AYA Healing ONLINE COURSES

Trauma-Informed Plant Medicine Masterclass: Working WITH AYAHUASCA

  • Online Trainig

Overview

Working with plant medicine and psychedelics such as Ayahuasca, Bufo, Psilocybin, San Pedro, MDMA, and Ketamine can evoke trauma imprints and memories, arising to find resolution, healing, and freedom.

Plant medicines and psychedelics can access the implicit memory of individuals, and often trigger both confusing emotions and psychological states. When these states are not held with trauma awareness and care, individuals can experience disorientation, increased anxiety, disassociation, intrusive flashbacks, and at times, short or long-term psychosis.

Although many participants come to heal and process trauma experiences, very few facilitators possess the education and knowledge to respond effectively to the various categories of trauma that arise in this sacred space. The lack of trauma awareness and knowledge has led to many individuals staying “stuck” in the trauma loop and experiencing re-traumatization. These repercussions can be damaging and harmful to the psychological and emotional well-being of participants.

It requires a great deal of courage, experience, and bravery to navigate skillfully through the process of resolving trauma imprints in the arena of psychedelics when they arise. Unfortunately, many trauma survivors do not have the inner resilience or the resources to do so on their own.

Similarly, facilitators often feel overwhelmed with a lack of resources, education, and tools and without a practical understanding of what to do when various trauma imprints arise. This becomes neglectful and is perceived as dismissed by participants. leading to greater distress and perpetuating the trauma cycle.

At AYA Healing Retreats, we believe that being treated with safety and care in our current psychedelic renaissance is a human right, our birthright.

For this to happen, we need to co-create an inclusive, ethical, trauma-sensitive psychedelic renaissance that is grounded in responsibility, impeccable care, and compassion for all.

plant medicine masterclass working with ayahuasca

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Our Trauma-Informed Plant Medicine Masterclass workshops will provide bite-sized tools and resources for facilitators to cultivate their trauma sensitivity and awareness. Workshops are 90 minutes long and will be facilitated by Atira Tan, Head of Integration at AYA Healing Retreats, the pioneer and founder of the Trauma-Informed Plant Medicine Facilitation Three Month Training Program, and the creator of the Somatic Plant Medicine Integration Model.

She will be joined by a guest facilitator for each masterclass, and each workshop will focus on a specific plant medicine, such as Bufo, Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, and Huachuma.

Each masterclass will start with a 45 mins talk and discussion about trauma-informed tips and tools to work with each medicine, followed by a 45-minute Q & A where participants can ask questions about the trauma-informed plant medicine paradigm and specific case studies.

Ayahuasca is a powerful psychoactive substance that can produce strong emotional and psychological experiences in people who use it. Some of these experiences may be challenging or distressing, and people who have experienced trauma in the past may be particularly susceptible to having difficult experiences during an ayahuasca ceremony.

For this reason, it is important for ayahuasca facilitators to be trained in how to support individuals who may be struggling with difficult emotions or experiences during a ceremony. This can include having an understanding of the effects of trauma, being able to recognize the signs of someone who may be struggling, and knowing how to provide appropriate support to help the person through the experience.

By being trauma-informed, ayahuasca facilitators can help create a safe and supportive environment for participants and ensure that they are able to have a positive and transformative experience with ayahuasca.

Trauma-informed facilitation refers to the approach taken by the facilitator of an ayahuasca ceremony to ensure that the environment and the experiences of the participants are safe and supportive and that any potential triggers for trauma are minimized. This can involve providing adequate preparation and support for participants before and after the ceremony, as well as creating a safe and respectful space for the ceremony itself.

Our masterclass will share tips and tools on working with trauma with Ayahuasca, preparation and post-ceremony care useful protocols, and how to facilitate and lead in a trauma-sensitive approach that is attuned, compassionate and safe.

Joining Atira as a guest is Elio Geusa, the founder and director of AYA Healing Retreats.

YOUR TEACHERS

atira tan

Atira Tan, MA, SEP

Head of Integration
AYA HEALING RETREATS

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elio geusa

Elio Geusa

Founder of AYA Healing Retreats

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Level Up With Us

With Atira Tan, Somatic Trauma Specialist & Educator, M.A., and #1 best selling author, and Elio Geusa founder at AYA Healing Retreats. 

SOMATIC TRAUMA-INFORMED PLANT MEDICINE INTEGRATION

$ 50
  • Recording of our 90 mins Trauma-Informed Masterclass
  • Your 35 page PDF slides on trauma-informed tips, tools, contra-indictions and integration support
  • Specific case studies
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atira tan

Atira Tan

ayahuasca vine

Trauma Specialist - Integration Support

Hailing from her native Singapore Atira Tan, now based in Melbourne Australia, has over 15 years experience healing trauma through yoga, mindfulness, art, and counseling. Atira has a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy from Latrobe University, Melbourne, she was featured on TED X, is the founder of Art to Healing and the annual international Yogathon event, Yoga for Freedom. Atira works extensively throughout Asia and Australia in various projects that are centered around healing and empowering women and girls who have been sexually abused and violated through the sex trafficking industry.

From 2004 onwards, Atira established numerous clinical art therapy and trauma recovery programs and has partnered with international organizations to bring art therapy, somatic therapies, yoga, mindfulness to the refugee camps of Burma, the war zones of Cambodia, the brothels of Kathmandu, regions devastated by earthquakes in Nepal and to remote Aboriginal communities in Australia. In addition to her not-for-profit work, Art to Healing, Atira works as a clinician and clinical supervisor in Australia and the Asia Pacific region and as an educator in Transpersonal Art Therapy. Like Elio, Atira is dedicated to creating the space for transformative experiences to occur for each participant. She is the head of our integration team and as well as teaching yoga on selected retreats, she will facilitate your post-retreat integration sessions via Skype.

More about Atira Tan: atiratan.com

“My mission is to inspire others to step into their TRUTH, to LOVE themselves wholeheartedly and to EMPOWER their unique EXPRESSION in the world.”

atira

Atira Tan

ayahuasca vine

Trauma Specialist - Integration Support

Hailing from her native Singapore Atira Tan, now based in Melbourne Australia, has over 15 years experience healing trauma through yoga, mindfulness, art, and counseling. Atira has a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy from Latrobe University, Melbourne, she was featured on TED X, is the founder of Art to Healing and the annual international Yogathon event, Yoga for Freedom. Atira works extensively throughout Asia and Australia in various projects that are centered around healing and empowering women and girls who have been sexually abused and violated through the sex trafficking industry.

From 2004 onwards, Atira established numerous clinical art therapy and trauma recovery programs and has partnered with international organizations to bring art therapy, somatic therapies, yoga, mindfulness to the refugee camps of Burma, the war zones of Cambodia, the brothels of Kathmandu, regions devastated by earthquakes in Nepal and to remote Aboriginal communities in Australia. In addition to her not-for-profit work, Art to Healing, Atira works as a clinician and clinical supervisor in Australia and the Asia Pacific region and as an educator in Transpersonal Art Therapy. Like Elio, Atira is dedicated to creating the space for transformative experiences to occur for each participant. She is the head of our integration team and as well as teaching yoga on selected retreats, she will facilitate your post-retreat integration sessions via Skype.

More about Atira Tan: atiratan.com

“My mission is to inspire others to step into their TRUTH, to LOVE themselves wholeheartedly and to EMPOWER their unique EXPRESSION in the world.”

elio geusa

Elio Geusa

ayahuasca vine

Founder - Lead Facilitator

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.

elio geusa

Elio Geusa

ayahuasca vine

Founder - Lead Facilitator

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.