Who We Are

At Sowa Charana, our mission is to be a bridge between Amazonian shamanic healing traditions and our modern world.

With a combined 15 years of experience working with curanderos from the Shipibio-Konibo indigenous group—as their translators, helpers, ceremony facilitators, and as their patients—our team has cultivated a deep understanding of and a profound respect for the Shipibo tradition of ayahuasca-based healing and the myriad jungle plants used therein. The indigenous healers who lead our ceremonies have been doing this work for decades. Both in and out of ceremony, they work from a place of utmost dedication, integrity, sensitivity, and love.

For centuries, if not millennia, curanderas and curanderos like those we work with have served the communities of the Amazon Basin using ayahuasca and the rich pharmacy of the jungle to heal the ailments they encountered in their communities. Today, alongside all the nice new advancements its made in technology and culture, our modern society has produced a plethora of brand new ailments specific to our time. From autoimmune diseases to mental health epidemics to the widespread soul-malaise that comes with a life lived in disconnection from nature, these contemporary health issues require treatments as diverse as the post-globalization society that gave rise to them.

If one were to try and reduce the complex Shipibo healing tradition down to one simple ethos, it could be expressed as this: within each human being lives a shining, healthy soul, ready to thrive; it is only kept from doing so by traumas, illnesses, and unhelpful energies that simply need to be cleaned off of it so its light can shine through.

“Sowa” is the Shipibo word for this sort of cleaning.

And “charana” is both a Sanskrit word that means “wanderer” and a name given to a 12th century South-Indian religious sect that wandered the land, eschewing the idea of a fixed temple or sacred home-base while welcoming worshipers of all classes and cultures into the fold. In one of his teachings, the founding saint of the Charanas referred to their deity as the “Lord of the meeting rivers.”

Thus, as Sowa Charana—a wandering ayahuasca retreat facilitated by lifelong travelers at locations around the globe—we seek to offer the most authentic experience of the Shipibo healing tradition possible, while at the same time placing it in a modern container that can best serve guests of all backgrounds. As the movable point where the river of ancient Shipibo knowledge meets the diverse cultural rivers that carry our guests to us, ours is a necessarily syncretic modality that, in our many years of experience with hundreds of guests, we’ve seen simply works.

In addition to providing a contemporary context for traditional medicine to effectively treat the illnesses of today, our goal is to help guests fall back into the kind of reciprocal relationship with nature practiced by all of our ancestors. At retreat centers all over the world, we invite guests to build their own relationships of gratitude, respect, and reverence for the natural world, a practice that in and of itself is a path to healing, as well as a powerful and, sadly, largely-forgotten pillar of indigenous wisdom.

We are an ayahuasca retreat with a fluid center. A bridge between the timeless and the timely. A place where rivers meet, and in their meeting, clean, rejuvenate, and heal.

If you would like to host a Sowa Charana ayahuasca retreat at your property or center, please email goodmedicineclub@gmail.com

Meet the Team

Shipibo Curanderos

Lidia

Lidia comes from a long lineage of curanderos from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe.

She grew up near Pucallpa, in the Peruvian Amazon, and at a very young age started her training as an ayahuasca practitioner at the hands of her grandparents, who were highly respected curanderos in their community. It was a long and difficult process involving years spent deep in the jungle in almost total isolation: a teenage girl studying the forest around her by day and by night, fasting, listening, sensing, and singing, and through all of this cultivating a lifelong relationship with it and with the many medicinal plants it holds. This is how Lidia, like her ancestors before her, began to develop her healing talents, the first step in the lifelong journey that made her the curandera she is today. Now in her sixties, she brings the same levels of tenacious dedication, of presence and patience, of fierce determination and gentle sensitivity needed to complete her rigorous training to every single health issue she is tasked with healing. To put it simply: she is the real deal.

Having spent decades traveling the Amazon, leading ayahuasca ceremonies, and dedicating her life to helping as many people as possible, Lidia eventually found work at a renowned ayahuasca healing center and has worked with groups of international guests for the past six years.

Lidia is a caring and passionate healer who works closely with retreat participants both in and out of ceremony. She is highly skilled at healing massage and bone-setting, which she offers on non-ceremony days to guests experiencing long-term pain, illness, or injury. Quick to smile and even quicker to laugh, there is nothing that gives her more joy than helping others feel better. It is her life’s work.

Lidia is also a talented embroiderer, sewing traditional Shipibo tapestries, clothing and accessories with designs inspired by visions she has seen in her ceremonies. Her work has won several awards in Shipibo embroidering contests held in Pucallpa and is available to purchase during retreats.

She lives on the outskirts of Pucallpa with her big family of children and grandchildren, and her favorite English word is “happy.”

Américo

Américo is Lidia’s younger brother and was raised in the same family of gifted Shipibo curanderos.

As with many traditional healers across many cultures, Américo’s call to follow in the footsteps of his grandparents came in the form of a childhood illness. His grandparents knew this was no ordinary sickness; it was a sign, a calling, the first trial Américo would face on the long and arduous path to becoming a curandero. Sure enough, once he began his apprenticeship Américo’s health returned, and he threw himself into a lifetime of learning how to be of service to his community. Embarking on the long process of dietas, study, and practice with an abundant enthusiasm he brings to all his shamanic work, Américo built a strong connection to the jungle plants of his homeland, a devotion and respect that is palpable to anyone in his presence.

After spending years traveling up and down the mighty Ucayali river and its tributaries, leading ayahuasca ceremonies for the local people of the Upper Amazon alongside Lidia and other relatives, Américo moved to Lima. There he started a family and continued to work as a curandero before returning to Pucallpa and the jungle he loves.

Spend any amount of time with Américo and it becomes abundantly clear that he revels in living the life of a traveling healer, of sharing his knowledge in exchange for meeting people with histories different from his own. Even after a lifetime of medicine work, he still views the world of ayahuasca with childlike wonder. But just like his sister, Américo is dogged, diligent, and tireless in his vocation, always ready to go the extra mile for a patient and never willing to give up when faced with a challenging case.

Today, when he isn’t leading ceremonies at internationally-attended ayahuasca retreats, he splits his time between the city and the rainforest, offering his skills to the Pucallpa community out of a home he built himself, adorned only with a handwritten sign inviting his neighbors to call him 24 hours a day if they are ever in need.

Facilitators

Ben Grenrock

Ben started working with ayahuasca while on a desperate quest to find something—anything—that could heal the serious physical ailments plaguing his body that no western doctor could cure. When, much to his surprise, ayahuasca and the doors it opened up for him worked where every other modality he’d tried had failed, Ben found himself on a new quest: one of service, of giving back. He’s since worked at a world-class ayahuasca healing center in the Peruvian Amazon, facilitating ceremonies, counseling guests on integration, and leading breathwork sessions. Having spent many months “dieting” in the jungle with trusted curanderos, he brings a wealth of experience and a deep knowledge of the Shipibo healing tradition to his work with Sowa Charana. Ben is a talented integration counselor, with a quick wit and a great sense of humor, always willing to help, offer guidance, and share a laugh (usually at his own expense). He has sat in hundreds of ceremonies and is an insightful, warmhearted plant medicine facilitator and breathwork instructor.
Brittany Thompson

Brittany has felt a strong pull towards natural medicines, psychedelics, and spirituality for more than a decade. After feeling depressed, anxious, and stuck, ayahuasca changed her life when she first sat with the medicine in 2017. Since then, she’s committed herself to learning more about plant medicines, both through personal experience and at the hands of the facilitators and curanderos who guided her along her own healing journey. After being offered a job to work at one of the most respected ayahuasca centers in the world, her learning accelerated exponentially, and for several years she sat in ceremonies three nights a week, creating safe, approachable environments for others to heal themselves. She is now a seasoned facilitator, having sat in hundreds of ayahuasca ceremonies. As a certified yin yoga teacher, she offers our guests a practice of embodied integration, informed by her work with ayahuasca.
To learn more, visit her website: www.goodmedicineclub.com/brittany
Kevin Owens

Kevin has an innate talent for staying present and centered in any situation—a trait that any psychedelic facilitator should strive for. With an extensive background in meditation practices and a deep, respectful knowledge of the traditions they come from, his calming presence has a way of helping those around him find their center with the same ease that he does. He has been working closely with ayahuasca for the past several years, both at modern retreat centers and “dieting” with Shipibo maestros deep in the jungle. A brilliant chef who crafts intentional, healthy, and (dare we say) delicious meals out of ayahuasca-diet-approved foods, he is an invaluable part of the Sowa team.
Nick Carbone

Nick is a psychedelic integration coach and founder of Sacred Valley Psychedelic Care. His practice is informed by a
combination of modern academic research and ancestral traditions.
His passion for experiential learning has taken him across the globe: From India to Thailand, the Amazon to the Andes,
and sacred sites across Mexico. Along the way, he has participated in ceremonial practices with teachers from
Buddhist, Shipibo, Q'ero, Mazatec, and Huichol traditions.
Nick is currently completing a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at FHSU and a three-year
experiential training in psychedelic-assisted therapy through Ecstatic Mysticism. He holds certificates in
psychological first aid, end-of-life support, Traditional Thai Yoga Massage, and Somatic Thai Yoga.
Nick believes everyone has an innate capacity to heal and grow. Contemplative practices, cognitive-behavioral
techniques, and consciousness expansion are research-backed methods that can help one to uncover their inner
intelligence and catalyze profound change. Psychedelic plants are one of Nick's favorite tools of inner work and he is honored to support others in this space.