Robert Vetter, M.A., is a cultural anthropologist, healer, and teacher who has spent decades studying and practicing healing traditions across cultures. His work is rooted in the understanding that healing is not just about addressing symptoms, but restoring relationship—to oneself, to one’s story, to others, and to the deeper forces that give life meaning. Robert has taught at the University of New Mexico’s Curanderismo program and is the creator of Soul Medicine: Journey from Calling to Healing Practice, where he mentors individuals who feel called to step into roles of healing and guidance.

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UPCOMING RETREAT

The Wisdom Keeper Within
A Soul Medicine Retreat in Story, Ceremony, and Sacred Practice
August 28–30 | The NEST, Woodstock, NY

There is a moment on the path when healing has done its work, and something else begins to call. A quieter voice, but more insistent. A sense that what you've lived was preparing you for something—though the shape of it isn't yet clear.

The weekend moves through a deliberate arc: understanding your story, transforming it, and stepping into the role of someone who can carry that wisdom forward. The work is grounded primarily in the curanderismo tradition—the Mexican folk-healing lineage Bob has trained in for decades—and woven with cross-cultural teachings on story, ceremony, and the healer's path.

Friday evening — Entering the story. We begin with an introduction to Narrative Medicine: the practice of meeting your own life as a story rather than a problem to solve. Through teaching, traditional tales, and small-group plática (sacred listening), each person begins to name the deeper thread that has brought them here.

Saturday morning — Pilgrimage and the land. The day opens with a ceremonial walk into the landscape around The NEST. We enter the land with reverence rather than as observers, and gather natural elements that speak to us. These, alongside meaningful objects participants bring from home, become a group altar that holds the weekend's intentions.

Saturday afternoon — The story that wants to change. Before fire, there is preparation. In a guided experiential process, each person identifies a personal story, pattern, or belief that is ready to be released—and finds the deeper medicine inside it. This is not only letting go. It is reclaiming what was buried in the difficulty. By the end of the session, each participant has something real to bring to the fire, and something to carry forward.

Saturday night — The fire ceremony. Fire carries an alchemical power nothing else does: what goes into fire does not come back the way it went in. Across cultures, healers have worked directly with this—not as metaphor, but as medium.

What we do Saturday night draws from the curanderismo tradition of fire work and limpia—ceremonial cleansing. Through drumming, song, and prayer, the circle moves into a space where real healing becomes possible. Each person, in their own way, brings what no longer serves them and offers it to the fire, often with a tobacco offering, in their own words.

Everyone present receives healing in this circle. And three people will step into the center to receive a more direct ceremonial healing—a deeper encounter, held by the rest of the group. The group's presence is part of the medicine.

This is active ceremonial healing work, in a tradition that goes back further than any of us. We do it together, in the dark, with intention.

Sunday morning — Listening after the fire. The morning is quieter. We gather in plática to reflect on what shifted overnight, share dreams and images, and listen to what is now present. A guided inner journey deepens contact with what is emerging.

Sunday midday — Becoming a wisdom keeper. Bob offers teaching on what it means to become a wisdom keeper—not someone who has all the answers, but someone who has learned how to listen, to their own life, to others, and to the deeper currents that guide us. Participants are then guided to craft their own Medicine Story: a reframed, empowered telling of what they have lived and what they now carry forward.

Sunday afternoon — Speaking the medicine. Each person shares their Medicine Story within the group, practicing the act of speaking from presence and lived experience. We close by exploring how this medicine moves into ordinary life—into relationships, work, creativity, and quieter ways of being.

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PASSPORT READY SESSION

FRI, MAY 29TH 2-3PM EDT

Becoming a Wisdom Keeper: The Call That Comes After Healing

🎉FREE GIFT 🎉

UNCOVERING YOUR SOUL CONTRACT TO BE A HEALER

RECEIVE HERE