Kati Mesa

Topics:  The Body’s Journey after Loss

Integration of Loss for the Griever

Kati Inez Mesa, Founder of Love, Awareness & Purpose, Kati is a Holistic Health & Ayurvedic Practitioner, Alchemical Hypnotherapist, Counselor, Holistic Speaker, Mentor & Coach. For 10+ years she has facilitated many gatherings throughout the US, Cuba, Peru & Colombia. Providing tools of empowerment, elemental body awareness, ancestral healing, inner child healing, spiritual, emotional, mental, physical healing and life purpose embodiment. She will be bringing forth all of herself that has learned from her teachers within the Amazons, Cuba, Ancestral Roots, Tibetan Ayurveda, Buddhism, Shamanism, Holistic & Transpersonal Psychology.

Israel Haros Lopez

Love In The Time Inbetween: Confronting The Shadow with Compassion

This workshop will focus on the current opportunity that we are afforded by this pandemic to explore death and what needs to die inside of us. We will look at the intelligence of our shadow and the ways in which as we become more engaged in healing practices, the way that it continues to deceive us into not looking at those parts of us that need continued work. Participants will be asked to do some deep personal writing, most of which will not be shared but for personal use to continue to explore those parts of ourselves that are the hardest to look at. Within the mexica, azteca traditions notions of death are considered an everyday part of life.  How do we in this sacred time, where death is surrounding us, look into the parts of ourselves that we fear. The parts that we need to let go of. The parts of us that lie to ourselves. That convince ourselves that we are okay. The parts of the ego and pride that do not allow us to grow. The parts of us that do not allow us to grow towards our light. How do we allow the onsetting emotions that feel overwhelming to become just part of our spiritual death, spiritual growth. In the process with our collective consciousness speak to how to be in relationship with this shadow self with compassion. 

Israel Haros Lopez is a chicano native from east los angeles. His roots are mexican, mexica, tarumara and huichol. Israel is a artist, poet, mentor, muralist, gardener, community minded and inspired by the abundance that surrounds him. Currently he is the cofounding member and Artist Director of Alas De Agua Art Collective where he works in community to create opportunities for BIPOC and LGTBQIA Artists. Israel's more intimate workshops focus on creating hope, courage and looking into the mirror of self in order to better be of service to the community. 

Emigdio Ballon

Topics: Death as a cycle of life, Acceptance, and Rebirth

sacred counseling

Emigdio Ballon is Quechua, from Bolivia, a decendent of the Inca people. He employs traditional Quechua techniques and rituals when he works with food and herbs as medicine.  He is the director of the Institute of Natural and Traditional Knowledge and the Agricultural Director of the Pueblo of Tesuque, and Board President of Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute.

He earned his Bachelors degree in agriculture at Major Bolivian University of Saint Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia and his Masters degree in plant genetics in Colombia. He studied for his Doctorate at Colorado State University. As a plant geneticist he has specialized in research on quinoa and amaranth grains and has published many articles about them in both South and North America.

Emigdio has served as an organic certification inspector in the United States and has made many presentations at major conferences on agriculture. He has studied principles of bio-dynamic farming at the Josephine Porter Institute of Applied Bio-Dynamics and continues to study and make presentations at various seminars.

In his little free time, Emigdio pursues research into germination techniques for a wide variety of crops, including traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs and herbs indigenous to Northern New Mexico. His other interests include seed saving and sharing, bio-dynamic and organic farming and sustainable agricultural practices. He is also involved with Native American organizations which stress the importance of seed saving and promote the revival and continuation of traditional crops, both nutritional and medicinal. He employs traditional Quechua techniques and rituals which he learned at his grandfather’s side as a boy in Bolivia.

Yvonne Sandoval

Topics:

Processing and understanding grief

The veil between two realms

Xicanx traditions around death and dying

Yvonne is a therapist that draws from mindfulness and transpersonal-based practices using narrative and cognitive based problem solving approaches. With a strong background in social justice and nearly 20 years of experience Yvonne brings together Western and ancestral approaches to assist clients in their healing process.

Yvonne identifies as Xicanx living in the borderlands of U.S. and Mexico. Yvonne does Health, Help and happiness life coaching.  Eye Movement Desensitization and EMDR, Reiki, and specializes in working with Latino/Native Communities, LGBTQ Issues, Couples, Children, Youth and Families, Child and Adult Attachment Issues, Grief and Loss, Parent Education, Community Empowerment, Anti-Oppression Training. Yvonne led weekly psychotherapy attachment parenting groups using multi-module approaches: cognitive therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, psycho- educational and humanistic therapy. She also teaches youth on her farm leading 1 week courses.

Morgaine Witriol

Topics:

Assisting the End of life cycle and the transition out of the physical body

Herbal Allies and homeopathics for grief and loss

Working with the Ancestors and the spirits

Cross cultural aspects of death, mourning traditions, prayer, processing and healing from sitting Shivah to professional weepers

Morgaine is a lover of medicinal plants and nature. She is a medicine maker, a farmer, a wild crafter, and founder of Native Roots. Morgaine has a private practice for herbal consults, bodywork, sound healing, and physical and emotional trauma release. She lived in Belize and had the opportunity to apprentice tropical medicine with one of the most revered medicine men in the country the late Don Heriberto Cocom for 8 months. She also studied at the Northwest School for Botanical Studies, The Dandelion Center, California School for Herbal Studies, The Dhyanna Center, Blue Otter School, Acutonics Institute for Integrative Medicine, Ethnic Studies and Anthropology at the University of Colorado and continues to her studies of mayan medicine in Guatemala with Don Reginaldo Chayeux. She has collaborated for 9 years with his Nonprofit Association to support the protection of the fully Mayan run rainforest Reserve Bio Itza and brings groups of students to study with him. Morgaine has recognized the importance of honoring healing modalities of all cultures and especially the ones of our own tradition even if they have been forgotten by a few generations. She grew up with Latino Immigrants as her closest friends and community and found herself easily honoring the elders that still remembered their own language, their own healing modalities and traditions from that community. It was a journey of many years before she started to look deeper into reclaiming the healing practices of the ancestral traditions that she came from and hopes to share with all people of European decent to remember to honor their own ancestors, to connect to the land and the people that are currently practicing and keeping the context of European tribal healing traditions alive today. She hopes to create a safe space to bridge the gap generational knowledge and cultural similarities and healing tools to encourage self healing and community healing.

Madrona Bourdeau

Coping with loss and death with herbs: heal your body, spirit and heart.

Helping one transition to the spirit realm: 

My grandmother was Mohawk and was raised on the 6 Nations reserve in Canada.  I was raised with a connection to the people, but also my grandmother was very good at hiding her identity due to what she had grown up with. 

I am a retired midwife (doing occasional births, still) a cranial Sacral therapist, specializing in mama’s and babies. I am also and herbalist and homeopath. 

Madrona has been a Practicing midwife for over 40 years. She has been studying herbs, homeopathy, Chinese Medicine and other healing modalities as well. She retired from active practice at the end of 2015. She is a became a Cranial Sacral Therapist in 2009 and her specialty is mama’s and babies, trauma release, and supporting women in Postpartum. Madrona has taught at various midwifery programs in San Francisco, Portland, where she moved here from, as well as Taos. She now teaches Introduction to Midwifery at UNM and will be teaching a section of the Introduction to Holistic Arts class.