BRIDGING WORLDS | A 5-MONTH APPRENTICESHIP Become someone others can trust in a room.
For the woman who has already received the medicine, sat in the circle, done the healing, and can feel the call to stop watching from the edge and begin holding spaces of her own.
Bridging Worlds is an apprenticeship rooted in Indigenous wisdom, embodied practice, and the lived work of becoming a bridge between humanity and spirit.
9 SPOTS AVAILABLE · BEGINS OCTOBER 2026
You Have Received the Medicine.
Now You Are Being Asked to Carry It.
You have sat in the circles.
Worked with the medicines.
Learned from teachers.
Attended retreats.
Studied healing.
Done the inner work.
You know this path is real.
And yet another question has begun to emerge:
How do I become someone others can trust?
Not someone with the most certifications.
Not someone with the most followers.
Not someone who knows the right words.
Someone who can sit with another human being and hold what arises with integrity.
Someone who can guide without controlling.
Lead without performing.
Serve without centering herself.
This is the threshold Bridging Worlds was created for.
Why this work matters
For many of us, becoming a bridge is not an aesthetic.
It is a reclamation.
A remembering.
A return.
We come from histories that taught us separation.
Separation from the land.
Separation from the body.
Separation from our ancestors.
Separation from the languages, rituals, medicines, and ways of knowing our people carried long before us.
Many of us grew up feeling caught between worlds.
Too spiritual for the modern world.
Too modern for the traditional one.
Too Latina for the wellness industry.
Too Americanized for home.
Too much here.
Not enough there.
And somewhere along the way, many of us learned to treat that in-between place as a problem to solve.
But what if it isn't?
What if the bridge is the medicine?
What if your ability to walk between worlds is not something to overcome, but something to honor?
Bridging Worlds was born from that question.
Raised between New York and Ecuador, shaped by Indigenous wisdom, Catholicism, migration, modern life, the jungle, the city, ceremony, entrepreneurship, community, and spirit, I spent years trying to understand which parts of me belonged.
What I eventually discovered is that none of those parts needed to be separated.
The ancestral and the modern.
The sacred and the human.
The woman who feels deeply and the woman with the giant vision.
The woman who longs for belonging and the woman who is here to lead.
They were never meant to be at war with one another.
And yet, we live in a time where ancient wisdom is often stripped of its context, packaged into trends, and sold back to us as something new.
As if our ancestors weren't already in relationship with the land.
As if our people didn't already carry these ways of knowing.
As if wisdom could be separated from responsibility.
This work is not about romanticizing the past.
It is about remembering what has always been available to us and learning how to walk with it in a way that is rooted in reverence, integrity, and relationship.
Because the world does not need more people performing spirituality.
It needs people willing to build honest relationships with themselves, their communities, their ancestors, the land, and the responsibilities that come with walking this path.
People who can honor Indigenous wisdom without pretending to own it. People who can listen deeply without giving their power away. People who can hold both humanity and spirit in the same breath.
Bridging Worlds is an invitation to remember that you do not have to choose between worlds.
You can become the bridge.
What Is Bridging Worlds?
Bridging Worlds is a five-month apprenticeship for women learning how to move from receiving and “learning” wisdom to responsibly carrying it and embodying it.
Rooted in Indigenous teachings, cacao, nervous system work, ritual, voice development, leadership, and community, this experience supports women who feel called to hold space with integrity.
This is not a certification.
This is an initiation into relationship, embodiment, stewardship, and trust.
“I realized I don’t need to be scared anymore. Before, I didn’t feel like I could fully be myself and that I was holding parts of me back.
This space helped me get really honest with myself and with my family and have conversations I never thought I would.
It’s doing exactly what I came here for.”
-LESLIE
“I’m noticing the shift now to a higher timeline and version of myself that has even bigger impact in this world due to my expanded capacity to hold the duality of pain and beauty.
This was exactly what I needed. I have felt held by these teachings, the land, by the beautiful women in this space, by their songs, their love, their humor, and their kindness.”
-CRYSTLE
“After working with Barbara and being ceremonies with her and the elders, I felt affirmed in my relationship with the medicine and with the web of life itself.
There was this deep confirmation that I was on my path, that I could trust my own inner guidance.”
-MISHA
A note on integrity
This work is not about collecting spiritual tools or becoming the "cacao girl" online.
It is about building relationship.
Relationship with the medicine.
Relationship with yourself.
Relationship with your community.
Relationship with the people who will one day trust you with their hearts.
It is about humility, discernment, nervous system capacity, cultural respect, and learning how to hold real human beings in a room without making yourself the center.
We are living in a time where many people are tired.
Tired of spiritual spaces where everyone knows the words but few embody them.
Tired of teachers on pedestals.
Tired of appropriation dressed up as personal branding.
Tired of collecting tools without becoming someone more honest, more brave.
Tired of spaces that bypass the beautiful, messy reality of being human and call it ascension.
This work is not about becoming more spiritual.
It is about becoming more responsible.
Responsible to the medicine.
Responsible to your lineage.
Responsible to your humanity.
Responsible to your community.
Responsible to the people who choose to trust you.
Because the most spiritual thing we can do is allow ourselves to be fully human.
This apprenticeship is an initiation, not a certification.
You will not leave with a title.
You will not leave with a piece of paper declaring you ready.
You will leave with something far more important: a deeper relationship with yourself, the medicine, and the responsibility that comes with walking this path.
These teachings are rooted in Indigenous traditions that are earth-based, lineage-based, and community-based.
Most of these traditions cannot be certified, and to try would risk stripping them of their sacredness and repeating the very patterns many of us are here to unlearn.
This apprenticeship is a doorway.
A beginning.
An invitation into a lifelong journey of listening more deeply, walking with humility, and remembering that we are always the student and teacher.
You are not here to perform the path.
You are here to build a relationship with it.
The Process
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The moment you join, you'll receive access to the Bridging Worlds Portal and Welcome Guide.
Inside you'll find everything you need to prepare for our journey together, including mentorship expectations, important dates, community guidelines, and an introduction to the five stages of metamorphosis we'll move through together.
You'll also receive:
• Your personal Human Design analysis
• Your Gene Keys profile and interpretation
• Access to our private community space
• Recommended books and resources to begin the journey
Some of my favorite starting points include:
• A Return to Love
• The Mastery of Love
• Untamed
Choose the one calling your name most.
There is no right place to begin.
This is simply where the journey starts.
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One of the greatest and most invaluable gifts of this apprenticeship is the sisterhood you will find ♡
You'll be joined by the most epic and powerful women from different backgrounds, professions, cultures, and walks of life.
Therapists.
Creatives.
Entrepreneurs.
Mothers.
Space holders.
Women who feel the call toward something more and trust themselves enough to fully lean.
While everyone arrives for a different reason, they often discover they're asking many of the same questions.
The women sitting beside you become mirrors, teachers, witnesses, and lifelong besties.
Some of my closest relationships began this way and I can’t explain to you how fucking incredible it feels to have my soul sisters all around the globe and I want that for you too!
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Through guided reflection, journal prompts, ritual practices, and self-inquiry, you'll reconnect with your story, your roots, your values, and the experiences that have shaped who you are.
Together we'll begin exploring some of the most important questions of this mentorship:
Who am I beneath the roles I've been playing?
Who am I becoming?
And what wants to emerge if I stop abandoning myself?
Because your medicine doesn't begin outside of you. It begins with remembering what has always been there and is begging you to let it out!
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Before you continue reading, remember that YOU ARE THE ALTAR. And that an altar can be as simple as lighting a corner or as elaborate as building one that has grains, flowers, water, etc etc etc.
You will learn how to create a meaningful altar rooted in intention. You will learn what items to explore, when to clean and tend to your altar, how to pray to your altar and care for it spiritually and physically. Rooted in the Andean cosmovision, the altar if your place of please, your oasis, your entry point to divine creation.
The altar is the embodiment of beauty.Drawing from the Andean cosmovision, you'll explore the role of sacred space, offerings, the elements, and simple rituals that can support your personal practice at home.
This becomes your anchor throughout the mentorship.
You will build an altar that you will take care of for the next 5 months, and will choose to add 5 new items at the completion og each momth.
inside of the community platform you’ll be invited to share your item of the month and the intention nehind why you chose it. -
Medicine is not something we consume. It is something we build a relationship with.
You'll receive access to my Ceremonial Cacao Foundations Dashboard — a resource I've shared with students for years and continue returning to myself.
Inside you'll find:
• Foundational cacao teachings
• Rituals and daily practices
• Recipes
• Prayer and intention-setting guidance
• Music playlists
• Journal prompts and reflections
By the time we gather in October, cacao will no longer feel like a stranger.
You'll already have begun building and nurturing a relationship.
You'll have your favorite mug.
Your favorite (yellow) journal.
A dreamy playlist.
A prayer that feels like home.
A ritual that belongs to you.
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Before you continue reading, let me remind you of something:
YOU ARE THE ALTAR.
Not the crystals.
Not the flowers.
Not the feathers.
Not the fancy ceremonial tools.
YOU.
The altar is just a reflection of the relationship you're building with yourself.
Together we'll explore how to create a meaningful altar rooted in intention, beauty, prayer, and presence.
Drawing from the Andean cosmovision, you'll learn about sacred space, offerings, reciprocity, the elements, and simple rituals that support your daily life.
Your altar becomes an anchor throughout the mentorship.
A place to land.
A place to listen.
A place to remember.
Throughout our five months together, you'll be invited to add one meaningful item to your altar each month and share the story behind it inside our community space.
And if your altar already feels complete? Perhaps the invitation is removing something instead.
Because one of the greatest lessons you'll learn is that safety does not come from what surrounds you.
It comes from what you cultivate within yourself.
But we’ll do this all with ease and at the speed of safety.
You'll also receive EFT practices, guided meditations, and nervous system tools to support you through the shifts that naturally arise during this process.
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This may be one of the most important resources inside Bridging Worlds.
In a world where everyone wants to call themselves a healer, guide, facilitator, coach, or medicine woman, this resource asks a different question:
What does it actually mean to be trustworthy?
Together we'll explore:
• Cultural stewardship
• Sacred reciprocity
• Ethical facilitation
• Boundaries and leadership
• Humility and discernment
• Holding space with integrity
Because leadership is not about having all the answers.
It's about learning how to listen.
It's about becoming someone others feel safe with.
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You'll receive access to a carefully curated collection of books, films, podcasts, teachings, documentaries, and resources that have deeply influenced my own path.
These materials will support your understanding of ceremony, leadership, ancestral wisdom, healing, personal growth, and the bridge between traditional teachings and modern life.
This is a living library.
Which means I'll continue adding resources throughout our time together.
Expect recommendations.
Expect rabbit holes.
Expect late-night documentary suggestions.
Expect things that challenge you.
Expect things that inspire you.
This will be everything I’ve collected the past 13 years (every tool leading me to you babe ♡)
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By the time we gather for our Opening Circle, something will already have shifted:
You'll have slowed down.
You'll have created space.
You'll have begun remembering parts of yourself that life may have asked you to forget.
You'll have started building a relationship with cacao, ritual, prayer, and most importantly, yourself.
Because Bridging Worlds was never designed to give you more information.
There is already enough information in the world.
This mentorship was created to help you remember.
To remember your voice.
To remember your intuition.
To remember your relationship with the sacred.
To remember who you are.
Because everything else grows from there.
Bridging Worlds officially begins in October, but the portal opens in September so you can begin preparing your mind, body, and spirit for the journey ahead.
Think of this as your prep season, a chance to slow down, create space, reconnect with yourself, and begin building the foundations that will support you throughout the next five months.
The Journey inside of Bridging Worlds
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Where Life Meets the Teaching
During our five months together, we'll gather three times each month for 1.5 hours live calls.
These calls are the heart of the apprenticeship.
While each month has a theme, teachings, practices, and experiences we'll explore together, the live calls are where we bring it all into real life.
Because learning about ceremony is one thing.
Learning about leadership is one thing.
Learning about self-trust is one thing.
But actually living it? That's where the real work begins.
As you move through this apprenticeship, things will start to shift.
You'll begin noticing old patterns, new desires, fears, questions, resistance, excitement, grief, clarity, and everything in between.
You may find yourself reevaluating your relationships, your work, your business, the way you speak, the way you lead, and the way you relate to yourself.
And that's exactly what these calls are for.
This is a space to bring what is alive inside of you.
The conversations don't stop at cacao, ritual, or facilitation.
You're welcome to bring your questions, your challenges, your dreams, your uncertainty, your ideas, your healing process, and the ways these teachings are rippling into every area of your life.
Because there is no separation.
The way you hold ceremony is connected to the way you hold yourself.
The way you use your voice is connected to the way you communicate in your relationships.
The way you show up in your business is connected to the level of trust you have in yourself.
Everything is connected.
Some calls may feel deeply reflective.
Some may feel practical and strategic.
Some may become spaces where you receive coaching, feedback, perspective, or support from the community.
You are also invited to bring your work into the space.
A ceremony you're designing.
A prayer you're writing.
A song you're learning.
A challenge you're navigating.
A vision you're trying to bring to life.
This is not a space where you need to have it all figured out.
This is a space where you get to be witnessed while you're becoming.
I’ve witnessed my past client transformations and our time together always becomes so much more than a mentorship.
It becomes a place where you feel safe enough to be honest, brave enough to be seen, and supported enough to continue answering the call that's already been placed on your heart.
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We begin by creating the foundation for our journey together.
This month is about slowing down, grounding into community, setting intentions, and reconnecting to yourself.
Together we'll explore:
• Creating your altar and ritual space
• Building a sustainable cacao practice
• Nervous system grounding and emotional safety
• Intention setting and sacred reciprocity
• Remembering who you are beneath the noise
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This month invites you into a deeper understanding of your unique design.
Using Human Design and Gene Keys as tools for self-inquiry, we'll explore the gifts, patterns, and lessons woven throughout your life.
Together we'll explore:
• Human Design
• Gene Keys
• Purpose and self-expression
• Voice activation
• Trusting your inner guidance
• Authentic leadership
This month opens your voice, your truth, and your unique medicine.
You’ll leave this month expressing yourself with clarity, confidence, and embodiment.
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This month is devoted to deepening your relationship with cacao and exploring the teachings that have shaped this path.
We'll begin bridging ancestral wisdom with modern life through practice, prayer, and direct experience.
Together we'll explore:
• The spirit of cacao
• Prayer and intention
• Reciprocity and relationship
• Ceremony as a way of life
• Indigenous perspectives and stewardship
• Building trust with the medicine
You’ll leave this month feeling deeply connected to Mama Cacao, your heart, and understand the connection that exists between mind, body, and spirit through the Indigenous perspective.
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This month is a journey into the Andean and Amazonian cosmovisions that have deeply influenced my own path.
We'll explore the teachings, symbols, rituals, and philosophies that continue to shape how we relate to ourselves, one another, and the natural world.
Together we'll explore:
• The Chakana Andina
• The dream world (dream interpretation)
• Sacred offerings and altar work
• The Andean worldview
• Amazonian teachings (Sapara Nation lineage and cosmology)
• Tobacco as a sacred plant ally
• Working with prayer and intention
You’ll leave this month feeling energetically sovereign, safe, and deeply anchored in ancient technologies that remind me we are all interwoven.
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This final month brings everything together.
You'll begin exploring what it means to hold space for yourself, for others with integrity, humility, and responsibility.
Together we'll explore:
• Holding cacao circles
• Facilitating group experiences
• Trauma-informed leadership
• Ethics and boundaries
• Creating meaningful ceremonies
• Sharing your gifts in a way that feels authentic
This is not about becoming a perfect facilitator.
It's about becoming someone who can lead from lived experience, self-awareness, and trust.
By the end of our time together (which, in truth, isn’t really an ending — it’s only the beginning), you’ll leave feeling like every part of yourself that you once left behind has found its way back home to you.
Your self-respect. Your self-love. Your dignity. Your trust.
You will trust yourself deeply enough to lead your own life and as a result, become someone whose presence is felt the moment you enter a room, even before you speak.
You become someone the world can trust because you leave people and places better than you found them.
You have called yourself back from all times and all spaces.
Welcome home, baby.
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Retreat: February 12–17th, 2027 | Manabí, Ecuador.
While Bridging Worlds can be completed entirely online, this retreat is an opportunity to deepen your experience through direct connection with the land, the teachings, the community, and yourself.
And honestly babe?
One of my favorite parts is that we're not trying to cram a year's worth of healing into five days.
This retreat is designed to feel spacious.
There will be workshops, ceremonies, teachings, and integration, but there will also be time to simply be.
To get 8 delicious hours of sleep in.
To rest.
To wander.
To stare at the ocean.
To have the kinds of conversations that somehow change your life.
During our time together, you can expect things like:
Long breakfasts that turn into two-hour conversations
Swimming in rivers and exploring nature
Ritual baths
Dream circles and dream interpretation
Storytelling around the fire
Song circles, prayer, and community gatherings
Workshops on cacao, ritual, facilitation, and spiritual stewardship
Time for journaling, reflection, and integration
Delicious organic meals prepared with love
Cooking experiences and connection through food
Exploring local markets and artisan crafts
Walks through town and opportunities to experience the culture of Ecuador
Movement, embodiment, and opportunities to reconnect with your body
Free time to rest, nap, explore, read, swim, or do absolutely nothing
Most importantly, you'll be surrounded by women who are asking many of the same questions you are.
Women who are learning how to trust themselves.
Women who are remembering.
Women who are becoming bridges between worlds.
This retreat is not just about learning new tools.
It's about experiencing what becomes possible when you slow down enough to hear yourself again.
If you decide to join us, you'll receive access to a private retreat information page with accommodations, travel recommendations, pricing, packing guidance, and everything you'll need to prepare for the journey.
If you're not sure if the retreat is right for you, send me an email at hello@barbieenruta.com. I'd be happy to connect and help you make the decision that feels most aligned for you.
After Bridging Worlds, you’ll be able to say:
○ I've never felt more alive and connected to myself.
○ I know how to build a relationship with cacao, ritual, and spirit that is rooted in devotion, not performance.
○ I know how to hold space when emotions, grief, silence, laughter or uncertainty enters.
○ I know how to listen to my body, my prayers, my dreams and the land without outsourcing my discernment to another teacher.
○ I know how to honor Indigenous wisdom with humility, reverence, and integrity, without pretending it is mine to own.
○ I know how to trust my voice and share my gifts in a way that feels authentic to who I am.
○ I know how to navigate life transitions, endings, and new beginnings with greater confidence and self-leadership.
○ I know how to create practices, rituals, and rhythms that support me long after this container ends.
○ I know how to be both deeply spiritual and deeply human.
How Bridging Worlds works:
Monthly Mentorship Gatherings
Four monthly calls where we'll gather to explore the themes, teachings, challenges, and questions arising throughout the apprenticeship.
These sessions are part teaching, part conversation, part ceremony, and part real-life integration.
Bring your questions, your contradictions, your breakthroughs, your fears, and your becoming.
A Living Community
A private online community space of women walking this path alongside you.
A place to ask questions, receive support, practice being seen, share insights, celebrate growth, and remember that transformation was never meant to happen alone.
Direct Mentorship & Support
Receive ongoing guidance throughout the apprenticeship through our private community space inside of Cicle.
Whether you're navigating a question about ritual, leadership, facilitation, cacao, community, or your own personal process, you'll have direct access to support and mentorship as you move through the work.
Rituals, Practices & Integration Resources
A growing library of teachings, guided practices, ceremony structures, journaling prompts, nervous system tools, ancestral reflections, and cacao resources to support your learning between sessions.
This is not information for information's sake.
Everything is designed to help you build a living practice that will ebb and flow with you.
Voice, Facilitation & Leadership Development
Learn how to express yourself with greater confidence, clarity, and authenticity.
Through practice, reflection, storytelling, and guided exercises, you'll begin strengthening your voice, deepening your self-trust, and learning what it means to hold space responsibly.
Guest Teachers & Wisdom Keepers
Throughout the apprenticeship, you'll learn from respected teachers, facilitators, and Indigenous wisdom keepers whose work supports the themes we are exploring.
These conversations bring depth, perspective, and lived experience into the container.
Including:
• Sare del Pozo (my spiritual mama and family healer) — Voice, self-leadership, and personal truth.
• Sulafa Victoria (bestie and the people’s lawyer) — Nervous system regulation, emotional capacity, and EFT.
• Tawna Warmis (Tati, Sani & Muku) — Indigenous wisdom, cultural stewardship, reciprocity, and the living relationship between tradition and modern life.
The Practice of Sacred Responsibility
One of the most important aspects of this apprenticeship.
Together we explore what it means to build relationship with the Self, cacao, ritual, prayer, community, and leadership with integrity.
Not as an identity.
Not as a performance.
But as a responsibility.
Retreat Invites
Apprentices receive priority access and special invitations to future Bridging Worlds retreats and immersive experiences in Ecuador.
Imagine drinking cacao at sunrise in the Andes, sharing stories around the fire, learning directly from Indigenous wisdom keepers, wandering through colorful markets, eating food that tastes like someone's grandmother made it with love, and forming connections that follow you home long after the retreat ends.
This is an opportunity to step away from the noise of everyday life and remember what becomes possible when you're deeply connected to the land, community, and yourself.
A Sisterhood That Walks With You
The women inside this container are not here by accident.
These are women who feel the call to remember, to listen, to lead, and to serve.
Women learning how to trust themselves.
Women becoming bridges between worlds.
The relationships formed here often become one of the most valuable parts of the journey.
From my experience, this is how I’ve found my life long true besties.
Welcome, let’s do this together!
REGISTER FOR OCTOBER 2026 VOLUME 3 NOW.
Pay in Full
$3800
12 monthly payments
$347
Bridging Worlds Apprenticeship Vol 3: Fall 2026
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Δ OPEN APPLICATIONS
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Δ DURATION
5 months
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Δ START DATE
October 2026
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Δ SPOTS
Because of the level of intimacy
and support inside this space
there are only 9 spots available
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Δ APPRENTICESHIP (ONLINE EXPERIENCE)
Investment: $3,800
or 12 payments of $347Payment plans as low as $200 are available ♡
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Δ END DATE
February 2027
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Δ RETREAT EXPERIENCE (ADVANCED IMMERSION)
Dates: February 12th - February 17th 2026 | Manabí, Ecuador
Investment: $7,200
or 12 payments of $660The retreat is a deeper, in-person immersion and is not required to join the apprenticeship…although I personally believe that Ecuador will bathe you in magic, so keep scrolling down to hear from past retreat babes ♡
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Δ LIVE CALLS
3 calls per month (~90mins)
Schedules will change at times throughout the year due to travel, sick days, knowing that life will life in a long container. If you are not comfortable with that, this will not be a good fit.
Why I Created Bridging Worlds
When I was seven years old, I remember seeing a little Indigenous girl carrying her younger sibling on her back.
Both of us around the same age.
I remember staring into her eyes and realizing, for the first time, that people could live completely different realities.
I didn't have the language for it then, but something inside me woke up.
Questions about belonging.
Questions about inequality.
Questions about why some were valued and others ignored.
Questions that would eventually shape my entire life.
Years later, I became the girl watching YouTube vlogs of people living what looked like the most beautiful lives imaginable.
Australia. Hawaii. Bare feet. Ocean dips. Freedom.
Those videos inspired me to become a health coach and later a life coach.
And even then, at 25, I remember hearing the voices:
"Who does she think she is?"
"What could she possibly teach?"
What most people didn't know was that my path hadn't started at 25.
The questions had always been there.
The longing had always been there.
The desire to understand healing, spirit, identity, belonging, and what it means to live a meaningful life had always been there.
Over the years, that path led me into Indigenous wisdom, dream work, ceremony, retreats, entrepreneurship, mentorship, and community building.
It led me to support thousands of students through Dream World, work alongside Indigenous elders, facilitate retreats, teach cacao, and witness hundreds of people move through profound transformation.
And through all of those experiences, I began noticing the same pattern.
The people who came into these spaces were already extraordinary.
Artists.
Mothers.
Entrepreneurs.
Creatives.
Healers.
Doctors.
Death doulas.
Community builders.
People with enormous hearts and enormous gifts.
Many had already done years of healing.
Years of therapy.
Years of ceremonies.
Years of personal development.
Years of searching.
But underneath all of it, many were still waiting for someone else to tell them they were ready.
Waiting for permission.
Waiting for certainty.
Waiting for a teacher, a mentor, a healer, or an elder to confirm what they already knew deep down.
I watched people reconnect with their ancestry.
Leave relationships that required them to shrink.
Start businesses.
Move countries.
Lead communities.
Host ceremonies.
Trust their intuition.
Begin entirely new chapters of their lives.
And what struck me most was this:
Their transformation didn't happen because someone gave them more wisdom.
Their transformation happened because they finally trusted the wisdom that was already alive within them.
A woman ended a relationship that required her to shrink and later stepped into a partnership that honored who she truly was.
A lifelong seeker learned to forgive himself and trust his own inner knowing.
An entrepreneur stopped letting anxiety run his life and fully committed to his creative gifts.
Women who once doubted themselves went on to gather their communities, host ceremonies, and create spaces that brought people together.
Bridging Worlds was born from that realization.
It is the culmination of everything I have studied, practiced, witnessed, questioned, loved, lost, remembered, and reclaimed.
A space for people who know they are here for something meaningful, but are tired of looking outside themselves for the answers.
A space to remember your roots.
Trust your voice.
Honor your humanity.
And become the bridge.
I am calling in twelve women to walk this journey together.
Not because I have all the answers.
But because I know what becomes possible when women gather, remember who they are, and stop waiting for permission to take up space.
If you've been waiting for a sign, this might be it.
Again and again, I witnessed the same thing.
The deepest healing wasn't becoming someone else.
It was remembering who they already were.
That's when something clicked.
This work was never just about cacao.
It was never just about healing.
It was never just about ceremony.
It was about helping people build enough trust in themselves to responsibly carry what they had received.
To stop waiting for permission.
To stop outsourcing their authority.
To stop performing spirituality.
And to become someone others could trust because they had learned to trust themselves.
This is for you if:
01. Feel a deep longing to reconnect with their roots, ancestry, and living memory
02. Have received healing, medicine, mentorship, or spiritual guidance and now feel called to carry it more intentionally
03. Want to honor Indigenous wisdom, ritual, and plant medicine with reverence, integrity, and respect.
04. Are learning to trust their inner voice and stop outsourcing their wisdom to other teachers.
05. Feel called to hold space, facilitate, gather community, or guide others with integrity
06. Desire a spiritual path that honors both their humanity and their spirit.
07. Are ready to soften control, listen deeply, and allow life to reshape them.
08. Long for community, sisterhood, and spaces where they can be fully seen and supported.
09. Know there is a message wanting to move through them and are ready to become the vessel for it.
MAYBE THIS IS THE SIGN YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR.
Maybe you’re a curandera, entrepreneur, creative, therapist, activist, coach, or simply someone tired of waiting for permission.
You might be someone who has decided to pause the podcast, close the personal development book, and ghost the checkout page for the next certification.
Not because you're done learning.
Because you're finally starting to trust that what you're looking for may not actually exist outside of you.
Reflections from our retreat community…
A PERSONAL NOTE FROM ME ♡
Hi babe,
If there's one thing that still makes my palms sweat, it's introducing myself. You know that SpongeBob episode where they ask him his name and suddenly all the files in his brain start catching on fire? Yeah. That's me.
Which is funny considering that for the last decade-plus I've been doing a combination of my own inner work, facilitated retreats, held ceremonies, coached women, built communities, supported founders, and spent my life talking to people.
And yet when someone asks, "Tell us about yourself," my brain still occasionally blue screens. But maybe that's the perfect place to begin.
Because Bridging Worlds was never born from having all the answers. It was born from learning how to live inside the questions. I've spent my life between worlds.
New York and Ecuador. The city and the mountains. The jungle and Google.
Indigenous elders and online business. Ceremony and humanity.
Beauty and grief. Spanish, English, and Spanglish.
Ratchet and reverent. Sacred and deeply, deeply human.
For me, bridging worlds isn't some cute spiritual metaphor.
It's the reality of being Latina, mestiza, Ecuadorian-rooted, New York born + raised, shaped by migration, Catholicism, colonization, Indigenous wisdom, wellness culture, family lineage, and the ongoing question:
How do I hold all of this without cutting myself into pieces? And the more women I met, the more I realized I wasn't alone. I saw women who had done the healing.
Read the books. Sat with the medicines. Worked with the coaches. Traveled the world. Received the certifications. And yet they still didn't fully trust themselves.
They trusted the teacher. They trusted the healer. They trusted the shaman. They trusted everyone except their own voice.
And I understood that feeling because I had lived it too.
For years I waited for permission. Permission from mentors. Permission from teachers. Permission from men who carried authority. Permission to finally believe that I was ready. Until life eventually taught me something important: Nobody is coming to hand you your authority. You claim it.
And you claim it by becoming honest.
Honest about who you are. Honest about what you want. Honest about the gifts you've been given. Honest about the places where you're still hiding.
The women I've worked with weren't looking for another spiritual experience. They were looking for themselves. They wanted to stop dimming their light.
Stop shrinking around authority. Stop settling for the bare minimum. Stop being distracted by validation, compliments, relationships, titles, and all the things that temporarily make us forget our own worth.
They wanted to become women who could trust themselves. Women who could be trusted by others. Women who could hold space without abandoning themselves. Women who could lead without performing. Women who could be powerful without becoming disconnected from their humanity. And that's really what this work is about.
Not becoming more spiritual. Not becoming more impressive. Not becoming someone else. Becoming more yourself.
Because if you're here reading this, I don't think your soul is asking for another strategy. I think it's asking for authenticity. I think it's asking you to stop pretending.
To stop making yourself smaller, quieter, more palatable, more digestible. To stop apologizing for your vision. Your sensitivity. Your ambition. Your culture. Your voice. Your medicine.
The wellness industry has spent years packaging ancient wisdom and selling it back to us. Meanwhile, our ancestors were living it.
This work is about remembering.
Remembering that your intuition matters. Remembering that your story matters. Remembering that your roots matter. Remembering that your humanity is not separate from your spirituality. Remembering that you don't need permission to take up space. And remembering that the room will trust you when you trust yourself.
Not because you're perfect. Not because you've healed everything. Not because you've mastered every tool. But because you've stopped running from who you are.
The last thirteen years of my life have been dedicated to healing, unlearning, remembering, grieving, laughing, rebuilding, fucking up, starting over, and learning how to embrace the beautiful mess of being human.
Because that's what life is.
Beautiful.
Brutal.
Sacred.
Human.
And if you're feeling called to this work, I'd be honored to walk beside you.
Not above you.
Not in front of you.
Beside you.
Because this isn't about building followers.
It's about building women who trust themselves enough to become leaders in their own lives.
And maybe that's why you're here.
Welcome.
Let's begin.
Barbie, xx
Welcome, le't’s do this together!
REGISTER FOR OCTOBER 2026 VOLUME 3 NOW.
Pay in Full
$3800
12 monthly payments
$347
Frequently Asked Questions
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Most cacao trainings focus on information.
Bridging Worlds focuses on relationship.
Relationship with yourself.
Relationship with cacao.
Relationship with community.
Relationship with leadership.
Relationship with responsibility.
This apprenticeship is less concerned with teaching you how to perform ceremony and more concerned with helping you become someone who can hold ceremony with integrity.
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Nope! Many women arrive with curiosity rather than experience.
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This apprenticeship is an initiation. It is not a certification, so it does not hand you a title or certification.
This path is deeply rooted in Indigenous traditions, which are earth-based, lineage-based, and community-based. Most of these traditions cannot be “certified,” and to try would risk stripping them of their sacredness and replicating colonial patterns.
Instead, you’ll receive teachings directly from the lineage and guest teachers, always honoring the cultures, medicines, and practices from which they come.
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Yes.
Many women join to deepen their relationship with themselves, their spirituality, leadership, creativity, or community work.
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You do not need to arrive with all the answers. You just need a willingness to listen, learn, and allow yourself to be changed by the journey.
This apprenticeship was built on the belief that growth is a lifelong practice of curiosity, exploration, and relationship.
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All sessions are recorded.
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No.
While my lived experience deeply informs this work and most participants tend to be women, Bridging Worlds, welcomes people from all backgrounds who are committed to approaching this path with respect, curiosity, and integrity.
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Expect approximately 4–6 hours per month for our live calls, plus whatever level of practice and integration feels aligned for you.
This isn't meant to feel like another obligation.
Life will life. Work will work. Families will family.
Some months you'll be all in. Some months you'll show up to the calls, take a few notes, and let the medicine do its thing.
Beautiful.
This isn't school, and nobody is getting graded. Go at your own pace. The goal isn't to consume more information, it's to build a relationship with what you're learning.
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Because this is an intimate apprenticeship.I want every woman to be seen, supported, challenged, and known.
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The retreat immersion will take place November 12–17, 2026, in Manabí, Ecuador.
Imagine This...
You wake up after sleeping a glorious eight hours.
Not because someone told you that waking up at 5am makes you more spiritual.
Not because your alarm is screaming at you.
Not because you have 10 things for your morning practice.
You wake up because your body is ready.
You open your eyes.
You hear the birds.
The sun is warming up the room.
You stretch.
You grab your journal.
And suddenly you're like:
"Wait... I actually remember my dream."
You realize you’ve slept deeply.
The kind of sleep that happens after a long day at the beach.
You wash your face.
Throw on something comfy.
And make your way to breakfast.
Fresh fruit.
Good coffee.
Good tea.
Amazing food.
And somehow breakfast turns into hours of conversation about dreams, life, relationships, purpose, the weird thing that happened in ceremony yesterday, and whatever else wants to come out of your mouth unfiltered.
Because that's what happens when women gather.
We start talking…yapping and suddenly we're healing.
After breakfast we'll gather for teachings, workshops, ceremony, dream work, cacao, storytelling, prayer, and conversations that make you see your life differently.
And then...
You'll have free time.
Actual free time.
You can take a nap.
Go swimming.
Sit by the river.
Read.
Journal.
Get a massage.
Walk through town.
Visit the artisan market.
Buy yourself something beautiful.
Take a Pilates class.
Lay in a hammock.
Do absolutely nothing.
Because contrary to popular belief...
You do not need to be exhausted to transform.
You do not need to suffer to heal.
And you definitely do not need to be booked every second of the day to have a profound experience.
This retreat is an invitation to slow down.
Like... actually slow down.
In the evenings maybe we're gathered around a bonfire sharing stories.
Maybe we're drinking tea and talking about our dreams.
Maybe we're singing.
Maybe we're laughing so hard our stomach hurts.
Maybe we're crying.
Probably all of the above.
And somewhere between the cacao, the conversations, the river swims, the dream circles, the workshops, the incredible food, and the people you'll meet...
Something begins to shift.
You remember what it feels like to hear yourself again.
You remember what it feels like to trust yourself.
You remember that your life is allowed to feel beautiful.
Not because you escaped your life.
But because you came home to it.
And honestly babe?
That's the real medicine.
If you decide to join us, you'll receive access to a private retreat information page with accommodations, travel recommendations, pricing, packing guidance, and everything you'll need to prepare for the journey.
If you're not sure if the retreat is right for you, send me an email at hello@barbieenruta.com. I'd be happy to connect and help you make the decision that feels most aligned for you.
