Retreat Code of Conduct
A shared agreement for safety, respect, cultural integrity, and sacred community
Our shared intention
We gather to heal, learn, rest, remember, and experience living cultures with humility. This agreement helps us create a space where every participant, team member, elder, practitioner, artisan, host, and community partner is treated with dignity and care.
Applies to all Soul Tribe Heals retreats, journeys, excursions, ceremonies, classes, and group spaces
SOUL TRIBE HEALS | RETREAT PARTICIPANT AGREEMENT
Welcome to the Circle
A Soul Tribe Heals retreat is more than a trip. It is a carefully held experience rooted in relationship, respect, healing, and cultural exchange. We may enter homes, villages, sacred places, kitchens, healing rooms, studios, farms, and community spaces that are not staged for tourism. We enter as invited guests.
This Code of Conduct explains how we agree to move together. It is intended to protect the peace of the group, the privacy of each woman, the integrity of our hosts, and the relationships Soul Tribe Heals has built over time.
Please read carefully
This Code of Conduct works alongside your waiver, release forms, payment policies, health information, itinerary, and any retreat-specific instructions. It does not replace those documents.
Respect and Human Dignity
Every person deserves to feel safe, seen, and respected in our space. Participants agree to:
Treat participants, staff, elders, healers, drivers, cooks, artisans, guides, hotel staff, and community members with courtesy and dignity.
Respect differences in race, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, spiritual practice, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, body size, ability, health status, marital status, socioeconomic background, and personal history.
Refrain from harassment, intimidation, bullying, threats, humiliation, unwanted sexual attention, discriminatory comments, or aggressive behavior.
Speak directly and respectfully when a concern arises. Gossip, public shaming, group targeting, and hostile confrontation are not acceptable.
Honor another participant's right to be quiet, rest, decline a conversation, or take personal space when appropriate.
Confidentiality and Sacred Trust
Women may share personal stories, grief, health concerns, family experiences, spiritual insights, or other private information. What is shared in the circle must be treated as sacred trust.
Do not repeat another person's story, diagnosis, experience, or personal information outside the retreat without her clear permission.
Do not post about another participant online, identify her location, tag her, or share images of her without consent.
Do not record private conversations, healing sessions, sharing circles, prayers, ceremonies, or teachings unless Soul Tribe Heals and everyone involved have explicitly approved it.
Confidentiality cannot be absolute when there is a credible concern about immediate harm, abuse, or a serious safety risk. In those circumstances, the retreat leadership may take appropriate protective action.
Consent, Touch, and Personal Boundaries
Consent must be clear, informed, voluntary, and ongoing. A yes may become a no at any time.
Ask before touching, hugging, praying over, laying hands on, massaging, photographing, recording, or offering spiritual or healing work to another person.
Respect a no without pressure, persuasion, teasing, guilt, or demands for an explanation.
Do not offer or perform professional services, readings, bodywork, medicine, coaching, counseling, or healing sessions for other participants unless specifically authorized by Soul Tribe Heals.
Follow the consent instructions given before bodywork, ceremonies, plant experiences, spiritual baths, or other retreat activities.
Tell a team member promptly if a boundary has been crossed or if you feel unsafe. You will be taken seriously.
Cultural Respect and Community Protocol
The knowledge shared during our retreats belongs to living people, lineages, and communities. Access does not equal ownership.
Follow the instructions of elders, practitioners, guides, cultural hosts, and Soul Tribe Heals staff regarding dress, entry, offerings, photography, recording, sacred objects, and behavior.
Do not touch altars, tools, medicines, plants, artifacts, instruments, ceremonial items, or another person's belongings without permission.
Do not copy, teach, sell, trademark, rebrand, publish, or commercially use cultural knowledge, ceremonies, songs, prayers, recipes, healing methods, designs, or stories shared during the retreat unless the appropriate knowledge holder has given explicit permission.
Ask before photographing homes, children, elders, sacred spaces, ceremonies, healers, artisans, or community members. A purchased experience does not create a right to photograph or record.
Avoid treating people or sacred practices as entertainment, content, costumes, or backdrops. Be curious, but remain humble.
Do not make promises, donations, business arrangements, private bookings, or direct agreements with community partners on behalf of Soul Tribe Heals. Personal arrangements should not interfere with existing relationships or retreat operations.
Participation, Punctuality, and Group Care
A small-group retreat depends on each participant moving with awareness of the whole. Participants agree to:
Arrive on time for scheduled departures, meals, ceremonies, classes, and group activities.
Communicate promptly if illness, fatigue, an emergency, or another concern prevents participation.
Follow reasonable directions from the retreat team regarding transportation, weather, water conditions, terrain, community visits, and changes to the itinerary.
Keep shared accommodations and common spaces reasonably clean, peaceful, and considerate of others.
Use headphones and keep noise low during designated rest hours.
Avoid repeatedly disrupting sessions, dominating discussions, speaking over others, or redirecting the retreat around personal preferences.
Most activities are invitational unless identified as essential for safety or group movement. If you choose not to participate, you remain responsible for communicating with the team and following any related transportation, supervision, or lodging arrangements.
Health, Safety, and Personal Responsibility
Participants are responsible for making truthful disclosures and using good judgment about their physical, mental, and emotional capacity.
Provide complete and accurate health, allergy, medication, dietary, mobility, emergency contact, and other requested information before the retreat.
Carry and take responsibility for prescribed medications, mobility aids, medical devices, and personal health supplies.
Inform the retreat team promptly about an injury, illness, allergic reaction, emotional crisis, medication concern, or other safety issue.
Do not participate in an activity while impaired or when doing so would create an unreasonable risk to yourself or others.
Follow all safety instructions related to transportation, swimming, oceans, cenotes, hiking, heat, food, plants, animals, ceremonial spaces, and local conditions.
Understand that retreat activities, traditional teachings, herbal information, and spiritual practices are educational and experiential. They are not a substitute for medical or mental-health diagnosis, treatment, or emergency care.
Alcohol, Smoking, and Other Substances
Illegal drugs, unauthorized controlled substances, and the misuse or sharing of prescription medication are prohibited.
Alcohol may be used only where it is expressly permitted and must never interfere with safety, consent, group harmony, ceremonies, transportation, or the experience of others.
Smoking and vaping are permitted only in designated areas and never inside shared rooms, vehicles, healing spaces, ceremonial areas, or community homes unless the host explicitly allows it.
No participant may bring, distribute, administer, or encourage the use of herbs, supplements, ceremonial medicines, intoxicants, or psychoactive substances without prior written authorization from Soul Tribe Heals.
Photography, Video, and Social Media
We want participants to preserve beautiful memories without turning the experience into a performance or violating anyone's privacy.
Follow all no-photo and no-recording instructions immediately.
Obtain consent before photographing, filming, tagging, naming, or posting another participant, team member, host, elder, healer, artisan, or community member.
Do not livestream retreat activities, ceremonies, healing sessions, teachings, or private group moments.
Do not publish private locations, contact information, travel details, or identifying information that could compromise the safety or privacy of the group or our hosts.
A participant's separate photo release governs Soul Tribe Heals' use of her image. Signing a photo release does not remove her right to communicate a reasonable boundary during sensitive or private moments.
Property, Purchases, and Financial Boundaries
Respect the property of accommodations, retreat venues, vehicles, private homes, sacred sites, artisans, and other participants.
Participants are responsible for loss or damage caused by their intentional actions, negligence, or failure to follow instructions.
Personal purchases, tips, additional services, independent transportation, and expenses outside the stated retreat inclusions remain the participant's responsibility.
Do not solicit clients, recruit participants into another program, distribute promotional materials, or conduct unrelated business during the retreat without written permission from Soul Tribe Heals.
Concerns, Conflict, and Repair
If a concern arises, please bring it to the Retreat Coordinator, Sistah Yaya, or another designated team member as soon as reasonably possible. We will listen, assess immediate safety, and determine the most appropriate response.
Depending on the circumstances, the response may include a private conversation, clarification of expectations, a facilitated repair conversation, a behavioral boundary, separation from an activity, a safety plan, or removal from the retreat. Not every matter is appropriate for mediation, particularly where there are allegations of violence, harassment, discrimination, coercion, or serious safety risks.
Retaliation against anyone who raises a concern in good faith, reports misconduct, participates in a review, or supports another participant is prohibited.
Serious Misconduct and Removal
Soul Tribe Heals may restrict participation or require a participant to leave an activity, lodging, or the retreat when leadership reasonably believes the person's conduct threatens safety, violates consent, harms the group, disrespects a host community, breaks the law, or seriously violates this agreement.
Examples include violence or threats; harassment; discriminatory abuse; theft; deliberate property damage; possession or distribution of illegal drugs; sexual misconduct; repeated intoxication; unauthorized recording of sacred or private activities; refusal to follow essential safety instructions; retaliation; or repeated disruptive behavior after a clear warning.
Financial Responsibility Following Removal
A removed participant remains bound by the signed payment and travel policies and is responsible for any resulting costs.
Our Commitment to Participants
Soul Tribe Heals also accepts responsibility for the space we create. We commit to:
Communicate expectations, known risks, and material itinerary changes as clearly as reasonably possible.
Treat concerns with seriousness, discretion, and respect.
Honor consent and avoid pressuring participants into personal disclosure, touch, bodywork, ceremony, or spiritual participation.
Work with culturally appropriate local partners and respect the authority of knowledge holders over their traditions. Take reasonable action when behavior threatens the safety, dignity, or integrity of the retreat.
Make decisions with care for the individual, the group, and the host community.
Participant Acknowledgment
By signing below, I confirm that I have read and understood the Soul Tribe Heals Retreat Code of Conduct. I agree to follow it throughout all retreat-related travel, lodging, activities, ceremonies, excursions, digital group spaces, and interactions with participants, staff, and community partners.
I understand that I may ask questions before signing. I also understand that serious or repeated violations may lead to restrictions on my participation or removal from the retreat, subject to the retreat's other signed policies and applicable law.
