on your side: the family calendar, and the conversation.
If you want us to look together at how it could work in your house, bring it to the call. It isn't off topic. It is usually the real question.
Not included
You can bring any questions about the stay, travel or payment options to our call.
Your investment
$4,800 USD · Single bed
$5,250 USD · Double bed
Both options are in a cabin shared by three women, with a private bathroom for the cabin. There is no private-room option.
Pay in full or spread the total over monthly instalments, with no surcharge or interest. Your deposit counts towards the price.
Prices and your options
| Single bed | Double bed | |
|---|---|---|
| Full price | $4,800 USD | $5,250 USD |
| Paid in full | $4,800 | $5,250 |
| Deposit, then 4 instalments | $1,000, then 4 × $950 | $1,000, then 4 × $1,062.50 |
| Deposit, then 3 instalments | $1,050, then 3 × $1,250 | $1,050, then 3 × $1,400 |
| Deposit, then 2 instalments | $1,000, then 2 × $1,900 | $1,000, then 2 × $2,125 |
| Late booking, half today, then 2 instalments | $2,400, then 2 × $1,200 | $2,625, then 2 × $1,312.50 |
All prices in US dollars. Instalments are equal and monthly, with no surcharge and no interest. The total is the same whether you pay in full or spread it out.
What's available depending on when you book
| You book | Your plan |
|---|---|
| Through October 31, 2026 | $1,000 deposit, then 4 or 2 instalments, or $1,050 deposit, then 3 instalments |
| November 1 to December 9, 2026 | $1,000 deposit, then 2 instalments |
| December 10, 2026 to January 5, 2027 | Deposit of half the price, $2,400 or $2,625, then 2 instalments |
Your deposit is taken on the day you book, and each instalment falls a month later on that same date. The later you book, the fewer months remain before departure. We work your plan out together on the call.
Your deposit counts towards the total and holds your place while your health review is pending. Participation is confirmed only after written approval from Mélina. Wait for that approval before buying flights.
Before paying, read the cancellation, refund and transfer conditions below, including the full-refund exceptions and the limits on personalised Machu Picchu tickets.
Bookings close on January 5, 2027. Depending on when you book and which plan you choose, your last instalments may fall after the retreat.
Cancellation, refunds & transfers
I'm going to be straight with you, because this is the part that costs people money when it's written vaguely.
Your deposit is non-refundable except if the health review shows this programme is unsuitable, your booking is declined, Mélina cancels, or you decline the required private bodywork recording. In those cases, all amounts paid to Oracle Woman are refunded in full, including the deposit.
For everything else you have paid, the date of your cancellation decides:
| Through October 31, 2026 | 100 % |
| November 1 to 30, 2026 | 50 % |
| From December 1, 2026 | None |
For cancellation by you from December 1, 2026 onward, no refund applies to the balance already paid. The full-refund exceptions above and the transfer option still apply. I explain this on the call before you pay anything.
This isn't a penalty. From December, your bed, your ceremonies and your train seat to Machu Picchu have been paid for in your name, and that money is gone.
Your place, though, is never lost. You can give it or sell it to another woman right up to departure, on the one condition that she has the same conversation with me that you had. You can also transfer it to any Oracle Woman retreat within 18 months, at no cost.
If you stop your instalments without transferring your place, what you have already paid stays with us according to the table above, and your place is released to another woman. You owe nothing further. However, if you have attended the retreat, the balance remains due and your instalments continue to the end of the plan.
Your flight stays between you and your airline.
A transfer includes the whole programme through January 5, 2027. After that date, personalised Machu Picchu train and entry tickets cannot be reissued, so that day does not transfer. If no other Oracle Woman retreat is offered within 18 months, the remaining credit is returned after committed costs, with a breakdown.
Request cancellation in writing at [email protected]; the date of receipt applies.
If Mélina cancels the programme, all amounts paid to Oracle Woman are refunded in full, including your deposit. Flights and other independently booked costs are separate. Ask your insurer which cancellation and interruption events your policy covers; see the full conditions.
Every place opens through a conversation, so this isn't a group that gets cancelled for lack of participants. It fills the way it fills, one woman at a time.
It is also the real reason travel insurance is required rather than suggested. It covers the part neither you nor I control, and it costs a fraction of what it protects. Take it out the day you book.
How to join
1. We talk. Book a free intro call. Ask your questions, tell me where you are, and we will see whether this retreat is right for you.
2. You choose your place. Read the terms and participation agreement, choose your bed and payment plan, accept the terms and pay your deposit. Then complete Step 1, the private health review. Your payment holds your place while Mélina reviews it; receiving the form is not participation approval.
3. You receive written approval. Once approved, complete Step 2 with your travel details, emergency contact and separate photography preferences. Wait for approval before buying flights. Your welcome information and pre-departure masterclass follow.
If the health review shows this retreat is unsuitable for you, everything you have paid to Oracle Woman is returned in full, deposit included.
Your questions, answered
Through breathwork, Holosomatic Bodywork®, vital energy activation, movement, voice, stillness and time in nature, you explore your body's signals and develop practices you can use at home. You can ask questions and try again with guidance; there is no sensation or performance to produce.
It includes personal practice and guided exploration with another participant, including sensing with your hands and describing what you notice. You respect the other person’s own experience and interpretation. This does not qualify you to practise this work on anyone else or award a professional qualification. We discuss your background and intended use on the call.
You do not need to produce a particular sensation or an intense experience. You begin with what you notice, even when it is subtle, and you can ask for guidance.
If something feels overwhelming, you can pause, step out and speak privately with the team. Tell us what you need; you do not have to push through a practice or explain your experience to the group.
No. You can pass in a sharing circle, pause a practice or step out of a session. Touch requires your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. Bodywork is clothed and non-sexual.
Participation in practices is a choice. The separate consent to private bodywork recording is a condition of joining the programme; the recording question below explains this and the full-refund option.
The honest answer is that 10 days on their own usually don't hold, and I'm not going to promise you otherwise. What changes the odds is what happens in the weeks that follow, while the work is still alive and your ordinary life is testing it.
That is the entire reason for the 7 weeks of embodiment after Peru. The first is a full week of rest, no calls and nothing to do. The four integration calls are then spread across those seven weeks, and the last one lands far enough out that we can see what actually stayed. It is also why they aren't sold separately.
In English. Every session, every circle and every conversation with the group happens in English.
The two shamans who lead the despacho and the temazcal work in English as well, and so do the guides on the ground, including the Machu Picchu day. Nothing needs to be translated for you.
If English is your second language and a word escapes you, ask me. Nobody here is graded on their accent. What matters is that you understand what is being asked, and that you can say what you have to say.
Almost everyone comes on her own. Mélina and a member of the team will meet you at the airport and travel with the group down to the valley. Every woman has spoken with Mélina before joining; there is no clique already formed. Time alone is protected, and you do not have to speak in a circle or perform closeness with the group.
The women in the group come from different lives and stages. You can belong without sharing more than you wish.
The group is deliberately small, and that is what lets each woman actually be seen.
We take a maximum of 18 women. Depending on bookings we are sometimes fewer, and that is fine. I would rather a smaller circle than a full one.
With you there is a team of three: two facilitators, Mélina Russell and Vanessa Massicotte, and Léane Cloutier, who is our photographer and videographer. That is 21 people in total on site at most.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before 9 a.m. | Your morning is yours. Sleep in, write or take a walk. |
| 9–10 a.m. | Breakfast is served. You can come when you’re ready. |
| 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | First session |
| 1–2 p.m. | Lunch |
| 2–4:30 p.m. | Free time to rest, wander or return to your cabin |
| 4:30–6 p.m. | Second session |
| 6:30 p.m. | Dinner. Evenings stay slow; some end around the fire. |
Excursion days follow a different rhythm. You receive the next day's plan each evening and can talk with the team about what your body needs.
Moderate. Machu Picchu involves approximately 2½ to 3 hours of walking on uneven ground and stairs at altitude. Travel there is by train and bus, not a multi-day hike. The programme also includes seated and lying practices, free movement and dance, with room for your own pace. Every outing is optional and nobody is counting attendance.
Honest answer: most women feel it on the first day, and then it settles.
Cusco, where you land, sits at 3,399 m (11,152 ft). We don't stay there. Samadhi is lower, at the bottom of the valley, at 2,790 m (9,153 ft), about 600 m lower, and that difference is real. It is one of the reasons the center was built where it was, and it is why we go down shortly after you land instead of spending the night up in the city.
What the first day can look like: a little short of breath on the stairs, more tired than usual, sometimes a mild headache. Most women have adjusted within two or three days, and that is exactly why the first two days ask nothing physical of you.
Coca leaf infusion is traditionally offered here, but it is optional and is not an established treatment for altitude illness. Speak with your healthcare professional about altitude preparation, and tell the team if you feel unwell. The food section explains coca tea and drug testing.
If you want to give your body a head start, arrive a day early. And if you have a heart or lung condition, tell me on the health form and we will review it before written participation approval.
There are no plant-medicine ceremonies in this programme. The ceremonies we share, despacho, temazcal and paqarina, are traditional Andean rituals where nothing is ingested. The work here goes through the breath and through the body, in full clarity.
The only thing you will be offered is coca leaf infusion, a traditional Andean drink rather than a remedy or a ceremony. There is more about it in the food section, with a practical note for women whose work involves drug testing.
You can take part. There is no restriction, and nothing to declare to anyone.
The heat is very real, so drink more water than usual beforehand, and stay closer to the door if that suits you better.
If you would rather sit it out entirely, that is perfectly fine. The afternoon that follows is free, and you lose nothing by resting instead.
Several women who come have a therapist, and some take medication. Participation depends on individual health review; neither the call nor a payment replaces that review. You do not have to disclose this to the group.
What I do ask is that you tell me, on the call or on the health form. So that I can assess suitability with you, understand your needs and agree in advance on support if a session brings up something difficult.
If you are in an acute phase right now, this isn't the right container and I will tell you plainly. A retreat opens things, and in an acute phase you need someone who can hold you daily, not a group in the Andes.
If you are in ongoing therapy for something you are actively working on, tell your therapist you are going. Most are glad. A few will have a useful opinion about the timing, and that opinion is worth hearing before you book, not after.
Only if you want them to.
Léane Cloutier travels with the group as photographer and videographer, because part of what you take home is being able to see yourself in it. She works to your consent, not mine. Before departure, every woman gives her answer, and that list belongs to Léane. A woman who says no is not photographed, not filmed, and not left in the background of a shot.
Some women want the images. Others want them for themselves and nowhere else. Others want none at all, and that is an ordinary answer here, not a difficult one.
You can change your mind at any point, during the 10 days or once you are home. If your answer is no, nothing of you goes anywhere public. Not on my Instagram, not in an ad. If you say yes in January and change your mind in March, write to me and it comes down. You don't owe me a reason and I won't ask for one.
Separately, bodywork sessions are filmed for safety, yours and mine. Those recordings are private, accessed by Mélina for safety, insurance or legal purposes, and never used as promotional material. There is a full explanation in the health and safety section above.
Nothing shared in a circle or a session becomes promotional material.
Yes. I record the bodywork sessions myself, and this one is not optional. It is required by my insurance, and it protects both of us. This work opens strong emotion, and sometimes what releases is old and physical. The recording is a safety record, nothing else.
It is never shared, never published, and never used as content. It is kept for seven years and then deleted. Léane never films these sessions.
If you would rather your bodywork not be recorded, tell me on the call. It means this retreat is not the right fit, and everything you have paid comes back to you in full, deposit included.
If your question is not here, write to me. You do not need to book a call to ask a question.
The stay, in full
The Sacred Valley is not a backdrop. A large part of what happens here belongs to the land and to the people who have kept it.
The despacho, on the first day
An offering to Pachamama, the earth. Coca leaves, seeds, flowers and grains are placed one by one into a bundle, each element set down with an intention, then given to the fire.
It is led by the shaman of the family who owns the land, on their land, in their tradition. It is not a show for guests and it is not something I teach. It asks permission for what we are about to do, and it opens the ten days.
The temazcal
A dome, volcanic stones heated in a fire outside, water and herbs poured over them, and near total darkness. It happens in several doors, and the heat rises each time.
The local shaman leads it, in her tradition. My role is to prepare your body beforehand and to hold what comes after, which is usually where things move.
You are never trapped. You can step out between doors, and no one comments.
The paqarina
A water ritual at the spring. The water is cold and the ritual is short. It closes what the heat opened.
Machu Picchu
Train from Ollantaytambo, about 90 minutes along the river. Two and a half to three hours of walking at the top, with an accredited Peruvian guide and with Maurice, who owns the center and has walked this site all his life.
No trek, no four day trail. You arrive rested and you come back the same day.
Travel light that day. The train allows one bag of 8 kg (17 lb). You bring water, a layer, sunscreen and your passport. Everything else stays in your cabin at Samadhi, and there are free lockers at the Ollantaytambo station if that turns out to be useful.
Maras and Moray
Up on the plateau. Moray is a set of concentric terraces the Incas used to test crops at different temperatures, one ring at a time. Maras is thousands of salt pools, worked by the same families for centuries and still harvested by hand.
The markets
Pisac on Sunday. The weaving cooperatives in Chinchero, where the women still dye with plants and will show you how it is done. San Pedro in Cusco, where people actually do their grocery shopping.
An afternoon of painting
One afternoon. No technique, no expected result, nothing to hang afterward. Color is another way out for something that stays stuck inside.
The night sky
With almost no light pollution, you can see what the Andean tradition reads as dark constellations. Not the stars themselves, the shapes between them.
Evenings are slow. No one asks you to have understood something before you go to bed.
Samadhi Sacred Valley, a family run place an hour from Cusco. The whole property is ours for 10 days.
A small group, never more than 18 women. Seven cabins, one of which is ours. Each cabin has a double bed and two single beds, a private bathroom, daily housekeeping, and your luggage carried in on arrival.
Before a spot is confirmed, we talk. I want to answer whatever stayed with you since you found this page: the questions, the hesitations. Then we get to the practical side.
This group is chosen. Everyone in it arrived through the same conversation.
Who you will share with
I place the cabins myself, based on what you tell me during the call and on a short form you fill in before departure. Sleep, early riser or night owl, how much quiet you need, whether you want the double bed or a single.
You know who you are with before you leave, never on arrival. If an arrangement concerns you, tell me so we can review the available options.
If sharing a room is a clear no
Then this is not the right training, and I would rather you know that now than find out in January. Every cabin here is shared, usually three women to a cabin, and there is no private option for this date.
For some women, a room of their own is what makes deep work possible. That is a real need, not a preference, and it calls for a retreat built around it.
Bookings close January 5, 2027, four days before departure.
The kitchen at Samadhi is essentially vegetarian, and the food is exceptional. You eat very well here.
Everything is cooked on site, three times a day, with produce from their own organic gardens and from the valley. Chicken and fish are offered on the side for the women who want them. Nothing lands on your plate without you choosing it.
If you are vegan, or working with something more specific, we look at it together before you leave. Allergies and preferences are noted and respected, so you never have to explain yourself at the table.
Coca leaf tea
Coca leaf tea is available at the centre. It is optional, and ordinary tea is available too.
It is the daily infusion of these valleys, going back centuries. It is traditionally offered to visitors at altitude. Strong evidence that it prevents or treats altitude illness is lacking; discuss its suitability with your healthcare professional.
What to know about coca leaf tea
The question comes up, so let us be clear. The coca leaf is a plant that Andean people have chewed and brewed for thousands of years, the way other cultures drink tea. It is served in homes, hotels and offices across the region, to grandmothers and schoolchildren alike.
Coca leaf tea and purified cocaine are different preparations, but the leaf contains cocaine alkaloids. Its traditional use does not make it suitable for everyone.
A practical note, because it matters for some of you. Drinking coca tea can produce a positive result on a urine drug screen, with detection times that vary. If your work involves random testing or a safety critical role, skip the coca and tell me. There is regular tea, and no one at the table will ask why. Read the CDC guidance on coca leaf and drug testing.
About alcohol
None is served, at any meal, on any day.
Nothing is confiscated and you are an adult, so this is a request rather than a rule. I am asking you not to drink during these ten days. What you are coming for is presence, and the ability to feel what is actually moving in your body. Alcohol numbs exactly that, and it would quietly take from you the thing you came for.
The water
You do not drink tap water in Peru, and here you will not have to. Purified drinking water is available on site all day, and the kitchen prepares everything with it. That last point is what usually catches travelers out, and it is why eating in one place for ten days is far gentler than a week of restaurants.
January is the green season in the Sacred Valley, and the valley is overflowing with life.
What to expect in the valley
Samadhi sits in Huycho, in Urubamba, deep in the Sacred Valley. The days there are noticeably milder than in Cusco, the city you fly into.
It rains on several days in the month, but usually as a short afternoon shower rather than a grey day. Mornings are almost always clear, and many afternoons stay sunny and warm right through. The clouds move across the mountains all day in a way that keeps changing what you are looking at.
I was there last December, in the same season, and the sun was out far more often than the rainfall numbers suggest.
January is the wettest month in the valley, with about 260 mm (10 inches) over the month. Days run around 16 to 19°C (61 to 66°F), and nights drop to 5 or 6°C (41 to 43°F). Humidity is high and the sun is strong even through cloud, so you can be hot and cold in the same afternoon.
Why this month is worth it
Everything is green. The river is full, the terraces are planted, and the hills have a color they do not have in the dry season.
You will also share Machu Picchu with around 3,000 people a day, not the high season cap of 5,600. That difference is something you feel while you are standing there.
What to bring for it
Layers rather than one warm coat. A light rain jacket you can put on and take off without thinking. Shoes that hold on wet stone.
If the weather changes the plan
Landslides and train delays happen in this season. If it touches us, we adjust and I tell you right away.
You land in Cusco, at Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ). The transfer from the airport to Samadhi Sacred Valley is included.
Your arrival window
Plan to land on January 9 before noon, Cusco time, ideally between 7 and 10 a.m. The group transfer leaves Cusco airport at 1:30 p.m.
On January 18, checkout is at 10:30 a.m., followed by the group transfer to Cusco. Confirm your return flight timing with Mélina before booking; allow for the road journey and airline check-in. Buy flights only after written participation approval.
Where we meet you
Cusco airport is small, which makes this simple. After collecting your bags, meet the team inside at the arrivals exit, with an Oracle Woman sign. If you are already in Cusco, join us just outside arrivals before 1:30 p.m.
There is no one to find, no taxi to negotiate, nothing to untangle in Spanish. Names, numbers and exact details go out with your welcome kit before you leave.
Your passport
Check it now rather than in December. Peru requires your passport to be valid for at least six months past your arrival date, and that is the detail that catches people out.
Canadian, US, UK and most European passport holders do not need a visa for a stay of this length. At the border you will be asked for proof of onward travel, which is simply your return ticket. If you hold another passport, tell me during the call and we check it together well before you book.
Bring the passport itself on the Machu Picchu day. It is checked on the train and again at the entrance, and the name on your ticket has to match exactly, so send me your name precisely as it appears on the document.
Arriving early, or staying on
Plenty of women do, and I would rather you know now than after.
Arriving a day or two early in Cusco or the valley takes some of the heaviness out of a long travel day and lets you actually land before we begin. Staying on is the other option. Cusco itself, Lake Titicaca, the Amazon, or simply two quiet days before you go back into your life.
You book and pay for those nights yourself, and I am happy to suggest where to stay. Give me your real dates when you book. The included group transfer is on January 9; separate transfers and extra nights are at your expense. If you miss the group departure, a separate transfer is approximately $40–60 USD for the 90-minute journey.
Cash and tipping
Bring Peruvian soles for the markets, where card payment works unevenly. There are ATMs at Cusco airport and in Urubamba, and US dollars are widely accepted as long as the bills are clean and untorn.
Tips for the staff, the ceremony carriers and the guides are customary and warmly received. A suggested amount is in your welcome kit, so you are not guessing on the last morning or quietly comparing with the woman next to you.
Before you go
All the logistics and your welcome kit are sent once your spot is confirmed.
Ten days of heat, ceremony and deep body work, far from home. Here is exactly how it is held.
The medical side, on site
I hold a current first aid certification. Vanessa Massicotte is present for all ten days. Meet the full team above.
This is not a hospital and I will not pretend otherwise. What it means is that when your body does something you did not expect, you are not deciding alone, in a country you do not know, in a language you do not speak.
In every retreat I have led, nothing has ever needed more than that.
If it ever did
There is an emergency medical service in Urubamba, minutes from the center, with its own doctors, nurses and paramedics. A Cusco based service travels the Sacred Valley 24 hours a day. Cusco, about an hour away, has full hospitals.
Travel insurance is required for the whole trip, including emergency medical care, evacuation and repatriation, cancellation and interruption. Check cover for your itinerary and activities with your insurer; clinics may require payment at the time of care.
What I need to know before you leave
After reserving, you complete the health review before final participation approval. Heart or lung conditions, blood pressure, pregnancy, epilepsy, diabetes, recent surgery, anything you take daily, anything that has ever gone wrong for you in heat.
I review this personally to assess whether participation is suitable and whether you need advice from your own doctor. Payment or receipt of the form is not approval. If participation is unsuitable, all amounts paid are refunded, including the deposit. The temazcal is the element that asks the most of a body, so that is the one I look at closely with you.
Your medication travels with you, in its original packaging, in more than the trip requires. Same for your EpiPen if you carry one. That part stays yours, as on any trip.
Consent, touch and your free will
Every practice here is optional. You can decline one before it starts, or stop it partway through, and no one comments, not then and not after. Your free will is complete and it is never up for negotiation.
You stay clothed for the entire retreat. There is no nudity at any point, in any session or ceremony. Nothing here asks you to undress.
Bodywork involves touch, and touch is asked for before it happens. You can withdraw that consent at any second, without giving a reason. The touch is never sexual and never involves the breasts or genitals. No, stop and not there are complete answers.
Why bodywork sessions are filmed
They are, and you have the right to know that now, not once you are there.
Bodywork is one woman putting her hands on another woman's body. If something is questioned afterward, it becomes one version against another and neither can prove anything. A recording removes that entirely. It protects you if you were uncomfortable with something that happened, and it protects the practitioner from a groundless accusation. It exists so that neither of you has to rely on memory.
These private recordings are not used in marketing or shared with the group. They are stored encrypted, with access restricted to Mélina, and retained for seven years before deletion. They may be consulted for a concern, complaint, insurance requirement or legal obligation. Recording is required for participation; if you decline it, everything paid is refunded, including the deposit. The four Zoom integration calls are recorded separately for group replays.
The photographer and videographer
Part of what you take home is being able to see yourself there, so a professional photographer and videographer travels with the group.
She works to your consent, not mine, and she never enters a bodywork session. How your choice is recorded is spelled out in the questions and answers, further down.
Vaccines
Vaccination and malaria advice depend on your itinerary, medical history and current guidance. A travel clinic can review the Sacred Valley stay and any extra travel you plan before or after it.
Ask about routine vaccinations, hepatitis A and any yellow fever or malaria precautions relevant to your route. Book that appointment a few months ahead, not two weeks before. Current travel-health guidance for Peru.
What stays between us
What is said in a circle stays in that circle. No one repeats another woman's story, during the retreat or after, and that is a condition of being here, not a wish.
Nothing you say in a session becomes marketing material. If a photo of you is going to be shared publicly, I ask you first, every time, and a no is received without any awkwardness.
Is Peru safe
The scheduled airport transfers and programme outings are organised with the group. The centre is family run and fenced. During free time or independent travel, you remain responsible for your own plans and normal travel precautions.
If someone at home is worried about you going, this is the paragraph to show them.
The quiet promise underneath all of it
You are not asked to be brave with your own body here. If something hurts or frightens you, or you need to stop, you say so and it stops.
Nothing in these ten days asks you to override yourself. That would be the opposite of the work.
The honest part
Leaving for 10 days without the kids can be a lot.
Especially when you have already made choices that shook up your personal life.
And it is normal for it to stir something.
Notice that you are not asking permission. You are announcing a decision and handling it well afterward. Those are two different postures, and the second one lands differently.
The part that is harder to say
For some women, the real fear is not a badly organized week.
It is ten days where no one needs anything, and finding out they liked it. And then wondering what that says about them.
It says you were carrying a load, and your body noticed the moment it was set down. Relief measures a weight, it is not a verdict on your love. The women who feel it are usually the ones who have held the most for the longest.
What actually happens on the flight home is that most women want to see their people. Not out of duty. They just want to.
. . .
What there actually is to put in place
Write out the ordinary week. School runs, meals, appointments already booked, who does bedtime. On paper there is almost always less to manage than there is at 11 p.m. in your head.
Give the whole picture to one person rather than splitting it between four. Splitting creates coordination, and you are the one who will do it.
Leave one emergency page: my number, the number for the center, the address and your flight details.
Tell the kids early, in simple words, with the return date somewhere they can see it. Ten clear days is far easier for a child than a vague absence.
And yes, you can reach them
There is wifi at Samadhi and no one takes your phone. Call home as often as you need to.
What most women notice around the third day is that they check less, without having decided to.
The only hard part
The only thing you will really have to do is own the decision to choose yourself.
Everything else is a scheduling problem, and you have solved worse before lunch.
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Before you close this page
You already know how the next year goes if nothing moves. That isn't a warning, it's arithmetic. You have been living this life long enough to predict it accurately.
So read both of these slowly, and notice which one your body recognizes.
The year that repeats
You explain your situation perfectly, to people who can't change any of it.
You check with someone else before you check with yourself, and you call it being thoughtful.
You say yes, you feel your body drop, and you go through with it anyway.
Something beautiful happens and you notice a week later, from a distance.
You promise yourself January will be different, the way you promised yourself last January.
The year that doesn't repeat
You feel the answer in your body before the conversation is over.
You decide without a second opinion, and it holds.
You say the thing to the person it concerns, while it is still warm.
Pleasure shows up on an ordinary Tuesday and you are actually there for it.
Seven weeks later, you read your own handwriting and see what you stopped carrying.
Neither column is a personality. Both are simply what a woman feeds, day after day, usually without noticing.
You are allowed to feed the other one.
And if you are still here, this far down, that says something. Not proof, not a decision. Just something worth taking seriously, and it comes from the only person with authority over your life.
Book a free intro call with Mélina.
One hour on Zoom. No obligation to enrol.
A small group of 18 women at most, January 9 to 18, 2027.
Have a question as you read? Write to me at [email protected].
NOTICE: Oracle Woman is a somatic and energetic experience. It does not replace medical, psychological or psychiatric care, and it is neither a diagnosis nor a treatment. Mélina Russell is not a doctor and not a psychologist. No results are guaranteed. What is described on this page comes from what has been observed and reported by participants of previous retreats and programs. Every woman goes through her own process. If you are under the care of a health professional, talk to them about taking part before you book.
Laisse-moi ton courriel et je t'écris.
