Sarah Salter Kelly

Trauma as Medicine Retreat BC
2026-04-30 17:00 - 2026-05-05 12:00 (America/Denver) | Sentinel Retreat Centre, 5278, Amundensen road, Kaslo, BC, V0G 1M0
Healing Through Presence, Accountability, and Embodied Wisdom
Trauma as Medicine is a ceremonial and integrative healing retreat rooted in a simple yet radical truth:
Our pain is not a mistake.
When met with presence, responsibility, and skilled support, trauma becomes a doorway to wisdom, wholeness, and embodied freedom. This work is not about fixing what is broken—it is about remembering what is whole.

The Principles of Trauma as Medicine
Trauma Lives in the BodyTrauma is held in the nervous system, tissues, breath, and patterns of contraction. Healing requires somatic presence, regulation, and embodied awareness—not insight alone.
Power Is Restored Through ResponsibilityThis work does not reinforce victim identity. Participants are supported in reclaiming agency:I may not be responsible for what happened to me, but I am responsible for how I meet it now.
Healing Happens in RelationshipTrauma often occurs in isolation. Repair happens within safe, intentional relational fields—with land, Spirit, and community.
Altered States Reveal; Integration Makes It LastExpanded states of consciousness can open insight, emotional release, and spiritual remembrance. Integration is what transforms experience into lasting change.
👉 REGISTER HERE

The Role of Forest Medicine 🍄
Plant Spirit Healing is used in this retreat as a ceremonial sacrament and therapeutic catalyst, not a recreational substance.
Within a carefully held ceremonial container, Forest Medicine 🍄 supports:

Access to unconscious and somatically held material

Increased emotional processing and nervous system flexibility

A felt sense of connection, meaning, and belonging

Softening of rigid trauma-based identity structures

Forest Medicine 🍄 does not heal on its own.It reveals, amplifies, and illuminates.
Healing occurs through:

Preparation and intention

Skilled facilitation and energetic containment

Somatic awareness and self-inquiry

Post-ceremony integration and accountability

👉 REGISTER HERE

What This Retreat Includes
This retreat weaves together ceremonial, somatic, and integrative practices to support deep healing and embodiment.
Core Elements

Two deep-dive evening Forest Medicine 🍄 ceremonies

One small-dose daytime Forest Medicine 🍄 ceremony

One Hapé ceremony

Shamanic journeying

Integration circles

Land-based teachings

Meditation

Ecstatic Dance

Self-inquiry practices

Partner dyads

Accommodation and organic meals

All practices are designed to support recognition that the capacity for healing already exists within you.
Preparation & Integration Support

1 × Intention-Setting Session (60 min, Zoom)

1 × Post-Ceremony Integration Session (60 min, Zoom)

These sessions support continuity, safety, and real-world integration.
👉 REGISTER HERE

Plant Spirit Healing 🍄
Rainbow Serpent Lodge
Rainbow Serpent Lodge is the ceremonial healing lineage through which Forest Medicine 🍄 is shared in this retreat. It was received by Sarah in 2007 through direct spiritual transmission from her guide Thoth, associated with wisdom and divine order in the Egyptian tradition.
Within the lodge, Forest Medicine 🍄 is shared in two evening ceremonies, supported by:

Live, channeled medicine songs

Hands-on energetic healing

Tobacco cleansing

Shamanic prayer and ritual

The lodge creates a coherent energetic field that supports participants in meeting deep personal material with safety, clarity, and compassion.

Additional Practices
Self-InquiryGuided investigation into identity, belief systems, and trauma patterning, supported by journaling and shamanic journey.
Fire CeremonyA cleansing and prayer-based practice from the Inca Medicine Wheel tradition.
Ecstatic DanceSomatic, non-verbal movement for emotional release, vitality, and embodiment.
Integration CirclesFacilitated group sharing to metabolize insight and ground experience into daily life.

About the Facilitator
Sarah Salter-Kelly
Sarah Salter-Kelly is a spiritual teacher, ceremonialist, and trauma-informed facilitator with over 30 years of experience in healing and consciousness work.
Her work is deeply informed by lived experience, including the homicide of her mother and a long journey of grief, forgiveness, and embodied integration. This path became the foundation for Trauma as Medicine—both the methodology and the text.
Since 2007, Sarah has:

Maintained a private clinical practice

Created and led shamanic training programs

Facilitated retreats and ceremonies internationally

Worked with plant medicines in ceremonial and therapeutic contexts

Guided thousands through integration and embodiment

This Retreat Is a Fit for You If…
☐ You feel called to meet trauma at the root☐ You are willing to take responsibility for your healing☐ You understand psilocybin as a sacrament, not a shortcut☐ You value preparation, ceremony, and integration☐ You can remain present with discomfort and uncertainty☐ You seek spiritual depth without bypass
This Retreat Is Not a Fit for You If…
☐ You are seeking a recreational or purely visionary experience☐ You expect psilocybin or the facilitator to do the work for you☐ You are unwilling to engage in integration or accountability☐ You are currently in acute crisis requiring clinical care☐ You are seeking escape rather than embodied presence
👉 REGISTER HERE

Praise for Trauma as Medicine

“This book provides not only a story of tremendous healing but gifts the reader a thorough roadmap to navigate our own healing and ultimately contribute to the collective wellbeing of our planet.”— Teresa Callihoo, MBA, Wetaskiwin AB

“Sarah Salter Kelly took the agonizing pain of personal catastrophe and turned it into soul medicine for herself and others.”— Marianne Williamson

Testimonials
Kate Hook — Onoway, AB“Working with Sarah and Trauma as Medicine has been a tremendous gift. Her ability to empower me to heal myself—without reliance on anything outside my own inner truth—has been remarkable.”
Dianna C — Edmonton, AB“Traumatized is the best word to describe myself when I started working with Sarah. Every teaching was medicine for my soul and body. I learned to love myself and awaken my Spirit after years of trauma.”
Jae Wright — Vernon, BC“To share our stories in a space with no judgment—only support—was profoundly healing.”

With Marianne Williamson
Waking up Human with Mandy Trapp
Waking Up Human with Mandy Trapp: #008: Opening the Door to Plant Medicine with Sarah Salter-Kelly on Apple Podcasts
Beyond the veil with Tara Kabatoff
https://youtu.be/FVJxBW5b7Yg
Microdosing for Healing with Kayse Garett
Microdosing For Healing: Trauma as Medicine: Healing with Plant Medicine and Forgiveness with Sarah Salter Kelly on Apple Podcasts
I have my reasons with Deandra Dey
I Have My Reasons Podcast | Deandra Dey

Trauma as Medicine: Why Psilocybin can support trauma healing
2026-07-21 14:00 - 15:00
A free one-hour workshop with Sarah Salter-Kelly, author of Trauma as Medicine
Trauma lives not only in the mind, but in the body, nervous system, breath, and protective patterns we carry through life.
In this free one-hour workshop, Sarah Salter-Kelly will explore why psilocybin, when approached with reverence, preparation, skilled facilitation, and integration, can be a meaningful ally in addressing trauma. Drawing from her book Trauma as Medicine and over two decades of experience in shamanic healing, ceremony, and plant spirit work, Sarah will speak to the ways psilocybin can help bring awareness to what has been buried, soften rigid trauma-based identities, restore connection with the body and Spirit, and support the process of turning pain into embodied wisdom.
Sarah speaks to plant medicine as a sacred and intentional path—one that asks us to meet ourselves honestly, listen to the body, take responsibility for our healing, and integrate what is revealed into daily life. Her work is rooted in the understanding that healing is not about fixing what is broken, but remembering what is whole. In her book she describes healing as bringing “love, attention, and awareness to what is out of balance within us,” and this workshop offers a grounded introduction to how psilocybin may support that process.
Why Psilocybin, Key Points:

What does it mean to turn Trauma into Medicine

Access what the thinking mind alone cannot reach

Bring awareness to trauma held within the body and nervous system

Create space to feel and move emotions that have been suppressed or avoided

Soften rigid trauma-based identities and reconnect with a deeper sense of self

Restore connection with Spirit, nature, community, and life through earth-based ceremonial healing

Understand why integration, preparation, and skilled support are essential for lasting transformation

Sarah Salter-Kelly is a shamanic teacher, ceremonialist, medicine woman, and author of Trauma as Medicine, devoted to the remembrance of our true nature. Her work serves the re-alignment of the human soul with Source, restoring the lived knowing of our non-duality and our belonging within the great web of life.
She offers grounded spiritual leadership for meeting suffering as sacred initiation—guiding the alchemy through which pain is metabolized, wisdom is revealed, and full responsibility for one’s life is reclaimed. Her teachings do not bypass the human experience, but invite us into intimate presence with it, where truth can be embodied and soul fragments return home.
Her wisdom has been forged through fire. Born of the long arc of integrating the violent loss of her mother and the radical act of forgiveness that followed, her path is shaped by more than 35 years of devotion to personal transformation, energy medicine, shamanism, psychedelic initiation, and earth-based spiritual lineages. What she carries has been lived, prayed, and earned.
With over two decades of experience guiding workshops, retreats, and initiatory trainings, Sarah now works primarily with Grandmother Psilocybin in sacred group ceremony. Through prayer, song, and communion, she holds spaces where the veils thin, the heart remembers, and participants are invited to return to the truth of who they are—children of Source, walking the earth in sacred reciprocity.
Registration through emailing me directly to get the zoom link – sarahsalterkelly@gmail.com
Details on Upcoming Trauma as Medicine Retreat September 23-28 https://sarahsalterkelly.com/upcomingevent/trauma-as-medicine-fall-retreat-3/
Check out this interview: Microdose for healing podcast – Healing with plant medicine and forgiveness
or this interview

Starlight Medicine Retreat
2026-07-22 16:00 - 2026-07-27 12:00 | Sentinel Retreat Centre, 5278, Amundensen road, Kaslo, BC, V0G 1M0
This retreat is an invitation to come home. To open to the genuine presence of your being through the use of plant medicine ceremony and earth based traditional practices. It is focused on the awareness that you have what you need within you – everything is in fact here now – and our healing is the art of integrating, accepting, and loving what is. In this process we claim the light of our true nature and use this light – starlight- to guide our way.
Sarah’s teachings are nondual, based on the philosophy that we are one. Through cultivating loving awareness we remember we are not separate from our Source and in this way, we align who we are with how we live. She is the author of Trauma as Medicine, a DIY book for healing trauma and transforming your life; based on the personal experience of losing her mother to homicide and subsequent journey of healing and forgiveness.
3 Plant Spirit Medicines:
1 Forest Medicine night ceremony
1 Heart Medicine day ceremony
Hape ceremony
4 Earth Tradition Ceremonies:
Starlight Medicine Ritual
Fire Ceremony
Hucha stone cleanse
Despacho
The location – The Sentinel is a top-notch environment for soul healing. Nestled on 6 pristine acres on Kootenay lake you can expect to be held in the power of these ancient mountains with love, wisdom and stillness. The rooms all have a view of the lake, the food is local, organic and much is grown on the property. For you pleasure there is a hot tub, sauna, and of course cold plunges in the lake.

Note that this includes a intention setting intake session and an post ceremony integration session both on Zoom – 60 minutes each.

Registration on this link
Further Details:
Starlight Medicine Ritual – This ritual has come through the ancient teachings of our starlight ancestors as a guide for these times. We are in a great moment of awakening, and it is necessary to open to the highest light for the illumination of our path. This ritual is delivered through visualization, shamanic journey and earth-based practices.
Forest Medicine ceremony – The Rainbow serpent lodge was passed to Sarah many years ago through her Spirit guide Thoth; the God of wisdom in the Egyptian pantheon. In this lodge she shares tea in a night ceremony. You are supported with channeled medicine songs, music, hands on healing, tobacco cleanse, and other shamanic methods. This is an excellent medicine for moving into the underworld aspects of our life’s journey so we can integrate them with the light.
The intention of this lodge is to create a portal for the following:

Commune with Source.
Regulate your nervous system.
Illuminate your true nature.
Release old patterns.
Address grief & trauma.
Come home to your self & your body.
Investigate internal contracted energy.
Enter loving awareness – as referred to by Ram Das
Experience presence

Heart medicine Ceremony – This profound medicine is shared in a day ceremony. It is an exceptional allie for connecting us with our inner child and facilitating an experience of embodiment. Held in the social and sacred container of our retreat community you begin to see yourself in a new way – releasing stories that do not serve your highest good – and opening to your child like sense of wonderment.
Fire Ceremony – Working with the Spirit of fire you will learn a practice passed through the Inca Medicine Wheel tradition for cleansing your being and asking for help.
Hape ceremony A sacred snuff comprised of tobacco and other plants this medicine supports your healing through the opening of your third eye, connection with your heart and a rooted sense of awareness in your physical body.
Despacho – From the highest reaches of the Andes Mountains this ceremony offers a practice of gratitude that is rooted in the celebration of life. Utilizing flowers, seeds, and objects from nature a mandala is created with prayer and intention to give thanks for all that is here.
Integration – Sarah has had the joy of facilitating circles for over 20 years. The practice of bringing your visions into our circle are an integral part of awakening. This is where you learn to be seen, to listen to the collective teachings in the group and to use your voice – be heard- as you share your heart.
The team – Sarah has gathered a solid team of assistants – professionals in the holistic field – to ensure you have what you need to tuning and turning inwards.
Registration on this link
Sarah Salter Kelly is a spiritual teacher, healer and author of the book Trauma as Medicine. She utilizes the raw compounded teachings of her life experience to uplift, empower and guide others. Her wisdom is authentic, embodied and hard won – generated through years of integrating the tragic homicide of her mother and forgiving the perpetrator – alongside 30 years of studying personal growth, energy healing, shamanism, and earth-based traditions. Over the past 16 years she has run a private healing practice, facilitated retreats in Canada (with Psilocybin) and in Peru (with Ayahuasca & Huachuma), taught trauma-focused and shamanic healing workshops, and presented at numerous conferences/public events. She is presently excited about the above ground emergence of psychedelic plant medicine and its capacity to generate healing. She is available online or in person (Edmonton, Alberta) for private sessions and teaches retreats/workshops/trainings internationally.
I will be supported in this event by the following:

Aaliyah Hamilton is a relational somatic therapist and ceremonial space holder devoted to creating safe, compassionate spaces for healing, connection, and transformation. Her work is rooted in nervous system awareness, attachment, and the understanding that the body holds deep wisdom for healing when met with presence, care, and relationship. Drawing from years of training in relational somatic therapy, biodynamic craniosacral therapy, Kundalini yoga, and pre- and perinatal healing work, Aaliyah supports people in gently reconnecting with themselves through embodied, trauma-informed care.
Within ceremonial spaces, Aaliyah offers a grounded and heart-centered approach that emphasizes preparation, safety, integration, and relational support. Alongside ceremony work, she offers somatic relational therapy sessions to help clients deepen their integration, process emotional experiences, and restore a greater sense of wholeness, connection, and self-love.
Spiritual Teacher Marianne Williamson interviews Sarah

https://youtu.be/8WDFQOcNrho
Follow her on Instagram, You tube or Facebook.
Find out more at www.sarahsalterkelly.com
Get a copy of her book
Trauma as Medicine: a DIY book for healing trauma & transforming your life – Sarah Salter Kelly
Why Group Psychedelic Ceremony with Psilocybin?
https://youtu.be/rzMq2mxvOno?si=AfpNWOjuxgesJC9O
Sarah has been interviewed on many podcasts:
Waking Up Human with Mandy Trapp: #008: Opening the Door to Plant Medicine with Sarah Salter-Kelly on Apple Podcasts
Beyond the veil with Tara Kabatoff – https://youtu.be/FVJxBW5b7Yg
Microdosing For Healing: Trauma as Medicine: Healing with Plant Medicine and Forgiveness with Sarah Salter Kelly on Apple Podcasts
I Have My Reasons Podcast | Deandra Dey
The following tools are helpful for navigating a psychedelic experience:

Intention – what is the purpose of sitting with this medicine.
Breath – slowing down and regulating your breath when you feel challenged. Being able to use your breath to breathe in what you need and release what you do not, during ceremony.
Meditation – any practice that you use in your daily life for calming your nervous system and engaging your ability to observe mind translates well for a psychedelic experience. Check out Energy Body 1 & Energy Body 2 to help with this.
Contemplate your experiences with physical challenges be these ones you have created, like climbing a mountain or unexpected like an injury. How did you find the endurance to be with this and rise to the occasion. That is the gumption which is needed in ceremony.
Inner discipline – be this from training in spiritual traditions, religion, or personal growth.
Curiosity & playfulness – this is not all about the hard things! This medicine has a sense of humour and if you get curious during your journey, you will experience joy.
Gratitude practice – awareness that all the lessons which show up in our life are opportunities to learn – especially if we say thank you.

Earth Medicine Shamanic Apprenticeship
2026-09-08 15:00 - 2026-09-17 11:00
A lived path of spiritual maturity, grounded in the body, the Earth, and your
direct relationship with Spirit.
🌿
We are living in a time that is calling us home. Home to our bodies. Home to presence. Home to living in balance with our true nature, so we may walk in right relationship with ourselves, the Earth, and Spirit.
This apprenticeship is for those who feel spirituality is no longer something they visit, but something they are being asked to embody. Through the body. Through relationship with the land. Through direct connection with the unseen world.
When we cultivate harmony within our inner landscape, the way we live naturally begins to change. The way we walk, choose, create, and tend our lives starts to align with something deeper and more honest within us. Our ancestral lineage lives in our bones, blood, and breath. By bringing presence to inherited wisdom and unresolved patterning, we uncover what has been hidden and remember who we are beneath the noise of conditioning.
Rooted in core shamanism and earth-based practice, this work brings you into deeper relationship with the cycles of life, death, and rebirth, the elements, the directions, and the living intelligence of the land. It is a path of practice, devotion, and embodiment that strengthens personal authority, deepens intuition, and teaches you to walk in conscious relationship with the energetic forces shaping our lives.
Rather than being swept away by chaos, we learn to root into what is steady, living, and true within us. The essential I AM.
This path asks for presence.
And offers remembrance in return.

What we will walk together as a living path…

Working with the cycles of life, death, and rebirth as a foundation for transformation
Building direct relationship with the Four Directions, the elements, and the land where you stand – understanding how to open to the portal created within this framework for navigating the unseen
Ancestral healing through connection with your bloodline, energetic lineage, and soul memory
Ceremony as a way of life, including land offerings and fire work
Plant spirit healing approached with clarity, humility, and respect
Learning the art of Soul Retrieval for personal and collective healing
Shamanic journeying as a way of listening, including navigation of lower world, middle world and upper world
Creating and tending your mesa (sacred bundle) as a reflection of your relationship with the unseen
Tracking what is true in your body, your field, and the spaces you hold

Structure
This is a year-long container that includes:

A 10-day in-person immersion
Four online gatherings to stay in relationship with the work
Bi-monthly Small group work
4 one-to-one mentorship
Program manual
Monthly rituals and practices for embodied integration

Simple structure.Deep work.
Apply Here

This is a path of embodiment, initiation, and devotion—for those called into deeper relationship with the Earth, Spirit, and their Soul’s truth. A calling that is cultivated over the course of a lifetime through presence, practice, and lived experience.
Rooted in foundational shamanic teachings, this work supports those in healer roles such as ceremonialists, therapists, healers, holistic practitioners, psychedelic clinicians, nurses, and doctors, as well as those who feel drawn toward a more conscious and sacred relationship with life itself.
This program may be a fit for you if you find yourself sitting with the following questions:

Are you feeling called to come into deeper balance and embodiment as a response to the times we are living in?
Do you sense your spiritual path is asking to be lived through your body, your daily life, and your relationship with the Earth—not simply held as an idea or belief system?
Are you experiencing a deeper call toward shamanism that feels less like curiosity and more like remembrance, responsibility, or initiation?
Are you willing to take responsibility for your inner landscape and engage practices that cultivate presence, personal authority, discernment, and integrity?
Do you feel drawn toward ancestral healing and a deeper understanding of how lineage wisdom and unresolved patterning live within your bones, blood, and breath?
Are you open to ritual, ceremony, and initiatory processes as pathways of transformation, healing, and deeper relationship with the sacred?
Do you trust that the cycles, challenges, synchronicities, and teachings of life itself are guiding you toward greater alignment, meaning, and purpose?

If this feels familiar— like something you already know—Then trust that.

If that’s you, you’re welcome to apply.

Apply Here
Dates & Location
In-Person Immersion: September 8–17 – British Columbia, Canada
Online Classes (2–6 PM MST):

December 9, 2026
February 24, 2027
April 28, 2027
June 30, 2027

Room and board are an additional cost and are booked separately through the retreat centre.
Link for accommodations
Tuition Investment: $4,444 USD – Once acceptance to the program is confirmed you will be contacted through email to arrange a payment plan.
Base cost including accommodations is $5288 USD (price based on choice of room/lodging)
Application Required: Completion of the application form is required. Selected applicants will be contacted for an interview to ensure alignment, readiness, and integrity of the container.
Apply Here

Trauma as Medicine Fall Retreat
2026-09-23 08:00 - 2026-09-28 17:00 | Sentinel Retreat Centre, 5278, Amundensen road, Kaslo, BC, V0G 1M0
Healing Through Presence, Accountability, and Embodied Wisdom
Trauma as Medicine is a ceremonial and integrative healing retreat rooted in a simple yet radical truth:
Our pain is not a mistake.
When met with presence, responsibility, and skilled support, trauma becomes a doorway to wisdom, wholeness, and embodied freedom. This work is not about fixing what is broken—it is about remembering what is whole.

The Principles of Trauma as Medicine
Trauma Lives in the BodyTrauma is held in the nervous system, tissues, breath, and patterns of contraction. Healing requires somatic presence, regulation, and embodied awareness—not insight alone.
Power Is Restored Through ResponsibilityThis work does not reinforce victim identity. Participants are supported in reclaiming agency:I may not be responsible for what happened to me, but I am responsible for how I meet it now.
Healing Happens in RelationshipTrauma often occurs in isolation. Repair happens within safe, intentional relational fields—with land, Spirit, and community.
Altered States Reveal; Integration Makes It LastExpanded states of consciousness can open insight, emotional release, and spiritual remembrance. Integration is what transforms experience into lasting change.
👉 REGISTER HERE

The Role of Forest Medicine 🍄
Plant Spirit Healing is used in this retreat as a ceremonial sacrament and therapeutic catalyst, not a recreational substance.
Within a carefully held ceremonial container, Forest Medicine 🍄 supports:

Access to unconscious and somatically held material

Increased emotional processing and nervous system flexibility

A felt sense of connection, meaning, and belonging

Softening of rigid trauma-based identity structures

Forest Medicine 🍄 does not heal on its own.It reveals, amplifies, and illuminates.
Healing occurs through:

Preparation and intention

Skilled facilitation and energetic containment

Somatic awareness and self-inquiry

Post-ceremony integration and accountability

👉 REGISTER HERE

What This Retreat Includes
This retreat weaves together ceremonial, somatic, and integrative practices to support deep healing and embodiment.
Core Elements

Two deep-dive evening Forest Medicine 🍄 ceremonies

One small-dose daytime Forest Medicine 🍄 ceremony

One Hapé ceremony

Shamanic journeying

Integration circles

Land-based teachings

Meditation

Ecstatic Dance

Self-inquiry practices

Partner dyads

Accommodation and organic meals

All practices are designed to support recognition that the capacity for healing already exists within you.
Preparation & Integration Support

1 × Intention-Setting Session (60 min, Zoom)

1 × Post-Ceremony Integration Session (60 min, Zoom)

These sessions support continuity, safety, and real-world integration.
👉 REGISTER HERE

Plant Spirit Healing 🍄
Rainbow Serpent Lodge
Rainbow Serpent Lodge is the ceremonial healing lineage through which Forest Medicine 🍄 is shared in this retreat. It was received by Sarah in 2007 through direct spiritual transmission from her guide Thoth, associated with wisdom and divine order in the Egyptian tradition.
Within the lodge, Forest Medicine 🍄 is shared in two evening ceremonies, supported by:

Live, channeled medicine songs

Hands-on energetic healing

Tobacco cleansing

Shamanic prayer and ritual

The lodge creates a coherent energetic field that supports participants in meeting deep personal material with safety, clarity, and compassion.

Additional Practices
Self-Inquiry – Guided investigation into identity, belief systems, and trauma patterning, supported by journaling and shamanic journey.
Fire Ceremony – A cleansing and prayer-based practice from the Inca Medicine Wheel tradition.
Ecstatic Dance – Somatic, non-verbal movement for emotional release, vitality, and embodiment.
Integration Circles – Facilitated group sharing to metabolize insight and ground experience into daily life.
Breathewave Ceremony – Practice of presence and integration of charged emotions
Mandala practice – Utilizing the creation of a mandala for oracular connection and revelation with the unseen realms

About the Facilitator
Sarah Salter-Kelly
Sarah Salter-Kelly is a spiritual teacher, ceremonialist, and trauma-informed facilitator with over 30 years of experience in healing and consciousness work.
Her work is deeply informed by lived experience, including the homicide of her mother and a long journey of grief, forgiveness, and embodied integration. This path became the foundation for Trauma as Medicine—both the methodology and the text.
Since 2007, Sarah has:

Maintained a private clinical practice

Created and led shamanic training programs

Facilitated retreats and ceremonies internationally

Worked with plant medicines in ceremonial and therapeutic contexts

Guided thousands through integration and embodiment

This Retreat Is a Fit for You If…
☐ You feel called to meet trauma at the root☐ You are willing to take responsibility for your healing☐ You understand psilocybin as a sacrament, not a shortcut☐ You value preparation, ceremony, and integration☐ You can remain present with discomfort and uncertainty☐ You seek spiritual depth without bypass
This Retreat Is Not a Fit for You If…
☐ You are seeking a recreational or purely visionary experience☐ You expect psilocybin or the facilitator to do the work for you☐ You are unwilling to engage in integration or accountability☐ You are currently in acute crisis requiring clinical care☐ You are seeking escape rather than embodied presence
👉 REGISTER HERE

Praise for Trauma as Medicine

“This book provides not only a story of tremendous healing but gifts the reader a thorough roadmap to navigate our own healing and ultimately contribute to the collective wellbeing of our planet.”— Teresa Callihoo, MBA, Wetaskiwin AB

“Sarah Salter Kelly took the agonizing pain of personal catastrophe and turned it into soul medicine for herself and others.”— Marianne Williamson

Testimonials

Kate Hook — Onoway, AB“Working with Sarah and Trauma as Medicine has been a tremendous gift. Her ability to empower me to heal myself—without reliance on anything outside my own inner truth—has been remarkable.”
Dianna C — Edmonton, AB“Traumatized is the best word to describe myself when I started working with Sarah. Every teaching was medicine for my soul and body. I learned to love myself and awaken my Spirit after years of trauma.”
Jae Wright — Vernon, BC“To share our stories in a space with no judgment—only support—was profoundly healing.”

Supporting Sarah in this event:

Aaliyah Hamilton is a relational somatic therapist and ceremonial space holder devoted to creating safe, compassionate spaces for healing, connection, and transformation. Her work is rooted in nervous system awareness, attachment, and the understanding that the body holds deep wisdom for healing when met with presence, care, and relationship. Drawing from years of training in relational somatic therapy, biodynamic craniosacral therapy, Kundalini yoga, and pre- and perinatal healing work, Aaliyah supports people in gently reconnecting with themselves through embodied, trauma-informed care.
Within ceremonial spaces, Aaliyah offers a grounded and heart-centered approach that emphasizes preparation, safety, integration, and relational support. Alongside ceremony work, she offers somatic relational therapy sessions to help clients deepen their integration, process emotional experiences, and restore a greater sense of wholeness, connection, and self-love.
Check out Sarah’s interview with Spiritual Teacher Marianne Williamson

With Marianne Williamson
Waking up Human with Mandy Trapp
Waking Up Human with Mandy Trapp: #008: Opening the Door to Plant Medicine with Sarah Salter-Kelly on Apple Podcasts
Beyond the veil with Tara Kabatoff
https://youtu.be/FVJxBW5b7Yg
Microdosing for Healing with Kayse Garett
Microdosing For Healing: Trauma as Medicine: Healing with Plant Medicine and Forgiveness with Sarah Salter Kelly on Apple Podcasts
I have my reasons with Deandra Dey
I Have My Reasons Podcast | Deandra Dey

12 Day Immersion in Peruvian Shamanism
2026-11-04 08:00 - 2026-11-15 17:00 | Peru, Peru
Peruvian Shamanism is paving the way as a leading transformational resource for these times. Rich in cultural teachings and practices from the high Andes to the Amazon, this land holds an awareness of Spirit that we have forgotten in the Western World. This journey is for those who seek to remember.
In this experience you will be led by three Shaman: myself of Celtic Slavic lineage living on Treaty 6 territory in Canada, Juan Q’espi Paq’o of the Q’ero Nation and Maestro Sani our Shipibo Ayahuascero.

3 Ayahuasca Ceremonies
3 Despacho Ceremonies with traditional Limpiar and Karpays
Shamanic journey’s for ancestral healing
Machu Piichu tour & other sacred sites
Temazcal Ceremony

Since time immemorial, the Q’ero people have preserved the integrity of their cultural heritage. Known as the last of the Incas, they have traveled down from the mountains over the past sixty years to fulfill the prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle. This prophecy foretells a time when the peoples of the north and south will unite to create a new way of being—a time of Pachakuti, where everything turns upside down, allowing us to see the world in a new light.

We are currently in this transformative period, which is ripe for profound change. The Q’ero share the rich wisdom of their traditions to guide Westerners home to Pachamama. Juan Q’espi is our master teacher for this journey. I have known him for over fifteen years and have great admiration for his work within his community, his family, and as a shaman.

For twelve days, he will lead you through his teachings, ceremonies, and initiations to help cleanse you of heavy energy, open your heart, and lay a solid foundation for your work as a healer.

Why Choose Ayahuasca? Our spiritual growth requires us to embrace who we are, acknowledge our past experiences, and love ourselves completely. Ayahuasca guides us into the depths of our soul, helping us recognize what we hold onto that prevents us from aligning our true selves with our daily lives. It also makes us aware of what we can change within ourselves.

We are joined by Maestro Sani, a Shipibo Ayahuascero from Contamana, who grew up in a family of shamans and operates his own retreat center, Sanin Mai, in the Amazon. He will be with us in the Sacred Valley for three transformative ceremonies, each designed to support you on your spiritual journey. Please read your intake form for information about diet and preparation.
Sacred Valley – This landscape will transform you. Who you are now will never be the same after a trip to Peru. It is simply what is. Through the ceremonies that Juan will share with you at the Ancient Incan temples, to the work you are doing with ayahuasca; your awareness of who you are and what matters in this world changes. In this way you are cleansed by the land, becoming a brighter more authentic version of your true self. We will be exploring some sights off the beaten path, as well as two days at Machu Picchu – one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Prerequisites: You must have a history of working with me. If you are new to my work this means you will have to do a minimum of three private sessions in person or on zoom prior to the trip. Book a quick chat to talk details
Registration:

Email me your interest and we will set up a call to chat details
Fill out Intake form here
Pay deposit $1500 non refundable USD (direct wire transfer through bank USD or e-transfer in the current exchange rate to CAD or pay pal to sarahsalterkelly@gmail.com or call in your cc to me to manually enter – pay pal and cc incur a 5% additional fee)
Book your free introduction session here (60 min)

Cost: $4188 USD twin shared occupancy or $4688 USD private, with a non refundable deposit of $1500 USD by June1 st. Payment in full by August 15th. Note there are limited spots and yours is held when you give your deposit.
Dates:

Group Zoom meeting September date tba
12 Day Shamanic Initiation November 4-15 2026
Optional add on Q’ero extension November 15 – 21 message me for details
Group Zoom meeting integration Dec date tba

You must have an updated version of Zoom & Whats App
Group size – maximum 14 people
Altitude – You will be in high altitude for this trip so its important to note that you will be adjusting in the first couple of days. It is recommended to drink lots of mate de coca – coca leaf tea – when you land and to even chew the coca leaves which is what the local people do.
What’s included:

Introduction session, post trip integration session
Group Zoom preparation meeting pre trip & post trip integration
Hotels & Retreat Center
All food while at retreat center
All breakfasts
Final supper
Tickets for Machu Picchu, hikes & other sacred sites
Private Tour guides
Private Bus
Translator
Air port transfers
Three Ayahuasca Ceremonies & personal diagnostic with Shaman
Four group Despacho ceremonies & Initiation rituals with Shaman
Integration Circle, meditation, and work with Sarah
Temazcal Sweat lodge & Salt room ceremony
Morning Qi-gong class with Mark

What’s not included:

Supper day 9 & 10
Lunch day 9 & 10
Flight
Gratuities

Testimonials
Sarah’s many years of wisdom and travel experience, combined with her open hearted, accessibility make travel and adventure possible in challenging places and all situations easy. She is well thought out, communicative, prepared for all potentialities and her caring nature makes everyone know they can participate in the way that is best for them. It was truly a pleasure to go on an adventure of a lifetime! -Janice Gerken
Sarah and team are fantastic facilitators. I was supported by Sarah on my Ayahuasca journey many weeks before the retreat emotionally and spiritually. Once in Peru every aspect was considered in the journey. I was especially fond of the private chef who cooked our meals, making the best food with our diet. The shamens and many ceremonies were beautiful and will always be in my heart. Sarah as always shows her beautiful heart at all times and makes sure that you are ok. Thanks Sarah!! – Lynn
I am grateful to have waited the 32 years I waited to visit Peru. Sarah is the best organizer, guide, ceremonial advisor, connection to the Peruvian people I could possibly have chosen, I am very grateful to have been with her and the group this year 2024. Our group witnessed Sarah being honoured by the Q’ero family at a Despacho ceremony. She was gifted a beautiful fedora style hat with a woven rainbow coloured band. Sarah has been a rainbow bridge between our (north -American) culture and the beautiful Peruvian people. The moment the hat was placed on her head, my eyes welled up with tears and I knew in my heart she was being “crowned “ in recognition of her amazing work. When Sarah led us in a meditation on the land at the site of the sacred feminine, I saw my maternal grandmother, I said hi grandma, then I saw my mother, and my half sister. I was no as happy to see mom and sister; and I suddenly felt a huge emotional charge, I cried, sobbed, and felt the pain, anger and resentment for these two disappear. A wonderful healing moment, thank you Sarah. – Jean Lloyd
One of Sarah’s many gifts is her ability to create a safe, nurturing space that supports and empowers individuals on their journey of personal healing and transformation. Her wisdom and work with plant medicines have profoundly changed my life. – Risa
Your team – My husband and partner of 30 years – Mark Kelly – is now joining me in all of my retreats and will be offering support, Qi-gong and integration guidance for our tour.

Itinerary –
Day 1
You will be picked up at the airport and taken to our retreat centre in Arin which is about a 2-hour drive away. Opening Ceremony in the afternoon. Please arrange for your flight to arrive before noon.
Day 2
Morning Circle – Intention Setting & first Despacho ceremony to bring us into balance with the land
Travel to the Sacred sight of Moray
Day 3
We head bright and early to the sacred site of Pisac. Here we will receive teachings in Andean cosmology from Juan as we explore the mystery of this ancient temple. After a picnic lunch we will explore the market.
First Ayahuasca Ceremony – Maestro Sani
Day 4
Morning integration circle with Sarah
Afternoon – time to process and reflect from medicine journey
Day 5
Early morning adventure to the temple of Killarumioc for Nuesta despacho ceremony and connection with Pachamama. Sarah will lead us through a shamanic healing in realeasing ancestral bondage in our mother lines and connecti with the Pachamama.
Second Ayahuasca Ceremony
Day 6
Morning integration with Sarah & Maestro Sani
This afternoon Juan takes us the little known sacred site of Puma Marca for Mosaq Karpay despacho – to call home all of your energy and replenish your being.
Evening free
Day 7
Morning Circle & Teachings –Sarah
Afternoon reflection time
Third Ayahuasca Ceremony
Day 8
Morning Circle Maestro Sani
Today we travel via van and train to the jungle to the town of Aguas Callientes at the base of Machu Picchu mountain. The scenery is incredible as around every bend of the valley ruins of sacred temples can be viewed, many still used by the local indigenous people. When we arrive in town you will be able to adventure on your own for the evening or take some time alone to journal.
Supper free time
Day 9
Are you ready for it? Early morning bus up to Machu Picchu where Juan and our travel guide will lead us through understanding the history and ceremonial use of this seventh wonder of the world.
In the evening you have free time to check out the local hot springs.
Supper Free time
Day 10
Once again, we take the early morning bus up to Machu Picchu only this time, we hike to the Huayna Picchu fortress.
Late afternoon travel to Cusco
Supper free time
Day 11
Our final day in the sacred valley we voyage to a little known temple for our final despacho ceremony and closing circle.
Group Supper
Day 12
Return home –
Day 12 – 18 Optional add on to head to the sacred mountain of the Q’ero people – message me for details on this.

Q'ero pilgramage - Peru extension
2026-11-15 08:00 - 2026-11-21 17:00
The Q’ero people are an indigenous group residing in the Andes, specifically in five communities approximately 75 miles east of Paucartambo, Peru. These communities are located at high elevations, with the highest village soaring to 14,000 feet above sea level. Recognized as the last direct descendants of the Incas, the Q’ero people escaped the Spanish conquest by retreating to remote highlands, allowing their ancestral traditions to remain largely unaltered.
In the past 50 years, they have started sharing these traditions with Westerners, aiming to foster healing for the Earth. They heed the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, which suggests that healing will manifest when the Condor of South America and the Eagle of North America unite.
As master weavers both literally and energetically, the Q’ero intertwine the threads of existence to foster meaningful relationships and restore balance amid turbulent times. They engage in a conscious daily practice of honouring the living web of life in all its forms, focusing on remaining in Ayni—reciprocity—with all beings. This involves communicating with Pachamama (Mother Earth), the Apus (mountain spirits), and the Starlight ones, who serve as their primary guardians. Believing in the interconnectedness of all things, they maintain communication with the natural world; encompassing stones, plants, trees, mountains, stars, and ancestors.
A vital element in preserving their traditions is through ceremonies, such as Despacho, which gives homage to Pachamama and the Apus. These rituals include crafting intricate offerings made of symbolic ingredients like coca leaves, corn, grains, sweets, flowers, and other natural elements. Each ingredient represents a relationship the Q’ero holds, with the prayer to bring this into harmony, be that for themselves or the groups they are supporting. The way in which each object is placed in the Despacho signifies what the Maestro (shaman) is invoking or giving thanks for. Everyone participating in a Despacho ceremony is cleansed in ritual with the offering before it is placed in a fire.
Additionally, the Q’ero share Karpays, or initiations, as part of the Andean Shamanic practice. These initiations are passed through sacred bundles known as mesas, with prayers aimed at each individual’s energetic centers. They believe they are watering the seeds of light already present in your being through these initiations and it is up to you to care for them in your own love story of bringing them into the world.
Visiting the Q’ero community directly gives you a chance to immerse yourself in their cosmology and experience their generous heart. The landscape is rich with the contrasts of high Rocky Peaks, and great carved valleys where Alpacas and llamas roam. Living in simple stone or concrete homes, they grow their own food – primarily potatoes, weave their own clothes, and live sustainably. Spending time with the Qeros helps us to let go of our imagined or idealized concept of what living core shamanic practices look like and open to the practical beauty of remembering. Remembering that all of us humans have the capacity and birthright to live in balance with the land – in fact, it is our responsibility to do so. It also helps Westerners to recognize how privileged we are and use this awareness to make a change in our world.
This trip is offered as an extension to those who are participating in the 12 day Shamanic initiation in Peru.

Cost: $975 USD
Includes:

2 nights hotel in Cusco
4 nights in tents in Q’eros (note tents are set up inside a concrete building for warmth)
All meals Day 2,3,4,5,
Breakfast Day 1, Breakfast & lunch Day 6, Breakfast Day 7
Cusco tour of Sacsayhuaman
Travel to Q’eros and all food/accomodation

What is not included:

Lunch and Supper Day 1, Supper Day 6
Tips

Basic Itinerary
Day 1 – Cusco tour Sacsayhuaman – overnight in Cusco
Day 2 – Leave for Q’eros – Walk through the ancient burial grounds of the Q’ero people at the hidden sacred site of Nina Marca. Venture through the town of Paucartambo exploring their traditional market and enjoying the local food for lunch. Arrive in Q’eros for supper
Day 3 – Create your own lasting connection with this incredible land through walking down the valley from the Village of Challma Champana to Hatun Q’eros – about 10km (all down hill). Listen to the stories shared by our guides as they tell the tales of myth and legends of their people. Lunch in Hatun Q’eros followed by despacho ceremony to bring us into balance with their homeland. Return to Chalma Champana by truck.
Day 4 – The Q’eros traditional weaving is a cosmology unto itself. Learn how they gather the wool, spin and weave with prayer and ceremony. After lunch experience a guided shamanic journey with me then spend time with your own Mesa on the land investigating what teachings these Apu’s are sharing with you. Why are you here? Why have these Apu’s called you?
Day 5 – The Sacred Mountain of Huaman Lippa is the principle Apu & glacier which cares for these people. Today we head up to altitudes of 17000 ft on horse back to greet this powerful being. At the local ceremonial altar we will have a despacho ceremony and Karpay initiation of the Kudak a kuyak – She/He who chews the coca leaves and talks to the stars.
Day 6 – Return to Cusco, overnight in Cusco
Day 7 – Return Home
