Rooted in community and guided by cultural wisdom, this one-day experience brings together cultural practitioners, holistic healers, educators, and mental health professionals for a day of deep learning, nervous system restoration, and meaningful connection. Through dynamic workshops, somatic and sound-based activations, thought-provoking panels and so much more
At a time when educators, clinicians, caregivers, and community leaders are facing unprecedented burnout, ROOTED creates space not just to learn about wellness — but to experience it. This summit moves beyond panels and presentations into embodied restoration, cultural reconnection, and nervous system regulation.
Ventura County has vibrant wellness communities and strong cultural leadership — but this is the first gathering intentionally weaving them together at this scale and depth.
This summit is built on 4 key transformative pillars. Each will have its own dedicated space, thoughtfully curated with specific services, workshops, and facilitators. Each will run in parallel throughout the day, hosting immersive 60-minute sessions with intentional space between rotations.
01.
Remember
Remembering what was never lost.
This space honors indigenous wisdom, cultural lineage, and ancestral resilience as foundational medicine centering practices that existed long before “modern wellness.”
became industry. Facilitated by cultural practitioners, elders, and tradition keepers.
Remember
What you'll explore:
Remembering what was never lost.
01.
This space honors indigenous wisdom, cultural lineage, and ancestral resilience as foundational medicine centering practices that existed long before “modern wellness.”
became industry. Facilitated by cultural practitioners, elders, and tradition keepers.
• Drum, song, and embodied movement
• Ancestral grief and resilience practices
• Decolonizing wellness frameworks
• Cultural reclamation and identity healing
02.
Regulate
The Body Holds the Story.
Healing is not only cognitive, it is embodied. This experience centers nervous system regulation, trauma-informed care, and heart–spirit integration. Facilitated by breathwork guides, sound healers, and body-based practitioners
What you'll explore:
02.
Regulate
The Body Holds the Story.
• Somatic regulation practices
• Trauma-informed movement
• Sound bath experiences and nervous system resets
• Embodiment for caregivers and educators
Healing is not only cognitive, it is embodied. This experience centers nervous system regulation, trauma-informed care, and heart–spirit integration. Facilitated by breathwork guides, sound healers, and body-based practitioners
03.
Reflection
Bridging Clinical Care & Community Healing
This space is rooted in evidence-based mental health practices and school-based frameworks, while honoring culturally responsive care. Guided by therapists, school counselors, psychologists, and SEL educators, you’ll gain practical tools to support emotional well-being in your community, classroom, or home.
What you'll explore:
03.
Reflection
• Social Emotional Learning (SEL) frameworks
• Burnout and compassion fatigue
• Culturally responsive mental health models
• School-based wellness integration
• Systems-level change in education
Bridging Clinical Care & Community Healing
This space is rooted in evidence-based mental health practices and school-based frameworks, while honoring culturally responsive care. Guided by therapists, school counselors, psychologists, and SEL educators, you’ll gain practical tools to support emotional well-being in your community, classroom, or home.
04.
Integration
Bridging Clinical Care & Community Healing
Wellness work must be sustainable financially, energetically, and ethically. This pillar supports nonprofit leaders, social entrepreneurs, and healers in business who are building impact-driven models without burning out.
04.
What you'll explore:
04.
Integration
• Ethical business models in wellness
• Equipping your business to succeed with Women’s Economic Ventures
• Breathing Life Into Your Business: Breath work to Clear Stagnation and Reignite Your Creative Flow
Healing Work Without Self-Sacrifice.
Wellness work must be sustainable financially, energetically, and ethically. This pillar supports nonprofit leaders, social entrepreneurs, and healers in business who are building impact-driven models without burning out.
The Four Pillars
Photos
Keynote Speaker
Eric Hernandez
A proud member of the Lumbee Tribe, Eric is a Native American hoop dancer with over 20 years of experience. He’s performed as a lead in Cirque du Soleil’s Totem and spoken at TEDx, using his work to challenge stereotypes and share ancestral wisdom. Now, he brings his story to the screen as the writer and director of Courage, a short film inspired by his journey learning hoop dance from his Uncle Terry.
Rooted 26' Facilitators
Hector “Puma” Garcia
The Hand Drum as a Tool for Growth
Join us for an immersive exploration of the hand drum—not just as an instrument, but as a mirror for personal transformation. In this workshop, we will dive into the powerful symbolism of the drum, ground ourselves through intentional breathing exercises, and journey inward with a guided meditation.
Laura Olvera
Primordial Dance
This is more than a class — it is a remembering. A reclamation of voice, sensuality, and sacred instinct. This gathering is intentionally curated to feel both ancestral and liberating, blending music, ritual, and collective energy into an experience that feels transformative yet deeply grounding. Step into a ceremonial portal of movement and sound.
Primitiva Movmnt
KINAM YOGA
KINAM is a psychophysical practice that is based on the Toltec icons & postures of balance and power .This practice has high and low active points throughout in which we hold poses of power in tensegrity that are aligned in the daily intent of the what is know as the Sun calendar They are power poses because of the powerful transformational effects on the body and mind.
Rita Ortiz Contreras
The Tree Yoga Coop
Rebozo Healing
• Gentle somatic movement to awaken body awareness
• Breathwork practices to regulate the nervous system
• Hands-on rebozo techniques (partner-based or guided)
• Deep relaxation & integration with sound or stillness
• A supportive, nurturing healing circle environment
Lucero Gonzalez
Morning Star Wellness by Lucero
Rooted Masculinity Workshop
What is healthy masculinity, and why does it matter?
What kind of men do women, partners, and daughters need us to be? This workshop is an invitation to reflect, grow, and take part in reshaping the future by redefining who we are and how we show up in our lives and relationships.
Jose & Efrain
Fatherhood Connection
Food as Medicine
Join Ashley and Tachi for a grounding and nourishing workshop exploring the importance of being in the right relationship with food and reconnecting to your ancestral roots. In a world shaped by convenience and disconnection, this offering invites participants to slow down, listen, and remember the deeper meaning of what it is to truly be fed.
Ashley & Tachi
Dulce Madre Medicina Pura
The Art of Limpias
ancestral cleansing practices that have been carried through generations across Indigenous cultures of Latin America as a way to cleanse the body, spirit, and energy field. These practices work to release stagnation, clear heavy energies, and restore balance. Through the use of sacred smoke, herbs, huevo (egg cleansings), and intuitive guidance, Sophia creates spaces for deep energetic renewal.
Sophia Perez Ashikyan
Baja Circle
Bajos or pelvic steaming is an ancient practice that connects you to the power of your womb. This is a space to share your story, steam with herbs while being guided by the drum and cantos—an intimate and profound container to deepen womb, heart and voice connection.
Sign Up Required: available day of
Danielle Pfeifer
@ravenbruja
Cacao Circle
Rocío Cervantes
Ancestras by Rocío
A Cacao Circle is a healing gathering designed to help you connect more deeply with yourself, release old patterns, and nourish your inner landscape. Through a structured process that supports emotional regulation, personal clarity, and long-term embodiment, you’ll engage in somatic movement, gentle meditation, cacao tasting, and a guided visualization to reconnect with your heart’s desires.
Self Love & Aromatherapy
This workshop will offer a guided experience in self-regulation through breathwork, somatic movement, and gentle stretching to help release tension and stress. Participants will be led through a hands & arms self-massage, enhanced with homemade aromatherapy. The session also includes a simple introduction to DIY aromatherapy, empowering you to create your own personalized blend at home for continued self-care and healing.
Veronica Favela
All Connected Body Work
Ritual breathwork
If you’re bringing a business to life, your nervous system needs to be able to hold it. In this workshop, you’ll learn the science behind somatic breathwork and experience a guided journey designed to regulate your system, expand your capacity, and align your body with the vision you’re building.
Kali May
Founder of Ritual Breathwork
Fascia Flow
Her Fascia Flow classes invite you to slow down, listen, and reconnect with your body as a source of guidance and intelligence. Through gentle, intuitive movement and nervous system awareness, participants are guided to release tension, restore flow, and deepen their connection to the body’s signals.
Valerie Major
Four Directions Path
Sewa Valencia
John “Merlei” Cassell
Founder of Sisters of the One Drum
Together, they offer The Four Directions Path: Awakening the Heart Within, a guided journey through the wisdom of the Four Directions that invites participants into remembrance, healing, and reconnection. Through story, ceremony, and the sacred heartbeat of the Drum, they create a space where each person is invited to return to their original rhythm, their inner knowing, and the truth of who they are.
This is not a performance, it is a living ceremony… a return to the heart.
Reclaiming SEL
Dra. Veronica X. Valadez
Co-founder of Ehecatl Wind Philosophy
This workshop invites participants to step beyond conventional models of Social-Emotional Learning and into a deeper, more rooted understanding of wellness—one grounded in identity, culture, and our interconnected humanity. Guided by the 8Rs Anti-Colonial Humanizing Framework developed by Dra. Veronica X. Valadez, we will explore how colonial ways of thinking have shaped the ways we teach, care, and heal—and how we can begin to return to ways of being that center dignity, belonging, and collective responsibility.
Herbs & Sounds
Join multidisciplinary healer and herbalist, Allie Brown, for a hybrid herbal medicine making workshop, herbal medicinal tea infusion, sound bath and meditation experience. Flowers serve as both our medicine and muse, as they positively affect our mental state. Slow down and tend to your own garden. Craft a custom Herbal Tea Infusion tailored to your unique needs. Experience the synergy of a Sound, Guided Meditation, and Spring inspired Herbal Tea Infusions.
Allie Brown
Tending to our Internal Flame
As practitioners, we are often entrusted with holding space for others—witnessing, guiding, and supporting through seasons of challenge, growth, and transformation. This circle is an invitation to gently turn inward and tend to the fire within. Tending to Our Internal Fire is a guided, reflective experience designed for healing practitioners, space holders, and caregivers. Rooted in the wisdom of the natural seasons, this circle offers space for plática (heart-centered reflections), grounding, and reconnection to our own internal rhythms.
Pati Washington
Founder of Semillas Counseling & Wellness
From Insight to Embodiment
Cindy Canek
Founder of The Sanctuary
An experiential session designed to help you ground the insights from the summit into your body and daily life. Through guided reflection, nervous system regulation practices, and moments of energetic alignment, you’ll have space to slow down and connect with what resonated most.
There may also be optional “hot seat” opportunities, where you can receive intuitive guidance, coaching, or support around any limiting beliefs or internal blocks that surfaced throughout the day.
Watercolor Workshop
Join us for a watercolor workshop designed to inspire creativity and relaxation. Embrace the beauty of spontaneity as you mix colors and let your imagination flow freely.
In this session, there’s no right or wrong—just the joy of experimenting with hues and techniques. Leave your worries behind; it’s all about expressing yourself and enjoying the process.
Maribel Hernandez
Director of Bell Arts Factory
Thank you to our sponsors!
