Roots and Bridges
Feb 8-15 2026
An immersion into trauma healing in Guatemala
What to Expect
In a world plagued by trauma, inequality, and climate disruption, Crossroads Acupuncture and Qachuu Aloom / Mother Earth Association invite you to step into the work of barefoot grassroots healing in the America.
You’ll have the chance to do your own healing, while walking with the everyday heroes struggling for the dignity of their communities in the highlands of Guatemala.
Global Solidarity & indigenous Wisdom
You’ll build meaningful relationships with our Barefoot Health Promoters serving some of the most vulnerable groups in the Americas. You will dive deep into indigenous traditions of resilience, trauma-informed care, and nonviolence. If you want to learn how to cultivate sustainable grassroots health projects, and/or apprentice with Crossroads, this immersion is for you.
Daily Practices for Embodied Healing
You’ll learn mind-body practices to support your personal healing journey. You’ll leave with simple, trauma-informed tools you can carry forward in your life and work.
Apply to join Roots and Bridges:
An immersion into trauma healing in Guatemala
Early Bird Rate Discount!! Apply before August 31, 2025: : $2,000.00
Apply after August 31, 2025: :$2,500.00
Email all of your materials to crossroadsacu@gmail.com
How to apply
✅ 1000 + word essay about why you’re interested in this work, any experience you have working in overseas and/or community projects and what you hope to contribute to our cohort of students and the communities we serve.
✅ Resume resume outlining your relevant international and community health experience, all the licenses and certifications you hold as a health provider (including your license #), and at least one professional reference.
✅ Please include where in the world you live and work.
✅ We will email you within 1 week if you have been accepted.
who can join us
✅ Harm reduction, recovery, or community health workers (New Mexico-based or international)
✅ Nurses, doctors, acupuncturists
✅ Acupuncture/Acudetox educators and providers hands-on experience with Community Acupuncture and the NADA protocol
✅ Community organizers and social entrepreneurs working in trauma recovery or public health
✅ Students or practitioners seeking hands-on experience in grassroots and global health settings
to the roots of barefoot medicine in Guatemala
In 1978, a doctor taught local Mayan youth in Guatemala how to use acupuncture needles. Years later, death squads forced many to flee into the forest, taking their needles with them.
Our immersion program this year will trace the roots of the Barefoot movement in the Americas to the Rio Negro region of Guatemala, where you’ll get hear first hand about their heroic struggle and partner with them as they continue to aid survivors of the genocide.
details on Roots and Bridges
Immersion Dates: Feb 8-15 2026
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Build meaningful relationships with local indigenous leaders and fellow participants—grounded in mutual respect, learning, and solidarity.
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email all application materials to crossroads@gmail.com
✅ 1000 + word essay about why you’re interested in this work, any experience you have working in overseas and/or community projects and what you hope to contribute to our cohort of students and the communities we serve.
✅ Resume resume outlining your relevant international and community health experience, all the licenses and certifications you hold as a health provider (including your license #), and at least one professional reference.
✅ Please include where in the world you live and work.
✅ We will notify you within 1 week if you have been accepted, after which you will need to pay your deposit within a week after you have been accepted
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✅ Harm reduction, recovery, or community health workers (New Mexico-based or international)
✅ Nurses, doctors, acupuncturists
✅ Acupuncture/Acudetox educators and providers hands-on experience with Community Acupuncture and the NADA protocol
✅ Community organizers and social entrepreneurs working in trauma recovery or public health
✅ Students or practitioners seeking hands-on experience in grassroots and global health settings -
Train with Dr. Ryan Bemis in Acudetox and trauma-informed acupuncture as practiced in recovery centers, global health, refugee care and disaster relief settings. Educators welcome to gain real-world teaching experience at the grassroots level. You’ll also learn advanced auricular techniques, and how to do group based community acupuncture.
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Explore Somatic Release techniques, including TRE (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises), Qi Gong, and discover how to integrate them into community-based care as well as into private practice acupuncture and trauma therapy.
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Partner with indigenous community health workers supporting survivors of genocide and underserved populations in the Guatemalan Highlands. Learn from their stories, resilience, and ancestral healing practices.
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We’ll be tapping into our inner resilience with meditation, qi gong, breathwork, yoga, and acupuncture—for you to take with you on your personal healing while learning to also apply these tools in community healthcare settings.
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Explore the history of community-based acupuncture in Latin America, from its origins in the 1970s amidst civil war to its role today in global health. Meet the heroes in Guatemala who have carried this tradition forward—using acupuncture as a tool for survival, resilience, and grassroots empowerment. We will learn how they have—and how we can—use simple, accessible mind-body technologies to respond to violence and trauma in our world today.
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Early Bird Application for Roots and Bridges 2026
Sale Price:$2,000.00 Original Price:$2,500.00
Apply before July 10, 2025 to qualify for the discounted rate of $2000
$2500 after July 11, 2025
Immersion Dates: Feb 8-15 2026
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Includes:
Lodging and Food for 6 days far away from the tourist spots in the Guatemalan Highlands Baja Verapaz
Daily acupuncture, meditation, yoga, breathwork, and guided somatic release work
Transportation from the airport to the immersion sites
Clinical internship and apprenticing opportunities for acudetox/NADA protocol and community acupuncture (Pending applicant qualifications and experience)
Recovery day in Eco lodge in Antigua
Does not include:
Lodging and food on final recovery day in Antigua
Optional adventure to Tikal, Coban or Lake Atitlan
“Offering acupuncture is like planting a seed of peace
Msr Rene Blanco, Vicar, Diocese of Cd Juarez, Mexico
"I used to just be a housewife. But now I am a health promoter. Now I can learn other things to improve on myself.
– Cecy, Barefoot Health Promoter, Cd Juarez, Mexico
Be a part of our vision for the world
Where people have the tools and capacity to care for themselves and for their own communities.
“Under the surface of glitter & trash in the midst of all the mess of traffic, there are the people: sick & distraught, drunk, mad, melancholy, anguished or simply bored to extinction. It is the people I love and not the roles in the city, not the glitter of business and of progress. Can’t we give them something more than air conditioning?”
-Thomas Merton
building bridges of solidarity
Through shared stories and hands-on experience, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of how grassroots healing unfolds in communities responding to trauma, systemic violence, and historical injustice—and how you, too, can be part of this living legacy.
Listen to Ryan Bemis’ commencement address at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine’s graduation ceremonies, to learn more about our work in Latin America.
Barefoot acupuncture in the americas
Stories from our past projects
“Ryan Bemis and Crossroads Acupuncture offer an amazing auricular acupuncture course and NADA certification. The class was bilingual, which added greatly to the experience. Ryan’s presentation was evidence-based and highly engaging. I count this training as one of the best clinical experiences of my career. As a social worker, I gained deeper insights into cultural humility and strengths-based practice.”
— Suzanne Stern Brant, LCSW
about barefoot Acupuncture
The Barefoot Doctor movement offered care for millions of people in rural and underserved areas in Asia starting in the 1950’s, filling a need where urban-trained doctors would not work. The World Health Organization adopted this model and started similar community health training projects. Over the past 50 years, a variety of global health programs cultivated this model in addiction and recovery, refugee, and community health projects.
Our project grew out of Barefoot Doctor projects in the Americas, including the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) and the Guatemalan Acupuncture and Medical Aid Project. Replicating these models of popular acupuncture education, we have designed and refined a core curriculum to replicate these models within global healthcare.
breaking down
barriers
to integrative healthcare
As a 501-3-c non-profit organization, Crossroads supports the growth of clinics for the homeless, for people with addictions and psychiatric problems. We also train nurses and counselors how to offer acu based care within jails, hospitals, recovery programs, refugee care, and disaster relief.