7 Day Women’s Healing Retreats
7 Days of Ancestral Healing & Rebirth
Tap into a part of yourself that requires recognition.
An invitation:"Looking at Nothing, Thinking About Everything" Women's Healing Retreat 2026
Dear sister, in the space between thought and silence lies a profound medicine. We invite you to step away from the endless doing and striving to discover what emerges when you soften into presence. This is a call to connect with the primordial state of being that allows you to receive divine guidance and remember your true, divine essence.
Is this retreat for you?
- Quiet the mind and awaken your heart's intelligence.
- Heal from trauma and return to inner peace and self-love.
- Honor indigenous wisdom and work with sacred plant medicines in an authentic ceremonial context.
- Surrender to transformation guided by experienced Achuar healers and Gestalt psychotherapy.
- Profound clarity and a renewed sense of purpose.
- Emotional integration tools for lasting change.
- Ancestral connection and a deeper relationship with the spiritual realm.
- A strong sisterhood and a supportive community that lasts long after you leave Ecuador.
The Water Dance: A Unforgettable Night of Offering
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Vigil to the Element of Water (September 12th Only)
On the night of September 12th, you will join a sacred, all-night vigil—a communal, ecstatic prayer to the element of water. Under the stars of the Mindo cloudforest, with live musicians and ceremonial dancers that have prepared for this evening for 8 months, and the power of the fire, you will move, pray, and connect to an ancestral current of healing. This is not a workshop; it is a deeply unique, all-night offering that seals your transformation and weaves the collective energy of the sisterhood. This part of the retreat is open to the general medicine community, as well as women’s retreat participants.
*Photos and videos from previous Water Dances*
What's Included & The Journey (Schedule)
Your 7-Day Journey to Rebirth
| 2 Sacred Ayahuasca Ceremonies | Deep Spiritual Vision: Guided by Achuar Grandmother Leonor Suárez and Shiram Ucucuy, you will receive clarity, heart-opening, and profound spiritual guidance. |
| All-Night Water Dance Vigil | Ancestral Connection: A unique, ecstatic prayer through movement, music, and fire to seal your healing process. |
| Gestalt Integration Workshop | Lasting Change: Therapeutic tools, creative expression, and emotional integration guided by Paulina Oviedo to ground your insights into your daily life. |
| 2 Temazcal (Sweatlodge) Ceremonies | Purification & Sealing: A powerful opening and closing ritual with heat, steam, song, and prayer to cleanse the body and spirit. |
| Waterfall Walk & Rapé Circle | Nature Immersion: An offering ritual to the spirits of the water, connecting you to the healing power of the Mindo cloudforest. |
| All-Inclusive Logistics | Total Peace of Mind: Includes transportation, all healthy vegetarian meals, and shared accommodation in our rustic, sacred space. |
Schedule (the Flow of Transformation)
Arrival at Nuestra Tierra Aldea Creativa, Mindo.
Check-in and settling into your room.
Welcome Circle
We open our space together, introduce the group, set intentions, and connect with the spirit of the land.
Daytime ayahuasca ceremony guided by Achuar Grandmother Leonor Suárez.
A deep immersion into ancestral medicine, clarity, heart-opening, and spiritual vision.
Please eat lightly and observe silence as much as possible before entering the ceremony.
Integration Workshop: “Looking at Nothing, Thinking About Everything”
Guided by Paulina Oviedo:
Gestalt psychotherapy tools, personal development, therapeutic theater, creativity, and emotional integration.
A space to understand, digest, and ground what has opened during the ceremonies.
Morning and afternoon:
Walk to the waterfall.
Rapé circle and offering to the spirits of the water.
Return for rest and preparation.
6:00 p.m. — Night Ayahuasca Ceremony
Ceremony guided through the night until 2:00 a.m.
After the ceremony, participants return to rest and silence.
Community integration and social circle, rest.
New participants for the water dance begin arriving during the day.
8:00 p.m. — Fire is lit for the Water Dance
All-night vigil of dance, movement, prayer, music, and ancestral connection.
We dance through the night until sunrise.
7:00 am (ish) Closing temazcal after Water Dance
Rest, nourishment and relaxation.
7:00 a.m. — Breakfast
8:30 a.m. — Closing Circle
Words of gratitude, final reflections, and farewells.
Departure to Quito. Flights can be booked on this day, best after 4pm
Social Proof (Women's Healing Retreat Testimonials)
Meet Your Guides
This retreat will involve a group of female healers, wisdom keepers and workshop leaders.
The healers come from diverse backgrounds and are highly experienced. Many of them are recognized as leaders in their path or with their medicine. Among them are:
Leonor
Activity: Day-time Ayahuasca Ceremony
Leonor is a 60-year-old Achuar elder and single mother of two, embodying the strength and resilience of a true warrior woman. Having faced life’s challenges on her own, she has carved out a path of wisdom through determination, forgiveness and grace. Her deep connection to the natural world and her people’s ancestral knowledge have shaped her into a healer and guide, offering her gifts to all who seek healing and transformation. A lifelong practitioner of traditional plant medicine, Leonor carries the songs of her ancestors and the sacred ways of her people into each ceremony she leads and in her intricate beadwork (she will be selling some of her pieces at the retreat!).
Leonor will be guiding a daytime ceremony, weaving her powerful, melodic icaros—healing songs—throughout the journey. Her recently released album, Cantos de Visión (Songs of Vision), is a reflection of her life’s work and spiritual connection, available for purchase online. In her ceremonies, Leonor brings both gentle nurturing and strength, creating a space where participants can heal and connect with their own inner power. Her presence is a testament to the strength of the feminine, and her life’s journey as a single mother has made her a true example among woman.
Paulina Quilla Pakari -Tsunkinua
Activity: Integration & Psychotherapy
The Integrating Through Creativity workshop offers a unique space for personal reflection and expression, using various creative modalities to help participants process and integrate their experiences. Whether through art, writing, or movement, this workshop encourages you to explore your inner world in a supportive and open environment. No previous artistic experience is required—just a willingness to connect with your creative self and discover new ways of understanding and integrating your journey.
Through various exploration techniques, we will connect with our primal instinct to unlock patterns and belief systems that prevent us from liberating our behavior and allowing our animal nature to express itself.
Paulina received the Chakana altar, Andean table, and Heart of the Carnation altar from the Andean elders. She has been working with ancestral medicines for about 25 years. Founder of the collective group Mujeres de Luna, she works with chants as a prayer for healing of the spirit and body. She is a Leader of the Sacred Fire of Itzachilatlan and a conductor of temazcals. She is also a trained Gestalt therapist specialized in accompanying processes.
Shiram Ucucuy
Activity: Night-time Ayahuasca Ceremony
Shiram Ucucuy is a carrier of ancestral medicine. She has been working with native rituals and power plants for 20 years. She is a conductor of temazcals and a co-founder of the group Mujeres de Luna.
Along her path, she has worked with the feminine energy and the obsidian mirror. She accompanies the work of some of the Andean and Amazonian elders.
Sandra Elena ten Zijthoff-Pardo
Activity: Opening Temazcal
Sandra is a queer Peruvian-Dutch artist who expresses herself through music and clay. In this workshop, she will guide you through the art of creating dorodango, essentially a polished mud ball, composed of the dirt, clay and sand found in the pristine forest where we will be connecting with ourselves and nature. No prior experience is necessary—just an openness to explore this mindful practice!
As a vision quester and long-time follower of the plant medicine path, Sandra brings a deep connection to nature and spirit into her work. Through this workshop, participants will not only craft their own dorodango but also connect with the earth in a meditative and artistic process, reflecting Sandra’s commitment to honoring the natural world.
"I want to thank you again for the amazing journey together at your place. What an experience that was! We’ll have to talk some time again about it. I’m filled with gratitude for being included. I ended up experiencing so much personal healing and it was humbling. Sending a big hug and wishing you much abundance on all levels. 
♥️"
♥️"
Rea
Participant
"Thank you for being such lovely human beings, taking the best care of all of us. Your love for the retreat, the organisation and also the love between you was so inspiring and wonderful to see!
I always felt safe, and probably the most peaceful in a really long time. It will take a bit of time to process and implement the insights in “real life” once I’m off from traveling and back home! I’m so glad I participated! Thank you again for ensuring the best setting I could think of!"
Eleanor
Participant
Reserve by emailing: [email protected]
Location, Transportation, Accommodation
This retreat will take place in near Mindo cloudforest, about 2.5 hrs from Quito at Nuestra Tierra Aldea Creativa. Nestled deep in the rainforest, our facilities are basic, as in a true camp setting. Accommodation is shared (2-2 per room) in a rustic house. Please read more below!
The plan is to depart Tumbaco (Quito area) together the morning of September 7 to arrive at the retreat location that same day. On September 14, we will similarly be departing the retreat location, arriving to Tumbaco (near Quito) that afternoon/evening. We recommend that you purchase flights arriving on the September 6 (or very early morning on the 7th) and departing on the evening of the 14th or on the 15th. It’s always best to give yourself some leeway so that you aren’t too rushed, especially after the retreat. The Tumbaco area is located between Quito airport and Quito city. We will be departing from and arriving to this area together.
The dream for Nuestra Tierra Creative Village in Mindo, Ecuador was borne 15 years ago from the need to create an integral, community space, combining healing tools such as art and master plants to enable transformative, therapeutic processes while respecting and conserving the environment in a sustainable way.
In 2023, we began the construction of the village with 10 hectares (24.7 acres) of primary and secondary forest. We recently purchased another 22.5 hectares (56 acres) as part of our now registered nonprofit so, in total, we are now protecting 52.5 hectares (130 acres) of predominantly primary cloudforest.
Up until now, we have:
– A ceremonial house / maloca
– Temazcal/sweatlodge
– A covered space/pergola
– A guest house suitable for 15 people in six separate rooms, shared kitchen and terrace. each with their individual bed, living room, balcony, dining room, kitchen, and dry toilets.
– A second house with a meditation and yoga room (second floor), main kitchen, dining room, balcony.
All of this on beautiful, lush, tropical land with a nearby river for bathing and paths to hidden waterfalls.
The retreats that take place at Nuestra Tierra will allow us to connect with a natural, deep, and rooted experience, activating community living dynamics such as cleaning shared spaces, gardening, kitchen service, caring for ceremonial areas, carrying firewood, and taking care of grandfather fire.
Praying for the hearts of every woman to open their understanding and surrender to service and to inhabit a state of openness; stepping out of our comfort zone can be difficult but is necessary for profound life change.
What to bring this women's healing retreat - 2026
Not sure what to pack for your retreat? Here are a few recommendations:
- Offerings: We would be grateful to receive sage flat cedar and organic tobacco offerings, which are difficult to get in Ecuador.
- Sun protection – sunscreen, hat, sunglasses (remember, we are on the equator; the sun is strong!)
- Clothes to hike: loose/breathable, comfortable long sleeve is best.
- Other changes of clothes comfortable for humid weather e.g.leggings can be used under shorts or skirts, tank tops
- Bathing suit and towel
- Light sweaters – evening sometimes gets chilly
- Waterproof jacket or poncho
- Hiking or trekking boots, closed toes, waterproof preferable
- Socks (these are helpful especially if there are mosquitos)
- Head lamp
- Sarong or wrap for entering sweat lodge (optional)
- Flip-flops or sandals to wear when not in hiking boots
- Headlamp/flashlight
- Medication you may need, also anti-histamines can be useful (Benadryl, here there’s something called histacalm)
- Kindle, book and/or journal
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Phone for pictures – no photos allowed during ceremonies
- Bug spray
- Cash, especially small change
- Ear plugs & sleep mask – accommodations are shared
