In Beautiful Sacred Valley
Join us for a powerful, intimate, all-inclusive retreat in the heart of Peru—a journey of remembrance, reconnection, and coming home to yourself.
Many of us spend years searching, searching for answers, searching for healing, searching for clarity, searching for the missing piece that will finally make us feel whole.
Yet somewhere along the way, we can lose touch with ourselves beneath the responsibilities, expectations, wounds, roles, and endless noise of everyday life.
We become disconnected from our bodies, our truth, our intuition, and the quiet wisdom that has always lived within us.
This experience is not about chasing a path or another version of yourself to become but a chance to pause, breathe, listen, remember.
Guided by Joanna's signature field-based approach and supported by the ancestral wisdom of the Andean Elders, we will gather in ceremony, community, and deep connection with the sacred land of Peru.
Through sacred plant medicine, breathwork, reflection, integration practices, and the support of a like-hearted community, you will be invited to:
Release - Let go of the stories, fears, emotional burdens, and patterns that keep you stuck in cycles of struggle, self-doubt, and disconnection.
Reclaim - Call back the parts of yourself that have been hidden, abandoned, silenced, or forgotten beneath the demands of life.
Reconnect - Restore your relationship with your body, your heart, your intuition, and the deeper truth of who you are.
Embody - Move beyond insight and into lived experience—anchoring greater peace, presence, clarity, coherence, and self-trust.
This retreat is an invitation to return from overwhelm to inner peace:
• From fear to freedom
• From fragmentation to wholeness
• From self-doubt to self-trust
• From surviving to fully living
• From seeking to remembering
• From disconnection to belonging
• From separation to homecoming
Together, we will create space not simply for healing, but for remembrance—a return to the truth, wisdom, and wholeness that have always existed beneath the layers.
The deepest journey is not about becoming someone else - it is about coming home to the person you have always been.
Please note: Participation is by application and approval only to ensure the safety and suitability of all participants.
Many retreats offer powerful ceremonies.
What makes this retreat unique is the intentional way each experience has been woven together to create a deeper journey of healing, remembrance, and homecoming.
Each ceremony serves a different purpose.
Each medicine opens a different door.
And together, they create a powerful cumulative effect that supports release, insight, integration, and embodiment.
Rather than providing a series of isolated experiences, this retreat offers a carefully crafted progression—where each ceremony prepares the ground for the next, allowing the work to unfold with greater depth, clarity, and support.
At the heart of this retreat are sacred Huachuma (San Pedro cactus), Ayahuasca, Despacho and Temazcal (sweat lodge) ceremonies.
These ceremonies are guided by experienced traditional practitioners and guides from the Andes and Amazon who have dedicated many years to studying and working within their respective ancestral traditions.
Their knowledge has been passed down through direct apprenticeship, ceremonial practice and community lineage rather than through modern certification systems.
We value an approach that prioritizes authentic relationships, cultural respect and traditional wisdom.
Our guides bring decades of lived experience working with sacred plant medicines and are committed to creating a safe, respectful and grounded ceremonial environment.
Our relationship with these facilitators is built on long standing friendship, trust, mutual respect and years of collaborative work.
Despacho: The Ceremony of Reciprocity
The journey begins with the sacred Andean Despacho ceremony.
A Despacho is an offering of gratitude and prayer—a beautiful ceremonial practice that honors the relationship between ourselves, nature, spirit, and the unseen forces that support life.
Through intention, gratitude, and reciprocity, participants are invited to acknowledge what they are releasing, celebrate what they are receiving, and consciously align with the life they wish to create moving forward.
The Despacho offering helps ground the retreat into a deeper sense of relationship, harmony, and trust with the powerful healing ceremonies that follow.
Ayahuasca: The Medicine of Truth
Ayahuasca is a sacred plant medicine traditionally used for healing, insight, and spiritual awakening.
Often described as a medicine of truth, Ayahuasca has a unique ability to bring hidden patterns, emotional wounds, unconscious beliefs, and unresolved experiences into awareness. What has been operating beneath the surface can often be seen with greater clarity and understanding.
While every journey is unique, many participants experience profound insights, emotional release, forgiveness, compassion, and a deeper understanding of themselves and their life path.
Ayahuasca does not simply provide answers—it creates an opportunity to meet yourself more honestly, allowing healing and transformation to emerge from that deeper awareness.
Huachuma (San Pedro): The Medicine of the Heart
If Ayahuasca reveals, Huachuma helps integrate.
Known as the "Heart-Opening Medicine," Huachuma offers a gentle yet profound invitation into connection—with yourself, with others, with nature, and with life itself.
Participants often describe feeling more grounded, present, peaceful, and connected to what truly matters. The medicine tends to soften emotional defenses and quiet mental noise, creating space for clarity, gratitude, forgiveness, and self-acceptance.
Where Ayahuasca may illuminate what is ready to change, Huachuma often helps you embody those insights, anchoring them into the heart and daily life.
It is a medicine of remembrance, helping many reconnect with a sense of belonging, purpose, and inner peace.
Temazcal: The Ceremony of Release
The journey ends with the Temazcal, a traditional sweat lodge ceremony often referred to as the "Womb of the Earth."
Within the warmth and darkness of the lodge, participants are invited to let go of what has become heavy—old stories, emotional burdens, limiting beliefs, and stagnant energy that no longer serves their growth.
The Temazcal is a powerful experience of purification and renewal. It helps quiet the noise of everyday life, reconnects you to your body, and creates space for something new to emerge.
It is the last step in preparing you for what lies ahead.
Individually, each ceremony is meaningful, but together, they create something far more profound.
The Despacho anchors gratitude, intention, and connection.
Ayahuasca reveals.
Huachuma opens the heart and integrates.
The Temazcal clears and prepares.
Each experience builds upon the one before it, creating a journey that supports not only healing and self-discovery, but true embodiment.
This is why many participants leave with more than insights or memories. They leave feeling more connected to themselves, more aligned with their truth, and more at home within their own lives.
Because the deepest transformation is not about becoming someone new.
It is about remembering who you have always been.
Ricardo Apaza Cruz (Q’ero tradition)
Leads despacho ceremonies and Andean rituals. His work centers on offerings to the Apus, energy alignment and transmitting ancestral wisdom through connection with Pachamama.
With more than three decades of earthly life, Ricardo has dedicated his existence to translating the energies of the Andes for the modern world, serving as an essential bridge between the ancient wisdom of the Apus (sacred mountain spirits) and humanity’s present need for healing.
He is a guardian of sacred rites, a man of profound humility, and a loving facilitator of connection with Pachamama and the Cosmos. His life is a beacon guiding others toward their own inner light.
"The offering that I create is born from seeds that have grown within the womb of Mother Earth. These seeds are not merely natural elements; each one carries the pure essence of the Mother and has received the sacred memory of the universe throughout its existence. They are, in truth, containers of cosmic information waiting for the right moment to awaken."
Hunikui is Txana Txatxabari (Huni Kuin tradition)
Leads the Ayahuasca ceremonies and holds ancestral Amazonian teachings. His work is centered on plant medicine, ritual protection, and transmission of rainforest wisdom through ceremonial space
"I am from the original tribe of sacred ancestral memory and I am a spiritual leader of my people. I live in Cruzeiro do Sol, Acre, Brazil. In our village we have build a temple that is called ‘World Peace’. I work with plants. Masters. Such as Rape, Kambo, Sananga, Ayahuasca and Tobacco. This knowledge was passed over to me by learning together with my grandfather and grandmother.
Ayahuasca is an expansion of consciousness and it is a medicine we use for material, emotional, energetic, soul and spiritual protection. This plant is for transmuting various types of problems or illnesses, relationships in families ect. It is a sacred ancestral memory medicine from the ancient Amazon rainforest."
Gregorio Diaz (Red Path Tradition)
Leads temazcal, plant medicine and prayer ceremonies. His work weaves Native American and Amazonian traditions, offering spaces for deep healing, connection and transformation. Connecting Through Prayer, Greg follows the profound call of the Great Spirit to share a message that touches the soul and transforms lives.
"For many years, I have walked alongside the master plants, guided by the powerful Eagle and Condor prophecy on the Red Road. This is not only a personal journey, but an open invitation to all who seek healing, clarity, and a deeper connection with the sacred.
My mission is clear and purposeful: I lead sweat lodges and facilitate ceremonies with master plants, weaving together traditional and new altars. Each ceremony is a sacred gathering where the soul can release its burdens, where healing and transformation are tangible, and where every participant is invited to rediscover their divine essence. This is a space where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, and where community becomes a reflection of our most authentic selves."
Your Ceremonial Guides hold the living lineage of their ancestors transmitting wisdom that cannot be taught in words.
Your Hosts:
Joanna the Healer brings over 20 years of experience in field-based recalibration and soul integration, offering a rare energetic container where profound shifts are possible—not by force, but by resonance. Her capacity to “hold the field” allows you to safely unravel, reweave, and embody your truest self.
Kamel Seklaoui facilitates breathwork, sound journeys, and energetic integration. Kamel’s spiritual lineage comes from West Africa where he learned from a young age the way of the spirit through his adoptive grandfather and first mentor. He has been fully initiated as a P’aqo by two senior Q’ero P’aqo’s from the Ausangate regions of Peru.
Between ceremonies, you’ll be held in integration circles, embodied practices, and time in nature. These sessions are designed to anchor the medicine, process insights, and help you gently recalibrate your nervous system so that the transformations you experience become lasting and real—not fleeting.
Deep ceremonial healing and activation (Despacho, Ayahuasca, Huachuma, Temazcal)
Ancestral wisdom and guidance from your guides
Daily integration support—practices, sharing, and rest
Community, beauty, safety, and profound nourishment for your soul
This is not just a retreat; it’s a threshold.
A true return to wholeness, carried by the power of the land, lineage, medicine, and the field.
Plant Medicine Sourcing
All plant medicines used within our retreats are sourced directly through trusted relationships with traditional practitioners and Indigenous communities who have worked with these medicines for generations.
We prioritize ethical sourcing practices that honor the cultural origins of the medicines, support local communities and ensure the integrity and authenticity of the ceremonial preparations.
The medicines are prepared according to traditional methods and handled with respect throughout the entire process.
“My trip to Peru opened something in me, and working with Joanna helped it truly land. I feel calmer, more confident in myself, and less driven by fear or external validation. My relationships feel healthier, my boundaries feel natural, and I’m stepping into my goals with a new sense of trust and self-worth. Joanna’s work didn’t just give me insight — it helped me come home to myself.”
“Since working with Joanna and returning from Peru, I feel calmer, more stable, and deeply grounded in myself. I’m less reactive, more trusting of my path, and I’ve seen real shifts in my relationships — especially with my daughter, who now feels more empowered and at ease. I’ve moved from guilt and rescuing to supporting and standing in my own truth. This work didn’t just give me insight — it changed how I live.”
“Since returning from the retreat, I feel fundamentally more stable and resilient. I no longer feel overwhelmed or consumed by stress, even when things are chaotic around me. There’s a sense of inner structure and calm that wasn’t there before.
I’ve noticed I’m setting clearer boundaries, over-giving less, and trusting myself more—both in relationships and at work. I don’t feel the need to fix everything or carry other people’s emotions anymore. Simply being present feels sufficient.
Emotionally, I feel more grounded in my body and more at ease with uncertainty. Old patterns around responsibility, trust, and self-doubt are loosening without force or effort. I feel more self-respect, more clarity, and a deeper sense of inner alignment that’s showing up naturally in daily life.”
“Since returning from the retreat, I feel significantly calmer and more embodied. My mind is quieter, my emotions feel more manageable, and I’m able to pause and choose how I respond to situations that used to trigger me. There’s a greater sense of presence and clarity in how I move through daily life.
I’ve noticed improvements in my overall well-being and a deeper trust in myself. I feel more connected to my direction and less reactive to stress, which has allowed me to approach work, relationships, and decisions with more steadiness and awareness.
What stands out most is the sense of inner alignment and grounding that continues to integrate over time. Rather than feeling driven or overwhelmed, I feel more settled in myself and more capable of navigating change with clarity and calm.”
Accommodation: 8 days/7 nights in the Sacred Valley
Transportation from and to Cusco airport on first and last day
Despacho Ceremony
Ayauhasca Ceremony
Huachuma (San Pedro) Ceremony
Temazcal Ceremony
Breathwork Journey - Nervous system re-set
Energy Clearing offering
Integration Circles
Visit to ceremonial sights
Daily Ayurvedic locally sourced meals expertly crafted by our talented chefs
Initial assessment zoom call and intention setting before the retreat
Private integration zoom call after the retreat
Wi-fi
Extras - optional (at additional cost)
Three-Month Integration Container Package
Additional night/s stay at the retreat centre (before or after to visit sacred sites, famous city of Cuzco, local sightseeing, etc) - breakfast included
Additional meals (lunch and/or dinner)
Visit and tickets to sacred sites
Workshops: sound healing, massage
Laundry service
Transportation service to city centre
Emergency Response & Medical Support
We maintain a high level of safety and support throughout the retreat. A doctor and nurse are on call nearby, and our on-site team is fully trained in first aid and wilderness safety, ensuring immediate and compassionate care whenever it’s needed
Participant safety remains our primary concern throughout the retreat.
Our team maintains clear emergency response procedures that include:
• Pre-retreat participant screeningand risk assessment.
• Continuous participant monitoring during ceremonies.
• Immediate access to transportation if medical care becomes necessary.
• Access to local medical facilities and emergency services.
• Trained facilitators and support staff present throughout the experience.
Should an unexpected medical or psychological situation arise, appropriate support measures are implemented immediately and emergency services are contacted when required.
Post Ceremony Integration Support
We recognize that the ceremony itself is only one part of the healing and transformation process. Meaningful integration is essential for lasting benefit.
Participants receive support through:
• Guided integration circles and group sharing sessions.
• Reflection practices and journaling prompts.
• Opportunities to discuss and process their experiences with facilitators.
• Practical tools for incorporating insights into daily life.
• Continued guidance and resources following the retreat.
Our intention is to help participants translate ceremonial insights into sustainable personal growth, wellbeing and positive life changes long after the retreat has ended.
The journey doesn’t end when the retreat concludes—in truth, it is only beginning.
During sacred plant medicine ceremonies and deep healing work, you may receive profound insights, clarity, and new perspectives. But without intentional integration, these gifts often remain as fleeting realizations, unable to take root and blossom in your everyday life.
Integration is the process of bridging the wisdom, healing, and breakthroughs from ceremony into your lived experience. It’s about helping the nervous system, the body, and your sense of self truly absorb and stabilize what you’ve received—so that real, lasting change becomes possible - Without integration, the seeds of change can’t grow. With integration, your life truly transforms.
Why Most Retreats Don’t Offer Integration (And Why That Matters)
Many retreat centers focus on the ceremonial experience itself, but offer little or no structured support once you return home. This is not because integration isn’t important—it’s simply because holding a safe, skillful integration container requires a different level of commitment, presence, and expertise.
Without proper integration support, it’s common to feel:
Overwhelmed by big emotions or insights
Isolated, misunderstood, or alone in your process
Confused about how to navigate daily life with your new awareness
Tempted to revert to old patterns, losing the gifts of the ceremony
What Happens in the Integration Container
My three-month integration container is designed to provide you with a safe, grounded space to digest, process, and embody what you’ve received. Here’s what you can expect:
Live Group Integration Calls via Zoom: Six group sessions (twice/month) for continued support, reflection, sharing, energetic recalibration, and collective wisdom.
Personal text/email support between group calls
Ongoing Field-Holding: Gentle guidance, resources, and energetic presence as you navigate your integration journey.
Community Support: A safe space to be witnessed, ask questions, and receive reflections from others within your retreat group who understand the path.
Somatic and Energetic Tools: Practices and teachings to help you land insights in your body, not just your mind.
Why a Safe Container Matters
True integration can bring up layers of emotion, confusion, and vulnerability as you navigate new territory. A safe, skillful container means you are:
Held in compassion, clarity, and non-judgment
Guided with wisdom and practical tools
Supported through challenges and celebrated in your breakthroughs
This is the space where the real work happens—the space where insight becomes embodiment, and where your life can shift in sustainable, meaningful ways.
The Invitation
If you’re ready to honor your healing, not just in ceremony but in life, this integration container is for you.
Integration is not a luxury—it’s the bridge to true transformation.
Let’s walk it together.
This Integration Container is fully guided by Joanna and the Field
Nourishing, Intentional Meals
Our retreat offers carefully curated meals designed to nourish both body and soul. Each dish is crafted using fresh, locally sourced ingredients, honoring the rich flavors and traditions of Peruvian cuisine while supporting your journey of transformation.
What to Expect
Seasonal, Organic Ingredients – We prioritize fresh vegetables, grains, and superfoods from the Sacred Valley.
Balanced, Ayurvedic, High-Vibrational Meals – Every meal is designed to energize and support deep inner work.
Vegetarian & Vegan Options – Our menu is predominantly plant-based, but we can accommodate dietary needs upon request.
Superfoods & Herbal Infusions – Enjoy cacao, maca, quinoa, muña tea, and coca leaf infusions, known for their healing properties.
Dietary Needs & Preferences
We honor your unique needs! Please let us know in advance if you have allergies, intolerances, or specific dietary preferences so we can accommodate you.
Starting at - $4,199 USD
Payment plan available
Details provided during your assessment call
*Plus applicable taxes
Three-Month Integration Container PACKAGE (Optional) -
Where Real Transformation Happens
$1,699 USD
*Plus applicable taxes
This is a small, intimate group setting - max 12 participants.
HOW TO APPLY:
Because this retreat involves sacred plant medicine, all participants are required to complete an application process before being accepted.
This process helps ensure the retreat is a safe, supportive, and appropriate fit for everyone involved.
Step 1: Email me to request an application package.
Step 2: Complete and return the application form.
Step 3: Once your application has been reviewed, qualified applicants will be invited to schedule a private assessment call.
Step 4: Following the assessment call, a final decision will be made regarding retreat participation.
This process is designed to support the safety, readiness, and well-being of all participants.
DAY 1: Arrival & Anchoring
Arrival to Melissa Wasi. Tea and fruits. Meet your family in Peru. Welcome fire in the teepee, introduction, native prophecies, cosmovision, practical info. Dinner. One-on-one talks with Txatxabari and Gregorio if necesary.
Day 2: The Offering - Despacho Ceremony
8-9.30: Breakfast in restaurant
10.00 Pick-up by bus. Despacho Ceremony with Qero Ricardo Apaza
This is the way the locals have been comuning with the Apus (the spirits of the mountains) since before recording time. Before we begin to ask something from this very sacred valley - medicine, vision, healing, blessings, revelations ect. - we give something. Our selfs to begin with. Flowers. Coca leaves. Sweets.
Aprox: 16.00: Back home at Melissa Wasi. Rest.
18.00: Dinner
19.30: Sound journey with Kamel
Buenas noches✨
Aprox: 16.00: Back home at Melissa Wasi. Rest.
18.00: Dinner
19.30: Sound journey with Kamel
Buenas noches✨
DAY 3: The Reveal - Ayauhasca Ceremony
8-10: Breakfast
11: Yoga with Eden
13.00: Lunch
14.00: Oral transmission with Txana Txatxabari from Huni Kuin. Ancestral wisdom from the rainforrest.
Prepare teepee together for ceremony.
Aprox. 16-20: Rest and prepare
20.00: Ayahuasca ceremony with Txana Txatxabari. Ceremony all night. Soup at the end
DAY 4: The Integration - Between Worlds
No ceremony. This is a sacred pause for body, psyche, and soul to land. The space between where healing takes root.
8-10: Breakfast for those who are awake
Some people will be tired after the ceremony and will want to sleep, in their rooms or under a tree in the garden. Some people will feel wide awake. We highly recommend that you stay at Melissa Wasi.
13.00: Lunch (optional)
15-17: Breathwork with Kamel & Joanna
18.00: Dinner
19.00: Fire with Txatxabari
DAY 5: Ceremonial Sights Excursion
8 - 8.45: Breakfast
9.00: Pick-up by bus outside of restaurant. Visit to one of the great temples of the Sacred Valley: Intihuatana. One of the ceremonial sights and astrological observatory of the incas.
We will have a late lunch at Mammita Isabels house, she will show us around her land, which is how most natives lives here; with and from the land.
Day 6: Invitation To Connect - Huachuma Ceremony
There will be fruit, juice and tea in the kitchen at the main house. Please help yourself.
8.00: Be ready for bus pick-up by the restaurant.
Huachuma ceremony with Gregorio. We will come back to Melissa Wasi late afternoon/early evening. Soup and fire in the teepee.
Day 7 - Release - Temazcal Ceremony
8-10: Breakfast
10.00: Meet by the sweat lodge. Introduction to sweat lodge.
Aprox. 11.30: Sweat lodge ceremony with Gregorio
Aprox. 14.00: Lunch
17.00: Yoga
19.00: Dinner and give-away ceremony in teepee
Day 8 - Closing/Departure
8-10: Breakfast
Closing circle. Tupananchiskama.
Lunch in Lilis restaurant
Departure
This is a return to what’s real.
To what you’ve always been.
To the frequency that was never lost, just buried under story, fear, and noise.
If you’re called to recalibrate from the inside out
If you’re ready to meet your truth with open heart
If you’re longing to feel the presence of who you are, again
Travel
You will want to fly into Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ) in Cusco, Peru.
Upon arrival, you will be greeted by our private driver and transported to the retreat center in the Sacred Valley, allowing you to relax and begin your journey from the moment you arrive.
Weather
Mid-October is one of the most beautiful times of year in Peru's Sacred Valley.
You can expect pleasant daytime temperatures ranging from 18°C to 24°C (65°F to 75°F), with cooler mornings and evenings between 5°C and 10°C (41°F to 50°F).
Days are typically sunny with clear blue skies, while the surrounding mountains create crisp, refreshing mornings and evenings. Although October marks the transition toward the rainy season, rainfall is generally light and infrequent.
The strong Andean sun can feel surprisingly warm during the day, even when temperatures remain moderate, so layers are highly recommended.
What to Bring
Clothing
• Light, breathable clothing for warm daytime temperatures
• Warm sweater, fleece, or jacket for cooler mornings and evenings
• Comfortable layers that can be easily added or removed throughout the day
• Comfortable walking or hiking shoes
• Light rain jacket or compact poncho
• Shoes or sandals that can be easily removed for ceremonies and indoor spaces
Sun Protection
• Hat with sun protection
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen (the Andean sun is strong even on cooler days)
• Lip balm and moisturizer
Retreat Essentials
• Reusable water bottle to stay hydrated
• Small backpack or daypack for excursions
• Journal and pen for reflection, insights, and integration
• Personal toiletries and medications
• Travel towel and swimsuit for sauna, spa, or water experiences
• Flashlight or headlamp for evening walks around the property
• Optional sacred items for the altar (crystals, photos, meaningful objects, prayers, or intentions)
A Note About Ceremony
We encourage you to bring comfortable clothing that allows you to feel relaxed, grounded, and fully present during ceremonies and group experiences.
Most importantly, come with an open heart, a spirit of curiosity, and a willingness to meet yourself exactly as you are.
Everything else is secondary.
Altitude sickness (also called soroche in Peru) happens when your body struggles to adjust to lower oxygen levels at high elevations. This is common in places like Cusco (3,400m / 11,150ft) and the Sacred Valley.
It can affect anyone, regardless of fitness level.
How to Prevent & Manage Altitude Sickness:
Take it slow – Allow 1–2 days to acclimate.
Chlorophyll intake: works by increasing your red blood cell count, which in turn allows your body to take in more oxygen. This helps mitigate the effects of altitude sickness (caused by a lack of oxygen). You can pick some up online before your trip, or check the local herb shops, apothecaries and grocery stores.
Stay hydrated – Drink PLENTY of water and herbal teas (coca or muña tea helps).
Avoid alcohol & caffeine – These dehydrate the body and can worsen symptoms.
Use coca leaves or coca tea – This traditional Andean remedy helps with oxygen absorption.
We will be supplying you constantly with coca or muña tea.
We maintain a high level of safety and support throughout the retreat. A doctor and nurse are on call nearby, and our on-site team is fully trained in first aid and wilderness safety, ensuring immediate and compassionate care whenever it’s needed.