Ecuador RESET is a physician-led, 4-day immersive retreat guided by Dr. LuLu Shimek, Naturopathic Physician & Functional Medicine Practitioner, and Dr. Berny Villavicencio, Functional Medicine & Orthomolecular Physician.

Together, they bring a deeply integrative approach that blends functional medicine, orthomolecular therapeutics, nervous system science, epigenetics, and intentional healing practices to create a structured and transformative reset experience.

With decades of combined clinical experience in functional, orthomolecular, and integrative medicine, Dr. LuLu and Dr. Berny guide this experience with both scientific precision and grounded presence.

This retreat is designed to help you regulate your nervous system, rebalance stress-driven hormonal disruption, and restore sustainable energy at the root level.

Chronic stress reshapes physiology — disrupting cortisol rhythms, impairing detoxification pathways, altering gut-brain signaling, and depleting mitochondrial resilience.

RESET is intentionally designed to interrupt that cycle.

Through physician-led education, clinical monitoring, epigenetic testing, targeted IV nutrient therapy, structured integration practices, nourishment, and grounded ceremonial work, your body is given the conditions it needs to shift out of survival mode and into regulation.

This is not a passive wellness getaway.
This is a guided physiological recalibration experience.

You will leave with clarity, personalized recommendations, and practical tools to sustain your transformation long after you return home.

Space is intentionally limited to maintain clinical depth and personalized care.

Vikara Retreat is a serene coastal sanctuary in Olón, Ecuador, offering a quiet and restorative setting for deep nervous system recalibration.

Guests will stay on-site in thoughtfully designed accommodations surrounded by ocean air and expansive natural beauty.

Rooms are comfortable, minimal, and intentionally supportive of rest, integration, and regulation.

All retreat sessions, meals, and clinical experiences take place on-site for a fully immersive experience.

Guests arrive at Vikara Retreat and are welcomed into a calm, structured environment designed to support immediate nervous system regulation. Light grounding nourishment is provided while you settle into your room and acclimate to the space.

Our RESET journey begins on the beach, grounding into the natural rhythm of ocean and breath as the nervous system begins to downshift.

• Welcome with Dr. LuLu & Dr. Berny
• Intention setting ceremony by the sea
• Introduction to the RESET framework
• Education on stress physiology and nervous system regulation
• Gentle guided regulation practice

This opening ceremony establishes safety, presence, and the physiological foundation for the retreat experience.

Our opening dinner is intentionally designed to support nervous system regulation and blood sugar stability following travel.

Enjoy a fresh, anti-inflammatory, hormone-supportive meal prepared with locally sourced ingredients. The menu is crafted to reduce inflammation, stabilize cortisol rhythms, and gently transition the body into parasympathetic activation.

This shared meal marks the official beginning of RESET — grounding, nourishing, and connective.

Following dinner, the evening remains intentionally spacious.

Guests are encouraged to rest, journal, reflect, or simply settle into the rhythm of the ocean. This quiet integration period allows the nervous system to begin recalibrating without overstimulation.

Early rest is encouraged to support circadian alignment, cortisol regulation, and overnight recovery.

The morning begins with a retreat-offered yoga session led by Vikara’s experienced instructor. This grounding practice blends gentle movement and breathwork to support nervous system regulation and embodied awareness.

Following yoga, Dr. LuLu and Dr. Berny lead a physician-guided session exploring stress physiology, hormonal disruption, and the body’s adaptive patterns.

Participants gain insight into cortisol dynamics and chronic stress imprinting while learning structured regulation practices designed to support long-term resilience and sustainable rewiring.

Throughout the day

Anti-inflammatory, hormone-supportive meals are intentionally designed to stabilize blood sugar, reduce inflammatory burden, and enhance parasympathetic tone.

• Understanding cortisol rhythms
• How chronic stress alters hormone signaling
• Gut-brain communication and detox pathways
• Introduction to epigenetic influence on gene expression
• Practical clinical insight for long-term recalibration

This session provides the scientific framework for true physiological release.

Blood pressure and glucose readings are taken, followed by distribution and completion of epigenetic testing kits to support post-retreat personalization.

Participants receive and complete epigenetic testing kits, providing insight into biological resilience, stress response patterns, and post-retreat integration pathways.

Results are reviewed following the retreat to support long-term personalization.

During this structured afternoon window, participants rotate through individualized clinical sessions while remaining supported within a calm, grounded integration space.

Guests will move between:

• IV therapy administered by a licensed nurse
• 15-minute InBody metabolic scan with Dr. Berny
• The Regulation Sanctuary with Dr. LuLu

The Regulation Sanctuary is a softly guided somatic space designed for nervous system recalibration and embodied awareness.

Through gentle breathwork, guided somatic practices, and reflective journaling, participants begin to notice where stress has been held — and what safety feels like in the body.

This intentionally designed rotation blends personalized clinical insight with experiential nervous system restoration, allowing physiology and embodied awareness to integrate in real time.

A structured, physician-informed somatic release session designed to gently unwind stored stress patterns from the nervous system.

This session prepares the body for deeper ceremonial integration later in the evening.

After dinner, participants are given spacious time for rest, reflection, or quiet journaling before the evening Maloca ceremony.

This pause allows the nervous system to settle and integrate the day’s work before entering the deeper ceremonial container.

The day culminates in a deeper ceremonial experience supporting emotional release, nervous system recalibration, and deeper energetic integration within a grounded, professionally facilitated container.

The morning begins with a physician-guided breathwork session led by Dr. LuLu and Dr. Berny.

This structured breathing practice is designed to support oxygen efficiency, mitochondrial function, and parasympathetic restoration.

Through intentional breath pacing and somatic awareness, participants enhance cellular energy production while anchoring nervous system stability — rebuilding internal capacity from the inside out.

This session marks the transition from release into renewal.

Throughout the day

Anti-inflammatory, hormone-supportive meals are intentionally designed to stabilize blood sugar, reduce inflammatory burden, and enhance parasympathetic tone.

The day continues with a coastal immersion experience designed to support mitochondrial health through natural environmental inputs.

What you’ll experience:

• Los Frailes Beach – Located within Machalilla National Park, this pristine coastline offers sunlight exposure, ocean immersion, and movement along white sand — natural inputs that support circadian rhythm alignment, cellular signaling, and whole-body restoration.

• Aguas Blancas Community – An ancestral community experience introducing the heritage of the Manteña culture, grounding renewal in cultural wisdom and continuity.

• Sulfur Mud Pools – Natural sulfur baths known for their skin-supportive and therapeutic properties. Sulfur plays a key role in detoxification pathways and cellular repair, offering both grounding and physiological renewal.

This physician-guided session translates the retreat experience into sustainable vitality.

Participants explore how nervous system regulation, metabolic stability, and mitochondrial efficiency intersect — and how to protect and rebuild energy long after returning home.

This is where insight becomes strategy.

Following the afternoon session, guests are given spacious time for rest, reflection, or quiet integration before dinner.

Renewal requires recovery.

This intentional pause allows the nervous system and cellular systems to consolidate the day’s inputs before the evening ceremony.

The retreat culminates in a grounded fire ceremony held in the maloca, supporting emotional completion and intentional anchoring of renewal at both the nervous system and cellular level.

Participants leave not only restored — but recalibrated.

A smaller, intimate physician-led integration session designed to help you translate your retreat experience into a clear and personalized next phase.

In this extended circle, Dr. LuLu and Dr. Berny will guide a structured reflection on:

• Nervous system patterns that surfaced
• Hormonal or metabolic themes identified
• Epigenetic and stress-response insights
• Detox or inflammatory patterns
• Emotional integration points

This session bridges experience with strategy — ensuring your RESET continues beyond Ecuador with clarity and clinical precision.

This is not a repeat of group content. It is a refinement and next-level personalization container.

VIP guests receive private, personalized access to Dr. LuLu and Dr. Berny in an intimate concierge-style setting.

These focused one-on-one sessions are designed to refine your personal longevity roadmap following the RESET experience.

During your private time, you may:

• Clarify individual hormone or metabolic concerns
• Review epigenetic insights and stress patterns
• Personalize supplement and lifestyle strategy
• Discuss detox or inflammatory priorities
• Refine next-step clinical testing or care pathways

This is not a rushed Q&A session — it is dedicated physician access in a calm, unhurried environment.

VIP guests gather for a relaxed, nourishing integration dinner in an intimate setting.

This final shared meal offers space to:

• Reflect on personal insights
• Ask informal follow-up questions
• Deepen connection within the smaller VIP circle
• Transition gently into the evening ceremony

The meal is intentionally unhurried, allowing the nervous system to soften and settle after the day’s integration work.

Connection and nourishment are part of the RESET process

The VIP experience concludes with an extended Nervous System Reset & Anchoring Ceremony.

This evening container is designed to stabilize the physiological, emotional, and identity-level shifts initiated during the retreat.

Guided by Dr. LuLu and Dr. Berny, this immersive session may include:

• Somatic nervous system regulation practices
• Breath-based autonomic balancing
• Structured emotional integration
• Symbolic release ritual
• Intention anchoring for long-term vitality

This is a slow, immersive, regulation-focused experience — not activation, but stabilization.

The retreat initiates change.
This ceremony integrates and embodies it.

Guests depart the following morning grounded, clear, and physiologically supported.