About
The work of finding out who you actually are
Anima — Latin for soul, breath, life force. The energy beneath the person you’ve constructed.
What ANIMA is
Most of us spend our lives becoming someone. ANIMA is the work of finding out who that actually is.
These are retreats for people at a turning point. Held in extraordinary places around the world, in small groups built for depth, this is not networking. Through breathwork, ancient practice, physical discipline, and integration, we go somewhere most people never reach. You won’t do it alone — and that’s the point.
Joe Butler
Facilitator & Guide
The guide
This work is only possible
because I did it first.
I am not a therapist. I am not a life coach. I am someone who reached the point you may be at now — outwardly successful, inwardly ungrounded — and found a way through. What I offer isn’t a framework I studied. It’s a process I’ve lived through.
After five years in real estate, chasing what I thought was success, I found myself in Dubai with everything I’d worked for and none of the presence I expected to feel. I was disconnected in my relationship, unhappy in ways I couldn’t explain, and no longer sure what I was actually chasing. That search led me to breathwork and meditation, and eventually to the medicine work itself, where I was taught by Madhu Anand. Two years of working with these medicines later, we brought ANIMA’s first retreat to life.
What we’ve built since is a full journey — arrival and connection, days of preparation to quiet the mind, full ceremonial medicine experiences held with real care, with time to integrate through rest and bodywork, and a closing that sends each guest back into their life supported, not abandoned. It’s not a single ceremony. It’s a process, start to finish, built from what I lived myself.
ANIMA works with ancient healing practices, breathwork, physical fitness and the rigorous integration of transformational experience. Our retreats span Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South America, each one led by a small circle of facilitators I trust completely, every one of them bringing their own depth to the work.
Every person who enters the ANIMA world receives our full attention. That’s why we work with very few people at a time.
Over two years working with these medicines. Taught directly by Madhu Anand. A retreat brand built from that work, not before it.
Austria Edition · 15–20 September →
