About the work
Ancestral Lineage Healing is the practice of relating directly with one’s blood ancestors for personal, family, and cultural healing. It involves safely establishing relationships with wise and well ancestors and enlisting their participation to deeply heal your lineages as they speak through your life today.
If you’ve participated in various kinds of personal healing work and you’re seeking greater breakthroughs, ancestral healing may be for you. This approach weaves helpful elements from psychology, cultural healing, and spiritual/ritual traditions. Patterns rooted in intergenerational cycles and cultural pain can finally find resolution. Coming into relationship with recent and more ancient ancestors can serve to re-establish obscured blessings, improve relationships with the living, and encourage clarity of purpose.
Logistics
Registration includes lodging, ritual, and three meals daily. Prices do not include travel to or from the venue or any extras like spa services.
The Venue: Tierra Valiente | Brave Earth, Center for Applied Cultural Transition, is a living laboratory rooted in principles of regeneration, resiliency, and reciprocity. We provide immersive experiences in Nature that share alternative ways of living and being that are suitable for modernity and contextually relevant for the rapidly changing world we live in.
Accommodations: Your rate is fully inclusive of the choice of single occupancy rooms or double occupancy for the full duration of the event from January 27 – 31, 2027.
Ritual Space: We’ll gather for dedicated time in group ritual over five days. About seven hours per day over three full days (approximately 10am to 6pm with pauses for meals and other breaks) with shorter gatherings on the first and last day of the intensive. Ritual space will be within the Maloca.
Meals: Your rate is fully inclusive of three meals per day served on site on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Wednesday’s dinner is included in the price as well as Sunday’s breakfast and a light lunch before departure. Vegetarians and other dietary restrictions will be generously accommodated, and the meals are notoriously delicious. We’ll take spacious lunch breaks each day.
Price: The price range is between $1720 up to $2700 USD. Fees will be paid in USD. Scholarships are available, especially but not only for Costa Ricans and Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Language Accommodation: We respect that this gathering is taking place in Costa Rica and Spanish-speaking lands, and we aim to gather in ways that are culturally humble, honoring of the land, and truly inclusive. We are able to offer live whisper translation and small-groups options in Spanish. If this would be of benefit to you, please let us know in your registration notes.
Scholarships: We welcome scholarship applications from anyone who feels this gathering would be of benefit, and we will be prioritizing funds for Costa Ricans and Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Scholarship applications will be accepted from July 1 – December 28, 2026. We will review applications monthly and will issue replies on a rolling basis. Please give us three to four weeks to reply before reaching out to check in.
Refunds: If life shifts and you need to cancel, deposits are fully transferable as a credit or gift when you cancel more than 90 days out. Within 90 days of your reservation, deposits are non-refundable.
SOBRE EL TRABAJO:
La curación del linaje ancestral es la práctica de relacionarse directamente con los ancestros de sangre para la curación personal, familiar y cultural. Implica establecer relaciones de forma segura con ancestros sabios y sanos y conseguir su participación para sanar profundamente sus linajes mientras hablan a través de su vida hoy.
Si ha participado en varios tipos de trabajo de sanación personal y está buscando mayores avances, la sanación ancestral puede ser para usted. Este enfoque entrelaza elementos útiles de la psicología, la curación cultural y las tradiciones espirituales/rituales. Los patrones arraigados en ciclos intergeneracionales y dolores culturales finalmente pueden encontrar resolución. Entablar una relación con ancestros recientes y más antiguos puede servir para restablecer bendiciones oscurecidas, mejorar las relaciones con los vivos y fomentar la claridad de propósito.
LOGÍSTICA
El lugar del encuentro: Tierra Valiente | Brave Earth, Centro para la Transición Cultural Aplicada, es un laboratorio viviente fundamentado en los principios de regeneración, resiliencia y reciprocidad. Ofrecemos experiencias inmersivas en la naturaleza que comparten formas alternativas de vivir y de relacionarnos con el mundo, apropiadas para la vida contemporánea y relevantes para los rápidos cambios que atravesamos como sociedad.
Alojamiento: La tarifa incluye la opción de habitación individual o compartida (doble ocupación) durante toda la duración del encuentro, del 27 al 31 de enero de 2027.
Espacio ritual: Nos reuniremos para dedicar tiempo al trabajo ritual en grupo a lo largo de cinco días. Durante tres días completos, el programa contemplará aproximadamente siete horas diarias de ritual (aproximadamente de 10:00 a. m. a 6:00 p. m., con pausas para las comidas y otros descansos), además de encuentros más breves el primer y el último día del intensivo. Los rituales se llevarán a cabo en la Maloca.
Comidas: La tarifa incluye tres comidas diarias servidas en el lugar los días jueves, viernes y sábado. También están incluidos la cena del miércoles, así como el desayuno y un almuerzo ligero del domingo antes de la partida. Se atenderán con gusto las necesidades de personas vegetarianas y otras restricciones alimentarias, y las comidas son ampliamente reconocidas por su excelente calidad. Cada día contaremos con un amplio descanso para el almuerzo.
Precio: El costo del programa oscila entre USD $1,720 y USD $2,700. Todos los pagos se realizarán en dólares estadounidenses (USD). Hay becas disponibles, especialmente —aunque no exclusivamente— para personas costarricenses y pueblos indígenas de las Américas.
Accesibilidad lingüística: Reconocemos que este encuentro se realiza en Costa Rica, en un territorio de habla hispana, y buscamos reunirnos de una manera culturalmente humilde, respetuosa con la tierra y verdaderamente inclusiva. Ofrecemos interpretación simultánea susurrada y la posibilidad de participar en grupos pequeños en español. Si esto te sería de utilidad, por favor indícalo en las notas de tu inscripción.
Becas: Invitamos a solicitar una beca a cualquier persona que considere que este encuentro sería beneficioso para su camino. Daremos prioridad en la asignación de fondos a personas costarricenses y a pueblos indígenas de las Américas.
Las solicitudes de beca se recibirán del 1 de julio al 28 de diciembre de 2026. Revisaremos las solicitudes mensualmente y responderemos de forma continua a medida que sean evaluadas. Te pedimos esperar entre tres y cuatro semanas para recibir una respuesta antes de comunicarte con nosotros para consultar el estado de tu solicitud.
Cancelaciones y reembolsos: Si tus circunstancias cambian y necesitas cancelar tu participación, el depósito será totalmente transferible como crédito o podrá regalarse a otra persona siempre que la cancelación se realice con más de 90 días de anticipación al inicio del encuentro. Dentro de los 90 días previos a tu reserva, los depósitos no son reembolsables.
What to expect during session
Over five days, we’ll gather each morning in the Maloca and stay together through full, unhurried days. You can expect a combination of teaching, experiential ritual, and guided practice, with spacious time for questions and real conversation between participants and teachers.
Across the intensive, you’ll move through more than a dozen substantive guided practices, held within a larger ceremonial container of drumming, song, and offerings. All teachings and practice follow the Ancestral Lineage Healing process as outlined in Daniel Foor’s book Ancestral Medicine, the online course, and individual session work.
Between teaching sessions, the larger group will have the chance to move into smaller circles anchored by trained ritualists — at least 5-6 supporters on hand to hold space for intimate sharing and integration.
You’ll leave carrying a lifelong framework for relating safely and tenderly with your family and lineage ancestors. And over the course of the week, we’ll come together to co-create something tangible: an intricate central offering we’ll design and assemble by hand, day by day. A gift for your ancestors and for the larger prayer of cultural healing.
About the Instructors
Amber and Simon bring decades of combined practice to the place where personal healing and cultural transformation are not separate projects but one inseparable movement. Amber’s work is rooted in the conviction that the psyche itself is foundational to liberation, that somatic depth, ancestral reconnection, and social justice belong in the same room. Simon’s practice as a politicized healer and ritualist holds space for the embodied, relational work of collective liberation across lines of difference. If you arrive carrying grief or despair about the state of culture, know that this event is built for exactly that convergence: your own ancestral healing will not be set aside from the larger work, but woven into it as an act of cultural repair.
MEET YOUR GUIDES
Amber McZeal
DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND ANCESTRAL HEALING PRACTITIONER
Writer, vocalist, & sacred scholar Amber McZeal utilizes sound therapy and guided somatic imagery to engage the knowledge of the body within an interactive and liberatory arts practice. Amber weaves somatic praxis with social justice and spirituality, in an approach that centers the psyche as foundational in movements to end oppression and create more humane social & cultural relationships. She holds an M.A. in Somatic Depth psychology and a Ph.D. in Depth psychology with a specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Ecological psychologies. Her ancestors are from Louisiana, with roots in Haiti, Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, Benin, France, Spain, and Indigenous North America. Amber lives on the Indigenous lands of the Ohlone people in Oakland, CA.
Simon Wolff
HEALER, RITUALIST, AND ANCESTRAL HEALING PRACTITIONER
Simon or Shimon Wolff (they/he) is a politicized healer, ritualist, and artist stewarding one-to-one and group embodied ancestral healing for the sake of personal and collective liberation. They identify as a white, antiracist, antizionist, queer, trans, disabled person of the Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora living on Nipmuc and Pocomtuc land colonially known as Northampton, MA. Simon’s people are from Lithuania, France, Germany, and Eastern and Northwestern Europe. In their spare time, they enjoy printmaking, crafting herbal medicine, spending time in the woods, and sharing meals with beloveds.
How much individual support will be available?
This is an in-depth experience and participants should come well resourced. While Dr. McZeal, Simon, and at least five practitioners from the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Network will hold the container with care, individualized support has limits in a group intensive. If you have questions about whether this is the right container for your depth work, reach out to the team beforehand. Please note that the intensive is not a substitute for personal therapy or physical medicines. Many participants also find it valuable to work with an individual practitioner; the Ancestral Medicine Practitioner Directory includes options for different languages, low-income sessions, and other specializations.
What can participants expect with regard to cultural safety and belonging?
This work is experiential, non-dogmatic, and welcoming to people of all ancestries and any spiritual background. It is rooted in feminist, decolonizing, anti-racist, LGBTQ+-affirming, class-aware, and Earth-honoring values. It’s also held with warmth and an encouragement of the vulnerability that depth ritual requires.
Participants work directly with their own lineage ancestors and are not expected to hold space for others beyond mindful presence during group shares. Each person moves through their own process alongside the group rather than in service of it.
The intensive will also weave in explicit healing for the history of place, acknowledging the genocide, enslavement, and colonization that shaped Costa Rica and Central America, honoring the Indigenous peoples of these lands, and engaging in group ritual for the land itself. All participants, whatever their ancestral relationship to harm, are warmly welcome.
¿Cuánto apoyo individual estará disponible?
Esta es una experiencia de inmersión profunda, y se recomienda que las personas participantes lleguen con suficientes recursos personales y de apoyo. Aunque la Dra. McZeal, Simon y al menos cinco profesionales de la Red de Practicantes de Medicina Ancestral sostendrán este espacio con cuidado y atención, el apoyo individualizado tiene límites en un programa intensivo grupal.
Si tienes preguntas sobre si este espacio es el adecuado para el nivel de profundidad de tu proceso, te invitamos a comunicarte con el equipo con anticipación.
Ten en cuenta que este programa intensivo no sustituye la terapia individual ni los tratamientos médicos. Muchas personas participantes también encuentran valioso trabajar con un/a profesional de manera individual. El Directorio de Practicantes de Medicina Ancestral incluye opciones en distintos idiomas, sesiones con tarifas accesibles para personas de bajos ingresos y otras especializaciones.
¿Qué pueden esperar las personas participantes en cuanto a seguridad cultural y sentido de pertenencia?
Este trabajo es experiencial, no dogmático, y da la bienvenida a personas de todas las ascendencias y de cualquier tradición o camino espiritual. Está fundamentado en valores feministas, decoloniales, antirracistas, afirmativos de las identidades LGBTQ+, conscientes de las realidades de clase y comprometidos con el cuidado y el respeto por la Tierra. Asimismo, se sostiene con calidez y fomenta la vulnerabilidad que requiere el trabajo ritual profundo.
Las personas participantes trabajan directamente con sus propios ancestros de linaje y no se espera que sostengan el proceso de otras personas más allá de ofrecer una presencia atenta y respetuosa durante los espacios de compartir en grupo. Cada persona transita su propio proceso junto al grupo, en lugar de estar al servicio del proceso de los demás.
El programa intensivo también integrará un trabajo explícito de sanación relacionado con la historia del territorio, reconociendo el genocidio, la esclavización y la colonización que marcaron a Costa Rica y Centroamérica, honrando a los pueblos indígenas de estas tierras y participando en rituales grupales dedicados a la sanación de la propia tierra. Todas las personas participantes, independientemente de la relación que sus ancestros hayan tenido con estas historias de violencia o daño, son bienvenidas con calidez.
TIERRA VALIENTE | BRAVE EARTH
Brave Earth is located between San Ramon and La Fortuna, nestled in between Arenal Volcano and the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, the largest reserve of protected wildlife in Costa Rica.
As a living lab, we have experimented with different building modalities using AirCrete and materials sourced on the land including bamboo and adobe. We have implemented biophilic design, closed-loop systems and permaculture design principles. Ornamental, food, and medicinal gardens surround the center as well as hiking trials to a nearby river, and a natural swimming pond.
CULTURES OF TRANSITION
The impulse for Tierra Valiente stems from an awareness of our civilizational trajectory within the dominant culture with its source code of extraction, domination, commodification, colonization, control, entitlement, and separation from the living world.
We are both informed by this critical lens and inspired to create outside of the old values and incentive landscapes to build a culture based on reciprocity, regeneration and resiliency.
In this collective transition - whether you call it the Anthropocene, the Kali Yuga, late-stage capitalism or capitalist modernity - our intention is to become more attuned to this cultural context in order to decolonize the conditioning of the dominant system and be in deeper service to our collective potential.
Our living lab is located on the northwestern Caribbean slope of Costa Rica, about 2.5 hours from San Jose. We have created an 80-acre commons nestled between the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, one of the largest protected regions of rainforest north of the Amazon and Volcano Arenal.
Juan Santamaria International located in San Jose is the nearest airport to Brave Earth. We are approximately a 2.5h drive from San Jose.
We are located 11 miles south from La Fortuna Arenal Area in a community called San Isidro de Peñas Blancas, La Fortuna, Alajuela.
GPS Coordinates:
10°23’16.2”N 84°35’50.8”W
Our address is:
Transportation:
Please reach out to maxine@braveearth.com with any transportation or logistic questions. We can support you in coordinating shared shuttles to and from the event. *This is not included in the registration fees*
Private Taxis (1-5 people)
$165 each way / 2.5-3 hours
Private Van (6-9 people)
$185 each way / 2.5-3 hours
Public Buses
~$10 / Approx. 5 hours
Bus 1: San Jose bus terminal to San Ramon, Bus 2: San Ramon towards La Fortuna. Get off at San Isidro de Penas Blancas or Chachagua. Take short taxi ride to Finca Luna Nueva.
TIERRA VALIENTE
Tierra Valiente está ubicada entre San Ramón y La Fortuna, entre el Volcán Arenal y el Bosque Eterno de los Niños, la reserva de vida silvestre protegida más grande de Costa Rica.
Como laboratorio viviente, hemos experimentado con diferentes modalidades de construcción utilizando AirCrete y materiales obtenidos del terreno, incluidos bambú y adobe. Hemos implementado diseño biofílico, sistemas de circuito cerrado y principios de diseño de permacultura. Jardines ornamentales, alimentarios y medicinales rodean el centro, así como rutas de senderismo hasta un río cercano y un estanque natural para nadar.
Nuestro laboratorio viviente está ubicado en la vertiente caribeña noroccidental de Costa Rica, a aproximadamente 2,5 horas de San José. Hemos creado un espacio común de 80 acres ubicado entre el Bosque Eterno de los Niños, una de las regiones de bosque tropical protegido más grandes al norte del Amazonas y el Volcán Arenal.
El Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría, ubicado en San José, es el aeropuerto más cercano a Brave Earth. Estamos aproximadamente a 2,5 horas en auto desde San José.
Estamos ubicados a 11 millas al sur del Área Arenal de La Fortuna en una comunidad llamada San Isidro de Peñas Blancas, La Fortuna, Alajuela.
Cancellation + Refunds: If life shifts and you need to cancel, deposits are fully transferable as a credit or gift when you cancel more than 90 days out. Within 90 days of your reservation, deposits are non-refundable.
Política de Cancelación:
Si cancelas antes de los 90 días de tu reserva, tu depósito se convertirá en un crédito que podrás utilizar en una fecha posterior o transferir como regalo. Dentro de los 90 días posteriores a su reserva, su depósito no será reembolsable.