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Heal · Stage 2 of the Arc

Heal, 6 weeks. 3 ayahuasca ceremonies. One return to wholeness

Stage 2 of the 3-stage Arc of Transformation. A 6 Week Program built around a 7 Day Immersion in Baja, Mexico, 3 ayahuasca ceremonies, held by ministers and facilitators inside a sacrament church container.

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Tender held moment supporting Heal journey

The Path to Wholeness

What Heal is, actually

Heal is the second stage of Ceremonia's three-stage Arc, the long middle, where the protective patterns that kept you functioning are met, named, and finally released. Awaken (Stage 1) opens the door. Heal carries you through it. Manifest (Stage 3) anchors what you bring back.

The work is built around 3 ayahuasca ceremonies inside a 7 Day Immersion in Baja, Mexico, set within a 6 Week Program that holds you on either side. Ayahuasca, in this lineage, is treated as a sacrament, a living teacher rather than a substance. The ceremonies are held by ordained ministers and trained facilitators who have walked this path themselves.

What we work with is the residue: the shame that runs underneath self-talk, the guilt that quietly steers decisions, the fear that has long since stopped announcing itself. The medicine, the music, and the careful container give those layers a chance to soften. What you meet underneath them is the part the ayahuasca traditions call your Innate Power, and an Enlightened Vision of the life that becomes available when the residue is no longer in the way.

Why ayahuasca

Why this stage calls for this medicine

Ayahuasca is the medicine of the deep middle, the stage where you stop circling the wound and meet it. The brew opens a four-to-six-hour window of vivid, relational, somatic experience that other sacraments do not match for trauma and shadow work.

The Amazonian lineages have refined this work over centuries. The plant is treated as a living teacher with its own intelligence. Inside ceremony, that intelligence collaborates with the music (icaros and contemporary), the careful space, and the parts of you that are finally allowed to be witnessed.

This is why Heal uses ayahuasca specifically. Awaken, Stage 1 of the Arc, uses a different sacrament for a different threshold. Heal works at the layer where ancestral patterning, ritual, and relational repair belong together.

Read more on the ayahuasca sacrament →

Who holds the space

Ministers and facilitators, not a clinic

Heal ceremonies are held by ordained ministers of the Ceremonia sacrament church and a team of facilitators trained in trauma-aware ceremonial holding. Many have walked Ayahuasca traditions for years before joining the team. They sit close enough to be present and far enough that the medicine has room to do its own teaching. The container is religious-spiritual, a sacrament, not a treatment, and the people holding it have been chosen for the depth of their own work, not for an accreditation number.

  • Ordained minister

    Holds the ceremonial container and the sacrament itself. Ministers carry the lineage relationship with the medicine and the formal religious authority to serve it within the church.

  • Ceremony facilitator

    Trained in trauma-aware ceremonial work, somatic presence, and IFS-informed holding. Facilitators sit near participants through the ceremony and through the integration arc on either side.

  • Guest practitioners

    Some retreats include visiting practitioners, somatic therapists, breathwork guides, integration specialists. They are invited for the depth they bring, not as a clinical staffing layer.

The Arc

Three stages. One journey

Heal sits in the middle. Awaken opens the door; Manifest carries what was learned forward. Each stage holds a different question.

The 3-stage Arc of TransformationThree nodes, Shadow, Witness, Integration, connected by a directional track. Awaken opens the door; Heal carries you through; Manifest anchors the work.ShadowStage 1WitnessStage 2IntegrationStage 3
  • Shadow

    Stage 1, Awaken. Meet what you have been protecting against.

  • Witness

    Stage 2, Heal. Sit with the parts long enough to release them.

  • Integration

    Stage 3, Manifest. Translate the shift into a life that holds.

Stage 1, Awaken →How the brain consolidates the work →

The shape of the program

6 weeks. 7 days. 3 ceremonies

Program length
6 Week Program

The full container, preparation, immersion, integration, runs across six weeks. The immersion is the pivot in the middle.

Immersion
7 Day Immersion

Seven days on land in Baja, Mexico. Preparation calls precede the trip; integration circles follow.

Ceremonies
3 Ayahuasca Ceremonies

Three ceremony nights inside the seven-day immersion. The pacing lets each ceremony land before the next.

Location
Baja, Mexico

A retreat property on the Baja peninsula. Quiet, coastal, set apart from daily life.

Held by
Ministers + facilitators

Ordained ministers carry the sacrament. Trauma-aware facilitators sit with participants through the arc.

Stage in the Arc
Stage 2 of 3

Awaken opens. Heal carries. Manifest lands. Heal is the long middle.

Stories from the Arc

What participants carry, from Heal

Real participants who walked the Heal arc with us. Tap any card with a play badge to watch their full story.

  • “I came in carrying a question I'd been holding for a decade. I left with a feeling — and a plan I could actually live.”
    M

    Maya R.

    Author · Boulder, CO

  • “Two decades in psychiatry didn't prepare me for what this container made possible. The clinical rigor and the heart were both real.”
    D

    Dr. James P.

    Psychiatrist · Denver, CO

  • “I expected a peak experience. What I got was a whole new operating system — and a community that's still with me a year later.”
    E

    Eli K.

    Founder · Oakland, CA

  • “What surprised me most wasn't the ceremony — it was the community I came home to. Two years on, we still talk every week.”
    R

    Rebecca S.

    Founder · Austin, TX

  • “The container was unlike anything I'd experienced. Skilled, warm, and never rushed. I felt held the whole way through.”
    D

    Daniel K.

    Therapist · Brooklyn, NY

  • “After eighteen years of meditation practice, this was the first time I felt my own heart open from the inside.”
    E

    Elena V.

    Teacher · Marin County, CA

Qualification + application

How to know if Heal is your next step

Heal is not for everyone, and not for every season. The right time is usually after Awaken, when the door has been opened and the residue has begun to surface. We screen for medical fit (certain medications and conditions interact with ayahuasca and require either a taper, a delay, or another path), and we look for readiness: the willingness to sit with what shows up rather than steer it.

  1. 1

    Apply

    A short written application gives us a first read on what you are bringing to the work and where you are in the Arc.

  2. 2

    Connection call

    A real conversation with a member of the team, about medical fit, current state, and whether Heal is the right next step at all.

  3. 3

    Preparation

    Once accepted, you enter the preparation phase: dieta guidance, reading, calls with your facilitator, and the slow turning of attention inward.

  4. 4

    Immersion

    Seven days in Baja. Three ceremonies. Held by ministers and facilitators inside the sacrament church container.

  5. 5

    Integration

    Several weeks of structured integration circles, journaling prompts, and 1:1 support. The neuroplasticity window stays open, this is where the shift becomes durable.

How this work is held legally

A sacrament church under RFRA

Ceremonia is a sacrament church. The medicine is held as a sacrament, a religious-spiritual practice, under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which recognizes the right of sincere religious communities to use sacramental plants as part of their tradition. This is the legal frame inside which our work lives. It is not a clinical or medical container, and we do not present it as one.

Frequently asked

Questions people actually ask

  • What is the structure of the program?
    Heal is a 6 Week Program built around a 7 Day Immersion in Baja, Mexico. Inside the immersion you participate in 3 Ayahuasca Ceremonies. The weeks on either side of the immersion are dedicated preparation and integration, preparation calls, dieta guidance, integration circles, and 1:1 work with your facilitator.
  • Why ayahuasca specifically?
    Ayahuasca opens a longer, more relational, more somatic window, typically four to six hours, and the Amazonian lineages have refined trauma and shadow work in this container over generations. Awaken, Stage 1 of our Arc, uses a different sacrament for a different threshold. Heal uses ayahuasca because the layer of work it addresses belongs to this medicine.
  • Who facilitates the ceremonies?
    Ceremonies are held by ordained ministers of the Ceremonia sacrament church together with trauma-aware facilitators. Many of the facilitators have walked Ayahuasca traditions for years before joining the team. Some retreats also include visiting practitioners, somatic therapists, breathwork guides, integration specialists, invited for the depth they bring rather than as a clinical staffing layer.
  • Where is Heal held?
    Heal takes place on a retreat property in Baja, Mexico. The land is quiet and coastal, set apart from daily life. You arrive together as a cohort and stay through the full seven-day immersion.
  • How is this work legal?
    Ceremonia is a sacrament church. Our ceremonies are held under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which recognizes the right of sincere religious communities to use sacramental plants as part of their tradition. The container is religious-spiritual, not clinical.
  • What about my medications?
    Several common medications interact with ayahuasca, particularly SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, and certain other classes, and require a careful taper before ceremony, under the supervision of your prescriber. Some conditions and medications make Heal the wrong fit for now. Our screening team works alongside your prescriber to plan any taper safely; when this work is not the right next step, we will say so.
  • How do I know if I am ready for Heal?
    Most participants come to Heal after Awaken, or after other meaningful work that has already begun to surface what they are carrying. The readiness signal is willingness, willingness to sit with what arises rather than steer it. The application and the connection call are designed to help us read that together.
  • What does integration look like after the retreat?
    Several weeks of structured integration: weekly small-group circles led by a facilitator, 1:1 sessions, journaling prompts, and the alumni community. The neuroplasticity window opened in ceremony stays open for weeks, the integration arc is what translates the shift from felt experience into a life that holds.

Begin

Walk Stage 2 of the Arc, when ready

Heal is the long middle. If what you read here names something you have been carrying, an application is the right next step. If you are earlier in the Arc, start with Awaken.

Apply NowStart with Awaken
About the ayahuasca sacramentScience of ayahuascaNeuroplasticity window

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