Our Family of Healers:
Legacy of Wisdom
Our family carries generations of ancestral healing knowledge, guided by Maestra Ynes. We are blessed with four powerful female healers, bringing gentle, nurturing energy to our ceremonies through sensitivity, compassion, and warmth.
The team wouldn't be complete without Ynes' husband, Maestro David, who takes care of our family and center and plays an essential role as protector of the maloka and land during our ceremonies and diet.
For our family of healers, the learning never stops. Despite many years of experience and long dietas, they continue to diet themselves many times per year to deepen their knowledge and skills.
Our Maestros
Maestra Ynes Sanchez-Gonzalez
Xawanjisbe - 'The Most Vibrant Bird in the Forest'
60+ years working with plant medicine
Maestra Ynes is a mother of seven children, four of whom are now Onanya healers, and form the main team of Maestros here at Niwe Rao Xobo. She is originally from the native community of Roaboya, next to the Ucayali River, Pucallpa.
At 14 years old, Ynes fell seriously ill with an unknown disease which led her to diet medicinal plants under the guidance of her grandfather and master healer, Aurelio. After successfully healing herself, Ynes decided to apprentice with Maestro Aurelio, completing an apprenticeship diet of two years in complete isolation.
Some years later, Ynes continued dieting with her great-grandfather, Maestro, and a Meraya healer, Luciano Sinuiri. At the age of 18, she began her final apprenticeship diet with her mother’s uncle, Maestro, and Onaya healer, Basil Gordon. These three powerful healers gifted her the base of her knowledge and experience with the sacred plant medicine and ayahuasca.
Now with over 60 years of dedicated experience and ancestral knowledge, she offers a very powerful and beautiful connection with plant spirits; devoting her life to healing others in Peru and abroad. She brings an incredible wealth of knowledge that has been passed down for generations through her family lineage. With her contagious laughter and passion for healing, she distributes light and love with unfaltering compassion.
Maestra Laura Lopez De Fernandez
Chononyavi - 'Swallow bird that flies in unity'
50+ years working with plant medicine
Ynes’ eldest daughter has been deeply immersed in the world of plant medicine from a young age. Laura was given a small diets by her grandparents from the age of 10 years and by the age of 16 began her apprenticeship to learn about ayahuasca.
At age 20, Laura traveled throughout Peru with Ynes, sharing medicinal plants and ayahuasca ceremonies with local Peruvians. She has also worked extensively with her mother and sister Lila, both in Peru and abroad. She brings an incredible wealth of knowledge that has been passed down for generations in her family line. Laura is known for her dedication to the path, constantly dieting and doing long spiritual fasts to increase the depth of her knowledge. Her beautiful ikaros (medicine songs) pour out her with love and devotion to each of her patients.
Maestra Lila Lopez-Sanchez
Caná Jisbe - 'A Flash of Lightning'
40+ years working with plant medicine
Maestra Lila grew up with her grandparents and highly respected Onaya healers. At the age of 13, Lila was the victim of a strong energetic attack, she was bedridden and unable to walk for over a year. Medical doctors said she would never walk again. She then moved to live with her mother, Maestra Ynes, and dieted a mighty tree named Catawba. The diet succeeded in curing her completely and served as the gateway of Lila’s path as a healer.
Being the rebel that she is, Lila resisted the way, sometimes in favor of leading a ‘normal’ life, but after the birth of her two children, the plants persisted in calling her to work with them. Since then, she has worked with her mother and other highly respected teachers throughout Peru and is also a specialist in Warmi Ikaros. She works with an incredible amount of love and compassion and is an absolute joy to have her in the team.
Maestra Edelin
Metsa Rateu - 'Beautiful Joyful Woman'
10 + years working with plant medicine
Maestra Edelin is one of Maestra Ynes’ younger daughters. She grew up with her family in the Shipibo community of Royaboa. Sharing the rich plant and healing knowledge of her family, she grew up learning many recipes for plant remedies and plant perfumes.
She worked for 18 years as a kindergarten teacher, and 4 years supporting the training of school teachers and designing early education curriculums. She has been dieting for the past 9 years, and recently graduated to the level of maestra, working alongside her mother Ynes at Niwe Rao Xobo.
Maestra Edelin has the gift of healing touch and is well-loved for her massages, her many plant remedies, and her special perfumes that attract love, abundance, good luck, and open roads. Her warm, generous, and affectionate nature put people immediately at ease. She loves to help people and support them to heal.
Maestro David Lopez-Sanchez
Barin Vita - 'Guardian of the Sun'
60+ years with plant medicine and tobacco
David was born in Roaboya, at the bottom of the Ucayali River. A cigar maker and father of seven children, David is affectionately known as King David and sometimes appears in the ceremony as a bright king. At 24, David began his powerful diet with his father and Onanya healer, Jose Lopez, who put him on a plant diet for seven months and finished his diet by consuming Ayahuasca for the first time. He remembers how his visions opened to reveal a pharmacopeia of plants that called out for him to learn.
He continued to drink for three years until the plants “won” to open his first plant diet in seclusion with a powerful shaman for nine months. David immediately went on to learn and master the tobacco spirit, Mapacho, leading him to become a powerful and accomplished healer.
David carries an incredible amount of knowledge and experience to the family. He also unassumingly holds the unique responsibility of being the guardian of the family’s healing work; protecting his wife, family, and the center from negative energies. With his calming and humble presence, David beautifully redefines what it means to be a warrior of light. We are very blessed to have him with us.
Our Facilitators:
Cultural Bridges
Our facilitators bring years of experience in diverse plant medicine and therapeutic practices. Each has undertaken multiple dietas under Maestra Ynes's guidance, earning our family's deep trust through their dedication and skill.
Our facilitators serve as essential bridges between maestros and guests, offering:
Cultural and linguistic translation
In-depth guidance through the dieta process
Personal insights from their own healing journeys
Compassionate support during ceremonies
One-on-one attention throughout your stay
Honoring the Feminine
As a women-led lineage, our center has naturally drawn a dedicated team of primarily female facilitators. This creates a uniquely nurturing environment where guests feel deeply held and protected. The strong feminine presence adds another layer of safety and understanding to the healing experience.
Program Coordinator, Integration Coach & Dieta Facilitator
10 years dieting with family | 17 years working with plant medicine
Jessica Begin
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Jessica Begin brings a unique blend of artistry and ceremonial experience to her role at Niwe Rao Xobo. As an artist, dancer, singer/songwriter, and movement teacher, she believes in reconnecting people with their authentic power through ancestral practices and creative expression.
For 16 years, she has supported ceremonial healing work at leading medicine centers across Peru and Costa Rica, including the Temple of the Way of Light, Niwe Rao Xobo, and Soltara Healing Center. Fluent in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, Jessica serves as a cultural bridge, having worked globally as a translator at international indigenous and environmental gatherings.
As a dedicated student of Maestra Ynes, she works closely with the family as program director, facilitator, and integration coach. She has been supporting the back end coordination of the center and managing of the facilitation and admin team since 2021. Together with Maestras Ynes, Lila, and Laura, she hosts Master Plant dietas and retreats in the Peruvian Amazon and internationally. Her teaching approach combines precision and clarity with artistry, sensitivity, and passionate dedication.
Dieta Facilitator, Guest & Communications Manager
6 years dieting with family | 14 years working with plants
Savanna Felstead
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A natural space holder dedicated to exploring altered states of consciousness, Savanna focuses on supporting individuals through preparation, ceremony, and integration. Her approach draws from 14 years of psychedelic experience and studies, personal healing work, and initiations through various ancestral lineages.
Her practice integrates multiple modalities including Internal Family Systems, Somatic Therapy, Compassionate Inquiry, Kinesiology, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming, all guided by her plant teachers. She emphasizes self-empowerment and sovereignty in healing, supported by her deep connection to the natural world.
For five years, Savanna has studied with Maestra Ynes and family, serving as facilitator and bridgekeeper at their centers throughout Peru and overseas. She also offers preparation and integration support while managing guest communications and operations.
As an Ollinmalinalmetztli moondancer in Mexico and sacred pipe carrier for her community, Savanna works toward lasting change through collective and individual healing. She focuses on addressing the modern mental health crisis by sharing alternative solutions and supporting personal liberation.
Integration Facilitator, Medical Intake and Integration Coordinator
7 years dieting with family | 10 years working with plants
Carolina Pilara
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A close friend and apprentice of the Lopez-Sanchez family since 2016, Carolina has completed all her Shipibo tradition dietas under Maestra Ynes and Maestra Laura's guidance, with Maestra Lila as an influential mentor. Her connection to the family deepened in 2019 when Maestra Lila called forth the soul of her daughter, weaving her personal journey with motherhood into her medicine path.
With over a decade of experience working with indigenous cultures and plant medicines, Carolina has held leadership positions at ceremonial centers across multiple countries. She has guided hundreds of participants through experiences with ayahuasca, peyote, and cacao ceremonies.
As a Latin American with Western upbringing and global experience, she bridges cultural approaches to healing. Carolina sees plant medicine as a catalyst for radical transformation, both individually and societally. She approaches healing with patience and curiosity, creating authentic spaces for growth and exploration.
While previously an onsite facilitator, Carolina now supports Niwe Rao Xobo from Arizona, offering pre and post diet integration calls and assisting guests with dieta registration. Her work continues to blend traditional wisdom with contemporary understanding, supporting participants through their healing journeys.
Yana (Calou)—They/them
2 years dieting with the family | 10 years working with plants
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Yana Calou (they/them) is a neurodiverse, nonbinary Brazilian-American guide, activist, artist, and friend to both human and nonhuman relations. For the past 10 years, Yana has worked with ayahuasca in the Shipibo tradition, beginning after their collaboration with Dr. Gabor Maté on the US release of "In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts." They are now embarking on their dieting journey with the Lopez Sanchez family, fully dedicated to Shipibo healing traditions and deeply listening to the guidance of plants.
Yana is a Hakomi practitioner trained in body/mindfulness-based somatic therapy, which they use to support people in non-ordinary states with plant and allied spirits. Their approach extends beyond set/setting to create alignment and reciprocity with plant and spirit worlds. They recently trained as a medicine guide in a queer, mixed-race cohort committed to community-based practice and peer accountability.
As co-leader of a monthly trans/nonbinary peer-facilitated psychedelic integration circle for NYC Psychedelic Society, Yana is passionate about supporting direct experiences with plants, nature, and spirit. Their understanding of trauma is rooted in collective physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. Yana expresses deep gratitude for the generosity and guidance from indigenous maestros and plants, as well as for political mentorship in labor movements, economic/trans/racial justice work, and abolitionist research on community-based peer suicide support in trans and BIPOC communities.
Yana continually deepens their understanding and commitment to healing trauma within nonpathological racial/gender/disability justice frameworks, viewing medicine work as the sacred realm of nature and spirit rather than solely within clinical psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. They bring lived experience with neurodivergence, chronic illness, childhood trauma, and immigration.
Based between Brooklyn, Brazil, and Peru, Yana speaks fluent English, Portuguese, and proficient Spanish. They enjoy creating functional ceramics with natural clay, watercolor painting, collecting oral histories, connecting with nature, and practicing Biodanza. Above all, Yana aspires to make their whole life about love.