Shipibo Plant Medicine Facilitator Training
A deep immersion for those called to hold space for others.
Who is This Training for?
This training is open to anyone who feels genuinely called to it — no formal qualifications are required to apply.
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Experience in group facilitation, plant medicine dietas, or practices such as yoga, meditation, somatic work, or mindfulness can be deeply supportive, both for your own process and for the skills you'll develop. Backgrounds in psychology or therapy bring valuable frameworks that enrich the facilitation structure. But these are gifts, not gates.
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If you work in healing, hold space for others, or simply feel drawn to this path without seeing your particular background reflected here — please apply anyway. The call itself is often the most important qualification.
What the Training Covers
Plant Dieta Immersion
Learn and connect with Tree Medicine
At minimum two months of dieting with True-Journey and Shipibo healers. You move through the plants as a student before you ever hold space for others. The learning happens through direct experience, not theory.
Personal Process & Shadow Work
Know your own blind spots.
15 private 1:1 sessions blending psycho-spiritual inquiry, somatic exploration, and compassionate coaching. Ute's framing: "You can only guide people as deeply as you have gone yourself." This pillar surfaces the "wounded healer" — your triggers, your patterns, your motivations for this work.
Preparation & Integration Methodology
The container before and after the ceremony.
You receive preparation and integration guidance as a participant first, then learn to deliver it. Group circles, 1:1 sessions, and Ute's practical frameworks for holding people through the pre- and post-dieta window.
Observation & Space Holding Practice
See before you act.
Step one of practical training: assist in at least one month-long retreat with small logistical tasks. Your primary instruction is to observe — yourself and others — and report daily. Ute meets with you for ~30 minutes each day during this phase.
Facilitation Internship
Step into the role.
Step two — offered case by case when readiness is mutually confirmed. An assistant role during a full retreat, with an exchange arrangement tailored to your background. Daily reflection sessions with Ute on group dynamics, space holder responsibilities, and what's arising in the field.
Ceremony & Retreat Knowledge
The ceremonial container itself.
Woven throughout: teachings on Shipibo cosmology and the medicine world (rao nete), how ayahuasca and masterplant dieta retreats are structured, how to read and respond to what arises in ceremony, and how to bridge plant wisdom into daily life. Case studies and lived examples from Ute's decade-plus of facilitation.
Format & Logistics
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Duration: 1 - 2 years
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Start: Flexible — we design this individually
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Location: The Sacred Valley, Jungle, & Coastal Peru (online sessions also available)
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Group Size: Small & personalized — this is not a group course
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Entry: By application and video call
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First Step: A dieta with True-Journey before committing
Maestra Juana
Working with a living lineage.
True-Journey works with trustworthy, lifelong-trained traditional Shipibo healers from a well-known and highly respected healer lineage. As a facilitator trainee, you will learn and diet alongside Maestra Juana Silvano Teco — not as an observer of her work, but as a student within the same ceremonial field.
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Ute on this relationship: "The more insight I get into their work, the more holistic it seems to me. The 'rao nete' — the medicine world in Shipibo — is truly fascinating, and I couldn't imagine studying anything more interesting."
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The Shipibo cosmological framework is not a supplement to this training. It is the foundation.
Ute's Approach
"My mentorship style stems from my belief that we all possess unique capacities to hold space and to guide others on their journeys."
Ute has been working with ayahuasca as a sacred plant medicine facilitator and mentor since 2015. Alongside her apprenticeship with Shipibo healers, she has pursued training in mindfulness, psycho-spiritual inquiry, somatic awareness, integration, and transformative coaching — not to layer systems on top of each other, but to find where they meet.
Her intention in the training is not to produce facilitators who replicate her methods. It is to support you in finding your own authentic path as a space holder.
"My intention is to support you, share my experiences and reflect with you, so you may find your own methods, abilities, qualities, gifts and ways of working with others."
She began offering this training organically in 2021, as years of accumulated experience in plant medicine spaces and therapeutic settings generated a natural pull from people wanting to learn. The program exists because True-Journey — and the broader plant medicine field — needs experienced facilitators who can bridge and integrate different realms, so that wisdom from the plants can be cultivated in real daily life.
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This is not a course. It is a relationship, conducted over years, in service of your becoming.
How This Unfolds
This program does not follow a fixed curriculum. The teachings and topics arise in the present moment — through your own process first, and later through practical application in group and ceremonial settings.
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We need to adjust to the present circumstances in your life and what happens in the True-Journey world.
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A few things to know before you apply:
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Before committing to the training, you will diet with True-Journey. This is non-negotiable — not as a gate, but as a foundation. You need to be familiar with your own process and have a lived connection with certain plant energies and frequencies before the mentorship relationship can begin in earnest.
The internship — the second practical step — is offered case by case. Readiness is assessed together, in ongoing communication, and it will never come as a surprise. Transparent, open dialogue runs through the entire program.
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Everyone brings a different personal background, diverse experiences, and skills into the training. Sometimes there is more personal work, more training, or more dietas necessary before it is the right time to step into a helper and facilitator role.
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If you are looking for a fixed timeline, guaranteed outcomes, or a structured certification path, this program is not the right fit — and Ute will tell you so honestly. If you are looking for a long-term mentorship rooted in lived experience, lineage, and your own genuine becoming, this is worth a conversation.