With a lens of sensitivity, compassion, and understanding of trauma, our approach to care is none like any other centers. Through your entire experience, we aim to make you feel held, seen, and empowered, always with full choice and agency. Guided by a team of attuned, compassionate, CARE team members trained in somatic trauma therapy, we offer guidance and support for each step in the process.
Being trauma-informed is more than just simply a statement. It is a way of being that guides our entire philosophy of CARE, rooted in the neurobiology of stress, trauma, and the body. At Ananda we offer an opportunity for repair, with the support of plant medicine as a tool and an ally. We acknowledge and honor that the work begins when you sign up for a retreat and have a thorough process to ensure your safety, well-being, and readiness to embark on the transformation journey of sacred plant medicine.
“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering.”
Our somatic trauma-informed philosophy guides everything we do. At Ananda Lodge our mission is to create a safe, supportive, and healing environment that enables you to feel ready to engage with the transformative power of plant medicine.
At Ananda Lodge we uphold a commitment to each guest’s safety through our approach to ethical care and creating the necessary layers of support (before, during, and after) designed to safely prepare the mind, body, and soul for the work. We offer somatic practices, breathwork, and personalized attention to help you navigate the psychological, emotional, and physical aspects of your experience.
Guided by Indigenous wisdom that each of us are born whole, we recognize that through life experiences parts or pieces of us fragment off. This fragmentation, known in shamanism as soul loss, is a process that results in disconnection from our wholeness, causing part of the soul (parts of ourselves) to flee for safety. This fragmentation disrupts the flow of energy and vitality, resulting in disharmony (stress, anxiety, depression) and disease. Due to the nature of life and stressful situations, we all experience soul loss at times throughout our life.
At Ananda Lodge, we honor that everyone carries trauma and stress, no matter how big or small. We understand that trauma can be chronic, or it can be acute. Trauma imprints can arise from adverse childhood experiences, generational legacies, abuse, grief/loss, combat, emergency situations, or from everyday stress. We acknowledge the size of the trauma does not always directly correlate to the imprint held in the body.
With this understanding, what we offer is an opportunity for repair. Through your journey with us, we focus on empowering you with transformative tools for awareness, nervous system regulation, and resiliency. Always honoring your courage to be seen and heard, and to have choice and agency to say yes or to say no. In working with us, you will have a complete toolkit that is designed to facilitate holistic well-being and self discovery through somatic techniques and psycho-educational tools.
“Healing is a matter of time, but it is also a matter of opportunity.”
Emphasizing the importance of experiencing the body from within rather than viewing it as an object.
Plant medicines, such as psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, and other entheogens, have a transformative potential when it comes to somatic healing. They work by engaging with the body’s language, the language of sensations, and the nervous system, influencing both physiological and psychological processes.
When ingested, these substances can alter neurotransmitter activity, leading to changes in perception, emotion, and cognition. This biochemical interaction often brings heightened awareness to bodily sensations, emotions, and unconscious patterns stored within the body, offering a hopeful path to personal growth and transformation.
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 and emergency protocols to enact if a scenario should arise, and a 2:1 ratio of healers and facilitators to guests, ensuring you’re 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.
Ananda Lodge Costa Rica is a small family-owned healing center created to provide a sanctuary for reprieve and personal restoration.
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