Free Online Event
Curanderismo: The Indigenous Way of Healing With Plants
A plant medicine ceremony rooted in curanderismo, with rainforest herbalist Adriana Ayales, founder of Anima Mundi Herbals
| Presenter: Adriana Ayales, curandera, rainforest herbalist & founder of Anima Mundi Herbals |
| Format: Free live online video event, with a replay available for a limited time (Ends September 29th, 2026) to everyone who registers |
| Hosted by: The Shift Network |
| Exact date, time, and replay window are confirmed once you register, since live scheduling can shift. Reserve your spot to get the current details sent straight to your inbox. |
Why This Matters Now
We have been taught to treat the body like a machine and nature like a place we visit on weekends. Curanderismo, the healing tradition practiced by curanderas throughout Central and South America, offers a different starting point. It treats health not as a problem to fix, but as a relationship to tend, with your body, with your emotions, with the natural world, and with the people around you.
Adriana Ayales grew up learning this approach from her grandmother in Costa Rica, then spent more than a decade studying alongside Indigenous elders and traditional healers across the region. In this free plant medicine ceremony, she brings that lineage to you directly, at a moment when so many people are searching for a way of understanding their own stress, disconnection, or unresolved health concerns that feels less clinical and more human.
Who This Is For
This event is for you if you are navigating chronic stress, recurring health concerns that conventional approaches have not fully resolved, emotional overwhelm, or a general sense of being disconnected from your body, your community, or the natural world. It is also a rich fit for herbalists, energy workers, somatic practitioners, and holistic health students who want deeper cultural and ancestral context for the plant allies they already work with.
In This Free Event, You’ll:
- Experience a grounding practice drawn from ancestral ritual, designed to help you reconnect with nature and return to yourself when you feel out of balance
- Discover how traditional healers work with herbs, resins, flowers, and other plant allies, not as simple remedies, but as partners in restoring physical, emotional, and spiritual balance
- Explore Adriana’s “Healer as Gardener” philosophy, and why cultivating the conditions for health often creates deeper healing than trying to fix what’s wrong
- Learn why curanderismo and other Indigenous healing traditions understand health as a reflection of your relationships with yourself, nature, community, and spirit
- Understand why these traditions approach plant medicine through gratitude and reciprocity, rather than transaction
Featured Practice: Healer as Gardener
Instead of chasing symptoms, curanderismo asks a different question: what conditions would allow health to grow on its own? Adriana teaches this as tending a garden rather than repairing a machine. You water, you weed, you make room for light, and healing follows. It is a small shift in language that tends to change how people relate to their own bodies for good.
About Adriana Ayales
Adriana Ayales is an author, educator, and rainforest herbalist born and raised in Costa Rica, where she received her first lessons in plant medicine from her grandmother. She went on to study for more than a decade alongside master herbalists and Indigenous healers throughout Central and South America, immersing herself in the folklore, ceremony, and traditional plant wisdom still practiced today.
She is the founder of Anima Mundi Herbals, a Brooklyn-based apothecary that sources medicine from organic farms, wildcrafters, and Indigenous communities around the world, and the author of Healing Tonics and Adaptogens: Herbs for Longevity and Everyday Wellness. She is internationally recognized for her work in rainforest herbalism and Indigenous plant medicine, and has spent years helping people rediscover the healing intelligence of plants while honoring the traditions they come from.
What People Are Saying
Past students describe Adriana’s teaching as substantive enough to rival a full college semester, praising her intuitive, insightful approach and her ability to inform and inspire in equal measure.
— Ellie, Oregon
David Crow, herbalist, author, and founder of Floracopeia, has called Adriana one of the rare teachers able to weave a lifetime of classical herbal training into a modern Western framework, presenting ancient plant knowledge with real scientific and clinical grounding.
— David Crow, Author & Educator
Renowned herbalist and educator Rosemary Gladstar has described Adriana’s teaching as an invitation into the heart of herbalism itself, bringing together wisdom keepers and healers to share their knowledge with students at every level.
— Rosemary Gladstar, Herbalist & Educator
When you attend, you’ll also be among the first to hear about Adriana’s upcoming 5-week live video course, going deeper into pre-Columbian Indigenous healing cosmologies, traditional medicinal herbs, cleansing rituals, dreamwork, and emotional healing traditions. No obligation to enroll, just an invitation if it resonates.
Ready to explore a more relational path to healing?
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