ayahuasca retreat for ptsd

ayahuasca retreat for ptsd

Ayahuasca Retreat Programs

El Sol Retreats also has been a leader in providing preparation and integration coaching for the last 10 years, helping you to feel fully prepared for your journey into a deep healing experience with mother ayahuasca. Their approach is holistic and includes ways to prepare your body, mind, and soul for the experience, tools to navigate and ground yourself during the journey, and methods to overcome challenges.

PTSD and the negative effects of emotional trauma are helped tremendously by treatment with the indigenous healing tradition during our ayahuasca retreats in the Amazon. Using a series of remedies that help to release pent up emotions, unlock buried memories, and reroute unhealthy neural pathways, the tradition provides a path towards acceptance, self-love, and optimism for a bright future.

In the verdant hills outside of Cali, in Colombia’s southwestern bounds, the Colombian healer Taita Edwin leads healing ayahuasca ceremonies at his family’s private farm. During Edwin’s spiritual ceremonies, the medicine, or ayahuasca, is treated as a sacrament, a link to the spiritual realm, with a focus on creating a safe space and allowing people to surrender to their processes with deep compassion, love, and care. Besides an opening and closing prayer, there is no strict structure to the ceremonies. However, each does include two or more sharing circles so that everyone can express themselves, find clarity, and find common ground in the shared experience. More information can be found by reaching out directly via email.

The El Sol Retreats center is in the heart of a national reserve, far from the artificial brightness of city lights. At night, when the sky is clear, the moon and stars come out to dazzle us. Nothing helps to put things into perspective after an ayahuasca ceremony like looking up into the twinkling gaze of the Milky Way. Our center has a star gazing deck, which also works for sun bathing, playing music, or just hanging out.

This is facilitated by their very own spiritual leaders and healers, Abuelo Claudion and Abuelita Bernadita from the Muruy tribe of the Amazonasof Colombia.

I would say if you’re looking for a life changing experience, something that’s gonna have a positive significant effect on your life, then it’s definitely worth considering. Almost words can’t describe… it’s been a clearly unique experience, something which I’ll value all my life, highly recommended.

Banisteriopsis Caapi Vine

El Sol Retreats involves ayahuasca consumption (Daime tea) as part of their religious rituals. Sometimes difficult to find, you can try to find locations around the country by searching for Santo Daime USA. Another Ayahuasca church known as the Peaceful Mountain Way is a Native American Church that specializes in an Ayahuasca ritual as a spiritual sacrament.
Another Ayahuasca church known as the Peaceful Mountain Way is a Native American Church that specializes in an ayahuasca ritual as a spiritual sacrament.

Shamanic Healing Center

Our retreats blend elements of ancient shamanic rituals with contemporary healing modalities like psychotherapy, mindfulness, art therapy etc. They aim to provide a holistic self-growth experience integrating the ayahuasca journey with various complementary practices. This holistic approach can enhance integration and therapeutic value.Selecting the ideal ayahuasca retreat for your needs requires careful contemplation of several factors:
Prices for ayahuasca retreats in the USA range widely based on length, location, amenities and services included. Typical costs range from:

Plant Medicine

Ayahuasca is an Amazonian plant medicine that has been used in a sacred context by indigenous and mestizo healers in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil for hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years. Made from the mixture of 2 (or more) plants found in the Amazon jungle – the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), and the chacruna leaf (Psychotria viridis), which contains the powerful psychoactive dimethyletryptamine (DMT), it is a brew capable of inducing altered states of consciousness. The word ayahuasca is based in the Quechua language and translates to “vine of the soul” or “vine of the spirits”. It goes by many different names according to region, such as oni, caapi, natema, yajé, yagé, nepe, shuri, kamalampi, kaji and others throughout the Amazon Basin1.

Traditionally, ayahuasca has been used in a variety of contexts: as a therapeutic tool to diagnose and treat illness; as a means of shamanic communication; and for the communal purposes of hunting magic, warfare, and collective ritual2. While the true origins of ayahuasca have been lost to history, with no written records prior to the 16th century Amazon invasion of Spanish conquistadors, archaeological evidence suggests its use stretches back at least two millennia. Its practice and spread since appears to be as complex and diverse as the people who use it, embodying and blending various cultural frameworks, spiritual belief systems, economic and political landscapes, and social hierarchies. Today, it is the foundation for the traditional medicine systems of over 75 different tribes in the Amazon, and has spread to various regions across the globe, offering healing for many illnesses and dis-ease where modern medicine has failed.


Ayahuasca Ceremony,

When we are young, Spiritual Integration – we often inherit the patterns, habits, and ways of life from our parents, relatives, or those who raised us. We are also heavily shaped by the events in our lives that happen to us at a young age. Ayahuasca can take us back to this time and revisit memories that reflect on how we perceived life, created our values, and shaped our beliefs. When negative events or emotions happened, our tendency as children was to turn away from that pain, avoid it and push it down into our subconscious. This created great energetic impacts that we carried into our adult life, manifesting in a multitude of ways and practices, including how we handle stress, our predisposition to addiction, depression and anxiety, and the way we connect with ourselves and others. In this work, we are invited to engage with our inner child, and rescue those parts which still carry pain through reflecting upon, integrating, and then releasing the associated negative emotions and their energetic hold on us. By healing the inner child, we heal all that which follows, and can return to a place of authenticity, presence, and peace.

The alchemy of transformation comes from engaging directly with our shadow selves and our emotional pain and discomfort. It is not a process that one can simply “think through” – it is one of the heart, and can only be truly dealt with through the direct experience of the emotions and traumas we’ve been avoiding. When we fully integrate our shadow self, transforming the energy from it and rather using it for life-affirming purposes, we can enter into a state of love and gratitude that can only come from walking through the fire and coming out on the other side. By bringing the subconscious blockages to light, amplifying the patterns and processes that no longer serve us, and helping us face it, ayahuasca allows us the ability to transform that darkness into the keys to our liberation.

What can be treated on an Ayahuasca Retreat?

For a few twilight hours in a remote jungle of the Spanish Caribbean, I ceased to exist. On my first-ever ayahuasca retreat, a medicine journey that was facilitated by a local healing couple I met while traveling, I curled up inside a sleeping bag beneath a canvas tent structure, with a warm heap of wool blankets on top of me, and was lulled into one of the most transformative awakenings of my life. Over the course of one night, I was transported far and wide, and into a realm I never knew existed.El Sol Retreats exceeded my expectations in every way. The place location is breathtaking, the level of care is superb, and the Spiritual holiness is in the air.

Retreats are led by an indigenous curandero from the Shipibo culture. The curandero, don Ronor, learned from his father and grandfather, a vegtalisto and an ayahuasquero. He is the youngest of three brothers who are all experienced healers. He has a humility that brings a calm gratitude to his presence.He has extensive plant dietas with noya rao, bobinsana, marusa, chiric sanango, and chullachaqui.Don Ronor is constantly developing his own understanding and methods for healing, learning more icaros through his intimate connections to his dietas and plant spirit guides. He is also a father and his wife and children are usually with him on retreats, providing a wonderful light to the group experience. He works hard to provide the greatest level of healing, always wanting to prepare and administer as many remedies as he can during the ayahuasca retreat. All of the facilitators are so thankful for his dedication and willingness to share and teach the tradition. He is a true maestro.

Sacred Therapy retreats host their ceremonies in their own modern way, rather than recreating South American or Native American style ceremonies. To join their ceremonies you must be a member of Cosmic Valley Native Americas church, which you can apply to join on their website.Their North American medicine people are trained with US ayahuasca churches and offer a holistic and yogic approach to their ayahuasca ceremonies. They provide full integration before and after your ceremony and care deeply about each retreat participant's experience and growth.

Ayahuasca Retreat

What can be treated on an Ayahuasca Retreat?
How to Choose an Ayahuasca Retreat Center

How to Choose an Ayahuasca Retreat Center

Prices for ayahuasca retreats in the USA range widely based on length, location, amenities and services included. Typical costs range from:

This place is just amazing. Everyone here has been so great and so supportive. It’s just a beautiful place to be, surrounded by nature, so much green, so many animals everywhere, not big animals, little ones. And just having the river nearby, that was pretty glorious, and there’s this mud you can put all over yourself and let it draw all the toxins out and it just feels so great. And the food was great, lots of good food. Everything was just awesome. It was a really good experience and I highly recommend it to anyone thinking of coming down here. Just do it. It’s definitely worth it. Life changing. Thank you Ayahuasca Foundation.

Apart from treatment of diagnosed conditions, Ayahuasca Retreats can also be an amazing way to regain the connection that so many people have lost, the connection to our true selves. At our core, we are truly spirits. We are not just bodies, minds, or emotions. We are spirits that have bodies, minds, and emotions. Our spirits are divine vessels of universal energy. It is this mysterious energy that motivates life to blossom. It is what turns a seed into a plant, what gives birth to consciousness, what makes love a reality. Healing Retreats provide the opportunity to nourish our spirits, to plant our roots in healthy soil again, so they can grow and blossom as they are meant to do. By remembering the truth of our divinity, we can reconnect to the source of all life, and begin to cultivate our true selves, and lives, as we move forward in growth, happiness, and health.

How to make the most of your experience

For anyone interested in experiencing an essential part of daily life for the Mishana community, we can organize a boat and a guide to take you on a sunrise fishing trip. These short excursions out onto the river are typically done towards the end of the retreats, when the treatments are nearing completion. There are hundreds of species of fish in the Nanay river and with some luck, you could catch a canary bass or maybe a piranha.

We’ve only treated three cases of Hepatitis, and only one case of Hep B. All participants were helped significantly, along with anyone else suffering from liver or kidney problems. Cleansing the organs, boosting the immune system, and purifying the blood are parts of the physical aspects of treatment during our ayahuasca retreats, along with addressing mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects.

Much more than just ayahuasca ceremonies, our healing retreats feature a multitude of additional treatments outside of the ceremonies, including plant baths, vapor baths, smoke baths, inhalants, purgatives, poultices, massage, counseling, and any internal or topical medical treatment that might be needed to heal particular illnesses or afflictions. We strive to provide the optimal care and treatment possible during a retreat.

How to make the most of your experience
Retreat Facilities
Retreat Facilities

If you’d like a holistic understanding of your opportunities to improve your quality of life, take this self-diagnostic.

While we have not had great success with treating type 1 Diabetes, we have been able to help nearly every participant treated for type 2 diabetes. Obviously, type 2 is influenced much more by lifestyle habits and diet, and so following our program helps tremendously, especially with the specific remedies used to control blood sugar levels. After the ayahuasca retreat, maintaining the healthy habits practiced during the program is very important.

If you're looking for intensive Ayahuasca healing retreats to dive deeper into medicinal plants, healing modalities, and shamanic wisdom this is the place for you. In addition to ayahuasca, they offer a week long tobacco and master plant diet retreat, a shamanic camp, yoga teacher, vision quests, shamanic wisdom circles, rebirthing breathwork ceremonies, and much more.

Why choose El Sol Ayahuasca Retreats

Discover the upmost serenity and transformation on Esterillo Beach in the pristine beachfront in Costa Rica. Mindfulness practices, luxurious accommodations, and nourishing cuisine await you at one of our personal favorite retreat centers. Lush rainforests meet the tranquil shores for a rejuvenating ayahuasca experience.

El Sol Retreats , the premier center in the region, features luxury accommodations, comfortable private rooms with full electricity and en suite bathrooms, hot and cold water, personal fans, a river-view balcony and hammock deck, as well as massage room, yoga/meditation studio, consultation and activities rooms. Programs are either 10 days, 18 days, or 4 weeks long and feature 5, 9, or 11 ayahuasca ceremonies, respectively. Ayahuasca retreats are facilitated by bi-lingual apprentices who contribute their own healing insights and complimentary treatments like massage, yoga, meditation, breathwork, and counseling. Retreats take a maximum of twelve participants.

Ayahuasca journeys can range from one-night events to multi-day dietas, which usually require a participant to refrain from any intense physical stimulants such as sex, alcohol, and rich foods for a period of time. Most ceremonies are held in a maloca, a wooden ceremonial structure with a thatched roof, and begin at sunset and end the following morning before dawn, lasting around five to six hours. In my experience, a ceremony usually includes fewer than 20 participants and begins with some type of cleansing initiation through the use of tobacco snuff, such as rapé, or mapacho. After ingesting the medicinal tea, most participants will experience a purging reaction, which could include vomiting or even a bowel movement. Participants can drink three cups—each about the size of an espresso shot—throughout the night. Shamans and healing elders usually sing icaros, or prayers through song, to facilitate a sense of calm and tranquility. While some ceremonies observe a practice known as noble silence, many rituals encourage participants to emote as necessary: crying, screaming, and purging included.

Why choose El Sol Ayahuasca Retreats

Frequently Asked Questions

All are welcome to our public gatherings.  Most people with sincere spiritual intent are eligible for our sacrament retreats.  If you aren’t sure if you can participate in our retreats,  look at our Medical Guidelines pages on our website.  Nearly 100% are medically eligible for our Magic Mushroom retreats.  Certain medications and medical conditions are not compatible with Ayahuasca.

The spiritual investment varies depending on the location, maximum number of participants, and sacraments being offered.  Our Ayahuasca and Mushroom retreats can range between $1000 – $2000 and our Bufo Alvarius (5meo-dmt) retreats range between $400 – $1000. To know the exact cost, please sign up for our email list where prices are announced for each retreat.

Yes! You can find more information about our private ceremonies on our retreat page.
 

A. With proper preparation, integration, and understanding how our Sacraments work, you will see there’s no such thing as a bad trip.  Difficult and challenging experiences can be a part of the deep psychedelic journey.  We all have skeletons in our psycho-spiritual closets, whether it’s fear, insecurities, our shadow, or repressed memories.  Our approach isn’t to try to avoid a challenging experience, but rather to lean into them, since this is where the real productive work occurs.  Can you face your demons with curiosity and love?  Can you stand at your edge of your comfort zone with strength and courage?  Everybody loves experiencing bliss, but by going through challenges we can develop the tools to live a more integrated and empowered life in the real world  We’ve got your back, just breathe.

Our approach does not require you to convert or have faith of any kind.  Faith can be an impediment to understanding.  Our approach is to facilitate direct mystical experiences so that people can come to their own conclusions.

We don’t give medical advice.  As evidenced by high quality research, our spiritual sacraments in the right setting can be very powerful healing tools.  This is because much spiritual dis-ease manifests also as physical dis-ease.  When spiritual dis-ease is discovered and addressed, many transformations happen downstream.

. A shaman is generally considered a healer or an initiate of a lineage.  We are not healers or following any one particular lineage.  Our philosophy is that the only healer is you, through proper integration of what you learned in your journey.  We also do not follow any one particular lineage or tradition in choosing how we lead ceremony.  Our ceremonies are guided by icaros, music, and prayers

Currently we’re serving a maximum of 20 people per ceremony.