At Soltara, we have had many guests come through who have had little to no experience with psychoactive medicines, who have found deep and profound healing working with ayahuasca. In fact, less experience can sometimes be more beneficial, as it can make it easier to enter into the experience without prior expectations, a key component that can play a major part in how much you get out of ceremony.

Working with ayahuasca can be a process, which is to say, if you are planning on working with the medicine – especially for the first time – we recommend allowing yourself the space and time to undergo multiple ceremonies in a safe and supportive container. This is because it can take some time to build up enough trust and a relationship with the medicine that will allow for the deeper work to unfold. Often times, just one ceremony can open up the work but be insufficient to get significant benefit from it and then have a chance to energetically close what has been opened. It is for this reason that our minimum retreat stay is five nights. We have found that at least three ceremonies, along with integration support during and after to help guests process what has come up, can allow for a deep level of healing to occur.

We have much more information about ayahuasca on our website – here are some good starting points that may help you get a better idea of this medicine and how it works:

About ayahuasca

Preparing for your ayahuasca experience

Documentary: The Plant Teacher

Integration of the ayahuasca experience

As part of your journey with us, you’ll receive a full year of preparation, integration, and community support through our virtual Soltara Community Platform. Our overall approach to healing is based on the wisdom and guidance of our Shipibo healers, as well as our combined decades of experience from our previous work at several top-rated ayahuasca centers in the Peruvian Amazon, the feedback we have gotten from our communities, and what we have collectively seen is needed in this space. As such, we emphasize a strong focus on preparation & integration, how to support people to effectively prepare for and carry their work home with them to enact the healing into their lives. We work closely with clinical psychologists who also have years of experience working with the medicine as well as certifications in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Our holistic support involves various components both on and off-site. You can read more about what’s included in your retreat here, and below is a brief overview:

• A thorough intake process, in collaboration with therapists and medical advisors, to ensure a safe and supportive retreat
• Extensive & holistic preparation & integration support, created by Soltara plant medicine therapists
• An ayahuasca diet guidebook, to prepare your body for the ayahuasca retreat
• Access to our community platform through Nectara, with one year of Soltara Plus membership, including:
  • Community spaces for questions, sharing, & connecting
  • Retreat information & logistics
  • Holistic resources for physical, emotional, therapeutic, mental, spiritual, cultural, relational, creative, and day-of-travel support
  • Regular monthly events, including free preparation & integration circles with a Soltara therapist
  • Guided experiences such as yoga, breathwork, and meditations
  • Online courses for deeper exploration into specific topics, such as the physiology of trauma, mindfulness, and ceremonial preparation
  • A carefully vetted network of practitioners, coaches, and guides for individual support
• Access to our Entwined program, a 12-module program with resources and support for the loved ones and family members of those stepping into plant medicine ceremony
• “The Hero’s Journal” – this creative and personalize-able integration journal is given to everyone on arrival, and takes you through the process of reflection, intention-setting, ceremony, and building your own integration plan. This framework is vetted by our clinical psychologist advisors and empowers you to set yourself up for success based on your goals and process during your stay.
• We will have integration discussions during your stay which incorporate different aspects of the journal and are designed to help you flesh out an actionable plan from the time you begin your process at Soltara to help carry you back into the default world and enact the lessons and insights you gain from your experience
• Our retreat programming is centered around helping you immerse yourself in different healing modalities, many of which you can take back with you (bodywork, meditation, nature, etc.), to help you cultivate habits that feel right for you and can help you maintain the healing work done during your retreat.
• We offer 3 months of weekly post-retreat follow-up emails with resources, videos, and content designed to help you check in with yourself and continue to support your journey back home.
• We also offer regular virtual group preparation & integration circles with members of our integration support team to share in real-time the successes and struggles of your processes, answer questions, and connect with each other in the weeks and months before & after your retreat.

We are very excited about the framework we have created with the help of our advisors to help you maximize the benefits of your healing work. We are heavily focused on empowering people to be their own healers and set themselves up to continue that beyond the retreat.

Upon registration, you will receive an information packet which will include our dietary and preparation guidelines to prepare you for your experience. Beyond the specific foods we list to avoid, in general it’s best to approach the diet focusing less on deprivation, and more about creating an environment within your body which gives the medicine the best chance of permeating and illuminating areas that need healing. In general, a clean diet which focuses more on whole foods and less on excessive salt, sugar, spicy foods, red meat, pork, alcohol, recreational drugs or substances, excessive dairy products and processed foods, is going to allow the medicine to work with you in the best way possible.

Learn more here about the best dieta practices before drinking ayahuasca.

We invite you to join us on the Soltara Community Platform, where we offer extensive preparation & integration support as well as a community of like-minded souls. If you sign up for a retreat, you’ll receive one full year of Soltara Plus membership included as part of your retreat. Otherwise, you can click the link and register for a free account to receive access to community spaces & virtual holistic healing events. Even if you don’t join us for a retreat, upgrading your membership to a Soltara Plus membership unlocks access to:

• Holistic, trauma-informed preparation & integration support
• Regular live events, including monthly preparation & integration circles with a Soltara plant medicine therapist
• Community spaces for questions, sharing, & connecting
• Guided breathwork, meditation, and yoga experiences
• All the latest Soltara news and retreat information
• Curated educational content from preparation to integration and beyond
• Online courses for deeper exploration into specific topics
• A carefully vetted network of practitioners, coaches, and guides for 1:1 support
• And much more!

As part of our preparation and integration support system, we offer 1-on-1 preparation sessions with a psychotherapist from our team, for those who would like emotional/mental support as you consider and prepare for working with ayahuasca. These sessions can help clarify intentions, address anxieties, and set the foundation for the work you will do prior to your arrival. Please visit this link to view availability and book a session with Sean Chiddy, a therapist from our team. Sean has several years of experience supporting people through their processes before, during, and after they work with ayahuasca medicine.

Below are a few other resources we recommend as you prepare to work with ayahuasca plant medicine:

• About ayahuasca
• Preparing for your ayahuasca experience
• Documentary: The Plant Teacher
• Integration of the ayahuasca experience

If possible, we recommend discontinuing all supplements 7 days before your retreat. The basic idea behind working with master plant teachers like ayahuasca is to bring a clean slate of a body. To learn the most one can from the experience of connecting with ayahuasca medicine, one is always recommended in the Shipibo tradition to temporarily stop the use of any other supplements, plant treatments (unless prescribed by the healers), and synthetic drug treatments. If you can put these things on hold (unless it’s necessary to continue treatments), then you will get a more direct connection with ayahuasca. =]

As CBD oil comes from the marijuana plant, we do recommend refraining from using this for at least two weeks before and after your retreat. This is not medically contraindicated, however in order to prepare your body for working with ayahuasca, it is recommended to stop using all other plant medicine for the specified time before and after.

If there are any that you are needing to continue throughout the retreat, please indicate this on your registration form and we will follow up with you.

As part of your journey with us, you’ll receive a full year of preparation, integration, and community support through our virtual Soltara Community Platform. Our overall approach to healing is based on the wisdom and guidance of our Shipibo healers, as well as our combined decades of experience from our previous work at several top-rated ayahuasca centers in the Peruvian Amazon, the feedback we have gotten from our communities, and what we have collectively seen is needed in this space. As such, we emphasize a strong focus on preparation & integration, how to support people to effectively prepare for and carry their work home with them to enact the healing into their lives. We work closely with clinical psychologists who also have years of experience working with the medicine as well as certifications in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Our holistic support involves various components both on and off-site. You can read more about what’s included in your retreat here, and below is a brief overview:

• A thorough intake process, in collaboration with therapists and medical advisors, to ensure a safe and supportive retreat
• Extensive & holistic preparation & integration support, created by Soltara plant medicine therapists
• An ayahuasca diet guidebook, to prepare your body for the ayahuasca retreat
• Access to our community platform through Nectara, with one year of Soltara Plus membership, including:
  • Community spaces for questions, sharing, & connecting
  • Retreat information & logistics
  • Holistic resources for physical, emotional, therapeutic, mental, spiritual, cultural, relational, creative, and day-of-travel support
  • Regular monthly events, including free preparation & integration circles with a Soltara therapist
  • Guided experiences such as yoga, breathwork, and meditations
  • Online courses for deeper exploration into specific topics, such as the physiology of trauma, mindfulness, and ceremonial preparation
  • A carefully vetted network of practitioners, coaches, and guides for individual support
• Access to our Entwined program, a 12-module program with resources and support for the loved ones and family members of those stepping into plant medicine ceremony
• “The Hero’s Journal” – this creative and personalize-able integration journal is given to everyone on arrival, and takes you through the process of reflection, intention-setting, ceremony, and building your own integration plan. This framework is vetted by our clinical psychologist advisors and empowers you to set yourself up for success based on your goals and process during your stay.
• We will have integration discussions during your stay which incorporate different aspects of the journal and are designed to help you flesh out an actionable plan from the time you begin your process at Soltara to help carry you back into the default world and enact the lessons and insights you gain from your experience
• Our retreat programming is centered around helping you immerse yourself in different healing modalities, many of which you can take back with you (bodywork, meditation, nature, etc.), to help you cultivate habits that feel right for you and can help you maintain the healing work done during your retreat.
• We offer 3 months of weekly post-retreat follow-up emails with resources, videos, and content designed to help you check in with yourself and continue to support your journey back home.
• We also offer regular virtual group preparation & integration circles with members of our integration support team to share in real-time the successes and struggles of your processes, answer questions, and connect with each other in the weeks and months before & after your retreat.

We are very excited about the framework we have created with the help of our advisors to help you maximize the benefits of your healing work. We are heavily focused on empowering people to be their own healers and set themselves up to continue that beyond the retreat.

Regarding the COVID-19 vaccination, Soltara does not require this to join us on retreat. Please use Google to find out what vaccinations your government recommends for travelers going to Costa Rica, and be sure you’re up to date on all of them. Traveling to Costa Rica primarily requires routine vaccinations, though it is also a good idea to be vaccinated against typhoid. If you happen to be arriving from a country with risk of yellow fever, the Costa Rican government requires proof of yellow fever vaccination; check this page to see if you may be required to get the yellow fever vaccine. Soltara has less mosquitoes than most jungle locations due to the breeze coming off of the Gulf of Nicoya, but nevertheless, please bring natural bug spray to avoid bites from mosquitoes that may in very rare cases be carrying malaria. If you anticipate participating in the ayahuasca ceremonies, please avoid taking antimalarial medication for the retreat. Here you can read the US government’s recommended vaccination information for travelers going to Costa Rica.