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Dr. Peter Levine
This understanding is why all of our retreats are somatic healing retreats. Each plant medicine retreat has somatic healing principles guiding it.
Trauma often leaves us feeling stuck and disconnected from ourselves, others, nature, and spirit. It can cause us to freeze in fear, trapping our survival energy and making it difficult to move forward with our lives.
We believe that everyone carries trauma, whether big or small.
We view trauma as any event or instance that overwhelms the capacity of our nervous system. Trauma imprints can arise from adverse childhood experiences, systemic oppression, intergenerational or cultural legacies, religion, abuse/neglect, grief/loss, combat, emergency situations, or from everyday stress.
Through the western lens, we can view trauma as a fragmentation of ‘Self’ that results in ‘Parts’ of ourselves that go into hiding, and parts of ourselves that adapt to survive (Internal Family Systems, IFS). In Shamanism, this is called Soul Loss.
Our role as Trauma-Informed Somatic Healing Retreat Facilitators is to identify trauma imprints and, with compassion, navigate the most appropriate approach for support. Our goal is to support the process of trauma renegotiation and resolution through empowering guests with education, resources and tools.
When all of us work together (us, you, and the plant medicine), there is incredible potential to identify where you are holding trauma in your body and clear it out. We believe in the body’s capacity to heal and the resiliency inherent in each individual.
We operate on the understanding that each individual, regardless of their background, has encountered various forms of trauma, whether big or small. From this place, we recognize that trauma can present itself in various ways.
Through our compassionate discovery process, we seek to learn about your strengths, challenges, resources, and triggers. As trained somatic trauma-informed specialists, our team is equipped to respond with attunement, care, and compassion.
Our foremost goal is to create an environment that exudes safety, empowerment, and inclusivity. We strive to create safety in all layers, including physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, and inter-personal. We aim for our space to be supportive, and non-threatening, strategically minimizing the risk of re-traumatization.
We have intentionally limited our retreats to 8 guests, ensuring personalized attention and care. We have robust safety protocols to enact if a scenario should arise, and a high ratio of Ananda facilitators to guests, ensuring you are fully supported throughout your journey.
We honor that no one knows your body and lived experience better than you.
We aim to act as a guide and an anchor to support you through your healing journey. We will never offer unsolicited advice, but instead focus on allowing your inner intelligence to flow through your narrative in a non-judgmental, compassionate environment.
Trauma results from choice and agency being taken away. We provide you with full choice and agency to make the decisions that are most aligned for you before, during, and after the retreat.
We offer options and levels of engagement designed to promote self-agency and empowerment.
Throughout the process, we continuously reinforce the notion of choice and agency, ensuring that participants are always in the driver’s seat of their own healing journey.
Nervous system attunement and co-regulation is our primary vehicle of personalized support. We believe that time is medicine and aim to slow the pace to align with the natural rhythm of your body.
We view healing as a non-linear process that beckons our patience, dedication, and commitment, and time. Our team employs self-energy, multi-level awareness, and heart-centered compassion to provide participants with reparative experiences.
Under no circumstance will we tolerate unethical or discriminatory behavior, language, or implied intent. This extends both to our internal team and our guests. Our Ethics of CARE model is a pillar to ensure we are in right relationship with ourselves and our guests, ensuring proper boundaries are discussed and upheld.
Our staff is trained in trauma-informed somatic plant medicine facilitation and integration. We honor staying in our scope of practice and leveraging additional expertise (therapists, psychologists, etc) when it is in the guest’s best interest.
Our process entails extensive focus on preparation, ensuring guests are aware of risks, benefits, our process, safety protocols, and guidelines of participation.
Following the guidelines from International Centre for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS)and trauma-informed care, we have created a comprehensive screening process for participants. This entails discussions about the potential re-experience of past trauma and preparing for the emotional intensity that might unfold. We will always ask consent before using physical touch and work with you in advance to understand what safety and support look and feel like to our guests.
We aim to lead with trauma-sensitive language, gestures, and communication techniques at all times, in all interactions with our guests. We understand that words can be triggering and strive for every exchange to be a source of comfort and healing.
We avoid the dismissive practice of spiritual bypassing, and instead embrace active listening and empathetic, compassionate responses.
Our process is designed to provide continuity of CARE and layers of support before, during, and after the retreat. We intentionally build layers of support into our retreat programming both for you as a guest, and for our team.
We have detailed safety protocols ready to be enacted if need be, and comprehensive mechanisms to hold our team members in integrity at all times. As a team we are always ready to cohesively respond when situations arise.
Above all, our team is on a mission to be of compassionate service. We strive to hold compassion and grace first and foremost for ourselves, so that we can be a clear vessel of compassion and service to our guests.
And while we always aim to do our best, in highest integrity, we are still humans on our own journey of healing and growth. We appreciate shared compassion and welcome any and all feedback if an approach ever feels less than compassionate and caring.
Somatic Psychology honors the harmonization and equal contribution of the body and the mind.
Each play a cooperative role in the healing process. This viewpoint prioritizes balancing listening to the body for its wisdom, and not just the mind.
Somatic Awareness is a modality based on Somatic Psychology that views the
body and mind as interconnected.
Its name is derived from the Greek words “Soma” which means the body and “Psyche”, the mind.
Somatic practices are body-centered approaches that integrate both the body and mind to enhance healing, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and help build our capacity to navigate challenges.
Our Somatic Principles Include:
Plant medicines can activate nervous system responses and various sensations in our body. Sensations are the language of the body, and through this interaction we can access deeper layers and the stories our body holds.
Plant medicines, such as Psilocybin, Ayahuasca, and San Pedro have a transformative potential when coupled with somatic healing. Together they work through engaging with the the language of the body through sensations/memories/emotions and offering an invitation for resolution through the ‘felt sense.’
Engaging with somatic practices before and after a plant medicine journey provides a foundation for supporting the nervous system and creating a deeper connection with your body. This can help prepare you for the intense emotional, physical, and psychological shifts that plant medicines can evoke and help you make sense of your inner landscape and how your experiences are connected to the body and mind.
Learning to navigate and regulate your nervous system is a powerful step toward healing from trauma. It’s an essential part of the healing process that empowers you, giving you more control over your experience rather than feeling powerless in the face of difficult emotions or reactions.
