Featuring guided preparation over one week in advance of arrival: (virtual group meetings, dietary advice, videos, worksheets, meditations)
Retreat with
Wade Davis
Ascend+
Join explorer Wade Davis and our Clinical Director, Donald Currie, Registered Psychotherapist as you Embark on your ASCEND+ program and retreat for self-betterment.
Ascend+
Facilitators
While on Retreat you will be cared for by Algonquin Highlands’ Clinical Director Donald Currie, RP, and his team of leading massage therapists, and hospitality experts providing a new paradigm for well-being.
Wade Davis
Wade is an anthropologist, ethnobotanist and author.
As an explorer and researcher, Wade studies Indigenous cultures and their use of plants for medicinal and spiritual purposes. His work has taken him from his home in British Columbia, Canada, to Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Haiti, Benin, Togo, Greenland and now to co-host an ASCEND+ Retreat at Dimensions Algonquin Highlands.
Donald Currie, RP
Clinical Director, Dimensions Algonquin Highlands
A registered psychotherapist and integrative mental health provider with over 20 years of experience, Donald leads Retreat programming at Dimensions Algonquin Highlands. His clinical work focuses on healing through somatic and trauma therapies that are evidence-based and supported by neuroscience research. To guide Dimensions guests in the process of preparing and integrating their ceremonial experiences, he integrates relational somatic psychotherapy, sensorimotor psychotherapy, EMDR, Acceptance and commitment therapy, and internal family systems therapy with complementary wellness practices. He has received training and certification in psychedelic guiding, psychedelic assisted psychotherapy, Somatic Psychedelic Psychotherapy, and ethical right relationship in psychedelic therapy.
Over the course of his career he has worked entirely with people looking to improve their mental health. He has extensive experience in working with PTSD, depression, anxiety, trauma, complex family dynamics, grief and relationship challenges. Donald was a key member of the clinical team at Helix Healthcare Group, a treatment facility for mental health and addiction. For over two decades Donald has based his own private practice in Toronto. He believes in the importance of reciprocity and worked to remove the barriers of access by providing free mental health services to marginalized individuals at his private practice.
Gina Miranda
Registered Psychotherapist
Gina studied transpersonal psychotherapy at the Transformational Arts College of Spiritual and Holistic Training and is a registered psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. She is trained in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, structural dissociation, sensorimotor psychotherapy, relational somatic psychotherapy, deep brain reorienting and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Gina co-founded the Healing Therapy Alliance in Toronto.
Helena Borgers
Registered Psychotherapist
Helena’s key belief for optimal mental health and emotional well-being is “the body wants to feel good and the mind wants to know.” In addition to running her private practice, Helena is a clinical supervisor and teaches at the Transformational Arts College. She specializes in trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and grief. Her clinical work focuses on neuroscientific evidence-based treatments utilizing neuro-experiential and somatic therapies as well as transpersonal psychotherapy.
Don Khalsa
Plant Elder
Over Don’s 30-year journey with plant medicine, he has been fortunate enough to study with plant elders who carry the knowledge and sacred practices of their lineages. As a medicine carrier, he holds this knowledge with deep gratitude and respect. He draws on his skills and wisdom to create and hold ritual space during Ceremony.
The ASCEND+ Retreat is held in a uniquely western container: it is supported by rigorous health and safety protocols and is among several well-being programs developed by Dimensions’ team of experts. The Retreat’s five-star environment is a ground-breaking opportunity to leave the everyday behind. Pause, reflect, and connect to an enhanced sense of purpose.
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The three phase
Ascend+ Program
Continue your transformational journey
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Pre Retreat Participation
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On Retreat
DAILY ACTIVITIES (per day, beginning on Friday):
- Morning group Wellness Sessions (movement,yoga, qigong)
- Nature group (forest therapy)
- Three Body Work sessions, one choice of: acupuncture, massage, or Thai massage
- Three individual Wellness sessions, one choice of: individual breathwork, reiki, sound healing, cranial sacral therapy, hot stone massage or mindfulness meditation
- Optional cold exposure therapy (cold plunge)
- Optional Flotation therapy (sensory deprivation in a float tank) or BioSound therapy table (biofeedback)
- Seasonal outdoor activities (hiking, forest bathing, foraging, swim, canoe, kayak, paddleboard)
Retreat Schedule
- Retreat welcome and site tour, followed by nature therapy walk at leisure
- Evening Sound Bath in Ceremony Dome
- Morning Wellness session (movement practices, yoga, Qigong )
- Choice of Bodywork sessions (one choice of acupuncture, massage, or Thai massage)
- Three individual Wellness options (one choice of individual breathwork, reiki, sound healing, cranial sacral therapy, hot stone massage or mindfulness meditation)
- One Ceremony preparation, group
- Evening plant medicine conversation, followed by Q + A with Wade Davis
- Evening group preparation and breathwork with Plant Elder in Ceremony Dome
- Interpretive Walk in the woods with Wade Davis (morning)
- Morning Wellness session (movement practices, yoga, Qigong )
- Choice of Bodywork sessions (one choice of acupuncture, massage, or Thai massage)
- Three individual Wellness options (one choice of individual breathwork, reiki, sound healing, cranial sacral therapy, hot stone massage or mindfulness meditation)
- One psychedelic Plant Medicine Ceremony (cannabis)
- Self-reflection evening
- Morning Wellness session (movement practices, yoga, Qigong )
- Choice of Bodywork sessions (choice of acupuncture, massage, or Thai massage)
- Three individual Wellness options (choice of individual breathwork, reiki, sound healing, cranial sacral therapy, hot stone massage or mindfulness meditation)
- One individual psychotherapy session (1 hr)
- One Group psychotherapy for integration (2 hrs)
- One evening Cacao ceremony, followed by ecstatic dance
Morning closing Ceremony ( Fireside or in Ceremony Dome)
Ascend+
Post Retreat Integration
Guided integration over two weeks
- Virtual group discussion
- Videos
- Meditations
Retreat Inclusions:
- Private accommodation and private bathroom, soaker tub, walk-in shower
- All meals, drinks, and snacks (healthy and organic)
- Interpretive Walk in the woods with Wade Davis
- Evening plant medicine conversation, followed by Q + A with Wade Davis
- One psychedelic Plant Medicine Ceremony using cannabis
- One Ceremony preparation, group
- Three individual Body Work options (choice of: acupuncture, massage, Thai massage)
- Three individual Wellness options (choice of individual breathwork, reiki, sound healing, cranial sacral therapy, hot stone massage or mindfulness meditation)
- A Flotation therapy session (sensory deprivation in a float tank)A BioSound therapy table session (biofeedback)
- One individual psychotherapy session (1 hr)
- One Group psychotherapy for integration (2 hrs)
- Daily morning group movement and/or meditation (yoga, Qigong)
- Daily Nature group (forest therapy)
- One evening group Sound Bath
- One evening group Breathwork
- One evening cacao Ceremony, followed by ecstatic dance
- Optional cold exposure therapy (cold plunge)
- Seasonal outdoor activities