ALCHEMY
The Embodied Truth of Leadership
Women Retreat · Female Bodies Only
July 2–7, 2027 · Nosara, Costa Rica
Alchemy is the art of transformation through relationship and time.
No bypass. No catharsis.
Alchemy is an immersive experience in embodied leadership — a space where transformation is not something we perform, force or chase, but something we allow to emerge through the body, through relationship, through truth and through time.
This women-only edition of Alchemy brings the work into a distinctly female space.
The work of Alchemy unfolds through time, rhythm, and relationship rather than constant instruction or intervention.
The Nature Of Work:
A space to explore what leadership becomes when we no longer separate strength from sensitivity, boundaries from openness, power from receptivity, or sovereignty from relationship.
We work beyond intellectual understanding.
Through somatic practices, breathwork, bodywork, movement, relational exploration, ritual, sacred medicine and integration, we enter the places where our patterns actually live: in the body, in relationship, and in the way we meet life.
This is not about becoming a better version of yourself.
It is about becoming more available to what is already true.
Participants are invited into:
Silence and stillness as places of truth, not avoidance
Ceremonial work paired with intentional integration
Breath and somatic practices that support regulation and embodiment
Relational spaces that prioritize listening over performing
Rather than pushing for insight, the container allows patterns to surface naturally—through lived experience, contact, and what arises when nothing is being forced.
WHO ALCHEMY IS FOR
Alchemy is for women who are willing to meet themselves beyond roles, concepts and identities.
It is for women who feel the call to inhabit their bodies more fully, to deepen their capacity for relationship and to explore leadership not as control or performance, but as an embodied way of being.
What is being cultivated
Alchemy is a practice in embodied leadership. Not leadership as a role or identity, but as a way of meeting life:
Staying present when it would be easier to disengage
Holding your own experience without outsourcing responsibility
Being in community without fixing, saving, or collapsing
Choosing clarity over urgency
This is where leadership becomes quiet, human, and trustworthy.
This experience is for you if…
You are ready to take responsibility for the way you meet yourself, others and life.
You want to explore the relationship between power and vulnerability, giving and receiving, boundaries and intimacy, autonomy and belonging.
You are willing to notice where you abandon yourself in order to maintain connection — and where you protect yourself so strongly that connection can no longer reach you.
You want to become more intimate with your own truth and develop the capacity to stay present when that truth asks something of you.
You are curious about what happens when the body — rather than the mind alone — becomes part of your decision-making, relationships and leadership.
You are willing to be seen.
You are willing to listen.
And you are willing to let transformation take the time it actually takes.
WHAT ALCHEMY IS NOT
Alchemy is not a healing retreat.
It is not a training or certification program.
It is not psychotherapy or a therapeutic treatment container.
It is not designed around catharsis, emotional spectacle or the promise of a breakthrough.
It is not a space in which facilitators take responsibility for changing, fixing or rescuing you.
And it is not spiritual bypassing disguised as transformation.
There is nothing you need to perform here.
Alchemy asks for presence, personal responsibility and the willingness to remain in relationship with yourself, your body, the group and what emerges.
THE CONTAINER
The retreat unfolds over six days in Nosara, Costa Rica, surrounded by tropical nature and held within an intimate group of women.
Our days weave together somatic exploration, breathwork, embodied leadership practices, movement, bodywork, relational work, ritual, sacred medicine and integration.
The schedule intentionally includes spaciousness.
Because integration does not happen only during a session.
Sometimes the most important movement happens in the hours between.
Alchemy is the art of transformation through relationship and time.
PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS
Alchemy is an intensive embodied experience and requires good mental and physical health.
Participation in all elements of the retreat is always approached with care and individual responsibility. A health and medical screening is required prior to final acceptance into the retreat.
This retreat is not appropriate for anyone currently experiencing an acute psychiatric crisis or whose physical or psychological condition would make participation unsafe.
INVESTMENT
We offer three pricing tiers according to the order of confirmed registrations- please submit the application form
TIER 1 — Early Alchemy
First 3 confirmed participants
US$
TIER 2 — Alchemy
Next 3 confirmed participants
US$
TIER 3 — Final Registration
Remaining places
US$
A 30% non-refundable deposit is due upon registration to secure your place. The remaining balance is due according to the payment schedule provided upon registration.
Accommodation is not included in the retreat price. Participants arrange and cover their own accommodation and travel to and from Nosara.
The retreat is not full board. Food and refreshments are provided only where indicated in the retreat schedule. All other meals are the responsibility of the participant.
Travel arrangements, flights, transfers, accommodation and any additional personal expenses are not included.
ALCHEMY
The Embodied Truth of Leadership
July 2–7, 2027
Nosara · Costa Rica
Female Bodies Only
Transformation is not something we force.
It is something we become available for.
YOUR Space Holders
The facilitators of Alchemy bring decades of combined experience in somatic education, breathwork, trauma-informed practice, ceremonial work, and relational facilitation. Each carries a deep respect for the body’s intelligence and the responsibility that comes with holding transformative spaces. Together, they create a grounded, attuned container rooted in integrity, presence, and safety—where participants are supported not through fixing or instruction, but through clear boundaries, embodied leadership, and shared humanity.
Ashley Ludman:
Ashley Ludman is a breathwork teacher, somatic practitioner, and facilitator with over two decades of experience guiding individuals and groups through embodied inquiry, nervous system regulation, and integrative healing. Her work is grounded, relational, and rooted in lived experience rather than ideology.
Ash is the founder of The Body of Breath, an online and in-person practice space devoted to breathwork, embodiment, and conscious living. She is also the Global Outreach Coordinator for the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA) and has been training breathwork facilitators internationally since 2012.
Her approach emphasizes responsibility, integration, and accessibility—supporting people in learning how to live what they know rather than chasing peak experiences. Ash’s work is informed by years of study in breathwork, bodywork, trauma-informed practice, and psychedelic integration, as well as her background in movement and therapeutic touch.
At the heart of her teaching is a commitment to presence, ethical facilitation, and the cultivation of sustainable, embodied leadership—both in personal practice and in community.
Natalie Arachnani MD:
Natalie is a somatic teacher, a doctor, certified trauma therapist, and devoted explorer of the human experience. Her work lives at the intersection of body wisdom, relational truth, and the reclamation of what it means to be deeply human.
A dancer by nature and a woman rooted in embodiment, Natalie moves through life with softness, fluidity, and depth—dancing with wind, swimming in water, raw with fire. Known as Cat’s Eye, she embodies sensitivity alongside wildness, offering spaces where authenticity, presence, and felt experience are central.
Natalie is a certified somatic educator for women and teaches menstrual cycle wisdom, while also addressing the impacts of misogyny and the unhealthy imprints of patriarchal spirituality on the body and psyche. She is dedicated to shame and shadow work, inviting the soma to speak through sensation, movement, and relational contact rather than analysis alone. She also is a GPBA-certified breathwork facilitator for many years.
Her approach weaves somatic inquiry, tantric elements, conscious relating, and deep listening to body language. Natalie has studied with well-known teachers and has been a keeper of sacred medicines she became initiated in for many years. She is devoted to creating safe, attuned spaces and facilitates retreats internationally with a strong emphasis on integrity, consent, and embodied truth.