FAQs

A medicine person is one who weaves together the gifts they were born with, the gifts they have cultivated, and the values they choose to stand for and believe in; rooted in an unwavering dedication to their own healing and growth, carried with humility and lived in service for the benefit of all. These gifts often include deep knowledge of and connection with medicinal plants and other substances, a holistic understanding of health and illness, and a recognition of the interconnection of mind, body, spirit, and environment.

People don’t simply decide one day to become medicine people. Medicine people are born.

That said, choice does play a part in the unfolding. 

It is much like the artist. A person may decide to take art classes, study techniques, and practice painting. They may even produce beautiful pieces. Yet unless the seed of artistry was always present, they will not find the same joy, resonance, and deep purpose that a true artist feels when creating. Artists are born. They are recognized first by the stirring within themselves, and then affirmed by the recognition of others. Classes, study, and practice help refine the gift, but the seed was always there. 

So too with medicine people. I did not choose to become a medicine person. I chose to accept that I am a medicine woman becoming. When I did so, the guidance my maestros, maestras, and mentors had been offering finally became clear. Gifts I had not understood as gifts revealed themselves, and I was given a choice: to step into service with what had always been within me. I chose, and in choosing, life began to make sense in a way it never had before. 

Before that acceptance, my life as a medicine woman becoming—unconscious of the role—was confusing, frustrating, and filled with mystery I could not name. After I chose to consent to this path, it became no less mysterious, but the mystery turned from frustrating to fulfilling. What was once bewildering became deeply satisfying, an ineffable unfolding that continues to this day. 

I cannot say that I stepped onto this path out of some noble calling to help others or from a conscious desire to serve. That came later. First, I had to accept who I am. Once I did, I chose to center my service in deep care for others, in cultivating kindness, and in walking with a steady commitment to be of service. That was, and still is, the only way any of this makes sense. 

With Ayahuasca specifically, my relationship with her began  before I consciously stepped into medicine woman becoming. She saved my life over many years in ways both visible and unimaginable, as I had the privilege of witnessing her do for others as well. Choosing to devote myself to her was a clear choice, though I did not know it would lead me here, serving as I do today. 

Some choices in life keep paying forward. This is one of them. Its reward is not what I receive, though I receive much. Its true gift is what it allows me to give.

My approach to working with people in the medicine is informed by the truth that not a single one of us is broken—we have not been, are not now, and never will be broken.

Spiritual healing is not fixing something shattered—it is realigning and reintegrating perspectives, transforming energies, and releasing things that aren’t ours, aren’t us, and that we have mistakenly carried as if they were and are blocking the expression of our true essence.

Sometimes we have been so insulated by all of this baggage that we don’t even feel our own vibration, our essence. 

I believe a fundamental rule for someone in my role is taking the time and care to see not only where someone is on their path but who they truly are—their unique light underneath the mountains of pain, trauma, and disconnection. I do so to ensure that through their medicine journey they can see what I see, simply because I took the time to see it and hold it sacred, is one of the biggest blessings of my life. Because this is medicine for both of us. 

I receive this question often, and it comes in many forms.

After all these Ayahuasca ceremonies, why do you keep going? Why aren't you "done"? If Ayahuasca is such amazing medicine, how do you have anything left to work on after all these years?

We're human.