Ayahuasca Retreat Reviews — Helping You Stay Safe with 5,000+ Independent Reviews
While living in the Southeastern Peruvian Andes and Amazon for 22 years, the co-founder leading practitioner Jessica has been trained and is working with Ayahuasca in the Shipibo tradition. She is certified as an “Onanya” (Ayahuasca master) by the School for Traditional Shipibo Medicine in Pucallpa and member of its advisory board.
A former Manu National Park rainforest guide, she does ongoing healing work requested by the indigenous people of the region. As a traditional practitioner she regularly participates in international conferences.
As a woman and mother, she is highly experienced in assisting people in bringing about positive life change by very practical and down-to-Earth means. She organizes and takes small groups of Westerners (2 to 5 persons) on 7-day-long retreats to “Parign Hak” (Grandma´s Home), a unique initiative of Manu´s indigenous Harakbut people to host her retreats, located in the mountain rainforest adjacent to Manu National Park, where she provides a culturally adapted healing and cleansing process that consists of traditional plant baths and three ceremonies in Ayahuasca´s natural home, combined with an intimate immersion into Harakbut culture.
Other local healer are usually on site and participants may be brought together in ceremony with Harakbut community people in an attempt to not only facilitate integral healing for all ceremony participants, but also to foster mutual cultural understanding.
As recommended by the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research & Service (ICEERS), all participants go through an integral process of selection, preparation, ceremonies and integration. This process includes a pre-ceremonial information package, a previous personal interview, traditional dietary restrictions, integration circles, further one-to-one integration interviews in between ceremonies and availability for further consultations for as long as necessary after the third ceremony.
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Frank T
November 7, 2016 at 7:45 pmI have worked with Jessica in her ceremonies on three occasions: August 2014, December 2015 and July 2016. The last series was at Parign Hak. Each occasion consisted of a series of three ceremonies. In my experience, Jessica has the utmost respect for ayahuasca as a healing and teaching medicine, and for the participant utilizing it. There was a pre-ceremony interview where she consulted with me on a one-on-one basis. She listened attentively and respected my boundaries as I described specific issues that I wanted the medicine to address. Jessica was caring and compassionate in her approach. Moreover, Jessica described the nature and context of the medicine and advised me on how to proceed during the ceremony. In ceremony, Jessica was always available for assistance. She sang plant icaros in the Shipibo tradition. With the guidance of mapacho tobacco, ayahuasca and her icaros, I had complete trust with Jessica and ayahuasca during the ceremony. After each ceremony, there was a closing circle with Jessica and all the participants, where each person shared his or her experience. This was very beneficial because there was a lot of learning that was shared by each participant. Jessica provided further consultation for the next ceremony and many suggestions for integration going forward.
Shintuya is a small village on the Madre de Dios River. Victoria and Alberto warmly greeted our group upon arrival. We boarded “lancha” for a 10 minute journey to the ceremony site. The very capable Jose met us at the bank of the river. We were welcomed in the traditional Harakbut manner. Jessica’s team was very dedicated and loving during the entire retreat. I appreciated their experience with the medicine and the rainforest. They demonstrated so much knowledge during our walks into the forest. The site is surrounded by the rainforest, giving the entire retreat the natural environment of the ayahuasca medicine.
Nitram
May 25, 2016 at 3:08 pmJessica is a gifted ayahuascara. I wholeheartedly recommend her, having had a number of wonderful and insightful ceremonies with her over the last few years. I admire her character, discipline, generosity and integrity. She clearly explains everything about ayahuasca and how to get the most benefit from it, and she is fluent in English and Spanish.
You can be sure that you will be safe and well looked after. For safety, Jessica screens and advises participants in advance, and in ceremony she supports every participant fully. There is plenty of follow up and time for questions and for getting suggestions. If you wish, she even stays in touch with you to see how you are progressing afterwards, when you return to your normal life. She is completely dedicated to helping others and to her craft. You are blessed if you can arrange to visit and be in ceremony with her.
Jessica’s close ties with the Harakmbut people, which she has cultivated over the years, and her traditional training with the Shipibo people ensure that you have a genuine traditional Ayahuasca journey.
The setting is in the heart of the rainforest, an untouched wilderness where I marvelled at the beauty every day. The Harakmbut people we met were so good to us and we enjoyed their warm hospitality, slept in thatched cabañas, and ate local food. Meeting these people was a highlight of my experience there.
A life-changing spiritual and cultural experience! I am so grateful!
TracyMacD
May 13, 2016 at 2:11 pm100% Five Stars, Platinum and Gold. I Cannot say enough positive things about my experience with Jessica and her ‘team’.
I visited Jessica and her team in Peru last August. She came highly recommended to me by a very trusted friend. I had been living at a meditation centre for nearly 6 months and became acutely aware of a block in my heart chakra. I was very apprehensive to try plant medicine as the idea of a psychedelic experience deeply frightened me. However, after an additional 6 months of meditation and renunciation of all things material coupled with deep spiritual practice, I made little progress on my blocked heart. It seemed the trauma ran too deep. Eventually, I decided to reach out to Jessica to inquire about possibilities. From the moment I connected with her she was open, responsive, communicative, clear and forthright. I thoroughly appreciated her honesty and commitment to providing the most authentic and ‘true to tradition’ experience possible. Within 2 weeks of our first email exchange, I was in Peru in her loving and experienced hands. We travelled for 2 days to get to Shituya, a small town in the heart of the Amazon Jungle. It was a more-than-overwhelming experience (even though I have had my fair share of back country adventures by that time in my life), but this somehow seemed like a ‘next level’ trip. Despite my anxieties, I felt completely safe and taken care of in Jessica’s hands. I spent a week with Jessica and her team and I would call the experience nothing less than profoundly life-changing on every possible level of existence. This team is overflowing with so much love and care, respect for tradition and commitment to healing that it’s almost impossible to express through words. I have never felt more loved and cared for simply for being human. I was treated with so much compassion that that alone might have been enough to shatter my heart block. I continue to receive support, love and guidance from Jessica as needed despite the time that has passed, and I am able stay in touch intermittently with her team – who I adore – despite the fact that they live in such a remote community. Their commitment to their participants (who inevitably become a part of their extended family) is truly touching. The sense of respect, love and compassion that they collectively express is eye-opening to say the least. If you’ve ever considered trying Ayahuasca or delving deeper into your experiences with this life-changing medicine, Jessica and her team are simply the best available to facilitate a deeply transformative experience with no less love and compassion than a mother of the most divine kind.