Ancestral Medicine Peru Retreat
7-16th March 2025
I am delighted to invite you to an extraordinary nine-night Ancestral Medicine Peru Retreat in the Sacred Valley, a region renowned for its deep spiritual and cultural significance. This retreat offers a unique chance to engage with the sacred energies of the valley, guiding you on a journey of profound transformation and self-discovery.
With the support of local friends, we have organised two special ceremonies with the Q’ero shamans, with whom we have collaborated before. These rituals will deepen your connection to Andean cosmology, enriching your spiritual path with new perspectives and a closer bond with the rich cultural heritage of the Andes.
In addition, we will hold two ayahuasca ceremonies, along with a San Pedro ceremony on Pitusuray, the most revered mountain in the region. These sacred experiences provide opportunities for deep personal insights and healing, fostering a powerful connection to the spiritual essence of the Sacred Valley.
Our retreat is further supported by a dedicated clinical team from the UK, who will be present to provide expert guidance and create a safe, nurturing environment throughout your journey. Their extensive expertise in Integration Psychotherapy will enhance your process, ensuring a deeply transformative experience.
The Intention of the Retreat
The Sacred Valley is one of the places on Earth where one can connect to the majesty of the mountains and feel the energy of a world with stories to tell beyond what we can even imagine. The sight of gushing rivers that rush through the valley and the sounds of their songs will surely leave you in awe! One can feel the mystery of the ancient peoples and the cosmologies they have left behind whispering in the wind. If one climbs high enough, the rolling clouds that creep up the side of the mountains create a feeling of lofty vastness that is hard to describe. Life is never the same again after a visit to the valley. And we want to share it with another group in 2025.
This journey of a lifetime brings us into close contact with the magic and deep power held here. We have curated a program of transformational events to open energetic portals that participants can pass through to the version of self that awaits. We will use movement, including an eclectic mix of yoga, meditation, sound therapy, ritual and ceremony, trips out into the land and traditions shared by people who are Indigenous to this land.
Working in the valley has a mighty effect, and it is also one of the places where we can legally share the sacred remedy ayahuasca. We will hold two nights of ayahuasca ceremony and one daytime Wachuma (San Pedro) for those who wish to work with the plant in a sacred way while being held within a therapeutic container.
All team members are qualified to teach Transpersonal Yoga, practise as Integration Psychotherapists, or hold a specific professional standing in the healthcare community and have been on extended plant medicine journeys with Shaura.
Working with Medicines
It is advisable for a person to really know why they want to take ancestral medicines. The medicine ceremonies with us have profound spiritual aspect and a solid therapeutic container, including a thorough intake procedure.
If you are thinking about it, we want you to be sure that you want to take that route before you sign up. In some cases, we may require participants to undertake an additional course of Integration Psychotherapy to ensure their systems are well-prepared for the shift. In all cases we supply one session of in-person Integration Psychotherapy for each ceremony and three online monthly sessions after the retreat has ended.
We will supply dietary advice for the run-up to the event in the welcome pack.
Dates and Location
7-16th March 2025 at a wonderful venue called El Tambo de Chalan in Querocacha in the Sacred Valley nested next to a forest at the foot of the mountains in Urubamba.
You will need to get a flight to Cusco, we can help with arrangments to travel by taxi from Cusco to the venue.
Investment
£1900
£250 non-refundable deposit
Payment plans are available with the balance due 90 days before the retreat.
Includes accommodation, food and the whole retreat experience including three medicine ceremonies, professional integration and three monthly 90 minute online integration sessions after the event.
Does not include flights, transport to the venue or optional transmissions from the Qero’s (more information below).
Reserve your place through the link below with a £250 deposit.
The Five Great Elements—sound, power, resonance, light, and beauty—form the foundation of this experience. Each day is designed around these elements, creating micro-climates that build upon one another to shape the dynamic flow of the entire retreat.
While I have carefully selected practices, ceremonies, and workshops to guide our journey, the group and environmental factors will naturally influence our time together. This retreat embraces an organic approach, allowing us to adjust and shift according to the group’s needs.
Flow of the Retreat
EARTH ~ Arrive
We all participate in an Opening Ceremony that helps us connect to the land and state our intentions for coming together.
Dinner
Evening practice
WATER ~ Receiving the blessing
We get up early and travel to Perolinyoc Waterfall for a Water Blessing given by two Q’ero Maestro’s who are known to us. We will be walking from the transport to the waterfall; it is a moderately difficult trail, but we will ensure that everyone makes it there and back.
IMPORTANT NOTE: There is an opportunity for people to have a personal transmission from the Maestro’s. It is an offering that connects us to the spirit of an animal or other archetypal figure in the cosmos. “By receiving this transmission, you receive the blessings, the energy of these spirits, their strength and magic; that connection is for life; when later you meditate and call, this spirit will come when you need it. “
The transmission has a separate cost of £130-140. We will need to know how many people are taking advantage of this rare opportunity by February 25th 2025.
We stay on the grounds of El Tambo de Chalan to further integrate the work with the Qero’s and prepare the group to go through the medicine process.
TY Yoga
Breakfast
Morning workshop
Lunch
Intentions
Ayahuasca Ceremony
We stay on the grounds of El Tambo de Chalan to integrate the medicine ceremony.
TY Yoga
Breakfast
Integration Psychotherapy
Lunch
Light Dinner
ETHER ~ Traversing liminal spaces
We stay on the grounds of El Tambo de Chalan to journey together and prepare for the second ayahuasca ceremony.
TY Yoga
Breakfast
Morning Workshop
Lunch
Intentions
Ayahuasca Ceremony
We stay on the grounds of El Tambo de Chalan to integrate the medicine ceremony
Breakfast
Sound Workshop with Melanie
Lunch
TY Yoga and Integration
Dinner
Trip to the most sacred mountain, Pitusiray, where we will connect with the energy of this revered site. We’ll be working with friends in the valley who offer San Pedro healing ceremonies, allowing us to deepen our connection to the mountain’s profound spiritual presence.
TY Yoga
Breakfast
Leave for Pitusiray
RESONANCE ~ tuning into the frequency of the now
TY Yoga
Breakfast
Leave for Huchi Qosco
Overnight visit to the ancient site of Huchi Qosco (Little Cusco), nestled within view of the sacred mountain Pitusiray.
This remarkable location, with its steps leading to the Doorway to the Sun, opens onto the historic path to Cusco. During our stay, we will explore the rich history of Huchi Qosco and its significance in the Inca civilisation’s expansion into Cusco. We will also reconnect with the Q’eros for a special blessing ceremony dedicated to Pachamama, deepening our connection to the sacred land.
Rise early in the morning for a sunrise ceremony at the sacred site. We will gather to share a simple yet profound ritual, lighting a candle from the first rays of the sun. Our prayers, accompanied by tobacco, will be offered to the ancestors of the Q’eros, deepening our connection to this sacred lineage and the powerful energies of the land.
Lunch at the venue
Walk back to Tambo de Chalan
Dinner and Celebrations
TY Yoga
Breakfast
Closing Ceremony
Lunch
Leave before 4pm
Guests can arrange with the venue to stay for extra nights.
Our Team
Our leading facilitator is Shaura Hall, who is not only the founder of the Pilamaya Centre for Integration Psychotherapy (PCIP) but is pioneering a fresh approach to psychotherapy. She is the Course Director of Integration Psychotherapy and Transpersonal Yoga and an Interfaith Minister. You can read more about how Shaura’s journey with the First Nation People of North America influences her work, with plant medicines in the About section of her newly accredited Continuing Professional Development course in Psychedelic Assisted Integration Psychotherapy (PAIP).
Shaura has been part of a Lakota ceremonial community since 2004; she regularly returns to Oregon to pray and learn with the people in her heart. She was drawn to undertake specific training in Ayahuasca Therapy in 2018 and has worked in Europe with groups since then. Shaura’s journey with the plants motivated her to bring forth the diploma in Integration Psychotherapy, as she saw the need for therapists to work competently with the multidimensional nature of the human being.
Notes from me in italics can be found at the bottom of the team members bios to let you know the roles will take on the support team.
Melanie is originally from the UK but has lived in South America for 14 years. She has been in the Sacred Valley for 6 years but has been a visitor for 11 years. She is bilingual and has worked getting people together for women’s circles, culture and art events, vocal workshops, hip hop workshops and up mountains and into the jungle for ceremony. She is passionate about ancestral wisdom, yoga, the ancients arts and loves nothing more than helping great spirits and minds come together to share and make the force of light and unity stronger in this dimension.
Melanie is our main person on the ground in the Valley, she makes it possible for us to do the special things and helps create the practical structure we need when exploring the vast ocean of consciousness. We are also blessed to have her share a sound workshop with us. Her latest album can be found on the link below.
Jennifer Smallwood is a BACP Senior Accredited Gestalt Psychotherapist, Integrative Therapist and Clinical Supervisor. Jennifer is also an EMDR UK & Europe registered and accredited EMDR Consultant with a successful private practice based in Sheffield. She holds a BA Honours Degree in Pure Philosophy, a master’s degree in Gestalt Psychotherapy and vocational training in Meditation as Facilitation for Mental Health which uses alongside her EMDR and Gestalt practices to further her trauma work in private practice.
Jennifer has worked in private practice for the past 19 years as well as volunteering for The Samaritans, working for the NHS in Derby City Centre PCT, and eight years working for FREED BEECHES Eating Disorder charity in Nottinghamshire as Senior Psychotherapist and Deputy Clinical Manager. Before her retraining in Psychotherapy, Jennifer worked as a Business Consultant helping businesses improve the efficacy of their Systems and Processes. She is a guest speaker at SPACE Academy and also delivers workshops locally in Trauma.
Jennifer is a friend and colleague who has been part of my learning and teaching community since 2016. She teaches on our pioneering Integration psychotherapy course and is my co-founder of Integration psychotherapy Services. She will be specifically supporting me on the nights of ceremony.
Muna is a 2016 graduate of the Pilamaya Centre, a member of the Transpersonal Yoga faculty, Integration Psychotherapist and an independent entrepreneur with a background in Human Communications (BSc). She has a passion for education, community, self- expression and living in a harmonious and meaningful way. In addition to Transpersonal and Hatha yoga, Muna is certified to teach hot yoga, embodied yin, and yoga for stress and burnout. She is also a sacred sound practitioner and uses sound and vibration to nourish the nervous system and to communicate with and therapeutically support the body’s energetic structures.
Muna’s work creates a container that supports listening to the body’s intelligence and the use of feedback to engage in self-care, deep learning, as well as cultivating trust in the process and instilling the courage to do the work.
Muna has worked as part of my team since 2016, together, we have shepherded teacher training groups through profound six months to two year journeys that are designed to bring people into their hearts and souls. She will be holding and guiding the flow of the group who do not wish to take the sacred remedy ayahuasca.
