Ep40: Alex Sheren on growing up in the USSR, experiencing a ‘before and after’ ayahuasca ceremony, and the continuous work of self-acceptance and surrender

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Alexandra Sheren is a linguist, transpersonal psychologist, and body-oriented psychotherapist. For fifteen years she worked in the sphere of clinical research and heading business development, until she chose to dedicate herself to the study of the deeper dimensions of the human psyche and the body. With a complex childhood growing up in the USSR and revolving around her parent’s experiences of grief and longing, as well as her being shaped by a beautiful and embodied first encounter with MDMA some years before, we then delve into the turning point in Alex’s psychedelic life which came in the form of a journey to Peru in 2016, where she had her first and very intense ‘before and after’ experience with ayahuasca. As she began to try to integrate this experience, she also began her acquaintance with transpersonal psychology and the shamanic traditions of Latin America. This path of learning continued in Northern California and in 2022 once again led her to the heart of the Amazon. The two years she spent in the jungle in this period became a time of intense, mystical immersion in the culture and healing practices of the Indigenous peoples. Today, a certified specialist in transpersonal counselling and body psychotherapy, Alexa practices an integral approach, uniting transpersonal states and somatics, and her book The Echo of Ucayali is an account of some of her experiences with ayahuasca: an anthropological memoir exploring Indigenous healing traditions, the shadow side of the Amazonian medicine world, and the complexities of human transformation.

Shownotes

Alex’s book ‘The Echo of Ucayali: an anthropological journey into the world of Amazonian shamans” https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Ucayali-Alexandra-Sheren-ebook/dp/B0FN86C69X/

An article Alex has written on the somatics of ayahuasca: https://sherenproject.substack.com/p/ayahuasca-felt-a-somatic-encounter

‘Hey You’, one of the formative Pink Floyd song from Alex’s childhood: https://youtu.be/_nLIBMNwi8M?si=22SVxuKZJahuFWpH

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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