Our Work Exchange Helpers
Our Work Exchange Helpers are returning guests and long-term plant students who have dieted with us multiple times before. They are people who have walked this path with True-Journey, built a genuine relationship with the medicine and the healers, and feel called to give back and continue learning in a deeper way.
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The Work Exchange is an individual arrangement — not a fixed program with set roles. Together we explore what form the exchange can take depending on the needs and interests of both the person and True-Journey. It might involve helping prepare the ceremonial space, supporting participants during and after ceremonies, assisting with logistics, or simply being a grounded and experienced presence that others can lean on.
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Being a Work Exchange Helper gives you the possibility to continue your journey with the plants, to learn about facilitation from the inside, and to enter into a spirit of reciprocity with this work. Each arrangement is discussed and shaped individually.
Jacqueline
Jacqueline was born in 1982 in San Diego, California, and also lived in Baja California, Mexico from the age of 5 to 15 in a small coastal town where she developed her connection to the ocean and a love for nature. By embracing both very different cultures at an early age, it opened up her view of the world.
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Her healing journey started in late 2014 when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. A two-time cancer survivor, she feels it was the catalyst to her awakening. She has always been an explorer by heart, fascinated by understanding the way the world works — a passion that took her to travel to many countries and to pursue a degree in Political Science and International Relations.
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Cancer shook her to her core and made her realize that there was an inner world in her to explore. She wasn't sure at that time how, but knew that her healing would not just be on the physical level but also 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 retreats at Spirit Rock in California and has maintained a daily practice ever since, which has helped her cultivate awareness.
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As the inner exploration continued, she felt a strong calling to work with plant medicines. In 2018 she attended her first retreat in Iquitos, Peru, and in 2021 a second retreat in Costa Rica — both at highly renowned centers. These experiences with the plants ignited an inner sense in her to continue and cultivate a deeper connection with them, which led her to participate in her first month-long Masterplant Dieta in 2022 in the jungles of Peru with True Journey. It was a profound and impactful experience that inspired her to continue learning, healing, and growing from these sacred plants. She continued in 2023 to participate in two more plant dietas. Sacred plants have been a big part of her healing and she is deeply grateful for all their wisdom and guidance.
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We are very grateful for Jacqueline's help in our 28-day retreat in September 2024. She participated in her dieta and also helped as a kitchen link, setting up the Maloka for ceremony, smudging the Maloka, and staying sometimes after ceremony in the Maloka as an anchor for people who stayed there.
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Jacqueline has since stepped into a co-facilitator role with True-Journey — a natural next step in her ongoing journey with the medicine and with us.
Luke
Luke participated very dedicatedly in a total of 5.5 months dieting with True-Journey and our Shipibo Maestros over the last two years. He has a strong connection to spirit and is a young, grounded man who is learning with the wisdom of the universe. We are immensely thankful for Luke's help in our 42-day retreat in 2023 and in the 28-day retreat in September 2024.
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He has come a long way with his own healing and faced many challenges on his journey of healing and wholeness, which he passed with trust and commitment. He feels one of his most important lessons learned through dieting so far has been about thoughts and learning how his mind works — because it has been his own thinking and attaching to stories which was clouding the alignment with the true world and creating more glitches in life. The plants have taught him that not everything the mind says needs to be believed.
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His journey with plant medicine started in his early twenties after training in the military, with the first experience within the plant medicine realms being with mushrooms. Plenty of playing with mushrooms came before eventually reaching a point where he was ready to be humbly shown a glimpse into deeper understanding of the subtleties of the universe. From this point on his experiences with the mushrooms changed and became focused on medicine, setting up sacred space, and learning with them. These experiences were sparked from a deep disconnection from his body since as early as he could remember, and it is what led him to working with Ayahuasca.
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Through work with the plant realms he became aware that the old stories of trauma from childhood were actually rooted deeper into his DNA — and it is his work now to continue cleaning his genetics and to be free from old limitations. Meeting the Shipibo medicine and style of work brought light, deeper love, and clarity into his life. The Shipibo, Ayahuasca, the Mahua lineage, and Samabos — plural plant diets — has brought and continues to bring validation to what a glorious life can look like, and helps bring present challenges into alignment with the light.
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He currently lives in Peru to enjoy life and continue his path of evolving.