Andea — Local services in New York

Hello. My name is Angela, 47 years mother of two. I recently attended an 8-day Ayahuasca retreat with APL Shamanic Journeys, where Amanda Decker was our group psychedelic counselor and integrative coach. Amanda was an anchor to me during my Ayahuasca healing experience. I have the deepest respect and gratitude for the intelligence, care, and humility she bestowed on me - if it had not been for Amanda, I would not have been able to fully surrender, trust, process, and integrate the Ayahuasca medicine. During our 8-days together, I had many physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realizations to process, work through and make sense of, as my Ayahuasca journey was anything but easy. Amanda was there every step, helping me with her experience and guidance.

I arrived at the retreat not knowing what to expect. After a decade of physical and mental health issues from trauma, grief, sadness, and debilitating auto-immune disease, Ankylosis Spondylitis, and Uveitis, I took a giant step and made a decision to stop taking my immuno-suppressants and TNF blockers, and instead move toward healing through psychedelics. I needed whole body healing from a higher spiritual power - not another prescription from a Dr ill-equipped to treat the entire body and mind. In 14 years of medical visits and treatments, I'm astonished that NOT ONE of my medical Drs EVER ASKED ME how I felt or what was going on in my life, or if I had experienced any trauma. No one cared. But, after only one circle session with Amanda and the APL Journeys team, I felt cared for. I felt safe. I was not alone. Honestly speaking, I signed up for the retreat because of the 5-star reviews and testimonies. Moreover, I could trust the program and feel safe since psychedelic coaching, counseling and therapy sessions were a central part of the program. My intuition was right; I was cared for. I was safe. I was in the right place with the right people. Because of this and the Ayahausca plant medicine, I evolved and embodied so much beautiful growth. I am still changing and growing!

I want to touch on some important items that genuinely helped me:

Amanda uses a very humanistic lens that I love very much. She shared personal details about her life, story, and relations with PTSD and healing through Ayahuasca. Her style helped me set a tangible and specific action plan heading into my Ayahuasca ceremonies. She removed a hierarchy of the "expert counselor" to patient dynamic so that we could all come together as equals. She lovingly held the space for myself and all participants, but what I appreciated the most was her ability to brilliantly cut through all the places in my fears and personal stories to identify exactly where I needed a shift in my mindset - or needed loving and caring encouragement to surrender, or a professional coach to guide me, or sit with me, or hold my hand through the incredibly difficult periods during my Ayahuasca journey.

To anyone looking to an experienced integrative psychedelic coach or counselor to prepare for healing or maintain Ayahuasca healing, I wholeheartedly recommend Amanda. She is an incredibly authentic, approachable, and caring psychedelic coach and counselor. I am forever grateful for Amanda and her encouragement and wisdom - my life will never be the same.

I sincerely look forward to continuing to benefit from my experience and the resources provided. My second chance in life is just beginning.

Thank you with all my heart.

With...

I worked with Amanda at an entheogenic retreat in August of 2022.

The experience was intense to say the least. It was a very difficult experience but also very worthwhile. I think doing more pre-work going into it would have been extremely beneficial.

When you do this kind of work you need someone who knows what they are doing...Amanda knows what she is doing and it shows. I thought that they would just facilitate the ceremony and I would do the work and muscle through it and come out battered and bruised and tougher (more damaged?) on the other side like I do with everything. But I don't think I would have made it through it without Amanda. She was there for me in ways that I did not even know I needed someone to be there for me. She was encouraging when I needed it, she was strong and blunt when I needed that.

During the ceremonies she seemed to always show up when I was in the depths. I asked her how she knew when I was struggling and needed someone to bring me back and she said she just sensed it. She also seemed to have insights into my experience that were pretty spot on which indicates a great deal of intuition or maybe just a lot of experience with people with backgrounds similar to mine...or both.

Amanda is professional, competent, and warm. She was instrumental in helping me on my journey and I am grateful for that. I would highly recommend her to help...

Working with amanda has been one of the smartest spiritual decisions I have made for myself. Faced with many daunting uncertainties, I had no idea which direction my life was going in. Fortunately I found Amanda and was excited to work with her. Amanda is extremely personable and has the ability to connect with her clients quickly and work with them at whatever stage they are in at the time. She is trustworthy, always encouraging, insightful and patient. In every session she guided me to speak from my inner being and claim ownership of my life. I have made good things happen for myself, and for the first time in my life, I have put my needs first. A remarkable transformation in no small part to Amanda and Andea. Amanda pays attention to the smallest of details (including candles in each room on the retreat and personalized cards upon departure). I cannot recommend Andea...