Twice a year, on Memorial Day and Veterans Day weekends, we bring a cohort of veterans to the Arizona desert. Preparation starts months before you arrive. Support continues for months after you leave. Open to veterans, their plus ones, and Gold Star family members.
Live availability for the next ceremony weekends.
Tell us you're interested and we'll let you know when the next retreat opens for registration. Two minutes, no commitment.
Get StartedThere are two parts to the cost. A donation to the religious organization that conducts the ceremony, paid directly to that church. And a separate program fee paid to The Aya Mission that covers operational costs: food, coaching, sanitary services, and the support around your weekend.
If cost is what's standing between you and healing, tell us during intake. We're donor-funded so that money is never the reason a veteran goes without support.
Veterans come first. Every event is at minimum half veterans, and each veteran is welcome to bring a plus one from their inner circle to walk the experience with them: a significant other, a close friend, or family. Gold Star family members are welcome too.
Two teams screen every application. The Aya Mission verifies veteran status and program eligibility. The ceremony organization runs its own independent health and suitability screening. Not everyone is accepted, and we're honest about that. When we can't accept someone, we do our best to point them toward another way to work on their healing.
Too many veterans have been carrying trauma without a safe place to put it. Many explore nontraditional or spiritually oriented healing on their own, and keep it hidden because of stigma, fear of judgment, or the taboo around psychedelics and ceremony. For years, trauma-informed support simply didn't exist for veterans choosing these paths.
They went alone because they felt they had to. We built this retreat so they never have to again.
The idea began in 2020. We spent four years building it deliberately: safety protocols, trauma-informed policies, and a multidisciplinary team of therapists, medical staff, certified coaches, integration specialists, and facilitators trained in yoga, breathwork, and creative expression, before hosting our first cohort in 2024.
What happened when veterans first arrived wasn't about ceremony at all. They talked openly. Some of them for the first time since they got out.
Virtual therapy, peer coaching, and preparation support in the months leading up to each retreat. You meet your cohort online, so the community is already real before you arrive.
These weekends aren't accidental: the independent ceremonies held on them are designated for veterans. TAM provides the surrounding structure: grounding therapy, yoga, group coaching, meals, and peer support. We never provide, handle, or administer sacramental substances; ceremonies are facilitated independently.
Virtual integration sessions, follow-up, and ongoing cohort meetings. Most of what changes people happens in the months after, not during the weekend.
No one enters or exits their experience alone. Every veteran is paired with a Battle Buddy: someone who has completed peer support training and personally walked a similar healing path. Connection, accountability, and stability, from the first call to long after the retreat ends.
Step one: the interest form. It takes about two minutes: who you are, where you served, and how to reach you. No account, no paperwork, no commitment. We'll reach out, answer your questions, and let you know when the next retreat opens for registration.
Step two: apply for a retreat. When registration opens for a ceremony weekend, you'll complete the full application for that event: service verification with your DD-214, the waiver, and the community agreement. That part takes about 15 minutes, and you can save and return anytime.
Your DD-214 is used only to verify service. It's stored encrypted, never shared, and deleted 90 days after the event.
Veterans who are accepted receive a direct link to our partner church's independent ceremony registration; the church conducts its own separate enrollment process.
Already applied? Sign in to your portal to check your status.
No paperwork, no commitment, and a real person follows up.
Get Started Read the FAQ