Kris has been living for seven years in the Peruvian Amazon. Originally from Barcelona, she followed a calling to be of service to the indigenous elders. As soon as she arrived, Kris deeply immersed herself in the traditional knowledge of the rainforest.

She was an on-site facilitator and administrator for an Ayahuasca retreat center for five years. Her role enabled Kris to work closely with Ayahuasca and other plant medicines, facilitating Ayahuasca retreats and plant medicine dietas. She helped participants integrate and process their experiences and made sure the retreats ran smoothly.

For the past six years, Kris has forged a deep and very close relationship with the Matses tribe, who initiated and taught her how to work traditionally with Kambo.
During her time in the rainforest, Kris has worked and collaborated with many powerful curanderos from different lineages and tribes, giving her a broad depth of knowledge about Amazonian plant medicines.

Those experiences ignited a passionate love for Amazonian herbalism, and she has dived deep into plant medicine alchemy for the past seven years.

Kris currently works at Aya Healing Retreats, facilitating the groups and establishing a deep connection with the local Shipibo community.
She also offers Amazonian Herbalism training courses and has started her apothecary creating pure essences from these Amazonian plants and Master Plants.

Kris is a solid bridge keeper between the indigenous cultures and practices of the Amazon, and the West, bringing a unique perspective from her direct experience.
Kris is a strong jungle medicine woman with a kind heart that is always ready to help those in need; she is a faithful caretaker of the forest and the indigenous traditions.

Elio Geusa is the founder of AYA Healing Retreats and is a qualified Social Worker with over thirteen years of experience working both on national and international humanitarian projects, supporting adults experiencing mental health and intellectual disabilities, and refugee populations throughout Asia, Europe, and Australia.

Elio believes that loving and inspired action can create meaningful change in the world.

Elio has been devoted to the path of plant medicine and Ayahuasca since 2009 and began an apprenticeship under the guidance of Maestro, Vegetalista Manaco Manai. In his long time in Peru, he has continued to deepen his knowledge, experience, and understanding of the workings of the sacred plant medicines, studying the Shipibo traditions under the revered Mahua family and has undertaken numerous Master Plant Dietas with well-respected curanderos in the Peruvian Amazon.

This immersion in the sacred plant medicines of the indigenous peoples of Peru enabled Elio to experience deep and profound healing. He has overcome crippling anxiety and anger as a result of traumatic childhood experiences and healing that trauma imprints that were not possible through the Western medical paradigm. His renewed sense of self-worth, love, compassion, and empathy for himself enables him to extend those same qualities to others.

Elio founded AYA Healing Retreats because he is convinced of the healing potentialities of sacred plant medicines. Not only does he hope to share the indigenous wisdom of the ancient traditions of the Indigenous people of the Amazon, but he also hopes to make a bigger difference by investing profits from AYA Healing Retreats into humanitarian projects that create a more compassionate world.