An In-Depth Look at Anam Cara Healing Retreats
Anam Cara Healing Retreats offers intimate Ayahuasca retreats designed to incorporate the ancestral wisdom of the Shipibo lineage and provide comprehensive integration support, all within the tranquil surroundings of the Sacred Valley in Peru. These retreats offer participants an opportunity to explore their inner selves and find healing in a supportive and nurturing environment. In this article, we will take an in-depth look at what makes Anam Cara Healing Retreats so special and how they can benefit individuals seeking to improve their mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
7 Q&As from the team at Anam Cara Healing Retreats
1. How does someone prepare for an ayahuasca retreat at Anam Cara Healing Retreats?
We offer a 30-day preparation program included in the retreat cost. For us, preparation is an incredibly important part of having a safe, profound, and transformative journey with Ayahuasca. We speak with each guest who registers over the phone, usually at length, to connect on a deeper level and to ensure our offering is a good fit for them at this time in their lives.
We also offer one complimentary 1:1 preparation sessions with each guest who will be joining us. These sessions are about 90 minutes, held on Zoom with either Neils or Francesca. In these sessions, we do a deep dive into personal inquiry, trauma, history, and intention setting. The sessions are a beautiful way for us to connect deeply with the guest, begin to bring things into the light to be seen, felt, and healed with the medicine as well as help them hone their intentions into a clear and aligned anchor for their medicine work. It is also a great time for the client to build trust with us, getting more comfortable with us as facilitators and our styles - this level of trust is incredibly important when coming into a retreat like this.
After our individual sessions with each guest, we host a group intention-sharing circle via Zoom with all members of the retreat. This is an amazing time for them to begin to build community, share their intentions, practice vulnerability, and prepare to build deep relationships with their retreat cohort. We find these group sessions to be incredible for creating a vulnerable, safe, and open container for everyone’s healing.
The final event we offer in our preparation program is a complimentary 90-minute masterclass (also held on Zoom) by our Somatic Experiencing Practitioner on site. The masterclass focuses on the nervous system and is incredibly rich in tips and tools for grounding and regulating the nervous system, navigating the ceremonies, and how to use the nervous system as a tool for deep integration. It is an amazing offering that our guests always find very helpful.
The guests will also have a dieta. We are quite strict and passionate about the dieta and work hard to uphold the Shipibo lineage and instructions of the maestros they’ll be working with. All of our travel, dieta, and preparation info is in a packet that we send to the guests when they register.
2. What does a typical ayahuasca ceremony look like?
We work solely in close alignment and connection with 3 different highly-experienced families of the Shipibo lineage. At Anam Cara Retreats, we strive to uphold, preserve, and honor the traditions of the Shipibo lineage and offer our Ayahuasca ceremonies in the most traditional way possible. Our retreats are kept very small and intimate so that each guest has as much hands-on and individualized care as they need. We also keep the ceremonies to a smaller number (usually always under 12), because this was the original way these ceremonies were held in the Amazon. The maestros we work with feel that the quality and depth of their work becomes quite diluted when the group sizes increase to large numbers, so it has been a part of our mission to keep our retreats and ceremonies intimate, so the work being done is deep, authentic, and individualized to each person’s needs. Our ceremonies will always be held with an entire family of Shipibo Maestros, who sing as one unit, just as they do in the Amazon in their original communities. We usually have between 3-5 maestros, 2-3 facilitators, and 8-12 guests, offering a really high level of care for each guest.
Our ceremonies begin with an hour-long pre-ceremony yin yoga, meditation, and somatic relaxation session led by our somatic experiencing practitioner who guides the group through a diversity of beautiful breath, movement, and connection practices to drop them into a grounded and calm state for the work to begin.
Each guest drinks a customized dose each night that is discussed individually to fit their sensitivity level, the recommendation of the maestros, and their desires for the ceremony. The ceremonies are held in a traditional Shipibo way, lasting between 5 and 7 hours, held in sacred silence, and focused on the icaros (or medicine songs) that the maestros sing to each individual and to the group as a whole.
For us, the safety and containment of the ceremony space is a huge priority and so our guests will be required to stay in the ceremony space for the entire duration, as well as commit to actively participating in being open to fully receive the powerful songs and energy work of the maestros.
When the individual and group work is finished and the medicine has landed a bit, we close the ceremony by giving invocations of gratitude for the sacred land we reside on, for each guest, our ancestors, the maestros, and all the plant spirit helpers. After the ceremony closes, we offer our own medicine songs, guitar, and sound bowls to continue to ground the group and softly land the ceremonial container.
3. How do the maestros help you to heal within an ayahuasca ceremony? What is their role?
In the Shipibo tradition, the maestros have many many decades of experience with plant dietas and plant allies which they have dieted in the jungle and learned healing wisdom from. In the ceremonies, the maestros are opening up the space by blessing deep protections and channeling in the spirits and presence of the master plant teachers they work with. Their work during the ceremony includes one-on-one healings with each guest where they, at length, sing sacred medicine songs and do deep energetic work to help align each person, remove any blockages or densities from their field, and fill their physical, energetic, and emotional body with protection, love, and clarity. Their role is to perform their healings as a vessel for the spirit and consciousness of the medicine to move through them clearly and directly, providing a completely unique and specific healing experience for each person based on their individual life path, configuration, and intention for working with the medicine.
Aside from the ceremony space, we have designed our retreats in a way that brings a deep connection between the maestros and our guests. Where many other retreat centers usually only have the maestros interacting with the guests in ceremony, at Anam Cara Retreats we find there is deep healing value and wisdom in learning from the maestros outside of the ceremony space as well. We provide a beautiful retreat space where the maestros, facilitators, and guests will all be working together and spending intimate time with one another during meals, events, talks, time in nature, and doing indigenous rituals outside of the ceremony such as healing plant baths, vapor baths, sweat lodges, fire ceremonies, purgative practices, sharing circles, singing circles, and breathwork. We often hear from guests that having so much time learning from, connecting with, and having access to build conversation and bonds with the maestros is one of the most valuable aspects of the retreat.
4. Integration is a key part of the ayahuasca ceremony. What does integration look like and how long does it last?
We view integration as a completely unique and individual process for each person. Although many of us when we enter into this path are in search of a protocol or formula, the truth is the plant medicine will provide a completely individualized path of integration for each person she works through. Our role as facilitators in this space is to meet each guest in their unique process and provide a container of unconditional support, patience, and stability for each person to feel they can honor the divine timing, challenges, and breakthroughs their integration process holds without feeling the need to control and ‘make’ anything happen. At Anam Cara Retreats, we believe integration is something you allow, not something you do. Integration requires mindfulness, space, and time to weave its way through the tapestry of our lives and allow what is no longer serving us to fall away so we may find deeper alignment with ourselves, our creations, and our relationships on our path.
We offer a complimentary 90-day integration package that is available to each guest to use as much or as little as they feel called. In those 90 days, we offer one-on-one therapeutic counseling using our vast experience and a diversity of techniques including internal family systems work, somatic experiencing, compassionate inquiry, pranic energy healing, breathwork, and movement practices. We strive to weave and create a diverse and supportive creation that can support each guest in the entire spectrum of their healing experience, knowing that there is no one formula or technique that will work for everyone.
Along with our individual offerings, we offer bi-weekly or monthly integration-sharing circles with each retreat group in the months following their retreat experience. These sharing circles are an extremely powerful and beautiful way for the group to continue to nourish their vulnerability and community which provides a great deal of support for them throughout their integration process. Through sitting in a sacred circle and continuing to allow ourselves to witness others and be witnessed in our unique process, we inherently continue to give permission and support to others in the group to heal, learn, shed, and evolve in their own unique way while feeling accepted and loved by a container of accountability and connection.
5. It's commonly said that people will feel called to take ayahuasca when the time is right in their life. What does that look like for people? How will you know if you 'have the call'?
Many guests over the years have described experiencing a profound calling to experience ayahuasca. This inexplicable urge to explore the therapeutic benefits of traditional plant medicine seems undeniable for some. For others, there is a deep yearning to overcome personal challenges, such as persistent limiting beliefs, and past traumas that continue to impact their lives and relationships.
The journey towards healing is highly individual, and while some may feel a strong calling from the medicine, others may have different motivations for seeking its therapeutic effects.
One thing that commonly occurs is that folks start their healing journey well in advance of the retreat's start date. This often happens soon after deciding to work with Ayahuasca, as life and the medicine present tests through our relationships and even unforeseen circumstances.
6. How can you best prepare yourself mentally and physically for an ayahuasca ceremony?
If you're considering working with Ayahuasca or other plant medicines, it's important to approach them with humility and respect. To prepare for your retreat, follow a specific diet that involves cutting out processed foods, pork, red meat, sex, violent shows/movies, toxic dynamics, and any other inputs that don't contribute to your well-being.
Take some time for personal reflection and uncover what you truly desire and hope to gain from the experience with Ayahuasca. Having clear intentions to bring to ceremony is very important, and the power of manifestation is a beautiful and divine gift we all can tap into. By focusing our thoughts and intentions on what we want to bring more of into our lives, we align ourselves with the infinite abundance of the universe.
Creating space for yourself helps you to connect with the medicine on a deeper level, but keep in mind that restricting what you consume can be challenging and may bring up your true nature and addictions. This is all part of the healing process, and the medicine will recognize and reward the commitment we make to showing up in reverence to her and our own healing.
Each lineage of Ayahuasca is unique, so consult with the healers or organizers providing your experience about specific considerations for the preparation. We provide a comprehensive outline of the pre-and post-diet requirements and coach guests who require extra assistance to show up well-prepared and ready for ceremony. We also offer 1-on-1 intention-setting sessions with each guest to build trust, explore your process together, and help you define your intentions for coming on retreat.
7. What makes Anam Cara Healing Retreat different from other ayahuasca retreat centers?
At Anam Cara Healing Retreat, we pride ourselves on providing a safe, unique, and exceptional experience for our guests who choose to work with Ayahuasca in our small group, intimate retreat experiences. One of the things that set us apart from other retreat centers is the highly trained, indigenous ayahuasca healers of the Shipibo nation that we work with. These healers come from families of healers and generously share their ancestral medicine for healing. This ensures that guests receive authentic and profound healing experiences that are rooted in centuries of indigenous wisdom and tradition.
We also provide a high level of support to our guests before, during and after the retreat, which sets us apart from other centers. Our personalized approach includes 1 on 1 intention setting sessions for each guest, virtual sharing circles, a high number of healers and facilitators per guest, and beautiful, safe, and luxurious venues that allow you to deeply relax and focus on your healing experience.
Our facilitators have many years of experience guiding and facilitating healing plant medicine journeys, which ensures that guests feel safe, supported, and held throughout the process. We are trauma-informed and have studied many different Western therapeutic approaches that complement the medicine work to create a safe and supportive experience for our guests. We strive to create a safe and nurturing environment that allows guests to surrender to the healing power of Ayahuasca and experience profound transformation in their lives.
Our commitment to Ayahuasca and plant medicine, working with highly trained indigenous healers, providing personalized support, and creating a safe and luxurious environment sets us apart from other Ayahuasca retreat centers.
Wrapping up
If you feel the call to embark on a healing journey towards inner healing and self-discovery at Anam Cara Healing Retreats, visit their website to explore upcoming retreats and availability.