Experience Profound Inner Silence: A 5-Day Silent Bufo Retreat in Portugal

Greetings, I am Lisa Silva, a Medicine Woman and Spiritual Healer dedicated to guiding individuals on their transformative journeys. My husband Miguel and I serve as retreat facilitators alongside a team of volunteers offering diverse healing modalities. I am the creator of the Kambo Nadi treatment protocol that I now teach worldwide. My path began in the heart of South Africa, where I immersed myself in the profound teachings of African Shamans, known as Sangomas. From a young age, I honed my skills as a spiritual healer under their guidance, gaining deep insights into their traditions, medicines, and ceremonies. My dear friend and mentor, Pinkie Adebisi, initiated me into the sacred realms of African traditions and the healing power of water. I underwent a profound transformation following a personal healing journey with South American traditions. I embraced the use of Icaros, potent medicine songs from the Shipibo Kanibo tribe, which now infuse my ceremonies with their mystical energy. This fusion of African and Peruvian shamanism empowers individuals to embark on their healing journeys. As a Master Kambo practitioner, I have assisted hundreds of individuals in overcoming physical, emotional, and spiritual blockages, drawing from a wealth of experience in many modalities. My academic journey includes a Doctorate in Homeopathy, and I am registered with the Complementary Medical Association (CMA). My exploration of holistic therapies and plant medicines worldwide and my qualifications in various healing arts have shaped my unique healing approach. Ayahuasca journeys reinforced my commitment to working with plant and frog medicines, further enhancing my ability to effect profound shifts in people's lives fostering balance across the emotional, physical, and spiritual realms. In my practice, I embrace the belief that it's not about teaching or preaching to someone but about reaching them on their inner journey towards healing and self-discovery. Together, we create the space for transformation, allowing individuals to find harmony in their Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual Lives. "It's not about teaching someone nor preaching to someone; it's about reaching someone."

Miguel is 50 years old and has walked an amazing transformative journey with medicines. Doing deep work and diving into the possibilities of change that the medicines offered. Like many, he was lost in life being a seeker of truth and who he was. During his first Ayahuasca ceremony, his intention was realized to connect with ancestral energy. This calling for reconnection resulted in us moving back to his homeland Portugal which he left as a young child. His commitment to the work and serving others have grown and assisting in ceremonies has given him a very grounded and calm masculine presence in holding space. He has a particular connection to Kambo and Bufo. His grounding nature proves very reassuring for participants. Together we complement each other in facilitating life-changing experiences.

Non-dual therapy emphasises the interconnectedness of all things and the illusion of separation. It often focuses on helping clients recognise the underlying unity of their experiences and world. We’re thrilled to introduce Patric Boulan, a valued friend of Shangriballa, as a recommended resource for those seeking guidance in non-dual states. Patrick’s expertise can be particularly beneficial in preparing for and releasing during your retreat experience. His work is especially helpful for individuals dealing with trauma and can provide ongoing support to maintain the insights gained during your retreat. Non-duality therapy is a form of therapy based on the understanding of our True Nature. In this therapy, we use the Presence of our Being as a catalyst for meeting our experience without division and conflict. From this Presence, we can investigate these moments of everyday life when we feel negative emotions, contractions, agitation or inner conflict. These reactions, where the ego and the nervous system are activated, are like the tip of an iceberg: they are the points where our identification with body and mind is being fixated. Meeting those reactive patterns openly and inquiring into them through somatic awareness, reflection, and open-hearted curiosity helps us discover the driving forces behind those movements: old wounds, childhood traumas, long-held limiting beliefs, energetic blockages, uncomfortable sensations, and repressed emotions. Then, acknowledging what is here, surrendering to the experience on a somatic level, and letting the experience be as it is in the light of our consciousness gives those wounds the space and the love they need to find resolution and heal themselves. This work makes healing and transformation possible by articulating personal and impersonal dimensions and unifying the two movements of transcendence and immanence.
As we integrate and heal our shadow selves, unconscious mechanisms, and traumas into a space of compassion, balance can be restored, opening access to new resources, personal growth, freedom, and well-being. From there, the elements that hinder our authentic freedom gradually detach themselves from our experience, and the qualities emanating from our True Self (peace, silence, clarity, space, non-attachment, compassion, wholeness, love…) become more and more consistent in our inner experience and in the ways we express ourselves. The post-retreat is an auspicious moment for working on the ego, bringing back its conditioned patterns and healing the wounds and traumas behind those patterns. “Through my 20 years of practice, my passion has been helping people better understand how traumas shape our lives, assisting them in navigating the complex layers of human experience, dissolving the points of fixation of their identity, and becoming more and more anchored in the unconditional freedom behind that. For me, there is a lot of beauty in reunifying with life the parts of us that were feeling excluded and repressed: when they are back to consciousness, grace is experienced, we feel at home, and the Self shines!” Therapy in English or French