Welcome to the Ceremonia Sessions
A virtual cultural exchange journey for healing and thriving in community during times of transition.
We created this virtual series to facilitate cultural exchange and provide an opportunity to journey into and learn ancient indigenous knowledge within a digital space, from the sacred lands of Oaxaca, Mexico. The intention behind these sessions is to introduce you to communities in Oaxaca we’ve been co-creating with, who live, breathe, and practice the wisdom of traditional indigenous healing principles in their contemporary lives. These beautiful and heart-opening sessions will provide you with profound tools of ancient wisdom to support us in taking care of ourselves, while lifting our communities, and remaining connected to our individual source in these shifting times of intense and disruptive change.
These guided virtual journeys into traditional indigenous ritual and healing principles have been intentionally co-created to coincide with the cycles of the seasons.
Check Out Past Sessions
Spring 2021 Ceremonia Sessions | Emergence
Winter 2021 Ceremonia Sessions | Finding the light
Autumn 2020 Ceremonia Sessions | Messages from the Heart
Together, we’re living in a time of great change and transition
The foundational changes we are witnessing in the world also bring with them a profound opportunity to ground into our environments and elevate our collective culture.
Connect with the wisdom of traditional indigenous healing and connection from the intimacy of your home, while being guided from the sacred lands of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Your ceremony guides
and our story of connection
A 29 year-old Romanian-Canadian founder of a cultural travel company, a 40 year-old Canadian natural healthcare practitioner, a 50 year-old traditional Indigenous Curandera and former Human Rights lawyer from Oaxaca, and a 53 year-old co-founder of an eco-travel company and former sociologist from Germany found themselves on offbeat paths. These paths converged to form an unlikely but profoundly beautiful multi-generational bond creating community across very different cultural realities. Somewhere along our own journeys, we chose to follow our individual calling. Each of our lives bringing us to a crossroads. Nudged in a particular direction, our seeking souls began walking the unconventional path and our lives intersected in synchronicity as we found ourselves brought together in the clouds of the sacred mountains of La Sierra Norte de Oaxaca under an ancient Zapotec ceremonial site. Sharing a healing journey of our own in an intimate circle of multi-generational and cross-cultural women. This profound experience could only be explained as synchronistic magic – it bonded us, healed us, and gave each of us our own inner resilience to move through this challenging time with strength in knowing that we’re supported by the communities we’ve cultivated.
The Ceremonia Sessions came out of feeling called to continue building bridges that invite others who are seekers as well. To help heal the spirit and call it back home. To be catalysts towards remembering our innate connection to Madre Tierra and her ancient wisdom. Perhaps even, to nudge you towards remembering the way on your own instinctively offbeat path.
Lorena Villanueva
Curandera (Holistic Therapist)
My grandmother was a Curandera (Healer) in the village of Villa de Etla, close to Oaxaca City. As a little girl I learned some of her healing arts but I never thought that one day I would follow in her footsteps.
I studied Law to become a lawyer and ended up specialized in Human Rights – I wanted to help people. My first job brought me into many Indigenous communities, and as you may know, Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico with one of the highest percentages of Indigenous people.
It was in these communities of Oaxaca where I remembered my ancestral heritage, curanderismo. This ancient art of healing is something that is still very much alive in the villages and Indigenous culture of Oaxaca. And so, I realized that this was my true calling and began reconnecting with my ancient knowledge.
For more than 20 years I have given my service as a holistic therapist (Curandera) working with body and spirit giving massages, ritual cleansings and workshops.
Claudia Schurr
Co-founder, Tierra Sagrada & Tierraventura
I’ve lived in Oaxaca, Mexico with my husband, Yves Chavan, since 1998. We’re a German sociologist and Swiss architect by trade, but it was Oaxaca’s rich Indigenous culture that led us to start and lead an eco-travel company, Tierraventura, in 1999.
Yves went to Mexico for the first time in 1986 to visit friends he met while studying English in London. After one of his Mexican friends also become an architect, Yves was invited to come back to Mexico for work, and so together, we decided to go to Mexico in 1997. We ended up in Oaxaca, from where we became enchanted by Mexico and fell in love with the country. It has become our home. Over the years we’ve taken many people to places they wouldn’t see in the course of an ordinary vacation – places we consider to be the “real” and often hidden Mexico.
My passion and love is towards traditional medicine. We work with shamans and healers in many different locations in Oaxaca and organize workshops on this fascinating subject. In 2019, we opened Tierra Sagrada. It feels like our evolution from adventure to sacred, and the land of Oaxaca is truly sacred. It always fascinated me how the Indigenous communities were still so connected to their land and they’ve taught me so much over the years. It’s not only the use of healing plants, it’s this deep connection with the elements and with Spirit. And so, this is our main focus at Tierra Sagrada, to reconnect people with nature, Spirit, and the elements.
Ioana Todosia
Founder, Comuna Project & Comuna Travel
I was born in Romania to peasant families, immigrated to Canada at the age of five, and grew up as a first-generation Canadian among Northern B.C’s wilderness. Spending my entire life between two very different cultures, a very winding path led me to who I’ve become – a multi-passionate cultural entrepreneur, experiential facilitator, and wellbeing advocate. In 2017 I founded Comuna Travel, with the aim of connecting a global generation to creative cultures through transformative and sustainable travel experiences.
My work, collaborations, and travels have immersed me in cultures and sub-cultures from North and Latin America to the Caribbean, Western Europe, the Balkans, and West Asia. Always driven and humbled by the experiences, creativity, beauty, and struggles lived on the peripheries. The journey has been a profound one, returning me back home to myself and my roots, and ultimately leading to the evolution of my work into The Comuna Project.
An Indigenous Wisdom Keeper from Oaxaca once told me that I have a very big appetite. Joy comes to me in exploring the ancestral connections between creativity and spirituality, as much as when letting go in the dark, magic rooms of underground music scenes, diving into history, philosophy and the arts, or getting my hands dirty learning traditional food systems and cuisines. I’m always seeking and absorbing; new experiences, perspectives and wisdom. Plurality is what makes me come alive and fuels my purpose-driven work to facilitate honest cultural exchanges from the margins
Sara Dubeau
Natural healthcare leader, Dynamic Medicine
I’m a natural healthcare practitioner, facilitator, and speaker with over 15 years of experience in holistic medicine and the healing arts. A passionate advocate for health education, modalities, and experiences that reconnect us with our innate healing capacity and inner guidance.
My clinical experience and personal evolution inspired me to extend my knowledge beyond clinic walls and develop unique opportunities to experience deeper healing work in community – teaching others how our health is expressed through our physical vitality, and also, our ability to live in alignment with our highest self-expression.
In addition to my private practice, Dynamic Medicine, I’m also the co-creator of Unite Wellness, offering transformative weekend retreats, and was a co-leader of the Oaxaca Spiritual Retreat with Comuna Travel.
“Wanderer, there is no path. The path is made by walking.”
– Antonio Machado
