Itinerary

Here’s a look at our itinerary (we will have plenty of breaks, free time, and good meals of course!):

April 23

Arrive in Athens. Stay at the Niche Hotel in central Athens (with an amazing view of the Acropolis). This will be our hotel-base for week 1.

 

April 24

Morning AWB orientation. Afternoon in-depth visit to the National Archaeological Museum with Eftychia Anaplioti (aka Efty), our amazing mythologist/historical guide. We’ll look at the time-line of Greek history, philosophy, and healing through an archaeological lens, providing a context for what we’ll be exploring throughout the trip.

 

April 25

The iconic Acropolis! We’ll spend the day with Efty learning about this ancient site. While known primarily as a symbol of ancient Greek culture and democracy, the Acropolis holds a significant place in the history of healing. Among its iconic temples, the Sanctuary of Asclepius, stood as a vital center for health and spiritual restoration. Pilgrims from across the ancient world visited the temple seeking cures for physical and emotional ailments. The healing practices at the Acropolis were holistic, blending prayer, offerings, and treatments such as herbal remedies and dream therapy, where patients would sleep in the temple in hopes of receiving divine healing guidance through their dreams.

 

April 26

This will be a “back to school day” at the Akadimia of Ancient Greek and Traditional Chinese Medicine which offers full courses of study in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ancient Greek Medicine. Like TCM, Ancient Greek Medicine was a system that combined empirical observation, philosophical inquiry, and religious/spiritual beliefs. Central to this system was the idea of balancing the body's natural elements, particularly through the theory of the four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. According to this theory, health was maintained when these humors were in balance, and illness arose when they were in excess or deficiency. Treatments often involved lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise, and herbal remedies to restore balance. The ancient Greeks also developed a meridian map of the body, like that of Chinese Medicine!

Greek physicians, most notably Hippocrates—the "father of (Western) medicine"—advocated for a rational, observational approach to diagnosing and treating illness. He emphasized the importance of environmental factors, nutrition, and mental well-being, which laid the foundation for Western medical ethics and practices. Alongside these methods, spiritual healing played an important role, particularly in healing sanctuaries like those dedicated to Asclepius, where patients combined medical treatments with prayer, offerings, and incubation (sleep therapy).

 

April 27 and April 28

Alma practitioners with women from the Melissa Projects, a community center for refugee women in Athens. Alma provides ear acupuncture and other treatments every Monday at Melissa.

We’ll join our wonderful colleagues at Alma Community Holistic Therapies (formerly known as AWB Greece) for several days of service during the trip. The Alma team offers a variety of therapies including acupuncture, reflexology, Chinese herbal medicine, massage, and aromatherapy. Alma’s mission is to support communities affected by war, poverty, social injustice, and gender-based violence, including essential workers, refugees, and other vulnerable communities. We’ll help provide treatments at different venues in Athens including the Melissa Project for refugee women, and the new Alma Community Holistic Center.

 

April 29

A day with Efty in Epidaurus on the Peloponnese, one of the most important healing centers in the ancient world, primarily due to its famous Sanctuary of Asclepius which offered physical treatments, spiritual rituals, and psychological therapy. Patients would undergo a process called "incubation," where they slept in the enkoimeterion (a dormitory) in hopes of receiving healing visions from Asclepius in their dreams. This was often accompanied by various forms of therapy, such as herbal medicine, exercise, and spiritual practices. The sanctuary also featured baths, and an amphitheater for drama, as the Greeks believed that the arts played a vital role in healing emotional afflictions.

 

April 30

We will leave Athens and travel several hours to Delphi on Mt. Parnassus, one of the world’s sacred mountains. Delphi was renowned in antiquity as a powerful spiritual and healing site, primarily due to its famous Oracle of Apollo. It was believed to be the "navel of the world," a place where the divine and human realms converged. Although it is best known for its oracular prophecies, Delphi also had significant healing associations, closely tied to the god Apollo. Delphi’s healing significance lay in its holistic, integrative approach, which combined sacred ritual, spiritual purification, and prophecy to treat both the body and the soul.

From Delphi, we will travel to Evia, the largest of the Greek islands (no boat transport required) where we’ll stay at the Lithokiston Guesthouse in Limnionas on the Aegean Sea. This will be our base for a free day and three additional days of learning about the abundant herbs on Evia and their many medicinal uses.

May 1 (a holiday in Greece!)

Free Day! You can swim, hike,relax, read, sleep, enjoy the beach…our minibus can take those who want to visit local sites on an afternoon journey!

 

May 2, 3, 4

We will spend three days with herbalist Maria Skarli at her farm overlooking the Aegean Sea (about 4km from the guesthouse). The farm is a bit remote, has its own electricity, and water comes from a nearby spring. Here’s Maria’s description of what we’ll be doing during our time together:

May 2: In the morning we’ll walk in the area and learn about local herbs and flowers (perfect time of year!), discuss their properties, collect them, and return to the farm. In the afternoon we’ll start making tinctures and herbal oils with the herbs we’ve collected. We will prepare the remedies according to “old” traditional recipes, and talk about their contemporary therapeutic uses. We’ll have delicious tea, coffee, homemade lemonade, and Greek snacks for sustenance.

 May 3: Visit a nearby hillside of wild sage, collect it, and return to the farm to set up a distillery. We will begin making sage essential oil, and as distillation occurs, we’ll also make beeswax-based creams for dry skin, eczema, psoriasis, fungus, herpes, muscular pain, and facial rejuvenation.

 

May 4: We’ll make raki (aka Greek moonshine made from grapes) in a traditional copper distillery. While raki is a popular drink, it can also be used as the basis for herbal tinctures. While the raki is distilling, we will learn to make traditional olive oil soap (there is nothing like it!). When the raki is done we will try it with some delicious regional appetizers and talk about diseases, treatments, and nutrition from the Greek and TCM perspectives.

By the end of our 3 days together, you’ll have made the following to take home:

• 100 ml herbal oil
• 50 ml herbal tincture
• 5 ml essential oil of sage
• 200 ml hydrosol of sage
• Olive oil soap
• 30 grams beeswax cream
• 200 ml raki

 

May 5

We’ll return to Athens to the Athens Market Portrait Hotel with a stop in Chalkida, a lovely town on the Strait of Evipros where you can witness the phenomenon of “crazy waters.” Rather than following a typical tidal pattern, the waters of the Evripos Strait reverse direction several times a day, creating a spectacle where the water flows rapidly in one direction, then abruptly switches to flow in the opposite direction.

We also hope to visit one of the refugee camps where AWB has worked in the past 8 years en route back to Athens. 

Yoga practice for stress and pain led by an AWB acupuncturist at the Ritsona camp near Chalkida.

 

May 6 and May 7

We’ll spend the last two days of the trip with our Alma colleagues doing treatments at local projects for the refugee community. You’ll have some final chances to enjoy the amazing sights and sounds of Athens, and we’ll have a closing celebration with Alma before departing on May 8th.

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TRIP DETAILS

There are 16 spots open for participants. We will use a lottery system if there is greater potential participant interest than available spots. Please read ALL of the information below. 

 

Participant Requirements:

• This is a service trip where we will be providing treatments as a team using shared protocols as well as your own clinical tools. We are also providing care in non-conventional settings for people from different cultural/religious backgrounds who likely have experienced significant trauma. Therefore, we require that participants have AWB trauma-informed care training before the trip. AWB training could be one or more of the following:
• In-person or online Healing Community Trauma in Times of Crisis course
• Repairing the Shattered Heart Certificate Program
• Past experience on an AWB WHE trip or service trip
• Because this is a service trip, we request a short zoom call with trip leaders for all potential participants before trip registration.
• Participants should be in good health, able to walk at least 2-5 miles/day.

 

*Cost: $4,500

The trip cost does not include airfare to and from Greece; ground transportation to and from the airport to our hotels; or 5 lunch/dinner meals during non-scheduled group time.

The trip cost includes:

• Lodging for 15 nights (single rooms in Athens 10 nights, shared doubles in Limnionas 5 nights)
• Ground transportation in Greece (except to and from hotels on arrival and departure days)
• Meals: All breakfasts and all but 5 dinner or lunch meals are included
• 30 CEUs for Licensed Acupuncturists
• Entrance fees to all sites
• Guide fees (except for group tips)

 

Payments:

• 50 percent ($2250) of the trip cost is due no later than November 1, 2024
• Remaining 50 percent ($2250) is due no later than February 1, 2025

 

Cancellation Policy:

• If you cancel after your first payment, between November 2, 2024 and January 31, 2025, you will receive a full refund minus $225 (admin fee).
• If you cancel after your second payment (February 2, 2025 or after), there is no refund UNLESS we can find another participant on the waiting list who would like to take the spot. If we can find another participant, you will receive a full refund minus $450 (admin fee).

 

AWB Trip Leaders:

• Carla Cassler, DAOM, L.Ac. – Director of Programs and Community Clinics at AWB. Co-created the Refugee Support Project in Greece in 2016.
• Julia Raneri, Dipl. Ac., L.Ac. – NADA Certified Trainer with extensive AWB field experience in Haiti, Mexico, and Greece.

 

Guides/Content Leaders:

Eftychia Anaplioti, Mythologist/Historian

”I was born in Athens (Greece) in December of 1973 and grew up in its southern suburbs. I studied Conservation of Artworks, always in Athens (1993-1997) and I worked from 1997 till 2018 in archaeological excavations and conservation laboratories of the British School of Archeology in Crete (Knossos, Palekastro), and at projects of INSTAP (Study Center for East Crete, in Zakros and Palekastro). During 2002-2003 I worked seasonally in Jordan (Lot’s Cave at Dead Sea). In 2004 I traveled to Northern Thailand where I was first introduced to the art of healing, obtaining a diploma in traditional Thai massage and Reflexology from the Thai Massage School of Chiang Mai. Two years later (2006), in the mountainous North India I studied at “Om Ha Hara” Shiatsu and Macrobiotic nutrition, and the experience was in a broader sense, the “Great lesson of my life”. Especially the visit to the Nishtha Rural Health Education & Environment Project, by Dr. Barbara Nath-Wiser, who provided alternative treatments of Homeopathy, Chinese Medicine, and Ayurveda, opened intellectual and practical paths for me that I follow to this day. From 2008-2016 I worked periodically in the tourist industry as a leader of Greek groups, all over the European continent! From 2012 to 2016 I took courses in Homeopathy and Ancient Greek Medicine, Astrology, Crystal Therapy and Su Jok, at the ACADEMY of Ancient Greek and Traditional Chinese Medicine. In 2016, my first writing attempt "Hippocrates and Democritus: The Meeting in Abdira" was released by the Academy publications. From 2015 until today I belong to the teaching staff of the ACADEMY of Ancient Greek and Traditional Chinese Medicine, teaching the courses of Greek Mythology and Therapeutic Astrology.”

 

Maria Skarli, Herbalist

“I was born and grew up in the provincial capital of Euboea, Chalkida in 74. In 2005, after the births of my three children, and because of participating in the early eco-festivals of Greece, I became interested in herbalism and enrolled at the Academy of Ancient Greek and Chinese Medicine. There I spent two years studying Aromatherapy, and then two cycles of Creative Healing, with Katerina Papakonstantinou. Since that time, I have had some important mentors to guide my understanding of the correct harvesting, processing, properties, and uses of Greek wild plants. Nineteen years ago. I opened my current apothecary and herbal shop where for the last 8 years I have worked with my collaborator Eleutheria. Most of the raw materials, we harvest and process ourselves – distilling our essential oils and hydrosols, making tinctures and herbal oils, soaps, and remedies. As I progress on my journey, I find myself more outside under the skies, doing what I love the most – collecting and learning. As I walk the fields and mountains, the plants tell me that I am home.

 

Eirini Salafi, Acupuncturist/Reflexologist

Founder and Coordinator of Alma Community Holistic Therapies in Athens.

 

Next Steps:

If you would like to join AWB for the trip, please sign up for a short zoom meeting with our trip leaders HERE. You can choose a time that suits you, and if there is no time that works for you on the schedule, please contact Carla at carla@acuwithoutborders.org. Looking forward to hearing from you!