How We Got Here

Ben

Like many before him, Ben found his way to ayahuasca after suffering from a myriad of serious physical health issues that had stumped western medicine. After many years and many thousands of dollars spent going from doctor to doctor, being shrugged at by specialist after specialist, Ben began to lose hope that he would ever get to live the life he wanted. Desperately, he gave Chinese medicine, meditation, and a slew of other “alternative” therapies a try, all to no avail.

With seemingly no other options left, he decided to see if ayahuasca—that weird, woo woo, plant medicine stuff people seemed to be talking about—could help. At the end of his rope and a hair’s breadth from giving up, he felt he didn’t have anything left to lose. So, in 2018, he booked himself a three-week retreat at Dreamglade Shamanic Healing Center in the Peruvian Amazon. Upon arriving, he was disappointed—and frankly furious—to learn that he wasn’t going to be allowed to drink ayahuasca during his first ceremony. Due to the serious nature of his illnesses, the owner of the center wanted to give the curanderos working there a chance to “check him out” in ceremony before Ben drank the medicine himself. Having never believed in anything even vaguely spiritual before in his life, Ben doubted this would have any effect at all.

A day and a half later, having yet to actually imbibe the jungle brew, one of his major health issues—one that had dogged him for nearly two years—was gone. At once grateful for relief from the chronic pain and flabbergasted that something so intangible had finally worked, Ben threw himself into his remaining eight ceremonies with a newfound openness and attentiveness. He learned a lot in those ceremonies, finding insight and healing for various issues that had lurked in the unseeable corners of his unconscious. But the most valuable thing he took away from that retreat was a curiosity about the connections between body and mind, between human beings and nature.

Returning to Dreamglade several times over the next few years, both his knowledge about these crucial connections and the level of healing he received for his body, mind, and spirit, deepened considerably. Now the only thing he felt desperate for was a way to give back. He was thrilled when he was accepted to work at the center as a facilitator, where he was trained in how to counsel others as they worked with ayahuasca, how to keep them safe in ceremony, and how to lead breathwork sessions.

Having sat in hundreds of ceremonies, both as a facilitator and patient, Ben has a deep understanding of how ayahuasca can help people. He’s spent many months isolated in the jungle “dieting” with Sowa Charana’s team of curanderos and considers them family. He finds nothing more rewarding than sharing the wealth of knowledge about ayahuasca and jungle plants that he’s accumulated over the years with guests as he watches each of them remember who they truly are and heal in ways they never dreamed they could.

When he isn’t facilitating ayahuasca ceremonies or living in the jungle with Maestra Lidia, he works as a ghostwriter, helping his authors find the emotional truth at the heart of their own stories in much the same way he does with retreat guests.

Brittany

Brittany's experiences with plant medicine began in 2017, at Dreamglade—an ayahuasca center in Iquitos, Peru—while traveling around the world for a year after taking a break from her corporate job. Before that, she had tried many modalities to cope with her anxiety and depression: pharmaceuticals (antidepressants & anti-anxiety pills), seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist, but nothing helped her the way ayahuasca did.

After her week at Dreamglade, she no longer suffered from panic attacks. At all. Seeing how her experience with ayahuasca had offered more relief than anything else she had tried, she started researching plant medicines and exploring different healing modalities and methods.

Since then she has had many experiences with different plant medicines, ceremonies, rituals, and retreats. She quit her corporate job and began working as an ayahuasca facilitator and yoga teacher where it all began, at Dreamglade Shamanic Healing Center. She has sat in hundreds of ceremonies as a facilitator and loves providing support and a safe space for healing.

Brittany grew up in a suburb of Chicago and always wanted to live somewhere warmer. She got her Bachelors in Cognitive Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. After that, she worked in healthcare technology in the corporate world for most of her 20s, taking time between contracts to travel and join plant medicine retreats. She has been practicing yoga since 2013, and is a certified yin yoga practitioner. She believes in a holistic approach to healing, is interested in many healing modalities, and feels that everyone deserves to find the modality that suits them best. She is extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with ayahuasca and the Good Medicine Club team, including the Shipibo healers.

In addition to her work with the Good Medicine Club as a plant medicine facilitator and yoga teacher, she is training to be a sex, love, and relationship coach in the VITA Coaching Method.

To learn more about Brittany, visit her page: www.goodmedicineclub.com/brittany

Kevin

Far, far away from the jungles of Peru, Kevin started his professional career as a salesman in Germany’s automotive industry. He then worked as a waiter, a service manager, and a professional chef in various restaurants and hotels. Over the years, he became more and more dissatisfied with the life he was living and found himself mired in depression. For a long time, he couldn't figure out what was making him so depressed. After one of his best friends passed away and his life started to crumble, he knew he had to make a change.

His spiritual journey began in 2016 with his first trip to India, an adventure that sparked his interest in meditation and spirituality. In 2018, he found himself living in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, and there he had a life-changing experience: a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat. In the wake of that experience, he started working on his deep issues with the help of different meditation techniques, yoga, and breathwork.

Four years later, he reached another point of stagnation—a new plateau—and it was time for another change. His path led him to the Peruvian Amazon where he drank ayahuasca for the first time. After many ceremonies and some time to integrate, he felt happy and home for the first time in his life.

Since then, he has dedicated his life to working with ayahuasca and other plant medicines in order to help others receive the healing they need and deserve. Leveraging the experience of his own journey, the wisdom he’s received from many hours in silent meditation, and his incredible culinary skills, he strives to create a nurturing and comfortable environment for others to find a new beginning.