NOTE: This retreat is exclusively for Brainspotting or Brainspotting curious therapists, professionals and healers who identify within the SSWANA/MENA community.
Hosted by Mariya Javed-Payne
Total cost for the retreat is $1750 for those who identify and move through the world as SSWANA/MENA individuals. Register and pay your initial deposit of $750. The second half of payment will be due by July 30th, 2026.
SSWANA/MENA ANCESTRAL HEALING RETREAT DETAILS
*Please read all the details below before signing up!
This retreat is an affinity space ONLY for Brainspotting or Brainspotting curious therapists, professionals and healers who identify within the SSWANA/MENA community. This includes individuals from South Asia, Southwest Asia, North Africa, and what is known in the colonial terms as the Middle East.
About the Retreat
Through Brainspotting, somatic abolitionism, somatic and shamanic healing, and energy work, we will explore ancestral burdens and blessings, addressing the impacts of colonization, imperialism, and white supremacy (among other -isms) on SSWANA/MENA and BIPOC bodies. By working through intergenerational trauma, we can release inherited patterns, reclaim ancestral gifts, and deepen our connection to our lineage.
With a focus on collective healing, we will create a strong energetic container, working both individually and communally to process ancestral trauma and honor our place within our lineage. The land, intentionally chosen for this work, will guide and shape our experience. Expect profound spiritual and supernatural elements. Limited to 10 participants.
Program Highlights
Pre-work to prepare for the retreat addressing themes in your own lineages
Didactic teachings on collective, intergenerational, and historical trauma
Individual Brainspotting /shamanic session (2-3 hours) with Mariya focused on ancestral healing for each participant, held in the center of the group
Learning to hold space for collective healing: Attunement and container building practices for collective trauma healing
Spiritual and intuitive work: Setting energetic boundaries, working with the spiritual realms, the elements, the land, and ancestral communication
Somatic and energetic healing: Moving collective trauma through the body and reclaiming ancestral gifts
Daily integration sessions with dialogue, debrief, and integration of Brainspotting theory/techniques
Somatic abolitionism practices for ancestral and lineage healing
Land connection practices: Working with energetic land healing and clearing
Sacred rituals: Creating altars, honoring the elements, and ancestral reverence practices
Breathwork workshop for release, rewiring, and expansion
Optional Kambo/Sapo Ceremony, a powerful Amazonian purgative medicine
Optional Reiki, craniosacral therapy, breathwork to rest, restore, and recalibrate your nervous system
While the retreat includes structured teachings, it will be primarily an experiential healing journey. The program is subject to change based on group needs and guidance from the spirits, ancestors, and the land.
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Prerequisite: Completion of live in-person or online Phase 1 Brainspotting training or interest/curiosity in Brainspotting, shamanic healing, energy work.
Audience: This retreat is an affinity space for SWANA/MENA therapists and healing practitioners who are trained in Brainspotting or are Brainspotting curious.
Schedule: We will have an opening gathering on Sunday, August 30th in the evening and then working each day from 9 am - 6 pm Monday through Friday (August 31st-Sept 4th). There may be some optional experiences held in the evenings or early morning (sauna, temezcal, breathwork, kambo).
Cost of Intensive: $1750.00 USD per person.
To hold your spot for the retreat, a $750 deposit is required, with total payment due by July 30th, 2026. Please contact us if you are in need of a payment plan. We would be delighted to have you.
Lodging Information: You may find a hotel or Airbnb/VRBO in the area if you are coming from out of state. **There is a possibility to stay at the training location—more details to come.
Training Location: 2717 Hidden Creek Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55391
*parking is availableMeals/Costs: We have the option to cater lunch for the week for those interested in gathering community style for the lunch hour. More details to come.
Breakfast and dinner will be on your own. Refreshments and snacks will be provided throughout the day.
Airport Information: The closest/most convenient airport to fly into will be Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). It is approximately a 30 minute drive away from the training location. Carpooling is encouraged to minimize the impact on the Earth.
Attendees must arrive by 4 pm on Sunday, August 30th for an opening gathering and may depart on Saturday, September 5th, 2026. There may be an option to come earlier or stay longer if desired. Please reach out to me if you’d like to arrive earlier than Sunday, August 30th.
Total Approximate Cost in USD= $1750 for the retreat, plus costs for lodging/meals/flights/transportation/additional offerings.
Additional Details: We will be offering optional group and individual kambo sessions, breathwork, and individual Reiki sessions on Sunday, August 30th, and throughout the week if desired at an additional cost (facilitated by Mariya Javed-Payne and Greg Payne). We will provide additional details as we get closer to the event. Please state your interest in the registration form and reach out to us with any questions.
See below for cancellation/refund policy.
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Retreat Takeaways for Participants
By the end of this retreat, you will:
Deepen your understanding of collective, intergenerational, and historical trauma through a Brainspotting and somatic lens.
Learn techniques to frame ancestral and intergenerational trauma through the Brainspotting
Develop skills to blend Brainspotting with intuition, spiritual, and Earth-based healing practices
Release inherited burdens and patterns through Brainspotting, somatic work, and energy healing.
Strengthen attunement skills to hold space for yourself and others in trauma healing.
Learn to work with guides, ancestors, and spiritual allies in your healing practice.
Develop tools for energetic and somatic healing to support ancestral trauma work.
Reconnect with ancestral gifts and intuitive abilities.
Cultivate grounding practices for protection, balance, and sacred space creation.
Experience deep healing and integration through daily group work and ceremonial practices.
Engage in land-based healing and deepen your connection with nature as an ancestral force.
Learn to facilitate sacred rituals such as altar creation, energetic land clearing, and elemental work.
Participate in communal healing and contribute to the collective transformation of lineage wounds.
Gain practical techniques for continued ancestral healing beyond the retreat.
This retreat is designed to be transformational, immersive, and experiential, equipping you with the knowledge, skills, and spiritual tools to continue your personal and professional healing journey.
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Mariya Javed-Payne is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor and International Brainspotting Trainer and Consultant.
She is a somatic psychotherapist and the owner of Awaken Consulting Services, a private practice and consultancy where she utilizes Brainspotting therapy and offers training and consultation on the treatment of trauma, somatic psychotherapies, psychedelic assisted therapy, anti-racism, and other relevant mental health topics. She also offers therapy intensives for complex PTSD and addictions, where clients work with her for multiple hours a day for a number of days to get to the root of traumatic experiences.
Always seeking out the most cutting edge advances in treatment, she utilizes psychedelic medicines such as ketamine with somatic therapy. Her 14 years of experience have focused on clients with addictions, medication assisted treatment therapies, complex and developmental trauma, racial and ancestral trauma, oppression, and chronic pain. Identifying as a deep-hearted visionary and servant leader, she has served various leadership roles in the mental health service industry, such as Chief Clinical Officer at Institute for Integrative Therapies, the first psychedelic assisted therapy clinic in Minnesota, as well as Director of Behavioral Health at a large federally qualified health center. Mariya has courageously supported and trained many teams of physicians, therapists, psychiatrists, and social workers to embody attunement and provide trauma-responsive, anti-oppressive counseling and addiction therapies to people and communities in need of healing.
Energy Healing Bio
I hold 15 years of experience as a shamanic practitioner, energy healer, and intuitive. I have trained under many teachers including Janet Townswick (shaman and minister carrying a bundle from the Ojibwe nation), Renee Brown (medium/consciousness teacher), Donna Taylor (transmedium and earth oracle), Mary Stoffel (formal 2 year shamanic training program through Sandra Ingerman’s School of Shamanic Studies), Betsy Bergstrom (depossession, mediumship, curse unraveling, and Nina Admiral (channel). I have additional experiences learning from Christina Maria Mendoza (Peruvian Amazon), Michael Maley (energy and earth consciousness), Mao Tatanka (Colombian Shaman carrying the Condor-Eagle Prophecy), and other indigenous teachers from the Amazon. I have also studied with Resmaa Menakem for 2.5 years in Somatic Abolitionism and have completed Daniel Foor's Ancestral Medicine 3 month course, as well as gone through my own lineage repair process with Andrea Aase (Ancestral Medicine Practitioner). I have and continue to study with many non-human teachers and guides. I have experience in energy/entity clearing, land clearing, curse unraveling, extractions, soul retrieval, psychopomp, shadow-work, and mediumship. I am currently deepening my abilities as a channel. I draw from indigenous wisdom, nature wisdom, plant medicine teachings, and earth based consciousness teachings. I am a Reiki Master-Teacher, Pranayama breathwork facilitator, Kambo practitioner, and animal communicator. I am also a formal student of astrology and the cosmos (9 years), family constellations, and kinesiology. I am also trained in psychedelic assisted therapy and have extensive experience with plant medicines and non-ordinary states of consciousness.
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Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with BioLateral sound, which is deep, direct, powerful yet focused and containing. Trainings are 9 am to 6 pm CDT each day and count for 35 clock hours that may count towards continuing education credits, depending on your state board licensing requirements.
Brainspotting identifies activated eye positions designated as Brainspots. Located through either one or both eyes, Brainspots are observed from either the “Inside Window” of the clients felt sense and/or the “Outside Window” of the clients’ reflexive responses (i.e., blink, eye twitches or wobbles, pupil dilation, quick breaths and subtle body shifts). Students will first learn the phenomenological approach that underpins strategies for Brainspotting, followed by strategies for identifying and processing Brainspots. Attention will be given to the utilization and integration of Brainspotting into ongoing treatment, including highly dissociative clients.
Brainspotting is adaptable to almost all areas of specialization. Brainspotting provides therapists with powerful tools to enable their patients to quickly and effectively process through the deep brain sources of many held traumas, emotional, somatic and performance problems.
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Please review the training participant consent form here.
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Full refund minus $75 administrative fee will be given prior to July 31st 2026. A 50% refund minus $75 administrative fee will be provided up to August 26th, 2026. After August 26th, 2026, attendee would be allowed to attend another intensive for up to 1 year from original date.
Total cost for the retreat is $1750 for those who identify and move through the world as SSWANA/MENA individuals. Register and pay your initial deposit of $750. The second half of payment will be due by July 30th, 2026.