Kinti Yaya institute presents:
The FOUNDING COHORT of
THE ROOTED HEALER
A 12-Month Mentorship in Andean Wisdom and Conscious Healing
STARTING MARCH 2027
Sacred Threshold
Two Initiation Retreats in Ecuador that ask everything of you, and give back a strong foundation you can actually stand on.
Never walk alone
Twelve months of live mentoring and peer exchange, not a self-paced course where you can quietly disappear.
The world needs you rooted
Come out with more than techniques: a grounded, steady and authentic presence people can feel.
Four Areas of Growth
Self, Nature, Healing and Service, woven from two directions: The ancestral wisdom of the Andes and modern therapeutic understanding.
Carry it forward
Leave not just changed yourself, but ready to change how you show up for others. We will support you building your own project.
Our Approach
Becoming a grounded human being first
At Kinti Yaya, we believe that becoming a good healer starts with becoming a grounded human being. Technical skills matter. Knowledge matters. But the quality of your presence, your self-awareness and your relationship with nature matter just as much.
The Rooted Healer is a year-long mentorship designed for coaches, therapists, facilitators and healing professionals who want to deepen both their personal development and their professional practice.
Learning through mentorship
In the Andean tradition, learning has always happened through mentorship. Knowledge is passed on through long-term relationships with teachers, elders and community, not through information alone. People in the modern world often attend workshops and collect certifications, but rarely have mentors who accompany their development over time.
The Rooted Healer brings that back. Over twelve months, participants are guided through an ongoing process of learning, practice and reflection, cultivating the qualities to accompany others with maturity, presence and integrity.
Two ways of understanding the same questions
How do we live in balance? How do we navigate suffering and change?
The foundation of the program is the living wisdom of the Andean tradition, shared by Tayta Willak and the Kinti Yaya community. Alongside these teachings, we integrate insights from psychology, nature-based therapy and modern well-being research to help participants understand, embody and apply what they learn.
Ancestral wisdom offers lived experience, relationship and practice. Science offers language, research and understanding. We are not interested in choosing between the two, but in holding both, so participants leave with a fuller picture of what supports lasting change.
Four Areas of Growth
and Development
Woven over twelve months from two directions at once: Andean Ancestral Wisdom and Modern Science of Well-being.
Self
Develop greater self-awareness, emotional maturity and resilience through personal reflection, mentoring and practical experience. Responsible healing work begins with knowing yourself.
Healing
Participants explore ancestral healing practices within their cultural context while developing competencies in holding space, the science of well-being, ethics and professional boundaries.
Nature
We invite you into an intensive relationship with the natural world. Through ceremony, sacred nature sites and the chakra, the traditional garden, nature becomes teacher and partner.
Service
Personal development finds its fullest expression in service. Inspired by Ayni and Minka, each participant develops a project that brings their learning into practical application.
The path of the Rooted Healer
Something has to end for something to begin
- The Personal Transformation Retreat (14 nights, Perucho, Ecuador)
- Online Mentorship Phase (11 months)
- The Rooted Healer Transformation Retreat (14 nights, Perucho, Ecuador)
You will be coming to Ecuador for two Transformation Retreats, each 14 nights, over the March Equinox of 2027 and 2028. The spring equinox marks a threshold in many ancestral cultures: a moment of renewal, planting of new intentions, and stepping into a new phase of life.
In the Personal Transformation Retreat we will focus on the areas Self and Healing. You will be guided to get to know yourself more and unwrap hidden structures and programs that might still limit and unbalance you in life. We will fast together, we will hike on sacred mountains, we will sit with plant medicine, we will tend to the chakra, the Kichwa garden, which is seen as the foundation of all. Personal transformation is not always comfortable, and it is not meant to be. Something in you is meant to break open. A part of who you have been, which doesn't serve you anymore, needs to die so that someone more grounded, more authentic and more capable can be born in its place.
The Rooted Healer Transformation Retreat takes place at the end of the mentorship program and will focus on Service and Healing. While the first retreat focused on your personal development, you now have the chance to practice the tools and techniques you have learned over the whole year. You will grow into your individual version of a rooted healer and learn about the responsibilities that come with it.
A living mentorship
Eleven Months, One Path: The Online Curriculum
Once you get back home from your first transformation retreat, you will be accompanied for eleven months online. The biweekly Zoom sessions will be a mix of lectures and personal reflection. You will deepen and integrate the insights in biweekly peer sessions.
Estimated time commitment during the online phase: 8 to 10 hours per month.
-
The Call
The calling to the (Kichwa) healer's path: foundation, mindset, responsibilities and limits.
-
Nature
Understand and connect to Pacha Mama (Kichwa: Mother Earth) and the Chakra (the traditional Kichwa garden) as teacher, healer and a living relationship.
-
Perception
Sharpening attention, noticing perceptual bias, and building embodiment and mindfulness.
-
Sumak Kawsay I: Inner Balance
Yanantin, emotional regulation, and working with inner parts and the three inner worlds.
-
Sumak Kawsay II: Body & Rhythm
Grounding balance in the body: nervous system, stress, sleep, food and movement as medicine.
-
Presence
The healer as a channel: co-regulation, attachment, and learning to truly hold space.
-
Responsible Practice
Andean diagnostics and limpias (this will also be a major part of the two retreats), alongside trauma basics, boundaries, and when to refer onward.
-
Relationships
Community, Ayni, relational patterns, building real communication and compassion.
-
Expanded Consciousness
Hanak Pacha and mystical states in ourselves and in our clients, meditation and breathing, sacred plants (foundation, not facilitator training).
-
Community
Minka and Ayllu: group dynamics, leadership, and what it means to belong to and hold a community.
-
Living the Path
Integrating the year into a sustainable practice: purpose, meaning, and preventing burnout.
Your new capacities
What will you be able to do (differently) after the program
- You will be able to connect yourself with nature and spiritual guidance on a deeper level and understand their language and subtle signals better.
- You will hold space with greater steadiness and emotional regulation.
- You will recognize your own patterns and blind spots before they enter your work.
- You will have a broad and deep understanding of the Andean Cosmology and how it translates into shamanic healing practices.
- You will learn about the Andean concept of health and disease.
- You will learn how to identify where a client is out of balance and help them return to greater balance.
- You will learn how to protect yourself and your clients from heavy energies.
- You will learn to perform energetic cleansings.
- You will get to know different Andean shamanic tools for healing.
- You will be able to assess your clients through 12 interconnected dimensions of modern well-being and recognize what supports health and how to accompany your clients toward greater wholeness.
- You will be able to integrate nature-based practices into your work with clients.
- You will be able to translate your personal experience during the program into a sustainable professional practice.
- You will develop and implement your own Rooted Healer Project.
A longer relationship
The Rooted Healer is designed as the beginning of a longer relationship with Kinti Yaya.
Participants who complete the program may be invited to continue through advanced mentorship, apprenticeship, specialised trainings and ongoing services within our community, depending on readiness and availability.
The people behind the journey
Why Kinti Yaya?
Willak's teacher, the master Yachak Alberto Taxo, once shared with him an old prophecy carried across many Indigenous traditions of the Americas: that a day would come when the Condor and the Eagle would fly together in the same sky.
The Condor carries the heart, intuition and ancestral knowledge of the South. The Eagle carries the mind, science and technology of the North. The prophecy says that when they finally reunite, something new becomes possible, not one replacing the other, but both flying together.
Tayta Willak carries the Condor. He is a seventh-generation Kichwa Otavalo Yachak (shaman), born in Agato, Ecuador, and shaped by a mother who was a healer and midwife in her own right. He trained for nine years in the home of master Yachak Alberto Taxo (Cotopaxi) and was also trained by Tayta Yachak Inti Paxi (Cotopaxi), Yachak Mariano Panamá (Imbabura), Umbishin Ramiro Payanguaje Quishpic (Napo) and Elder Bob Smoker (Anishinaabe, Canada).
Maja carries the Eagle. Trained in nature-based therapy (M.Sc.) and psychedelic integration in Germany, her own healing journey with plant medicine in 2022 changed the course of her life and led her to Ecuador, and to Willak, with whom she has continued to live, work and study.
Kinti Yaya is where these two birds now fly in the same sky. The Rooted Healer carries that same reunion forward: living Andean lineage held together with the rigor of modern psychology and well-being science. A more complete way of accompanying human beings.
Tayta Willak and Maja are not new to this type of program. Willak has spent nearly three decades leading ceremonies and workshops about Andean traditions and shamanic healing. Maja spent years teaching at a German university before bringing that same rigor to Kinti Yaya. Together, they have accompanied hundreds of people through their own processes and real change, not only taught from the front of a room. Between them, The Rooted Healer is held by two people who know how to teach, how to hold space and how to walk beside someone.
Program details
What this year holds
- A total of 28 nights in Ecuador: Two 14-night Transformation Retreats, with hands-on learning and experiencing, plant medicine, fasting, sacred sites, meeting Kichwa elders, and so much more
- Eleven months of biweekly online sessions: First-hand teachings from a 7th generation indigenous Kichwa Yachak and a Europe-trained nature-assisted therapist
- Biweekly peer group reflection and integration sessions
- A small founding cohort for personal relationship and guidance
- Three personal mentoring calls with Maja and Willak during the online phase, to accompany you personally and with your own project
- Duration
- 12 months (March 2027 to March 2028)
- Investment
- To honor the first people joining us on this journey, we are offering our Founding Cohort a special investment of USD 9,900 (paid in full), instead of the future regular investment of USD 12,000. Also payable in two installments of USD 5,250 (USD 10,500 total) or an individual payment plan we agree on. Includes both Ecuador retreats, accommodation, meals, ceremonies, online classes and mentorship. Flights not included.
- Cohort size
- Limited to 8 participants for our founding cohort.
- Retreat 1
- Personal Transformation: March 20 to April 3, 2027
- Online phase
- April 2027 to February 2028
- Retreat 2
- The Rooted Healer Transformation: March 11 to March 25, 2028
- Application deadline
- Rolling admissions until the cohort is full, no later than January 15, 2027
FAQ - The Rooted Healer Mentorship
Learning from Indigenous Healing Traditions
1. Is there an Andean healing training for therapists and coaches?
Yes. The Rooted Healer is a 12-month mentorship in Andean healing wisdom for therapists, coaches and other healing professionals, offered by Kinti Yaya, an indigenous-led healing institute near Quito, Ecuador. It is taught by Tayta Willak, a 7th-generation Kichwa Otavalo Yachak, and Maja Krauss, a nature-assisted therapist (M.Sc.) and trained psychedelic facilitator, and combines two 14-night retreats in Ecuador with 11 months of online mentorship.
2. What is the difference between shamanic training and learning from an Indigenous lineage?
Many shamanic trainings teach techniques gathered from different cultures and taken out of their original context, while learning from an Indigenous lineage means being taught by a lineage holder within one living tradition, with its worldview, relationships and responsibilities. In The Rooted Healer, participants learn directly from Tayta Willak, a Kichwa Otavalo Yachak (in Kichwa, “the one who knows”), whose family has carried this healing tradition for seven generations. The program does not turn participants into Yachaks; it offers an authentic foundation in Andean healing wisdom that they can bring into their own lives and work.
3. How can therapists and coaches learn from Indigenous healing traditions without cultural appropriation?
Learning from Indigenous healing traditions without appropriating them means learning directly from lineage holders, with their consent, in a setting that benefits their communities, and bringing the principles into your work rather than copying ceremonies. The Rooted Healer is designed and taught by Tayta Willak, a Kichwa Otavalo Yachak, within Kinti Yaya, an indigenous-led institute in Ecuador. Participants learn what they may pass on and what belongs to the lineage, and the certificate states clearly which practices they are authorized to offer.
4. How can Andean wisdom complement Western therapeutic and coaching approaches?
Andean wisdom complements Western therapeutic and coaching approaches by placing healing in relationship: with the body, the community, the ancestors and nature. Principles such as Sumak Kawsay (living in balance) and Ayni (reciprocity) add a relational and ecological dimension to methods that often focus on the individual. In The Rooted Healer, therapists and coaches learn to combine this worldview, nature-based practices and energetic cleansing (limpias) with their existing professional approach, as an addition rather than a replacement.
5. How can I integrate ancestral wisdom into my work with clients?
You can integrate ancestral wisdom into your work with clients by first grounding it in your own practice and then bringing it in through nature-based work, ritual elements for opening and closing sessions, and a relational view of healing. In The Rooted Healer, participants develop their own project for bringing Andean wisdom into their practice, supported by seminars, peer sessions and one-on-one mentoring. Graduates receive a certificate from Tayta Willak and Maja Krauss that authorizes them to offer certain Andean healing practices, for example energetic cleansings (limpias).
Is The Rooted Healer right for me?
6. Who is The Rooted Healer for, and do I need to be a therapist to join?
The Rooted Healer is for therapists, coaches, bodyworkers and other healing professionals who want to deepen their own path and bring traditional Andean wisdom into their work. A therapeutic profession is helpful but not required, and the program can be a good entry point for people on their way into a therapeutic career. The Rooted Healer is not a complete professional training in therapy.
7. Do I need previous experience with Andean traditions or psychedelics?
No. The Rooted Healer requires no previous experience with Andean traditions or with psychedelics. Tayta Willak and Maja Krauss carefully prepare and accompany participants who are new to plant medicine ceremonies, and every participant goes through a screening before joining.
8. What will I actually learn in The Rooted Healer?
In The Rooted Healer, you learn from two directions at once: the living wisdom of the Andean cosmovision and the modern science of well-being, including nature-assisted therapy.
From the Andean side, Sumak Kawsay runs as a thread through the whole year, alongside reciprocity (Ayni), Andean diagnostics, energetic cleansing (limpias), and personal transformation through Ayahuasca and Huachuma ceremonies during the retreats. From the scientific side, you learn how psychology and well-being research approach the same questions: the nervous system and stress, emotional regulation and co-regulation, attachment, trauma basics, boundaries and when to refer onward. You learn to assess clients through 12 interconnected dimensions of well-being.
Nature is explored from both sides: as Pacha Mama and the chakra, the traditional Kichwa garden, and through the principles and research of nature-assisted therapy, so you can bring nature-based practices into your work with clients.
The program is both a spiritual path and a professional development: participants build their own project and receive a certificate describing what they have learned.
9. Who teaches The Rooted Healer?
The Rooted Healer is taught by the two founders of Kinti Yaya: Tayta Willak (Tayta Yachak Wilka Willak), a 7th-generation Kichwa Otavalo Yachak with nearly 30 years of ceremonial experience, and Maja Krauss, a nature-assisted therapist (M.Sc.) and trained psychedelic facilitator. Tayta Willak carries the lineage teachings and the ceremonies; Maja Krauss brings the therapeutic perspective, integration and the bridge to Western practice.
10. How is The Rooted Healer different from a psychedelic facilitator training?
The Rooted Healer is not a psychedelic facilitator training and does not qualify participants to lead Ayahuasca or Huachuma ceremonies. During the two retreats, participants work with Ayahuasca and Huachuma for their own personal development and learning, which is the foundation for anyone who wants to understand how these plants are worked with. Depending on suitability, graduates may afterwards be offered an apprenticeship in leading plant medicine ceremonies, which builds on The Rooted Healer but is not part of it.
Structure, Dates and Costs
11. How is The Rooted Healer structured, and how much time does it take each month?
The Rooted Healer runs over 12 months and begins and ends with a full-time 14-night retreat in Ecuador. During the 11 months of online mentorship in between, participants invest about 15 hours per month, roughly 3 to 4 hours per week: a 2-hour live seminar every two weeks, peer sessions in the alternating weeks, assignments, occasional one-on-one sessions, and work on their own project. The rhythm is designed to fit alongside an existing therapeutic, coaching or healing practice.
12. Where do the retreats of The Rooted Healer take place?
Both retreats of The Rooted Healer take place in Ecuador, mainly at Kinti Yaya near Perucho, about one hour from Quito’s international airport, and at sacred sites in the surrounding Andean region, such as Tayta Imbabura, the sacred mountain of Otavalo.
13. Will I receive a certificate from The Rooted Healer?
Yes. Graduates of The Rooted Healer receive a certificate signed by Tayta Willak and Maja Krauss that describes in detail what they have learned. The certificate also confirms that graduates are authorized to offer specific practices, such as energetic cleansings (limpias).
14. When does The Rooted Healer start, and how do I apply?
The founding cohort of The Rooted Healer begins with its first retreat in Ecuador from March 20 to April 3, 2027, and the second retreat takes place from March 11 to 25, 2028. The founding cohort is limited to 8 participants, and the application deadline is January 15, 2027. To apply, contact Kinti Yaya via info@kintiyaya.com or WhatsApp (+593 96719 2214).
15. How much does The Rooted Healer cost?
The founding cohort of The Rooted Healer costs USD 9,900 paid in full, or USD 10,500 in two installments. The price includes lodging, all meals, airport transfers and all ceremonies during both retreats in Ecuador, as well as the full online mentorship. The regular price for later cohorts will be USD 12,000.