What We Learned at the Same Skin Sabbatical

A few months ago, we connected with Michelle Desouza, founder of Same Skin, at the HP Salon in New York in celebration of Women's History Month. She was so inspired by the salon that she wrote a substack article about some of the themes that came up in the community conversation, you can read more here.

Same Skin is a safe space built specifically for high-performing women ready to stop overriding their bodies and start understanding them.

Same Skin runs immersive wellness sabbaticals rooted in functional medicine, ancestral health, and real biological literacy. When Michelle invited Honey Pot to join the Cycle Breakers Performance Sabbatical in the Hudson Valley, we said yes immediately.

The experience was held at the Pocketbook Hotel, with beautiful bath houses, grounding spaces, and rooms designed for exactly the kind of reset this was. We opened with an astro dinner exploring birth charts and the upcoming new moon, set intentions at an opening ceremony the next morning, and left with a deeper understanding of what it actually means to care for yourself beyond a long weekend.

The ROI of Understanding Your Body

The conversation that stayed with us the most was led by Dr. Gabrielle Francis, a functional medicine and acupuncture doctor with decades of integrative experience worldwide. She spoke on the archetypes of womanhood from first period to menopause and reframed the whole conversation.

One of her most grounding points: a lot of women in their 30s are told they’re entering perimenopause when they may actually be experiencing hormone imbalances driven by stress, adrenal dysregulation, or chronic inflammation. These things are common but absolutely addressable. She recommended annual hormone and thyroid testing, and something we already believe deeply: that reconnecting with nature, a walk outside, a beach trip, time near water, genuinely moves the needle.

She also introduced the idea of menopause as an archetype: the Queen. A woman who has given to her family, her career, her relationships, and is now stepping into an identity built around receiving and pouring into herself. That reframe felt important and long overdue.

What made this conversation so special was the room itself.

Women asked questions they’d never felt comfortable asking a doctor. Dr. Francis answered each one directly and with care, grounded in a clear philosophy: understand the root cause before reaching for a medication or surgery. Sometimes what you actually need is an herb, better testing, or a few intentional weeks of support.

This is exactly why Honey Pot is proud to be part of the Same Skin community.

We both believe in plant-derived solutions, ancestral wisdom, and giving women real tools to understand their own bodies. There is so much that rituals, herbs, and plants can do when we take the time to learn, and these are things humans have used for centuries.

We can’t wait to bring more of this work to the Honey Pot community. In the meantime, follow Same Skin and Dr. Gabrielle Francis and stay tuned for what’s next from this partnership.