**Important Notice**

Due to the current global situation as a result of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, we have suspended all operations until August, 2020, and are temporarily suspending all new bookings and registrations until June 15, 2020. Please see our latest blog post for more information, and sign up for our newsletter to stay updated about retreat availability and scheduling, as well as additional resources, support, and high quality content as we move through this crisis, together.

Feel free to add your name to the waitlist to be notified once this retreat is rescheduled. We will notify those on the waitlist first regarding registration for new dates once available.

Our hearts go out to all those affected by this crisis. In solidarity, we wish you safety and well-being, wherever you may be.

With love and infinite gratitude from the entire Soltara family,

Soltara Healing Center

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Mindfulness and the Medicine combines the sophisticated healing work of Shipibo healers with in-depth practices of mindfulness, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy (CBT), Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry, yoga, and other psycho-spiritual practices.

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Ayahuasca research has found that people who work with ayahuasca exhibit improved mental qualities similar to those who practice mindfulness meditation, including less judgmental thinking and reactivity. It has been suggested that this may be one of the factors contributing to the therapeutic effect of ayahuasca.

In this retreat, we will work on understanding and cultivating these and other beneficial qualities alongside the ayahuasca ceremonies. Not only will you learn how to use applied mindfulness skills to discover a new sense of self that is more resilient and peaceful, but you will learn how mindfulness is directly relevant to working with ayahuasca, and how the two can be mutually beneficial to you. The feedback from the previous workshops applying these approaches has been overwhelmingly positive. It seems that applying these approaches within the context of ayahuasca retreats provides a profound opportunity to experience direct first hard confirmation of many concepts that may otherwise seem abstract and distant.

You will learn how mindfulness can deepen and enhance your experience of working with ayahuasca and how to directly apply these practices during your ayahuasca ceremonies in the workshop. You will be supported in reflecting on what you are learning throughout the workshop, using applied mindfulness practices, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, compassionate inquiry and a range of other psycho-spiritual practices to help you integrate your ayahuasca experiences, and learn how to carry what you experience in your ceremonies into your day to day life.

Both traditional and ayahuasca-specific approaches to mindfulness will be included in this program. The traditional elements include the development of a clear understanding of mindfulness and specific practices with which to cultivate mindfulness in your life. You will learn in a practical step-by-step manner how, when, and why to “let go” and how to recognize and release the unhelpful habits of your mind. You will have access to both group classes on one to one consultations throughout your retreat.

You will learn how to compassionately investigate the origins and effects of your current habits and challenges, as well as how to cultivate new and more mindful responses within your thoughts, memories, emotions, body sensations, behaviors and relationships. These are known to help people increase their self-acceptance, recognize the onset of negative states of mind and break out of them faster, and to cultivate positive states of mind in their place. This can profoundly change the way you relate to your own experience of life, to others, and to the world around you.

Ayahuasca-specific adaptations within the Medicine and Mindfulness framework include:

• Working mindfully with intense mental imagery and visions
• Working mindfully with strong emotions and body sensations
• Working mindfully with difficult memories and traumas
• Using mindful curiosity to consciously navigate your ayahuasca experience
• Integrating ayahuasca experiences using a mindfulness framework
• Working with other self enquiry techniques to process and prepare you for what arises in ceremony
• Using mindfulness to help you intentionally approach the life you want, instead of unconsciously avoiding the life you fear

The material in this program has been designed to respect, honor, and be compatible with the Shipibo traditions and the work of the Maestros and Maestras, who skillfully guide the medicine where it needs to go, and perform high-level precision surgeries using their icaros and other tools, removing energetic blockages and freeing you from past traumas. In fact, you will find that bringing an actively alert and focused mindful presence to your ceremonies will make our Maestros very happy as their work can be much more effective!

Sean Chiddy

Sean is an Australian born psychotherapist and integration consultant, and who joined Soltara in 2019 after working at one of the most respected ayahuasca centers in Peru since 2015. He combines the influence of his years of experience working with plant medicines, including in the Shipibo tradition, with his professional training and experience in western psychology and psychotherapy, mindfulness, healing meditation, life coaching and various other forms of trauma healing and spiritual practice. He has worked and led workshops and retreats in Australia, England, Peru, Thailand and Costa Rica.

As a member of the Soltara integration team, Sean also offers retreat preparation and follow-up/integration sessions for all guests. Feedback from previous attendees of this retreat, in its previous iteration in Peru, was overwhelming positive. Guests reported that this level of active engagement in healing and psychotherapeutic approaches alongside their ceremonies, guided by someone with significant experience in both domains was extremely beneficial to their process.

With many years of personal and professional experience of healing work in various traditions, he understands that there are many ways to heal, but that all start from a willingness to approach rather than avoid what is arising, and to learn to trust in the capacity of our mind to reorganize and integrate what has been hurt or disconnected, and in so doing to move towards an increasing sense of peace, wholeness and joy in being alive.

Sean will help guests understand how to work with ayahuasca and all that this entails: how to process difficult emotions, handle projections, surrender, manage expectations, face challenges, overcome fears, become aware of false core beliefs, embody teachings from the plants, incorporate visionary experiences, and move from the head to the heart.

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Testimonials from past clients and retreats:

“Sean is hands down the most helpful and insightful therapist I’ve worked with in the past 20 years I’ve been in therapy.” M Smith, USA

“I could go on forever about the benefits I gained from your workshop Sean but I would have to write a book.” Titus Johnson, Wilmington, North Carolina

“Sean is a truly amazing psychotherapist and integration consultant.” Laura Lamn, UK

“I actually, after many years trying, learned to meditate and really connect to my awareness at this retreat with the help of Sean. It was quite amazing!” Rafael Suvaii, USA

“Mindfulness and the Medicine with Sean has been absolutely amazing. He is an incredible teacher. After two years, or three years of reading about Buddhism and trying to meditate I finally understand how it’s happening. I have the sense and I have absolute certainty that I can do it. The tools that I got here are invaluable for me.” DC, Tel Aviv, Israel

“From that lens (of mindfulness) I was able to go deeper into my experience, because, what isn’t enhanced with mindfulness!? It offers a language that makes the ayahuasca experience something that can be apprehended and metabolized. This particular workshop offers a very accessible language for something that’s ineffable.” Sabrina Laura, Psychotherapist, Vermont, USA

“It’s perfect! It’s perfect in the sense that it is very well balanced. The mindfulness program is spot on. It’s a program that is unique and I would recommend for anyone who gets the calling for this” Walin, Beirut, Lebanon

“I thought I had a pretty good handle on mindfulness and Sean took me two or three levels down on how to use mindfulness in a rational way. Sean using mindfulness based CBT was really good for me and I’m going to take all that back to my work. I have a whole different approach now. I’ve got nothing but kudos for Sean. He did a wonderful job.” John Simpson, Addictions Counsellor, Saskatoon, Canada

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Your stay at Soltara also includes:

• 5 ayahuasca ceremonies with highly-experienced Peruvian female & male Shipibo healers
• Intimate group sizes (maximum capacity 20 guests) with individualized attention from healers during ceremony
• High facilitator-to-guest ratio with skilled facilitators who have combined decades of experience working in ceremony and helping guests through the healing process
• Your own copy of our integration book, The Hero’s Journal, which assists you as you begin your own Hero’s Journey (published by Soltara in collaboration with clinical psychologists, this book follows a psychological treatment framework adapted to the ayahuasca experience and includes beautiful art and self-guided tools to empower you in your medicine and integration journey)
• One-on-one consultations with our healers (and translator)
• On-site integration workshops and sharing circles
• All meals in our conscious cuisine kitchen, prepared fresh daily from organic, pesticide-free, local sources in an ayahuasca-friendly manner
• Transportation to and from the pick-up location near SJO airport (details in your confirmation email and on our travel logistics page)
• Yoga classes for all levels throughout your stay
• Pranayama breathwork and meditation sessions
• Floral baths with medicinal plants lovingly prepared by our healers
• Nature immersion and multiple walking trails in one of the most abundant & biodiverse regions on the planet
• Access to our creative space for music, art, writing, and dance
• Access to our private on-site pool
• Air-conditioning in all rooms
• High-speed WiFi (although we encourage all guests to disconnect as much as possible!)
• Lifetime 10% discount for all return visits
• Participation in our premiere integration program and community with a highly qualified integration support team
• Access to two semi-private beaches with gentle waters along the gorgeous Gulf of Nicoya

We look forward to having you with us!

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