THE MALINALCO HEALING SANCTUARY
OCTOBER 27– NOVEMBER 3, 2024
Our Treatment Program is divided into 8-day healing incubation units
“My first trip to Mexico will not be my last. I and all the participants were met personally in the Mexico City airport by Jill Fischer, The Malinalco Healing Sanctuary’s Clinical Director and then transported under her watchful eye, and with a knowledgeable driver, to our amazing retreat setting. An English speaking guide was available to accompany us to local sites. Despite my anticipatory angst traveling in Mexico, I couldn’t have felt more at ease.”
Donna Upchurch, 8/2013
Each unit consists of:
Nutrition – an individualized dietary program
• Individual dreamwork each day
• Mindfulness Meditation
• Therapeutic Yoga
• Fine Arts
• Embodied Imagination Writing and Journaling
• Body Work
• Watsu (Water Therapy)
• Theater
• Group Process work and a variety of elective integrative therapies such as Massage are offered.
Each unit has a central focus on dream incubation—for over one thousand years the primary medical modality of classical antiquity at the root of Western medicine. Dream incubation gives a dreamer access to forms of embodied intelligence far removed from our habitual consciousness, which are seen to correspond to the endogenous healing response present in every living system.
As a whole, our program is geared towards enhancing the innate ability of the body to heal itself. In the same way that conventional medicine attempts to eradicate illness, sanctuary medicine is designed to promote health. Based on the understanding that a combination of both works better than each individually, it has been the original principle of Western medicine that the eradication of illness and the promotion of health need to work in tandem.
MALINALCO
Malinalco is outside a beautiful small Mexican village well known for its historic value. The Malinalco Healing Sanctuary is located on a private, safe, and beautifully protective residential estate. The legend says that Malinalco was founded by Malinaxochitl, the sister of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war…. There is a pre-Hispanic pyramid in the mountains that surrounds the village and its’ beautiful Augustine convent. There are 12 neighborhoods in Malinalco and each has its own chapel.
You will be coming in October when it is very pleasant and cool in the evenings. Along with your Sanctuary experience we will be celebrating The Day of the Dead.
The Sanctuary is on 10 acres of land. There is one main house and many smaller ones on the property. Everyone will have a private bedroom. A sitting room holds over 30 people, a large separate building (called the Abaton) is used for Yoga, body work, and is the place where the central dreaming sanctuary, as in ancient Greece, is located. There is also a dining room, several terraces, a heated swimming pool, a medicine wheel, and a Ceiba tree (Mayan sacred tree).
Program Date:
OCTOBER 27, 2024 – NOVEMBER 3, 2024
For More Information
Call the Sanctuary’s Director of Clinical Services, Jill Fischer PsyA, APRN, BC at
1-860-984-6429 or e-mail jillyfisch@mindspring.com
Travel to Malinalco
Fly into Mexico City (Benito Juarez International Airport). Malinalco is 2 hours from Mexico City. We start in the evening so you have to arrive no later than 2:00 PM. We will arrange for vans to take you directly from the airport to Malinalco.
When departing Mexico plan to leave after 12:00 PM. Transportation to the airport from Malinalco can be arranged. If you leave earlier, you will be responsible for your own transportation.
Airline Tickets:
Remember the date to arrive…Oct. 27, 2024 so we can begin in the evening.
Leave on Nov. 3, 2024
The Malinalco Healing Sanctuary Team
The Sanctuary’s physicians, therapists, and supporting professionals provide a high level of experience and expertise in the healing arts and sciences.
Jill Fischer, PsyA, APRN, BC, Director of Clinical Services
Jill Fischer is a Jungian Analyst and advanced practice registered nurse who has taught Embodied Imagination® dreamwork world-wide. She has over 50 years of clinical experience and has created and administered programs for hospitals, public health settings, and community-based clinics.
Carlos Alvear, MD
Carlos Alvear comes from a family tradition of medical practitioners. After obtaining his medical degree, he continued exploring different elements that would provide a clearer understanding of the complexities of health. Additional trainings he has received include clinical training at the Mind Body Medicine Institute at Harvard University run by Dr Herbert Benson, holotropic breathwork training with Dr. Stanislav Grof, past-life therapy with Rashna Imhasly Ghandi, clinical herbology with Dr. Marco Chung Shu Lam, transpersonal psychology, hypnotherapy and traditional healing techniques with Dr. Carlos de León. He has also been exposed to the wisdom and healing arts of the Huichol marakames, the South African sangomas, the Peruvian curanderos and Tibetan lamas.
Marie-Aimée de Montalembert M.S
Marie-Aimee de Montalembert a native of France has lived in Mexico for 30 years. A Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, she has also completed the Marion Woodman Foundation BodySoul Rhythms® Leadership Training Program with Jungian analyst Marion Woodman, movement specialist Mary Hamilton, and voice coach Ann Skinner. She has also been trained in past-life therapy by Rashna Imhasly Ghandi. Marie-Aimée uses active imagination through movement, art and voice to deepen the exploration of dreams and to integrate the rich and undiscovered material from the unconscious.
Circe Peralta
Circe Peralta is a plastic artist who conducts creativity and plastic arts workshops for both children and adults at various museums, cultural centers and schools. Her challenge is finding organic ways of adapting to our changing times. Her tool: transforming through colors, shapes, space and silence. Her passion: sharing with others how to find their creative nature and helping them come to know themselves.
Teresa Ojeda
Teresa Ojeda is the sanctuary chef. The owner, along with her husband, of a very successful restaurant in Malinalco, she will be directing the nutritional program along with Dr. Carlos Alvear. Sanctuary participants will be offered an individualized nutritional cleansing that can be followed even when completing the program.
Feel free to e-mail for more information or call The Sanctuary’s Director of Clinical Services:
Jill Fischer, PsyA, APRN, BC at:
e-mail at: jillyfisch@mindspring.com