Nimea Kaya Healing Center

Nimea Kaya Healing Center is an ayahuasca retreat centre on 25 acres of lowland jungle at the edge of Pucallpa, in Peru’s Ucayali region. Shipibo healers lead the ceremonies on seven and nine-day retreats, and a separate seven-day retreat is held for women.

Approach

Jill Levers co-founded the centre in 2008 as Tierra Vida Healing Center and runs it with co-founder Casey Honaker. In 2013 it moved to land once owned by the painter Pablo Amaringo and took a Shipibo name meaning spirit of the jungle. Each ceremony is led by one female and one male healer. The centre names four: Rosenda Flores, Cecilio Cauper, Maria Lopez and Ercilia Flores, and Cecilio Cauper brews the medicine from vine and chacruna leaf alone. An integration circle meets the morning after each ceremony, and the days add plant baths, yoga, breathwork and talks with the healers through an interpreter.

Who it is for

The centre lists PTSD and other trauma, depression, anxiety and grief, along with chronic physical complaints, among the reasons people come. The women’s retreat, Sisters of the Vine, is held by Candace Garland and Ariel Szabo with female Shipibo healers.

Practical details

The seven-day retreat has three ceremonies and costs $1,950 in a shared room or $2,250 in a single. The nine-day retreat has four and costs $2,100 or $2,400. Groups take up to 16 guests. Pucallpa is an hour’s flight from Lima, and the airport pick-up is included.

Care and safety

The application asks about medication, physical and mental health and intentions, which the centre uses to judge each person’s risks. It requires antidepressants to be stopped three to six weeks ahead. Five or six facilitators who do not drink attend each ceremony, and a trained nurse is on staff for most of the year.