Peeling Back the Layers: Returning to the Soul Through Creativity

In 2018, I sat in six ayahuasca ceremonies with the Sacred Valley Tribe in Pisac, Peru: a small, energetically powerful village nestled in the Andes, just outside of Cusco. Pisac is a place where the mountains feel alive, It’s one of those places that pulls you toward it when you’re ready. 

As soon as I arrived in Peru, I felt the call. I was working in Lima and wasn't very familiar with plant medicine. I didn’t fully understand it at the time, but that journey would mark the beginning of a deep return to my authentic, creative self.

The ceremonies at the Sacred Valley Tribe Mahlo Templo were held by Diego Palma, an extraordinary soul who has since passed. Diego was the real deal. His ceremonies weren’t flashy or performative. They were beautiful, intentional, and held with immense care. Diego worked with a small group of musicians and facilitators (curanderos), each bringing their own presence and integrity to the circle. 

My favourite musician and curandero was Nacho Rodriguez, and his work was my first introduction to sound healing. The icaros, the silence, the darkness, the music - it was all medicine.

Before the ceremony began, Diego spoke about how we’re born as our true selves: whole, unfiltered, authentic. But as we move through life, we start to accumulate layers. Layers of conditioning. Of protection. Of roles we play to survive. Of beliefs handed down by parents, teachers, religion, society. Even the well-meaning influences become layers we never asked to wear. And over time, underneath all of those layers, we forget who we really are.

He described it like an onion. At the centre is your soul: your authentic self. But surrounding that are layer upon layer of stories and identities that were never truly yours. The process of sitting with plant medicine, he said, is about peeling those layers away. Shedding what isn’t yours. Releasing the lies, the expectations, the shame, the fear. Until all that’s left is the core. You. The real you.

When you let go of fear

The truth will appear

So simple and clear

And now, years later, as I step into this work as a Creative Guide, I see how deeply his words still echo through everything I do. You don’t have to travel to the amazon or the andes and sit in ceremony or drink anything like I did to begin the process of returning to yourself. Creativity is its own kind of medicine. Art is its own ceremony.

When you create from a place of truth - not to impress, not to perform, but to express - you begin peeling back those layers. When you write without censoring, move without judging, draw without erasing, speak without shrinking - you begin remembering. Remembering what it felt like to just be. To exist without apology or performance. To be uniquely and authentically YOU.

That concept is at the heart of my work. Creative guidance, for me, is about supporting others as they come home to themselves. As they strip away the layers of what isn’t true and reconnect with who they’ve always been. Your creativity doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be honest. 

Diego’s legacy lives on in so many of us who had the incredible opportunity to sit with him. And while he may no longer be with us in the physical realm, his words and his presence continue to guide those of us who are ready to remember.

This work is not about becoming something new.
It’s about becoming who you already are.