Intention
This gathering was created for women of all walks of life to come together and share in the healing power of Earth’s medicine, feminine connection, and sacred ritual. So many of us are craving intentional communities now more than ever, where we can feel seen and held in our brightest and darkest times. We are honored to hold this space for women who feel ready to commit to inner transformation and experience the sweet medicine that the depth of connection and vulnerability provides.
We will harness our innate healing powers and nurture our emotional, physical, and spiritual bodies. We will share nourishing meals, heartfelt stories and dances around the fire. We will clear our energy channels, connect to the wild beauty of nature, and discover our most authentic selves. The bonds that we will create will be profoundly felt. We will find strength in our feminine nature and courage in our voice as we surround ourselves with divine sisterhood, experiencing transformation together with open eyes and soft hearts..
Every woman deserves to know their truth and to experience transformational healing.
Feel the Experience
A Glimpse into Sacred Sisterhood, Earth's Healing Powers and the Magic of Ritual
Among the greater tapestry of transformational tools for healing are Psychedelic Medicines. Through my experiences with psychedelics, I’ve witnessed profound shifts in the way I see myself, my purpose, and my interconnectedness with all beings and energies. My first high-dose journey completely changed how I live in every moment, my understanding of my role in helping our planet and my understanding of money as energy to be shared to heal suffering of humanity. I believe my intuitive studies and spiritual practices were the foundations I needed to have a truly transcendental and life-affirming first time experience.
My partner Noah and I were involved in the largest Psychedelic Science meeting in history in June 2023, the MAPS conference in Denver, CO. 13,000 humans came together to share ancient and indigenous knowledge, science, and to learn how they can be a part of raising the human consciousness of this planet and heal worldwide suffering, in the form of therapists, doctors, spiritual leaders, retreat facilitators, harm reduction professionals, manufacturers and growers, among many others. We learned about groundbreaking research supporting the benefits of these natural medicines for mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Although these medicines have been around since the beginning of time, they are now being legalized for therapeutic use in Colorado. Noah and I have vowed to share our own healing gifts with this movement to create a safe set and setting to those who are called to experience inner healing through plant medicine, transformative practices, and deep self-reflection.
So the Soul Refuge experience came to be. This retreat emphasizes safety, education, and holistic wellbeing. We have created this space for women to feel safe, seen, and supported as they access their inner healer. Most importantly, the plant medicine we will be experiencing has been used for health and spiritual ceremony by our ancestors and native peoples for millennia. They are sacred tools and must be treated as such in ceremony, with intention, and reverence.
Courage. Safe Spaces. Community. Support. Tools. Self-Love. Practice. A Refuge for the Soul. All required for Transformation.
I invite you to experience this for yourself at the Soul Refuge | Mountain Retreat.
Hi love, I’m Victoria.
Throughout my lifetime, I have experienced profound shifts and transformations—moments of both death and rebirth. These metamorphic experiences have led me to become a truer and more authentic version of myself. To navigate these transformative moments, I have learned to open my heart and expand my mind to infinite possibility. I developed a deep connection with nature and its healing medicines. I had to let go of old beliefs. I shed the skins of my former self and forged an alliance with my ego. I’ve uncovered intuitive gifts that had long been buried. I discovered my inner power.
Through these healing experiences, I have emerged into the world as a brighter, lighter, and more purposeful being. I now experience childlike awe and wonder, a feeling I thought was only for the carefree times of my youth. I now weave ritual and magic into my daily life. My emotions now serve as allies on my journey and I follow the call of my Soul and take refuge into this amazing thing called Life.
I became my own healer.
My personal quest to discover authenticity required immense courage as I let go of anything in life that no longer served me on my path. I embraced a new perspective of life through community and spiritual practice. I became a more embodied woman, rooted in my truth and taking aligned action. The Universe has given me visions for which I had no other choice than to accept as my guideposts as I have taken leaps into the unknown. I gathered many life-changing tools along my journey, which now I share through my offerings in the world.
The Participant Experience
Andrea
“The Soul Refuge Retreat in September 2023 was so transformative on so many levels. It was a true healing experience that defies description. Thank you, Victoria, for this incredible journey.”
Jenny
“The Soul Refuge Retreat was completely life-changing and transforming. It was magical and almost like a dream I didn't want to wake up from. Thank you, Victoria, for creating such an unforgettable experience.”
Angela
"The Soul Refuge Retreat was profoundly transformative, healing, and sacred. Victoria's care and intentionality in every detail were beyond words. I left a part of myself in those mountains and streams, gaining new life and wisdom in return. Thank you for guiding me to embrace my divine feminine power.”
Abby
“What I love most about our educator, Victoria, is her warm, loving, and highly organized nature. Throughout the retreat, Victoria expertly planned our time, provided valuable tools, and gently pushed us out of our comfort zones. Her guidance has been invaluable and transformative”
Embark on a Profound Inward Journey
guided by Spirit, Nature’s Medicine, and the Divine Feminine
Find Refuge for your Soul as we embark on the journey of Transformation and Rebirth. Gathered around a forest fire, we will honor ancient traditions of women, guiding ourselves through rituals of release, embodiment, and spiritual connection.
Through deep immersion into our bodies, senses, desires, and emotional landscapes, we will cultivate a sense of safety and connection to the healing powers of Mother Earth.
This retreat is also designed to facilitate physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and energetic clearing and rejuvenation.
The Soul Refuge Retreat Will:
ALIGN you with your truth
RECONNECT you to your humanity
NURTURE your bond with yourself and with this precious Earth
UNLOCK your Soul’s highest potential
ASSIST you in cultivating self-love and self-trust
EXPAND beyond perceived limitations
By the end of this experience, you will depart with a renewed sense of vitality and clarity regarding life's most important questions, leaving you energetically lighter from the layers you will shed, and gain a deeper understanding of yourself and your role in the world.
What’s Included:
5 day / 4 night accommodations at a beautiful mountain retreat home equipped with hot tub, fire pit, access to a running stream in the backyard, hiking trails, and abundant natural beauty.
Single (Private) and Shared Room options.
Private Chef offering 3 healthy meals per day.
Relaxation and Rejuvenation at a local spa with therapeutic natural mineral tubs, saltwater pools, sauna, and yoga.
Evening Sound Bath Experience.
A Sacred Earth Medicine Journey.
Education on the Science, Spiritual, and Healing properties of Earth Medicines.
Medicine-Making Workshops.
Daily Meditations, Energetic Release, Nature Excursions and Dance Practices.
Connection to the Divine Feminine through Sisterhood, Surrounding Nature, and Ritual.
Transportation from Denver Airport or Colorado Springs Airport on March 15 and March 19*
Two Virtual Preparation Calls + Educational Resources.
Integration Calls Post-Retreat
Not included:
Flights to Denver or Colorado Springs Airport
Additional Spa Services such as Massage, Facials, or Body Treatments
*Denver Airport Pickup will be at 3pm on March 15. Airport drop-off will be by 1pm on March 19.
Pricing
Single / Private Room
with King Bed
$3399* until July 1st
$3,599 after July 1st
Shared Room
with 2 Double Beds
$2799* Until July 1st
$2,999 after July 1st
Registration includes 2 months access to Victoria’s In Your Magic Membership where you will receive tools for personal transformation and retreat preparation. An initial deposit of $500 is required and admission to the retreat will be confirmed after Intake Questionnaire & Interview has been completed.
*A 3% fee will be added to the total if paying by credit card. Additional payment options and payment plans are available.
Registration for the retreat is non-refundable and non-transferable. However, if you need to cancel your registration before August 1, we will make every effort to fill your spot from our waiting list. If we are able to do so, we will provide a refund in the amount of your registration costs minus a $500 administrative fee. We highly encourage travel insurance.
Meet Your Retreat Guides
Victoria Shumulinsky
Energy Healer, Intuitive Guide, and Community Curator
As a healer, mentor, and intuitive, Victoria’s purpose is to guide others to inner power through self-care, intuitive development, and energetic sovereignty. She mentors clients who want to make a difference in the world and come into remembrance of their soul's purpose.
As a first generation American and daughter of Ukrainian Jewish Immigrants, Victoria' grew up in a loving environment where anything but perfection was rejected, and the struggle was honored. She followed a well-paved path of higher education and hard work that led her to become a professional in the healthcare industry. Disenchanted by the systems of corporate environments, Victoria unknowingly pushed her needs and desires aside to check off never-ending to-do lists and subscribe to a life of hustle. She endlessly searched for external validation and lacked clarity of who she was.
A personal self-care bootcamp reconnected her with herself and her soul's purpose. Through meditation, self-love, spiritual community, energy healing, plant medicines and embodiment practice, she was able to shed many layers, let go of countless limiting beliefs that kept her small, and followed the whispers within to tune into her heart’s passion. Today, she runs a soul-led business where she leads people to their inner power. Inner power is what leads her to create a life that she loves filled with connection, peace, purpose, and everyday magic.
She offers private and group mentorship where she guides female and femme professionals through their journey of self-discovery and career evolution. She helps new businesses in the wellness, spirituality, & healing spaces legitimize their offerings so that they share their gifts with the world. She leads women in self-love, embodiment, and inner journey practices both virtually and on retreat. In her membership, In Your Magic, she works with people who are experiencing a period of inner transformation and self-discovery, giving them tools for empowerment, spiritual growth, and self-healing.
Victoria lives in Boulder, Colorado with her partner Noah Novello and their two dogs.
Victoria is honored to hold space for your transformation as Retreat Host and Intuitive Guide.
Guzel Gjenasaj
Reiki Master, Transformational Coach, Ceremonialist and Medicine Facilitator
Her life has been devoted to the exploration of mind, body and spirit and bringing balance, harmony and healing to it all. She is here to serve, as a guide, to your own inner awakening.
Guzel grew up in Brooklyn, NY, as a first-generation, Albanian-American. She had a beautiful, close-knit community, and loved the diversity of growing up in the inner city. She spent alternating Summers in Montenegro, in the rural mountains of her ancestors.
At an early age, she experienced sexual trauma, and had many inner demons, that lead to her being overweight, and wanting to hide, until she was 18. At 19, she ran away from an arranged marriage. On that day, she made a commitment to lead a full, and rich life, with total freedom, expression and choice.
Guzel set out to create the life of her dreams, getting fit and healthy, traveling the world, getting her Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology, at California State University, and studying Transformational Psychology, at the University of Philosophical Research. In addition to over 30 years of workshops, seminars, yoga/meditation/mindfulness classes, breathwork, conscious communication, Permaculture, sustainable living, sacred ceremonies rooted in Native American, Mayan and Pagan spirituality, Plant Medicine, Moon Dance (Women’s spiritual gathering in Teotihuacán, Mexico), and so much more, Guzel’s thirst for personal development has brought infinite growth, beautiful community and a life that she can truly say is “well lived.”
In 2013, Guzel co-founded, Cross Pollinate, a women’s networking and empowerment gathering. In 2017, she co-facilitated a women’s retreat in Costa Rica, called Deep Dive. And since 2012, she has been bringing community together for various healing gatherings in Los Angeles. Upon completing her 7th year as a Moon Dancer, she is now leading sweat lodges, and incorporating wisdom teachings from multiple lineages, to support the emergence of the Rainbow Tribe. A time when all wisdom teachings, of all lineages, are honored, respected, and shared for the greatest good of humanity’s conscious evolution.
Guzel is a pipe carrier in the Ollintlahuimetztli tradition, in Teotihuacan, Mexico. It is a great honor to carry, this spiritual tool, that was earned through her sacrifice, at the Moon Dance. She has been trained, on how to support medicine journeys, since 2012 and, has been facilitating deep dives with plant medicines since 2018. Guzel feels honored to support others in their healing journey.
Guzel will be co-facilitating the Plant Medicine Journey.
Noah Novello
Cannabis & Psychedelics Scientist: Research & Development, Production, Analytics, Safety, Quality Control & Education
Noah has been fascinated with how plants and fungi affect the way we think and feel since a very young age. He learned how the components of these living organisms interact within our brain while focusing on neuropsychopharmacology at The Ohio State University. After graduating, Noah worked at a residential facility and school for the Autism community. During a crisis intervention he sustained a severe back injury that changed the course of his life.
2 years later he was taking 20 pills daily but still experiencing debilitating pain. One day a friend that had moved to Colorado to grow cannabis and create concentrates came back into town and showed Noah how to consume the recreationally intended product. To Noah's amazement, he felt immediate breakthrough pain relief. His decision to move to Colorado for legal access came fast when he realized how cannabis consistently worked better for pain relief and lacked the physical dependence and unpleasant side effects experienced with pharmaceutical drugs.
Noah has been in the legal cannabis industry for over a decade and has experience in nearly every position in the production process. He has designed and run extraction labs, developed hundreds of products, and helped launch many brands. He spent the past 5 years in Southern California building up several of the Top 10 brands in the state. He participates on panels as an expert in the field and has presented multiple times at the largest cannabis conference in the world.
Using psychedelics as a therapeutic tool and experiencing the mental health benefits helped bring Noah back to Colorado to do what he loves. He is the founder of Friday Ventures which offers consulting, potency testing, and education about creating consistent, safe, effective medicine from nature.
Noah will be facilitating the Personal Use Education, On-Site Testing, and Medicine-Making Workshop.
Devananda Vargas
Everyday Mystic, Yogini, & Author
Devananda is deeply devoted to introspective self exploration through spirituality which creates that space for unconditional — abundant — radical — self love; and allows for the wholesome, sovereign, individual to contribute to a copious future for the collective. From the sandy dirt roads, mesas and arroyos of her childhood homeland in New Mexico, to summers spent in the cool Pacific Ocean of the hot beaches of Southern California in her youth, to the Western Slope mountain top peaks and valley floor rivers explored as an adult in Colorado, she is grateful her deep connection to nature gained from a life lived largely outdoors.
Devananda is an adult child of alcoholic and emotionally immature parents, she knows well the trauma of parentification, codependency, people pleasing, and self repression to gain approval and affection, and the courage required to choose to heal our deepest wounds. She is currently on a soul stroll after coming out as a late blooming lesbian, sharing her wisdom in written words which you can read on her Queer Dharma substack. She is a lifelong student of Yoga with certificates as a Hatha 200hr YTT from Tavoos Yoga School, Level One Meditation Teacher through ShambhAvananda School, a Wild Woman Circle Leader, and is now pursuing an MFA with the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado where she is honing her voice so she may expand her reach in sharing healing power of love.
Devananda will be leading Yoga and Meditation practice at the Soul Refuge Retreat.
Kristen Tatarunas
Retreat Chef & Co-Owner of Feed the World Cafe
Kristen Tatarunas is a Head Chef and co-owner of Feed the World Cafe, where she spreads her love through cooking great food and raises awareness for world-wide hunger. Feed the World Cafe is a socially responsible business specializing in catering and meal prepping for private clients. Through partnerships with local food banks, every meal that Feed the World Café serves donates a meal to someone in need.
As a graduate of the International Culinary Arts and Sciences Institute, Kristen has over 17 years of culinary experience in every position in the kitchen, including Head Chef. Kristen now uses her talents as a certified cannabis chef for the largest cannabis company in the US. She was also featured on the Food Network during her time at the White Flower Cake Shoppe as Lead Baker in Cleveland, OH.
Crafting food is Kristen's magic.
Kristen is honored to share her magic as an integral part of the holistic wellness experience at the Soul Refuge Retreat.
Retreat Flow
Retreat Flow
Sun 9/15
Airport Pickup 3pm
Arrival to Retreat House
Dinner
Opening Connection and Ceremony
Mon 9/16
Breakfast
Spa + Yoga
Lunch
Afternoon Practice
Dinner
Earth Medicine Education & Medicine-Making
Evening Ritual
Tues 9/17
Earth Medicine Journey
Lunch
Integration Practice
Dinner
Evening Ritual
Wed 9/18
Breakfast
Nature Integration
Lunch
Soundbath
Dinner
Integration Ritual
Thur 9/19
Nature Excursion
Breakfast
Closing Ceremony
Transportation to Denver Airport 11am
A Note on the Earth Medicine
Colorado legally allows for personal use, support services, and sharing of Natural Medicines per the Natural Medicine Legalization and Regulation Act SB 23-290. The Earth Medicine Journey will be optional. Each participant who chooses to sit in the Earth Medicine Journey is required to return an Intake Questionnaire. Responses will be treated as strictly confidential and will help Retreat Guides understand each participant’s unique needs and to provide the most supportive and safest experience. We will conduct phone interviews and each participant will also be required to sign a waiver of liability. The Earth Medicine Journey will be with a gentle variety of mushroom that has been locally grown in Colorado and tested for potency and safety. Each participant's journey will be customized for each person's intention, experience, and tolerance. Experience with Earth medicines is not necessary to participate, but we will not accept participants who with serious mental or physical health conditions. The Soul Refuge Retreat will focus on the personal use of Earth medicines for heart opening, inner transformation and spiritual healing. Two preparation calls, educational materials, and pre-retreat diet recommendations and integration post-retreat will be included. At the retreat, we will provide an educational workshop on the personal use of Earth medicines and offer practices that open the heart, tune into the emotional body, and help strengthen self-trust and intuition. We are here to help you understand safe consumption and guide you through your personal use of plant medicines. Please note we are not licensed facilitators in the State of Colorado, as licenses will not be issued by the State until 2024. Have questions? Reach out at Victoria@InYours.Co.
