The demand for psychedelic retreats — the ultimate reset for the mind — to treat disorders such as addiction, anxiety, trauma, and depression is also on the rise. Bookings at Soltara, a high-end ayahuasca treatment centre in Costa Rica frequented by celebrities, increased from 2021 to 2022, forcing the centre to open a second location in Costa Rica and one in Peru. Prospective psychonauts should choose retreats with recognised healers, licenced medical professionals, and trauma-informed facilitators, as the psychedelic tourism sector is largely unregulated.
Likewise, happiness retreats are witnessing a post-pandemic surge. “Now more than ever, guests are seeking moments of serenity and physical and mental harmony,” explains Alejandra Bustamante, wellness director of the Riviera Maya resort Chablé Maroma in Mexico. In January, the hotel introduced its Happiness Program, which employs an on-site shaman, centuries-old Mayan rituals, and psychic cleansings to assist visitors in attaining enduring happiness. Meanwhile, the Happiness Break at Borgo Egnazia in Puglia, Italy, takes a playful approach: aromatherapy to increase dopamine production and sessions with a laughter master who uses guests’ hilarious impersonations of one another and traditional Apulian music to elicit joy.
Some venues employ licenced mental health specialists to provide guests with relief. Miraval Resorts, which has properties in Arizona, Austin, and the Berkshires, collaborated with the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2021 to produce a series of recorded meditations. In February, Canyon Ranch launched the Build Resilience Pathway, a programme at its Tucson, Arizona, and Lenox, Massachusetts, locations in which participants meet with licenced therapists and spiritual wellness practitioners, such as a former Christian minister, to develop behavioural therapy tools and mindfulness techniques. And in November, Auberge Resorts Collection reopened Hacienda AltaGracia in the highlands of Costa Rica, where guests can follow a morning spent climbing to the rainforest canopy with a session of Integrative Energy Work, which incorporates Emotional Freedom Technique, or tapping, a method of treating psychological and physical pain.
Less therapy and more enjoyment is the motto of the four Swiss resorts owned by Tschuggen Hotel Group. As the number of COVID-weary guests seeking relief increased, the hospitality group collaborated with wellness experts to develop Moving Mountains, a mind-body-spirit programme designed in part “to help travellers rediscover vitality and joy, and mentally recover from the pandemic,” according to Leo Maissen, the group’s chief executive officer. Moving Mountains, which will be released in early 2021, is built on the principles of movement, play, sustenance, rest, and giving. Consequently, a stay at one of Tschuggen’s properties could include skiing down the slopes of St. Moritz at sunrise or paragliding over the mediaeval town of Ascona, followed by an aromatherapy massage designed to balance the nervous system, an endorphin-releasing ice bath in Lake Obersee, or a sleep programme designed by a Mayo Clinic-trained sleep specialist.
Back in the former chapel, after an hour of sound bathing, I began to regain consciousness, and Niwayama began to describe how the pandemic has decimated our collective wellbeing. “We were proceeding as usual. Now there is no normal, and we have no idea what to anticipate. Currently, everyone is a little depressed. “This will wake them up,” she added. And it was true: the sound bath reduced the intensity of my worry, leaving me feeling lighter and more cheerful. Was I healed? No. Was I better? Yes.
