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Our Mission

To find balance without we must first find balance within.

The cognitive dissonance of a world ruled by the head is what calls us to this work of the heart. A belief in the need to encompass the emotional, energetic, and spiritual aspects of healing, alongside the physical, is the foundation of sacred plant medicines and other holistic therapies.

These medicines have the power to connect us to those parts of ourselves we have forgotten, ignored, or covered up.

Our mission is to bridge this gap between head and heart for those who seek it. In a world of increasing disconnection from ourselves, our earth, our history, and each other, we aim to find balance by providing an authentic, safe, and loving space for each individual, no matter their background, to get in touch with their truth. We are honored to serve medicine in sacred ceremony, empower our guests with knowledge and tools to continue their journey back home, raise cultural awareness, and continue our cherished duty as stewards and caretakers of our Earth. We feel that by engaging in this healing work, aligning our past experiences and future actions with deep meaning and purpose, we can become true beacons of light and affect positive change in our lives and our world.

Our Ethos

Everything we do, we do with love. It is the pillar of our work, the backbone of our ethos, and the way we live the lessons of the medicines. They teach us that unconditional love is the key to freedom from suffering, and we pass that sacred knowledge on by holding that space for each and every guest that joins us. We are passionate about what we do, and our family of warm, compassionate, loving souls welcomes you with open arms to take part in the movement.

Safe Sanctuary

Our highest priority is the physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual safety of our guests. Our stringent medical protocol and intake process ensures each guest a safe and fulfilling experience, mitigating any risk of potential contraindications with our medicines. We work with intake professionals during the screening and preparation for your journey, as well as after your retreat during your integration process, and have a qualified first-responder on-site at our Center, as well as a 24-hour clinic nearby. During your stay, our security guards and safety protocols allow you to rest easy and comfortably, while our experienced healers, facilitators, and staff provide a sanctuary for your emotional and spiritual well-being. We welcome people from all walks of life, and warmly invite you into our loving, compassionate, protected space, in order for you to fully realize and embrace your own journey.

Read More: A safe Space
Personal Empowerment

We recognize and honor the healer within. The true modality of the medicines we work with is not one of fixing you, but of awakening you to your own inner power, your own capacity to heal yourself. It is only by facing, taking ownership, and reclaiming those unintegrated parts of the self that have manifested as fear, negative patterns, and disease, that we may get to the root cause of our suffering and truly heal.

 

The path to wholeness is for each person to realize for themselves. Our goal is to provide our guests with the space, tools, and support to discover how to walk their own unique path. For some, it may be working with ayahuasca and connecting to nature; others may resonate more with breathwork, massage therapy, or yoga practice; others may simply find what they need through our community and free online resources – we empower you to find what modalities work for you, what practices and therapies connect you to your truth, the teacher within. By allowing your intuition to guide your experience, you are equipped with the foundation and skill set to maintain the healing work done and integrate the lessons into your life.

Read More: The Medicine Path
Integration

Integration is as important as the ceremonies themselves. It begins during your retreat and continues for the weeks, months, and years after you return home. It is taking the knowledge and lessons learned during your experience and putting them into practice in your life. This can involve changing habits, relationships, or community; approaching life from a new perspective; applying an increased sense of awareness to your thoughts and actions; or working towards a new set of goals and purpose, to name a few.

You will undoubtedly face challenges upon returning home. At Soltara, we place a strong focus on preparing you for this with an actionable, solutions-focused framework that will help you maintain your connection to that healed self. We continue to support your integration process through post retreat integration sessions with a highly qualified support team who have a foot in both worlds – decades of experience working with these medicines, as well as a deep understanding of how to bring these ancient teachings into a modern world. We also welcome you into our global community where you will find continuous support, resources, and fellow guests who have undergone similar experiences and who can help you find your footing as you navigate the sometimes murky waters of the default world.

All in all, we aim to empower you to be your own healer, connect to your true and highest self through sacred ceremony, and then outside of ceremony, through our other modalities, understand what it takes for you to reconnect to and embody that highest self for the rest of your life.

Read More: Integration
Respecting Tradition

Far from being part of the “New Age” movement, plant medicine healthcare has existed for thousands of years and was a well-established system long before Western medicine developed in the last few hundred years. As more and more Westerners begin to seek this type of spirit-assisted healthcare, it is of utmost importance that we take heed, learn from and respect indigenous healing traditions.

We take seriously our role in the globalization and expansion of ayahuasca and other plant medicines, and believe that the knowledge and awareness of the indigenous culture surrounding them is a crucial part of the healing process. At Soltara, we focus specifically on the Shipibo tradition of ayahuasca and unlike any other center in Costa Rica, for these ceremonies we work exclusively with traditional Peruvian Shipibo healers. They are curanderos (master healers) with decades of training in the Amazon, who have done years of dietas such that they can employ a wide variety of plant spirit allies when working with guests in ceremony. We place a strong emphasis on cultural awareness and elevating indigenous voices and knowledge through our work, resources, and guest lectures. We feel that understanding the cultural background and history of these medicines is an important (and often overlooked) part of the healing, and we strive to right that balance as we bridge the gap between traditional medicines and a modern world.

Education

Knowledge empowers us to make meaning out of our life. It guides us on our journey of awareness and awakening, and deepens our understanding and connection to ourselves and the world. At Soltara, we believe that knowledge and context enriches our experiences and gives us the tools necessary to carry this work back home. Whether through informative media focused on the traditional history, practices, and use of plant medicine work and other healing modalities; workshops that provide you the tools to cultivate your own medicine practices; or integration sessions focused on living to your highest potential, we believe education in all respects continues the legacy and knowledge of those who came before us. It allows us to spread the healing and continue the movement of sustainable, healthy living back home. It is through knowledge and education that we can be most grateful for the full spectrum of abundance that is available to us always, and live out that gratitude in our everyday lives.

Read More: Knowledge As Medicine
Professionalism

We are called to serve medicine in sacred ceremony with integrity, humility, and compassion. By creating a safe space and working only with experienced, well-intentioned healers and facilitators, we uphold the lessons of the medicines and build a foundation of mutual trust, authenticity, and respect. We are not gurus, preachers, or enlightened beings – our healers are healers who humbly transmit the knowledge and healing energies of the plants, and our facilitators are devoted to helping guests face, process, and explore difficult experiences and emotions, handle projections, manage expectations, and surrender to the process. We strive to uphold the highest integrity in everything we do and be a beacon for responsible, safe, and ethical practices, such that our guests feel safe and supported to get the most out of their healing.

Read More: Our Team
Reciprocity

The medicine teaches us that all of life is interwoven and interdependent – none of us exist in isolation, and all are connected. In order to maintain balance and harmony for the individual, community, and society, there can be no taking without giving back. Thus, we are committed to living out this universal law in everything we do, from working closely with indigenous healers and creating employment opportunities for our local community, to promoting conservation efforts through our environmental initiatives, to choosing Costa Rica as our home, one of the most progressive, sustainable, and greenest countries in the world. At Soltara, we celebrate the interconnectedness of all things, and strive to embody the indigenous wisdom and spirit of the medicines and its people in order to be responsible stewards of the Earth and her bounty.

Read More: Our Social & Eco-Initiatives
Pura Vida

This official Costa Rican motto means “pure life,” but also implies other meanings, including “full of life”, “real living”, “this is living!”, or “going great”. It can be used both as a greeting and a farewell, as a response that things are going well, as a way of expressing gratitude. Today, the saying goes beyond its simple translation: it’s a way of life.

At Soltara, we are honored to call this country our home and to mirror and share this way of life for all who come through. There is much we can learn from this way of living, both individually and as a collective. As a whole, Costa Rica embodies this philosophy by practicing what it preaches – rated the greenest country in the world in 2009, Costa Rica also has the highest percentage of land dedicated to national parks and reserves. It was ranked the highest in the Latin Americas on the Human Development Index (a composite index of lifespan, education, and per capita income), and is one of the only democracies in the world without a standing army (preferring instead to have “an army of teachers”). In 2016, over 98% of Costa Rica’s electricity was generated from green sources, and the country plans to be entirely carbon neutral by 2021. Our location on the Nicoya Peninsula is considered one of the 5 “Blues Zones” of the world, where a significant percentage of people live active, healthy lives over the age of 100. [Source]

By living out the values of our ethos and our home, we hope to contribute to a global awakening that inspires balance, harmony, respect, healing, transformation, and a deeper understanding of what it truly means to live a pura vida.

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