In short… For people looking to get serious about detox and gut health, We Care Spa offers a nutritionally supported fast and cleanse in a peaceful and private desert setting.
The surroundings… We Care is a shady, emerald oasis of eucalyptus, cape honeysuckle and lemon trees ringed by the arid, scrubby landscape of Desert Hot Springs—about 20 minutes from Palm Springs. I arrived after it had rained for a week and it was especially fragrant and vivid, with snow dusting the peaks of the San Jacinto mountains in the distance. Behind the main house, the property unfolds down a gentle slope in a series of looping, leafy trails that lead you to pockets of privacy and care: a sauna, hot tub, suspended beds, and walking labyrinth, so it feels much bigger than it is. I often got lost on my way to and from one of these spots, though a giant Buddha head anchors one multi-spoked path to guide you on your way.
The backstory… Nearly half a century ago, founder Susana Belen—a petite Argentine who at 88 is still very much involved in the day-to-day—found herself divorced with four young children and suffering a health crisis brought on by stress. Frustrated that doctors seemed unable to help her, she began traveling the world to learn the wisdom of ancient cultures, meeting with shamans in Peru, learning yoga in Thailand, breathwork in India, and healthy eating in Greece. She began agglomerating techniques that improved her health and built a holistic yoga practice out of her home in the desert. Eventually, she hosted friends and then paying guests, adding additional rooms and therapies, and until 2020, We Care operated entirely out of Susana’s cozy and rustic home. Around that time, her daughter Susan, who had joined the operation years earlier with a background in fashion, spearheaded an expansion and renovation completed in 2022 that added 12 new rooms/suites, a pool and juice bar, a yoga/workshop room, lymphatics studio, and converted the home into an airy lobby and detox kitchen where teas, juices and soups are served. “It’s more bougie now,” one of my veteran therapists said, “but its soul hasn’t changed.”
Susana’s premise is that everyday toxins accumulate over a lifetime, quietly causing chronic health problems—and that by cleansing the body and supporting its innate capacity for renewal, it’s possible to break that cycle and live a longer, healthier life. At the heart of her philosophy is a nutritionally supported fast. “No one was talking about gut health back then—she was so far around the bend no one could see her,” Jim Root, We Care’s managing director, told me about the early days of the spa, which turns 40 this year. Of course, now everyone knows about the importance of gut balance, with the stomach often described as a second brain. Guests and staff speak of Susana in reverential tones—and indeed the 88-year-old remains a steady, spry presence on the grounds. The place was already somewhat legendary when I was an editor at ELLE in the late ‘90s at the dawn of detox culture, and I sent a writer to try it after hearing whisperings about boosted energy, weight loss, mental clarity and glowing skin. One story she heard there—no doubt apocryphal (yet still circulating!)—was that a woman had passed a pink Barbie shoe she’d ingested as a child. The writer returned euphoric, and I’d been curious about it ever since. In the years that followed, as detox culture expanded, so did We Care’s reputation, if anchored to one particular aspect of its offerings. When I told people where I was headed, they usually asked (with a grimace), “Isn’t that the place where you get colonics?!” Yes, it is. And more on that later.
The vibe… is part spa, part clinic. Because everyone is on a similar regimen, there’s a purpose to the energy that differentiates it from a more recreational spa environment. The public spaces are spotless and spare; the staff and therapists all wear the same black uniforms. And because most of the guests are repeat visitors and you typically see the same therapist more than once during your stay (and often for years!), there’s an immediate, disarming friendliness in nearly every interaction, with frequent exchanges of “How are you feeling today?”
The week I was there, the guests were an intriguing mix of ages (twenty- to seventy-something), genders (more women than men, but two or three couples), and types, from style-conscious LA/NY women in Alo workout sets and shearling Arizona Birks to normcore academics to hard-charging businesspeople—I met two female CEOs who return annually for a reset (third and seventh visits) and a fashion entrepreneur from Aspen was on his 17th year. I didn’t spot anyone famous during my stay, though We Care does have a devoted niche Hollywood following—and I was told there’s a room unofficially named for Matthew McConaughey. Still, everyone assured me that the celebrities are Just Like Us, and it is exceedingly easy to meet people on this level, bonded by circumstance, as everyone waits on deep couches in the lobby to be collected for treatments.
There are plenty of group classes for those who want them—breathwork or sound baths—and the poolside bar tends to be quite social in the afternoons, with guests lingering over Detox Drinks (a frothy and not terrible-tasting tonic of psyllium husk, ionic minerals, water, olive oil, and cinnamon or cacao) and electrolyte slushies. At the same time, I found that part of the pleasure of being here was the freedom to do my own thing—working on one of the hanging beds, taking a solo sauna at night—without feeling pressured to join the group dynamic.
The regimen… The spa promotes 7, 5 or 2-night “Renewal Packages” (I did five), though a handful of people stay longer. Shorter visits are discouraged, since the reputed euphoria of the cleanse rarely kicks in before day 4 (with the worst being days 2 and 3, as the body adjusts to the liquid diet and supposedly begins shedding toxins). The regimen is based around hourly liquid nutrition, and your “Daily Drink Plan” (with some customization—you can also do a liver cleanse) goes roughly like this:
Begin the day with warm lemon water and digestive enzymes, followed by a tsp of green food (a concentrated blend of leafy greens rich in chlorophyll, vitamins and minerals) stirred into a glass of water. By midmorning, you can have a Detox Drink (described earlier), the most substantial of the concoctions, which I slurped down like a milkshake. Throughout the day, boosts of carrot and green juice keep energy up, as does a second Detox Drink. On top of that, you’re meant to drink half your weight in ounces of water daily, and sip liver-kidney detox tea or blood purifier tea between treatments. (Hydration is key: once the toxins are pulled from your cells, you want to flush them out of your body.) Everyone looks forward to 4pm when an organic vegetable soup is set out in the lobby, which we eagerly doctored with drizzles of olive oil, cayenne, bio salt and other condiments. The evening is more liquids, along with some of We Care’s patented line of supplements.
It’s tightly scripted and a lot to stay on top of, but everything is laid out clearly in a checklist, highly satisfying for a Virgo like me. I found I was so preoccupied managing the drinks and supplements that I stayed busy and distracted from idle thoughts of food. Turns out detoxing is a full-time job! Which helps make the liquid fast not only tolerable, but infuses it with a sense of tangible accomplishment.
The key to moving things along, of course, is daily colon hydrotherapy. I dreaded typing this phrase almost as much as I dreaded my first session. But I am here to report that it’s nothing like colonoscopy prep! Instead, what I’ll say is that it’s administered via an almost amusingly retro-looking machine, operated by the warmest, most supportive and knowledgeable therapists. Each visit came to resemble going to the OB for regular check-ins towards the end of pregnancy: a little bit awkward, but safe, congenial, and firmly in the service of better health. (“Your gut is a stinky garbage can—if you clean it out now and then, it’s going to work so much better!” is one of Susana’s favorite refrains.)
And people come to We Care for all sorts of reasons—brain fog, exhaustion, gut issues, chronic conditions (though they are not a medical spa and don’t claim to cure anyone). As for me, beyond some garden-variety midlife aches and fatigue, I felt I’d grown too dependent on my two daily coffees and nightly glass of wine/cocktail (one or two when I cook, more when I go out), and wanted to see how my brain and body would react without that crutch. And while weight loss isn’t the goal here, you almost certainly will shed some pounds as calories drop (though nutritional needs are met).
Is it hard? I did hear tales of the occasional guest ordering pizzas or other contraband via Door Dash (what’s the point of spending all that money only to set yourself back to Day 1?!). But I really only felt hungry a couple of times, and those pangs were easily addressed with a bottle of green juice or a scoop of protein powder to my Detox Drink. Mostly, I found it quite bearable, and at times even pleasantly steady, as I avoided the peaks and crashes that come with less-than-ideal eating and drinking habits.
Classes & workshops… The nutritionally supported cleanse is only one tool in the box. There are many other therapies and workshops to support the detox journey, which work on all systems of waste removal.
The bodywork treatments are both excellent and varied. I loved the System Recovery, a 90-minute ritual that begins with dry brushing to stimulate lymphatic flow, followed by a castor-oil basting and a wrap in a reflective sheet on a heated amethyst mat to sweat out toxins; also the Body Splash, a hammam-style wet scrub to slough away sheets of dead skin. Later in the week, a Magnesium Detox, a full-body mineral wrap, helped calm the twitching in my legs, and is an all-around nervous-system tamer.
There’s also a fascinating array of body technologies, both high-tech and old-school (or alt-school). The Cellular Circuit Therapy cycles through five machines: low-frequency foot detox to activate the body’s detox pathways; ozone therapy via a light electrical current at the wrist to help the body eliminate bacteria and viruses; oxygen therapy to open the airways; an infrared LED bed for deep cellular repair (which I repeated daily); and a Bemer bed, used in hospitals, which deploys electromagnetic stimulation to boost circulation and nutrient delivery. Skeptics will inevitably raise an eyebrow (or both), while adherents will cite small studies and anecdotes. I fall somewhere in the middle: open, curious, and firmly in the “it probably won’t hurt, and might even help” camp. Plus, it’s simply fun to experiment.
Movement sessions like gentle yoga classes with breathwork and meditation are offered daily. I would have loved something more vigorous, but fasting is not the time for a feel-the-burn workout. Instead, I gravitated to the small gym with weights and a mini-trampoline, which you’re encouraged to jump on 10-20 minutes a day to jostle and move the lymphatics. The spa’s two Vibratrim machines—oscillating platforms that create involuntary muscle contractions—were also consistently popular.
Susana herself offers weekly nutrition and cooking sessions, outlining the pillars of her philosophy: relax and honor your meals; chew thoroughly (all the better to absorb nutrients); don’t drink with food (and when you do drink, ideally make it alkaline by adding lemon or using a special ionizer, like the Kangen); eat only when your stomach is empty; and prioritize essential fats and fiber. More technical guidance follows—boosting hydrochloric acid with celery juice and iodine from seaweed, taking digestive enzymes and pre-and pro-biotics, etc. To simplify matters, We Care produces its own line of supplements, spent in a gift shop where I spent more time browsing than I’ll admit.
And finally, Susana’s background in global esoterica brings a spiritual dimension to the schedule. A handful of classes are taught by Mari Mendoza, a Peruvian-trained shaman (which are optional; some guests stick to the more tangible therapies). At her Fire Ceremony, we chanted and fed written lists of habits that no longer serve into the flames (emotional detox), and I underwent an intense Shamanic Healing session in a tent, in which a short conversation/talk therapy session segued into her chanting over me in a visualization too personal and weird to go into, but felt like another kind of shedding. Reader, I cried.
The rooms… I stayed in an Executive Suite, one of the spacious new structures, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and a large terrace that overlooks a desert mountain landscape. It is well-equipped with a large soaking tub, kitchenette stocked with juices and supplies for mixing your detox cocktails, and workout equipment including yoga mat, small weights, and mini-tramp. I slept incredibly well here, a combination of the aftereffects of wringing my body free of junk and a spectacular mattress. Interestingly, a couple of people I met who have been coming for years still prefer to stay in the older quarters, partly out of nostalgia and partly price.
Extra tip goes to… Honestly, everyone. I always thought the name “We Care” was kind of goofy, but it’s well earned. My list of thank yous would be as long as an Oscar speech, but I would single out Annabel, my first colonicist (is that a word?) who approaches her job with warmth, compassion, and something that seemed strikingly almost like joy; Cheryl, for that pampering System Recovery Treatment and most thorough facial with extraction I’ve had in a long time; and Mari, for taking me on a wild emotional trip to visit my ancestors.
Be sure to… Get there early on the day you arrive and leave late on departure day so you can maximize your stay and get more treatments. Also: the desert air is so dry, yet there is oddly no skin cream in the guest rooms, so ask your therapist to give you a little to-go container of the amazing raw food skincare from The Body Deli—this is not the time to be retoxing with your own drug store lotions.
Parting words… I really did feel amazing on leaving—with a clear head, sound body and plush skin. I could swear that my joints are less painful. One week later, I worried that being back in my routine—cooking dinner or waking early and zombie-walking to the coffee maker—would set me right back, but I haven’t craved caffeine or alcohol yet (early days, I know!). A few repeat guests told me that each year they try to adopt one or two new habits. For me, it’ll be the lemon water first thing (cutting my daily coffee intake to one from two cups), taking a daily probiotic and ionic minerals, and drinking tea with a more medicinal approach—I’ve added a kidney and liver detox box to my stash. And chewing, chewing, chewing. I understand why people return to We Care every year for a tune-up: this feeling will be hard to recapture on my own. Maybe at some point that will be me.
Date of stay… January 11-16
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