The Founder

My Story - A Medicine Journey

My true journey with medicine began in 2008, when life as I knew it unraveled. After an emotional breakdown during a long meditation retreat, I found myself facing the unresolved traumas of my childhood—wounds that years of Vipassana practice could not heal. Despite being a meditation teacher and community leader, there were places inside me that felt broken, untouched by the light of my practice. Every day, I wrestled with an overwhelming grief and struggled to maintain emotional stability and healthy relationships. No matter how hard I tried, the painful patterns of my past remained, and I found myself lost, unable to heal on my own. I prayed fervently for a new path, a way out of the darkness.

In my darkest hour, in 2007, a dear friend reached out to me and introduced me to Ayahuasca. She was a clinical psychologist who led private ceremonies in the mountains of Northern California. My first Ayahuasca ceremony was nothing short of life-changing. In that sacred space, I felt something stir deep within me, something long forgotten. I knew then that I needed to go deeper, to take the plunge into the heart of the medicine. Soon after, I traveled to the Peruvian Amazon, where I would meet the Shipibo indigenous community—healers whose connection to this sacred medicine runs deep through time.

It was in the heart of the jungle, under the canopy of the ancient trees, that my spirit began to awaken. My heart opened in a way I had never known, and I discovered a profound connection to the Shipibo people, their sacred songs, and their powerful medicine lineage. I had found my home—a place of deep healing and transformation. This lineage, now one of my root traditions, guided me to the core of my trauma, where true healing began.

That first journey changed my life forever. The medicine worked through me, healing layers of pain I had carried for so long. My passion for plant medicine ignited, and over the years, I devoted myself to this sacred path. I worked closely with Ayahuasca, studying under Indigenous Shipibo healers. In 2014, I spent an entire year in the jungle, deepening my practice through plant diets and apprenticing with experienced guides. Since then, I’ve participated in hundreds of ceremonies, each one a doorway to greater understanding, healing, and growth.

In 2015, I founded Lotus Vine Journeys, a sacred space where I could share the transformative power of plant medicine with others. Over the years, I’ve witnessed countless transformations, each one a testament to the profound wisdom of these ancient healing traditions. Lotus Vine Journeys was born from my deep desire to serve and from the compassion that grew out of my own healing. We are a unique organization that blends plant medicine with Buddhism—and now the guiding spirit of Harriet Tubman, a symbol of resilience and liberation.

Buddhism and Shamanism are ancient wisdom traditions, each dedicated to helping us return to our basic goodness. At Lotus Vine Journeys, we combine them to support rapid growth and deep insight. Buddhist meditation practices help us clear away inner blockages so that we can see our true nature. Shamanic practices, on the other hand, locate and uproot those blockages swiftly and powerfully. Time is of the essence, and the transformation of our greed, hatred, and delusions is urgently needed. With the help of our ancestors, we now have the power tools to accelerate healing, insight, and liberation.

This work is powerful, and for those who feel called to walk this path, I welcome you with an open heart.