Our Retreat Teachers & Co-Facilitators
The people who support our retreats are not outside professionals brought in to fill a role. Each person who has joined the True-Journey team has done so as a long-term student of the plants themselves — someone who has walked this path personally, who knows this medicine from the inside, and who brings that lived understanding into everything they offer.
I choose my co-facilitators very carefully and with great consideration. The healing field we create together in our retreats is something sacred, and the people who hold space within it matter deeply. I am very grateful for each person who has brought their gifts to True-Journey. It is a true joy to create this work together.
Co-facilitators rotate depending on the retreat. Please check the specific retreat page to see who will be supporting that particular retreat.
Charlotte
Guide for Trauma-Sensitive Embodied Practices & Co-Facilitator
Charlotte is an experienced teacher, guide, and facilitator trained in numerous styles of yoga and other embodied practices and therapeutic interventions. She first set foot in a yoga class about 20 years ago and it has been by her side as a stabilising resource through eating disorder recovery, divorce, burnout, anxiety, and the inevitable profound grief of loss. Woven together with the medicine of the plants, it has supported continuous shedding of old skins, renewal, and reconnection to essence and purpose.
She started on a very different path many years ago, working in UK broadcasting, creating and producing documentaries. However, career burnout showed her the need for significant change, and she left broadcasting soon after undertaking her first yoga teacher training in 2017. Coming from a family of military veterans who have all seen war, it was not long before she began to specialise in trauma sensitive teaching — adapting yoga and other mindfulness based somatic practices to more therapeutic ends. She has worked with individuals living through anxiety, depression, compulsions, dysregulated eating, and complex PTSD.
Always curious about innovations in trauma healing work, and still confronting her own shadows, she answered the call to go to Peru and have her first experience with Ayahuasca in 2019 — a watershed moment in her life. In the years following that first retreat, she began to teach and facilitate on legal psilocybin retreats in Europe, also supporting individuals with trauma-sensitive embodied practice as part of their integration process. Alongside this, her work with Ayahuasca continued.
Charlotte has only ever worked with Ayahuasca in South America, always having felt strongly that this was work she only wanted to do with the people who originally developed it and have been serving the plants in this way for centuries. Her first retreat experience was with the Shipibo, and she has continued working — on herself and supporting others — only in the Shipibo tradition, being both astonished and humbled by their uniquely skillful, precise, and beautiful sound and vibrational energy work.
Charlotte started undertaking Sama in 2024 to deepen her relationship with and capacity to learn from the plants, seeking a deeper, more expansive, and multi-dimensional relationship with what is. To have these experiences of retreating into silence and stillness in order to hear, see, and feel these subtle guiding forces showing the way is a rare honor.
Charlotte met Ute while working together with the Shipibo in the jungle. As well as deeply appreciating Ute's way of weaving her plant and human medicine when holding space for those in her care, she felt an immediate personal connection. So when Ute asked if she would like to collaborate and bring her embodied practice work to True Journey, she jumped at the chance to expand her experience of Ayahuasca facilitation in the Shipibo tradition, to embark on her first experience supporting others in the extraordinary journey of Sama, and to open to the wisdom of tree medicine.
During your time in our Masterplant Retreat, Charlotte will be offering trauma sensitive embodied practices of various kinds according to what is present for everybody — weaving in tools to support nervous system regulation, stability, and release. She will also be supporting Ute and Juana in ceremony and will be present to help and accompany every guest in many other aspects of the overall experience.
She has recorded a variety of practices that you can access for free after signing up for a retreat, to support you before, during, and after your time with us. She also offers longer term integration support using her unique combination of methods.
Charlotte is English, though she also speaks conversational German and is getting better and better at Spanish. She is currently dividing her time between the UK and Peru.
Leigh
Co-Facilitator & Yoga / Movement Teacher
"Hi there! I am so looking forward to joining you all in the Sacred Valley. I met Ute in the jungle in our personal Sama space with the Mahua family, and we immediately felt a kinship. We were able to spend some time together in the weeks that followed and found that we had many aligned values and visions — and we became excited to collaborate together!
Though I have supported both individual and group ceremonies with different plant medicines and lineages, this will be my first time supporting Sama as a co-facilitator with True Journey and Maestra Juana. I feel honored and excited to offer my support to such powerful teachers for this Sama experience."
Leigh is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapist with a background in movement, expressive arts, and adventure education. Leigh committed to her journey of personal and spiritual growth work almost 25 years ago, became a Certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher and Reiki Channel in 2005, has worked in many different areas of the Mental and Behavioral Health field since 2009, and obtained her Master of Science in Counseling Psychology in 2014. Leigh continues to pursue various trainings, certifications, and apprenticeships as she is committed to her growth both personally and professionally so that she may be of the utmost service.
Over 20 years ago Leigh had a life changing spiritual experience with Psychedelic Plant Medicine that changed the trajectory of her life and sent her on the path to becoming a therapist and supporting others in their healing and growth. It was another 13 years before Leigh had another experience with psychedelics or plant medicines, which led to working with various practitioners from both clinical and shamanic models, as well as studying with various indigenous teachers from Colombia, Brazil, and Peru. Leigh was introduced to the spirit of Noya Rao and the Shipibo-Konibo lineage over two years ago, has dieted both Noya Rao and Bobinsana, and began studying with the Mahua lineage at the beginning of this year with Maestras Manuela and Robertina.
Leigh currently bridges the gap between clinical and shamanic models, working as both a clinician for a Crisis Center in Colorado and in her private practice, where she uses an integrative, holistic, and collaborative approach to support others in their healing.
Leigh has found that engaging in gentle embodied practices throughout and following her personal Sama experiences has supported her in translating and grounding the sometimes ethereal experience of Sama in the physical realm. During our retreats, Leigh will offer morning movement and embodied practices to support participants in connecting to their bodies as we integrate the various stages of deepening relationship with these powerful master plants. Her intention is to create space for gentle movement, breath, and meditation to explore and integrate the experiences from your ceremonies and daily processes.
Jacqueline
Co-Facilitator & Yoga / Breathwork Teacher
Jacqueline was born in San Diego, California, in the fall of 1982 and spent much of her childhood in a coastal town in Baja California, Mexico. Growing up between two cultures and along the ocean fostered a deep connection to nature and a curiosity that later guided her global travels and studies in Political Science and International Relations.
A two-time breast cancer survivor, her healing journey became a catalyst for deepening her practice through Vipassana meditation, breathwork, yoga, and plant medicines. Her healing would not just be on the physical level — she knew it would also need to happen on the spiritual and emotional levels of her being. This realization first brought her to meditation, where she attended a 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat in India in 2017. She has attended more of these meditation retreats at Spirit Rock in California and has maintained a daily practice ever since, which has helped her cultivate awareness.
Since beginning her work with plant medicines in 2018, she has continued her studies in Sama under the Shipibo-Konibo tradition with Maestra Juana, Maestra Robertina, and Maestra Manuela through True Journey — returning each year to the Peruvian jungle to deepen her practice. Through this deeply meaningful healing journey, she has felt a heartfelt call to give back and now supports the work as a co-facilitator under the guidance of Ute and Maestra Juana with True Journey.
A humble student of the plants, Jacqueline creates grounded spaces rooted in presence, care, and intentional pacing — informed by meditation, yoga, fitness, and breathwork. She carries deep gratitude for her healing journey with the plants, meeting this path with compassion, humility, and reciprocity. She looks forward with gratitude and openness to supporting each retreat she is part of.
Olivia
Co-Facilitator & Yoga / Movement Teacher
Olivia is a change facilitator. She supports those who wish to transform and live a life more aligned with who they truly are. After 10 years of experience in change management consulting, she embarked on new adventures in 2014 which led her around the world, in search of questions about herself and life. She dived deep into different spiritual practices — Yoga and Mindfulness, Reiki, Astrology, Holotropic Breathwork, Transpersonal Psychology and Coaching, Spiritual Hypnosis, Shamanism, and Plant Medicine work. She eventually became certified in Yoga, Transpersonal Psychology Coaching, and Spiritual Hypnosis.
Olivia started her work with plant medicine in 2018. That same year, she and Ute met for the first time in a well-known Ayahuasca center in Iquitos. In 2019 Olivia began studying with Manuela Mahua on a regular basis. For True-Journey it is a great honor to have Olivia in the team, as she is aligned with the same Shipibo lineage. Olivia has facilitated and guided others in retreats and plant diets and Samas for a few years now. She speaks French, English, and Spanish, and is currently learning Shipibo. With her strong and cheerful spirit, she is here to support you wholeheartedly in some of our retreats.
Olivia first discovered yoga as a teenager, experiencing its profound benefits for both her physical and emotional well-being. However, it wasn't until she faced burnout that she fully committed to the practice. In 2017 she traveled to India and Sri Lanka to deepen her knowledge, earning certifications in Vinyasa and Yin Yoga.
During our Masterplant Retreats, Olivia will lead morning yoga sessions designed to support your integration process with the plants. Each session invites you to connect more deeply with your body and tap into its wisdom for reflecting on and integrating your experiences:
Conscious Breathing — regulates your nervous system and emotions, providing a vital tool for navigating intense experiences and staying grounded.
Embodied Presence — cultivates awareness of your physical sensations, helping you understand how emotions manifest in the body.
Tension Release — facilitates the release of stored tensions, emotions, and memories, creating space for new insights to emerge.
Mindfulness Practice — encourages observation of thoughts and feelings without judgment, allowing for greater clarity and acceptance of your experiences.
Movement Integration — enables you to embody your learnings through movement, fostering a deeper understanding of the insights gained.
Together, yoga and plant medicine create a holistic therapeutic approach. Olivia will help you navigate your inner journey with greater ease, leading to lasting transformation and self-awareness.