About The Healing Farm

This is my dream……

Of sharing my personal wellness journey with others while building a fair and responsible business for myself, staff and for society and to be a model of what future fair business practices can be. I don’t want to cater to a luxury market. I want to reach people like me. People of average means who strive for wanting more out of life and want to experience a time of immersion and self discovery but don’t want to go broke pursuing that journey.  I want to create practical wellness retreats and “experience” retreats for the average person who has an inner desire to become an extraordinary human being.

My dream is The Healing Farm and The Healing Farm | Retreats.

I will strive to make The Healing Farm a permanent tasteful and affordable retreat center with a focus on ancestral functional medicine. THF will ultimately be set on a peaceful property with a possible national roll-out long-term but originates as a series of retreats in existing retreat centers or personal immersion experiences. The Healing Farm | Retreats feature immersion journeys of self-exploration or the teachings of passionate educators and practitioners who will cultivate attainable, realistic, simple solutions for our participant’s long-term wellness and personal growth goals.

The Healing Farm Retreats - Cultivating Practical Wellness

About the Founder  

Let me introduce myself!

I’m Julie Mikos-Houlihan and am currently a self-employed wedding photographer. About five years ago I not only decided I had had enough with all of my chronic pain and constantly fluctuating weight, but also that I needed a career change. I worked with an ancestral functional medicine practitioner to heal my body and my mind naturally and started dreaming of a place I could go for a week, two weeks, a month where I could immerse myself in learning a healthy and simple eating plan that works for me and a realistic exercise plan which I could build into my everyday life and get rid of my chronic conditions once and for all! Not only did I embark on investigating how I could change my career, but I also started searching for this place of health and wellness. Guess what? I discovered that these healthy places already exist, but either they are unaffordable to most people or the affordable options were either a little run down, hippie dippy or a bit too new age for myself and your average American. This is when I started dreaming of The Healing Farm. This is when I started working toward my own plan to introduce a retreat series or physical place at which I could introduce a spa-like experience at an affordable price working with a team of educators and practitioners who are dedicated to teaching realistic health solutions for our participants. Eureka! A new career!

Hence the birth of my ultimate dream of The Healing Farm concept and introduction of The Healing Farm | Retreat Series.

Our Vision

Transforming the world one person at a time by bringing health, joy and practical wellness into our everyday lives. 

Our Mission

The Healing Farm is an affordable place of peace, beauty and wellness - wherever it may be - bringing together educators to cultivate realistic, lasting health practices for all while striving for fair and sustainable business practices. 

Testimonials

General encouragement for starting The Healing Farm:

.........."I found your THF site and retreats through following Chris Kresser.

I just wanted to say how amazed I am with what you are doing.  I so dream of going to a place just like this and have been searching for something too (and find similar issues with cost, itinerary and food just not being the right fit for me).  Your {farm} and retreats look beautiful.  Unfortunately I am a long way away and with the $CDN where it is, it is not feasible for me at this time.

However, I wanted to say thank you for what you are doing.  It is truly wonderful to know that there are people like you out there reaching for their dreams and helping others in this way.

I wish you much success." 

Sister: "Julie, you've been my Healing Farm for years!"

Catie: "Thank you for the work you're doing.  I'm very grateful for it and I know many people will benefit.  Let's take The Healing Farm NATIONAL!!!!"

…….."And I want to applaud you for this brilliant offering you have created.  All of the events, location and pricing is perfect for someone like myself. Please keep me on your mailing list."

……."To get away to a place where I didn't have to worry about food, toxins, and so much more would be beyond a blessing…….I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for all you do in offering a "safe place" to get away that's worth and stress free!" 

Retreat attendees:

Evaluations for the Paleo Reset Retreat came back with mostly a score of 10 on a scale of 1 to 10!

Paleo Reset Attendees:

"Loved just about everything! Location, presenters, practitioners, variety & breadth of events. Amazing organization and pulling together of activities. Also appreciate that there was no pressure to attend everything but to be able to choose level of participation vs. personal time."

"It was all great! I can't wait for the next one!" 

"This retreat couldn't have come at a better time in my life. Your vision, passion and thoroughness created this [union] of wonderful people in a spectacular setting. This time for myself was much needed. I had no idea what to expect and I was very nervous about coming. Your warmth and kindness passed to everyone and this week has been life-changing for me. Not only was I able to slow down and relax a bit (my main goal for coming) but I met others going through similar struggles, I got to try new activities and I learned from experts in healthcare, nutrition, cooking, life coaching and more. I had fun, ate delicious food and made new friends. Way to go, Julie. You are an amazing person and an inspiration to me." (note from Julie: this one made me cry - more than once).

"I can't tell you how meaningful and transformative the retreat was for me. I came back feeling like I have renewed energy to become the well, productive "me" that has been eluding me for years. So much due to the amazing practitioners and activities you organized. You are incredible!"

From a friend who attended the retreat: "We all know that Julie has a talent for putting together a group of people where everyone feels welcome and loved and so beautifully integrated into the moment. This was even more amazing as there were all these people she didn't even know before the retreat!  The days felt full with activities, laughter, sunshine, campfires, and... amazing food."

Women's Health Retreat:

"I recently spent a full day with a friend at the Healing Farm's retreat in the Marin Headlands. I have never attended a retreat and was wary that it was "not for me." Not only am I still reaping the benefits of the valuable information I gathered, I've made wonderful personal connections with the other participants and so look forward to my next Healing Farm adventure! The catered food was so delicious it inspired me to shop the next day and cook for the entire week, experimenting with all the impelling cooking tips. Thank you Healing Farm for providing an affordable and quality experience that has broadened my horizons and challenged me to take better care of myself."

Joshua Tree Solo Retreat:

To understand this quote more, I encourage you to read the blog posts about this solo retreat. It was meant to be a "reach into yourself and your soul" kind of experience. Of course 48 hours of constant desert winds was way more challenging than myself or my guest could have ever imagined. She wrote:

"It was horrible and amazing at the same time!"

Wellness on the Ranch Retreat:

Question: rate the retreat on a scale of one to ten (ten being fantastic!): This guest rated it a 27! and wrote: "Thank you! Life affirming day/knowledge."

"Loved it! Thank you!"

"Everything was overall excellent!"