Sample itinerary · Working draft
The experience, hour by hour
Every touchpoint of the Santerra Signature Experience — from the first ad a guest ever sees to their day-90 results call — followed through the Sleep track as one sample. Each of the seven tracks runs this same arc; only the science and the workshop lens change.
Phase 1
Preparation
The first ad to the moment they arrive. Weeks of prepared ground.
Phase 2
Immersion
Five nights on property, Tuesday to Sunday — hour by hour.
Phase 3
Reinforcement
Ninety days of follow-through, ending where it began: a measurement.
Phase One · Booking to arrival
Preparation
Before a guest ever packs a bag, the work has begun. From booking, they hear from us roughly every ten to fourteen days — and twice by hand. The point of every touch is the same: arrive already changing.
They see themselves, not a spa
The first thing a future guest meets is copy written for the depleted high performer — the founder, physician, or executive with money and no margin who has stopped sleeping well. The warmest channels cost nothing: the founders' own newsletter and Santerra's past-guest list.
A curated application, not a checkout
They complete a short application — what's drawing them, what they want more of, health flags, solo or as a pair. This is a cohort we assemble by hand, not a room you can simply buy.
A ten-minute call from a founder
Jared or Annette calls within two days. A sales call that never feels like one: hear the story, confirm the fit, answer everything. If it's right, the booking link follows.
Deposit, signing packet, baseline
A 50% deposit holds the seat. The five-document signing packet arrives automatically, and with it the Flourishing Assessment — the research-grade baseline, weighted to the sleep and health domains. No completed packet, no confirmed spot.
A handwritten card & a box on the doorstep
A real card from the two of us — ink, not print — arrives inside a small welcome box that begins the experience at home. The first ritual starts before they've booked a flight, and tells them, physically, that this is personal.
Email: the science of your week
The three phases, in plain language — why the preparation matters, and a nudge to finish the assessment.
Email: your body's baseline
The wearable protocol for guests with a Whoop, Oura, or Apple Watch: wear it for the thirty days before arrival, then share the summary — resting heart rate, HRV, and especially sleep duration and consistency. No device, no pressure.
The Guide Call (30 min)
A founder walks the assessment results with them, sharpens the sleep focus, and sets the one intention the whole week will answer.
A second handwritten note
One question, by hand: “What is the one thing you want to be true about your life ninety days after this week?” Bring the answer.
Email: what to pack, what to expect
The packing list, the season's weather, what's included, the quiet-phone culture, dietary confirmations — and a warm personal close.
Arrival brief + a voice memo
Logistics and the shape of the first evening, delivered with a short voice memo from the founders. The human voice does what a PDF can't.
A text from their host
“We're ready for you. Drive safe. Set your intention on the drive in — we'll ask.”
Phase Two · The five nights
Immersion, hour by hour
Tuesday through Sunday at Santerra. A guest is lifted out of the cue environment that built their insomnia, given a small cohort, and moved through emotionally significant experience. Below is every hour, as they live it — the fixed daily rhythm built in, so nothing is hidden.
How the healing moves
We enter from the outside in— body, then mind, then soul. The hikes, the hydro circuit, the massage, the morning sun, the rest and the food are not a warm-up; they are the door that eases the body and earns trust, so the deeper work can land: meet the body’s needs first, earn trust, and only then ask more.
But a life is healed from the inside out— soul, then mind, then body, with the mind as the hinge. So across the week we clear the rocks and pull the weeds — guilt, shame, fear, anger, grief — then prune through forgiveness, and the fruit grows on its own: peace, hope, joy, love, patience. And we meet each guest at their most pressing need — emotional, physical, or spiritual — first.
Source: Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon)
Read every guided-audio transcript →The surprise & delight layer →
A sample of the table
Every meal comes from the wellness menu — garden-led, protein-forward, nothing fried, no refined sugar, and early by design. The week is entirely alcohol-free; a rotating zero-proof menu takes its place.
Day 01 · Tuesday
Arrival & intention
The threshold day
Arrival
Into a room already reset for sleep
Check-in to a room converted for rest: warm low-wattage bulbs and a “digital sunset” card, the signature lavender-and-mint scent, a sleep kit (silk mask, earplugs, pillow menu), an Epsom-and-lavender soak by the tub — and on the bed, a name-embossed leather journal, the illustrated guest map, a thermos that's theirs to keep, and a letter from the two of us.
Circle
Opening circle — why are you here
The cohort gathers for the first time. Names, the shape of the week, the confidentiality promise, and the first question aloud: what did you actually come here for?
Nourishment
Welcome dinner at the long table
The first dinner at one long table: garden greens with citrus vinaigrette, herb-roasted chicken or a white-bean and root-vegetable bake, warm sourdough. A zero-proof pairing — tonight, The Botanical. Early and unhurried; the week is alcohol-free by design, and night one models it rather than announcing it.
Rest
The turndown ritual begins
Lights low, room tidied, a Still Night sleep tea and a magnesium elixir delivered, and a four-line prompt card on the pillow: what feels busy in your mind · three gratitudes · how you're feeling · one thing that went well to carry into tomorrow.
Day 02 · Wednesday
Naming what's in the way
The first full day
Rest
Wake to a prompt on the pillow
A soft wake, no alarm. On the pillow, placed at turndown, a single prompt for the leather journal — keyed to today's workshop: “Which worry has circled your mind most this week? Write it in the exact words it uses on you.” The day opens with reflection, not a screen.
Nourishment
Thermos & trail card at the door
A pre-chosen thermos waits outside each door — coffee, cold-pressed juice, or herbal tea, hot or cold to their standing order — tucked beside the day's trail card, which names the morning's route and one line to carry on the walk.
Nourishment
Breakfast from the garden
Soft-scrambled pastured eggs with garden greens and herbs, seasonal fruit, chia pudding, a slice of sourdough — with a First Light cold-pressed juice and a pot of herbal tea. Protein-forward, no refined sugar, caffeine timed early.
Movement
Morning hike — the garden loop
A guided walk through the 170-year-old gardens and out along the meadow loop in the low morning light. The trail card offers one line to carry, and a QR code plays a short recorded reflection for the walk. Gentle pace, real conversation, optional but warmly expected.
Movement
Yoga, breath & grounding
Gentle grounding yoga on the lawn, closing with slow diaphragmatic breathwork — a deliberate down-shift of the nervous system.
Workshop
Workshop 1 — The Weeds of Life
Two hours, with a break in the middle. Opens with the week's map: the seven pillars, why body, mind, and spirit have to move together, and the confidentiality promise (restated at every workshop). A large-group icebreaker — the “Have You Ever” game, built around the seven tracks — then the question asked aloud: why are you here, and what do you want more of in your life? Small groups follow (what's going well, what isn't), each guest receives their weeds card, and journaling names the inner critic in its exact words. Closes with the first guided meditation.
Serves Mind (primary) → Body — a quieter mind lowers night-time arousal, so sleep comes faster.
Shame
Shame specifically — not guilt or general negative feeling — spikes proinflammatory activity in the body.
Dickerson et al., Psychosomatic Medicine, 2004
Fear
Higher resting activity in the brain's fear center independently predicts future heart attacks and strokes.
Tawakol et al., The Lancet, 2017
From the books Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon) — the weeds are the thoughts you've heard so long they sound like your own voice; you pull them to free the ground.
Nourishment
Lunch — the day's main meal
The largest meal at midday: a roasted-vegetable and ancient-grain bowl with garden greens, white beans, toasted pecans, and a lemon-herb tahini dressing — wild-caught fish or herb chicken to add. A zero-proof Garden Spritz alongside.
Spa & Hydro
The thermal & hydro circuit
The spa circuit: sauna, then cold plunge, then a lavender steam shower, finishing in a warm mineral-and-magnesium soak. Cycled two or three rounds, at each guest's tolerance.
Spa & Hydro
Sleep treatment — first of two
A pre-booked sleep-focused treatment: a cooling facial and scalp therapy, or a restorative stretch-and-massage. Every guest has two across the week.
Nourishment
The Sleep Tonic class
A hands-on session where guests mix the zero-proof adaptogen “sleep tonic” drinks themselves — tart cherry, magnesium, chamomile, ashwagandha — to take the ritual home. Afternoon tea and a Hibiscus Cooler are out for anyone who wants them.
Nourishment
Early dinner
Early, light, and garden-led: wild-caught fish or herb-roasted chicken (never fried), sautéed greens, roasted seasonal vegetables, right-sized portions. A Blackberry-Sage Shrub to drink — finished well before bed.
Workshop
Workshop 2 — Soil & Stone
Small group. This morning was the weeds — the surface. Tonight is the rocks: the buried burdens (grief, illness, financial strain, family, the habits used to numb it all). A checklist card helps each guest name theirs, then each receives a palm-sized rock and writes on it the burden they carry to bed. They'll carry it until Thursday's ceremony. The evening closes with each guest choosing their 1:1 partner for the week — and a first standing question, answered face to face: why are you here?
Serves Mind & Spirit (primary) → Body — externalizing the burden begins to lift the load that spikes evening cortisol.
Guilt
Across 65 studies, learning to forgive yourself for past wrongs tracks with better mental and physical health; unresolved guilt tracks with worse.
Davis et al., Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2015
From the books Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon) — the rocks are resentment, regret, and the old load lodged in the ground; nothing grows until they're cleared.
Rest
Turndown ritual
Sleep tea, magnesium elixir, and tonight's four-line pillow prompt, lights low, digital sunset. The same close every night — repetition is the point.
Day 03 · Thursday
The deep work
The deepest day
Rest
Wake to a prompt on the pillow
The morning prompt goes deeper today: “When do you first remember feeling this way — and who was in the room?” A few minutes with the journal before the day begins.
Nourishment
Thermos & trail card at the door
A pre-chosen thermos waits outside each door — coffee, cold-pressed juice, or herbal tea, hot or cold to their standing order — tucked beside the day's trail card, which names the morning's route and one line to carry on the walk.
Nourishment
Breakfast
Overnight oats with stone fruit, berries, and toasted seeds; a small cup of warm miso or bone broth; herbal tea and a First Light juice. Slow-release fuel for the fullest day of the week.
Movement
Morning hike — the woodland trail to the Ruins
A longer walk today, up the wash to the granite overlook, the canyon still cold in the shade. Today's trail card carries a single question to hold for the deeper work ahead — a little more distance for a heavy day.
Movement
Yoga — hips & heart openers
Today's flow opens the hips and chest — the body's storehouses for held tension — preparing guests physically for emotional work.
Workshop
Workshop 3 — Addressing the Roots
Where the pattern began. A short film (Nadine Burke Harris on childhood adversity) opens the science, with one honest frame: if we were preparing you for the Olympics, we'd be negligent not to ask about old injuries. Your hosts share their own stories first. Then a private, self-scored reflection on early experience — never collected, never asked aloud — and small groups where sharing is invitation-only: a childhood story, a greatest fear, a greatest shame. Our stories are sacred; the science says the healing starts when they're finally spoken.
Serves Mind & Spirit (primary) → Body — seeing the root loosens the grip of the old stress that dysregulates sleep.
Grief
In the first month after losing a partner, the risk of a heart attack or stroke roughly doubles — grief is a physical event, not only an emotional one.
Carey et al., JAMA Internal Medicine, 2014
Anger
Just eight minutes of recalled anger impairs the blood vessels' ability to dilate for about forty minutes — an early step toward heart disease.
Shimbo et al., JAHA, 2024
From the books Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon), Ch. 5 — the soil you didn't choose: the childhood you were planted in, and the wound carried out of it (the ACE research of Felitti).
Nourishment
Lunch, then the Restorative Kitchen
A light garden lunch, then a chef-led cooking class in two seatings — the Restorative Kitchen: recipes for sleep and long life, cooked from the garden and tasted together.
Spa & Hydro
Second sleep treatment · circuit · free time
The second pre-booked treatment for those scheduled today, the thermal circuit again for those who want it, and open time on the trails, the swimming hole, or a chair in the sun.
Ceremony
1:1 partner session & the Rock Ceremony
In the gardens, with the partner chosen Wednesday night, guests open their one-to-one work with the Rock Ceremony — setting down, together, the weight each named on the stone. This partner becomes their weekly 90-day accountability call after the week ends.
Nourishment
Early dinner
Wellness menu, early and unhurried — a garden main, sautéed greens, and a zero-proof pairing.
Workshop
Workshop 4 — Pruning for Growth
The forgiveness session — the emotional center of the week, and the one we build most carefully. It opens with the day's echo: how did it feel to set the rock down? Then, plainly: what forgiveness is, and what it is not — not excusing, not forgetting, not reconciling; and alongside it, boundaries and needs, because pruning is also learning what to say no to. The heart of the evening is a guided hour on the floor: guests return, in the mind's eye, to their childhood home and meet their parents (and any who wronged them) as the small, un-parented children they once were — the move that turns grievance into compassion. The letters of forgiveness — and, if a guest chooses, of apology — are written the next morning, at the opening of Workshop 5, in the room and staffed: some to burn that evening, some to keep, some (only if the guest decides) to send.
Serves Spirit (primary) → Mind → Body — the mind that stops rehearsing an old hurt is the mind that finally sleeps.
Forgiveness
When people rehearse a grudge against someone who hurt them, heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension all climb; choosing to forgive brings them back down and restores a sense of control.
Witvliet, Psychological Science, 2001
How we keep it safe Built on the evidence-based core of Enright's Forgiveness Process Model and Worthington's REACH — with the coercive Large-Group-Awareness-Training methods (cathartic anger work, marathon sessions, forced sharing, mandated forgiveness) deliberately left out. Forgiveness is framed as releasing your own burden — never required, never about resuming contact. Trauma-screened at booking, a licensed clinician on call, a quiet exit always open. Grace, never judgment.
From the books Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon), Ch. 3 — his father's tumors that vanished after the forgiveness question, and Charlotte Witvliet's research: “forgiveness is not a religious idea — forgiveness is a physiological event.”
Rest
Turndown ritual
The same nightly close — sleep tea, magnesium, the pillow prompt, low light.
Day 04 · Friday
Release, then rest
The hinge of the week
Rest
Wake to a prompt on the pillow
Today's prompt follows last night home: “Is there anyone still to forgive — including yourself? If a name came to you in the night, write their letter this morning.” The pen finishes what the meditation started.
Nourishment
Thermos & trail card at the door
A pre-chosen thermos waits outside each door — coffee, cold-pressed juice, or herbal tea, hot or cold to their standing order — tucked beside the day's trail card, which names the morning's route and one line to carry on the walk.
Nourishment
Breakfast
A garden frittata, roasted sweet potato, kefir with seeds and a little desert wildflower honey, and a First Light juice.
Movement
Morning hike — the lake path
The gentlest route of the week, down to the ten-acre lake as the morning mist lifts. The trail card's recording is a short meditation for the water's edge — the body already turning toward rest.
Movement
Restorative yoga & breath
A slower, floor-based restorative practice with long holds and extended exhales — settling, not exerting, before the day's release.
Workshop
Workshop 5 — Tending the Garden
Walked as a small group along the trail, with stopping points and questions to ask and be asked. The garden is clear — now, what feeds it? Three relationships, taken one stop at a time: how do you relate to yourself (at peace, or still at war)? To others (the marriage, the friendships — are you lonely)? And to the divine, however you hold it? At the last stop, insight becomes habit: each guest writes a take-home routine — wake time, morning light, movement, the wind-down — and names the purpose it all serves.
Serves Body & Mind (primary) → Spirit — the concrete practices, aimed at a reason that outlasts the week.
Purpose & Meaning
Adults with the weakest sense of life purpose had roughly 2.4× the risk of dying over the follow-up as those with the strongest.
Alimujiang et al., JAMA Network Open, 2019
Patience
Patience is trainable: a brief two-week practice raised patience and lowered depression. The garden rewards it.
Schnitker, Journal of Positive Psychology, 2012
From the books Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon) — the seven ways you tend the soil: Rhythm, Nourishment, Movement, Resilience, Clarity, Connection, Renewal.
Nourishment
Lunch
Light and early — the afternoon is deliberately unhurried.
Rest
Open afternoon — rest, trails, the last treatment
Nothing scheduled but rest: a final spa treatment for those who have one left, a nap, a walk, or a chair by the water. The nervous system is being allowed to come all the way down.
Ceremony
Guided garden meditation
“Release, Renewal, Regrowth” — led in the gardens as the afternoon softens. The formal arrival into rest.
Ceremony
The burning ceremony, at sundown
As the sun goes down, guests burn the inner-critic pages and the burdens they've carried all week. The emotional summit of the experience — and the moment the Sabbath rest begins. From here the week turns toward rest — a treatment-free day of connection, learning and renewal outdoors.
Nourishment
A candlelit dinner, and nothing after
Unhurried, by candlelight, with no evening program — garden-led and gentle, closing with a Still Night nightcap. The hardest inner work is finished. The rest of the week is rest.
Day 05 · Saturday
Nature, silence, joy
Treatment-free, together
Rest
A slow morning, a late breakfast
No alarm, no thermos run, no schedule. Breakfast whenever they wake — eggs or oats, fruit, good bread, tea and a First Light juice, in no hurry at all. For many guests, the first morning in years with nowhere to be.
Workshop
Workshop 6 — A Life in Bloom
Large group; celebration, music, and movement — not work, joy. The hosts and team come dressed for the occasion. One at a time, each guest's own favorite song (collected weeks earlier) fills the room as they walk from one side to the other — from where they began to where they are now — while the cohort celebrates them across. The first fruit of a tended life.
Serves Spirit (primary) → Body — positive affect and connection down-regulate the stress axis; joy is part of the medicine, not the reward for it.
Hope
A greater sense of hope predicts measurably better health years later, including a lower risk of chronic conditions.
Long & VanderWeele, 2020
Joy
Cultivating warmth and joy raises vagal tone — an objective marker of heart health — through the felt sense of connection.
Kok & Fredrickson, Psychological Science, 2013
From the books Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon), Ch. 16 — the fruit grows on its own, on a tree that has been tended.
Nourishment
Lunch
An easy, garden-led midday meal — no ceremony, just good food and time.
Rest
Solo silent time in nature
One to two hours alone on a stretch of the property — no phone, no talking — that each guest keeps to themselves. The week's quietest, and for many its most important, hours.
Workshop
Workshop 7 — The Harvest
The affirmation hour, in three movements. First, small groups: what each person sees in the others, spoken aloud and written down by a scribe so every guest keeps the card. Then 1:1 with their week's partner: what I admire, what I've learned from you. Finally, alone: which word stood out — and how will you show up in the world with it? To be seen and named by the group is the week's quiet crescendo, and the fruit that lasts longest.
Serves Spirit & Mind (primary) → Body — being witnessed consolidates a new self-story, and the cohort becomes a lasting, supportive tie.
Love
In an 80-year Harvard study, how satisfied people were in their close relationships at 50 predicted their physical health at 80 better than their cholesterol did.
Harvard Study of Adult Development (Waldinger)
Peace
People quicker to release a grievance recover their blood pressure faster after stress — peace is something the body does, too.
Whited et al., 2010
From the books Made to Flourish (Jared Thurmon), Ch. 16 — the nine fruits: love, joy, peace, patience… “not religious words — human words.”
Circle
Sharing circle & dinner prep — what did the silence say?
Gathered back from the quiet and still warm from the affirmations: “what did you learn out there?” Then, together, guests prep the harvest dinner — hands in the work, side by side.
Nourishment
The harvest dinner in the gardens
The week's crescendo: a long table in the gardens, a menu built from what guests helped harvest that morning — roasted garden vegetables, greens, a shared main, warm bread, and a farm-made dessert without refined sugar. Candlelight, music, and a zero-proof toast. A goodbye gift waits in each room.
Day 06 · Sunday
Departure & commitment
The sending
Movement
An optional last walk
One more quiet morning on the trails for those who want it, before the day turns toward home.
Nourishment
Breakfast
An unhurried last shared meal at the long table — eggs, fruit, sourdough, tea, and a First Light juice for the road.
Circle
Closing circle — ninety-day commitments
Each guest names their 90-day commitment and signs a Commitment Contract — the specific changes they'll make — co-signed by their 1:1 partner as witness. Then two outward commitments each: someone to serve this week, someone to mentor for ninety days.
Circle
A sealed letter, in their own hand
Each guest writes a short letter to themselves and seals it — we hold it, and it finds them later. The day-90 assessment is framed as what it is: the second half of the experience they've already begun.
Departure
An unhurried departure
Cold-pressed juice for the road, the first follow-up already on the calendar, and a different person driving home than the one who arrived.
Phase Three · Day 1 to day 90
Reinforcement
The week ends Sunday at eleven. The product ends at day 90, when the second assessment comes back. Even a peak experience fades without spaced consolidation — so the ninety days are not follow-up. They are half the program — we measure at booking, again at departure, and again at day 90, and day 90 is the one that counts.
A card beats them home
A handwritten card lands in the mailbox — gratitude and one specific moment we watched them have that week, drawn from the notes we keep all along. Personal, never generic.
Email: the landing guide
Re-entry is real. The first 72 hours home: hold the wake time, keep the morning walk, keep the early dinner, guard one evening. Includes the link to book coaching call #1.
One practice a week
Twelve short weekly emails, sequenced to the workshop arc — weeds to harvest — each under four minutes to read, each a single practice to hold.
Coaching call #1
A founder turns their closing-circle commitment into two or three concrete daily practices. Calls run monthly from here.
Their own letter arrives
The sealed letter each guest wrote at the closing circle, mailed exactly two weeks out — their own voice, in their own hand, landing just as the week starts to feel far away.
The partner check-in
Each guest keeps their 1:1 partner as a 90-day accountability call, ten to fifteen minutes a week. Peer accountability outlasts facilitator contact.
Coaching call #2 — the wall
Weeks three to five are where new patterns die. This call exists to catch that. The pre-arrival intention, mailed back in their own handwriting, lands around now too.
Coaching call #3
Deepen what's working, prune what isn't, and prepare the mindset for re-measurement.
The re-measurement window opens
Retake the Flourishing Assessment; re-export the wearable month. Framed as the second half of the experience they already paid for.
Coaching call #4 — the results
The founders walk each guest's before-and-after together: Flourishing score and domains, resting heart rate, HRV, and sleep. Celebrate the movement, name the next horizon — and open the door to the Santerra Circle.
What we measure, and why it’s the point: three instruments run the length of the arc — the Flourishing Assessment (all guests: booking, departure, day 90), guest-owned wearables (opt-in, 30-day baseline vs. days 60–90), and the guest’s own words. Together they become the Cohort One Outcomes Report — the document that turns a beautiful week into evidence for the next cohort, the next resort, and the investor deck.
Santerra · The Signature Experience · Box Canyon, Yucca, Arizona
Sample itinerary · Sleep track · Internal & stakeholder walkthrough — not for guest distribution