A gathering for those who have already begun the work and are ready to go deeper — into the body, into honest community, into the medicine. Come play where the medicine meets your heart.
This retreat is for people who already know the language of healing — and are ready to stop talking about it and start living it.
You've done the workshops. You've sat in ceremony. You've read the books and worked with the therapists. And still — there's a gap between what you know and how you live.
The Sacred Playground is the next level. Two days held end to end, where the work moves out of your head and into your body, your relationships, your daily choices. Where you stop asking life to change while you stay the same.
How am I contributing to my own suffering?
Where am I abandoning myself?
Where am I asking life to change while refusing to change myself?
Plant medicine education, nervous-system awareness, and ancestral wisdom, guided by Barbara James-Payne.
Sound and guided meditation to drop you out of the thinking mind and into the felt body.
Joy, pleasure, and presence as medicine — not performance. Remembering how to play.
Nourishing meals and a place to rest, all included. Arrive, settle, and let the container hold you.
Radical self-reflection inside a held, honest circle. No advice. No performing. Just truth.
Practices to carry the work home — so the medicine lives on in your life, not just on the mountain.
We begin slowly — arrival, real introductions, and intentions that aren't performances. Barbara opens the container with teaching on masks, identity, and the ways we leave ourselves. Plant medicine education grounds the body for the work ahead.
The middle is where the real work lives — sound healing, somatic practice, witnessing in circle, and the honest questions you usually walk around. This is the day you stop talking about the pattern and feel it move.
We close with integration — reflection, a slow and unstructured morning, and the practices to keep the work alive in your daily life. You leave not with a high, but with a shifted relationship to yourself.
For more than a decade, Barbara has worked at the intersection of herbalism, plant medicine, nervous-system awareness, ancestral wisdom, and the honest work of self-examination.
Her teaching is direct, grounded, and committed to truth over performance. She isn't interested in helping you feel better temporarily. She's interested in helping you change. The work isn't about becoming someone new — it's about becoming honest enough to be who you already are.
October 9–11, 2026 · Ridgeville, South Carolina. Seats are limited and held in a small, intentional circle.
A deposit secures your seat; the balance can be split into monthly payments. Food, medicine & lodging included. Held at sacredrootz.com · Ridgeville, SC.
People who have already begun their healing journey and are ready to go deeper into embodiment. It is not a beginner's introduction or a quick fix — it's the next level for those who know the language and want to live it.
The full two-day experience — food, medicine, lodging, meditation, sound healing, interactive play, and integration practices. You arrive and the container holds the rest.
The retreat is held in Ridgeville, South Carolina. After you reserve, you'll receive full arrival details, directions, and a packing list in your confirmation.
Yes. A deposit holds your seat and the remaining balance can be paid in monthly installments — while still locking in the $777 early-bird rate before September 1.
The $777 early-bird rate ends and the standard rate of $888 applies, subject to remaining capacity. Reserving early is the surest way to hold both your seat and the best rate.
October 9–11, 2026 · Ridgeville, SC. Seats are limited and the $777 early-bird rate ends September 1.
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