Awakening Your Roots with the Medicine of Nature

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Many of us feel disconnected from our family stories and traditions, which can create a sense of loss of home and belonging. Pacha philosopher and ecopsychologist Lorena Saavedra Smith believes reconciling with our ancestors’ traditions and weaving ourselves back into our history is a therapeutic endeavor that deserves to be embarked upon with respect and authenticity. While circumstances may have forced this detachment, Lorena says we can forge a new path towards ancestral connection through communing with the natural world. "Ancestral knowledge, at its core," says Lorena, "has communal threads linked to Nature. All of us can come back to these basic roots."

Join Lorena with Susana Bustos, faculty at CIIS’ Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research for a conversation exploring belonging through the medicine of nature, cultural connection, and ancestral wisdom. Drawing from her life experience and latest book, Awaken Your Roots, Lorena discusses how to reclaim your agency and purpose—especially from cultural forces that have caused you to feel deficient, inadequate, and invisible. Lorena knows this path, as her personal wounds related to war, financial hardship, and intergenerational trauma have become portals through which she reconnected to her own medicine. With a focus on ancestral wisdom and our relationship with nature, she offers a pathway to move through anxiety to rediscover your inner wisdom.

Lorena shares how to access tools to interweave your dreams with your deep roots. By cultivating personal medicine and sharing it with others, we can all live the life we deserve.

Meet the Hosts

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Lorena Saavedra Smith is a pacha philosopher and ecopsychologist. Originally from Perú and replanted to the US, Lorena is a lifelong storyteller and keeper of Andean ancestral wisdom and medicine. With more than two decades of experience in the wellness industry, Lorena draws on a multidisciplinary background to help others find healing through inner wisdom and the healing powers of nature. She’s a proud US Navy veteran spouse living in the Washington, DC, area. Visit lorenasaavedrasmith.com to learn more about Lorena.

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Susana Bustos, Ph.D. (CIIS, 2008), M.A. in Clinical Psychology and in Music Therapy from Chilean universities, Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. She serves as faculty and mentor for the CPTR since its inception and developed the Ancestral Entheogenic Curriculum for the program on psychedelic facilitation at the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, where she also teaches. From 2016-2020, Susana directed the Spiritual Emergence Network in the US. Recently, she co-founded the Escuela de Psicovegetalismo, which offers education and clinical supervision for professionals whose clients work with plant teachers. Susana’s academic and clinical work focus on the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness, their integration into ordinary life, and the quest for adequately bridging Amerindian entheogenic cosmologies and practices with Western approaches to healing. Susana has written articles and book contributions on the interphase of shamanic song and healing, entheogenic integration, and she lectures internationally on these topics. She is co-author of the book The Shamanic Odyssey: Homer, Tolkien, and the Visionary Experience.

Important Event Information

We are grateful to our Bookstore Partner

Marcus Books is the nation’s oldest Black-owned independent bookstore celebrating its 60th year. Marcus Books’ mission is to provide opportunities for Black folks and their allies to celebrate and learn about Black people everywhere. Learn more about Marcus Books.

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Ticket holders will have access to an ad-free replay of the event for one month after the live event, after which unlimited viewing with ads will be available. Portions of the audio will also be released on our podcast. Only registered ticket holders who choose to watch live can participate in the chat and Q&A.

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All tickets and add-ons purchased for this event are nonrefundable.