Healing others with time-honored practices, music, and ‘sacred medicines’

Our Best Stories — Straight to Your Inbox!

Sign up for the Yucatán Roundup and get our biggest headlines once a week in your inbox. It's free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Tribu Expansión uses healing methods its founder learned from indigenous ceremonies across Mexico. Photo: Courtesy

After a difficult past, Nayeli found healing and inspiration through indigenous practices. 

Originally from Sinaloa, the founder of Tribu Expansión learned the practice after attending indigenous ceremonies for 14 years across Mexico before moving to Mérida and launching her business.

Nayeli says she received her best education in Tecate, where she assisted in a ceremony course and met a Native American shaman who taught her about forgiveness and love, how to embrace her past, and that one can navigate life better after learning about one’s roots. In the end, she learned to live more consciously, without guilt.

Neyeli, founder of Tribu Expansión, learned healing methods from indigenous ceremonies across Mexico. Photo: Claire Tyrpak

Nayeli came to Mérida for “peace,” drawn to the Peninsula’s ancient Mayan pyramids. She created Tribu Expansión, or Tribe Expansion in English, as a project “committed to support you in your process, to expand your consciousness and thus understand how to heal yourself through meditation, conscious breathing (or) and sacred medicines.” The business is comprised of Nayeli and one or two musicians who take part in monthly ceremonies.

Tribu Expansión uses healing methods its founder learned from indigenous ceremonies across Mexico. Photo: Courtesy

In the ceremonies, which are held in Homún, anywhere from four to 15 people write letters to themselves about what they would like to change and another about how to accomplish or manifest change. The ceremonies include a healing circle, meditation, a big bonfire, and camping. But Tribu Expansión’s next ceremony, on Saturday, Dec. 17, will be its last. The business will move in a different direction, focusing on individuals and introducing microdosing into her methods. 

Mexican law allows indigenous tribes to use mushrooms and peyote in certain ceremonies. Psilocybin, the ingredient that makes “magic mushrooms” potent, is being studied in clinical trials by major U.S. universities and research institutions for a variety of ailments, both psychological and physical. Studies have shown it helps with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and childhood trauma, but it is not yet certain whether it is a placebo effect. 

Tribu Expansión uses healing methods its founder learned from indigenous ceremonies across Mexico. Photo: Courtesy

Nayeli’s mother, who had been sick for some time, taught her how to use plants to heal. For example, garlic was used as an antibiotic for scorpion stings. She paused doing it for others but wants to provide this service again. She will be doing a workshop with a Spanish woman about healing with plants.

Nayeli believes music is also a healing therapy. She has been writing and composing music since childhood, and the business will be moving in that direction by using music to heal. The effects of an operation on a torn tendon limit her ability to make music, but she is learning guitar and piano and plans to record an album.

Although only Spanish is spoken during the ceremonies, they are mostly held in silence for several hours. Private sessions are available and they use Google Translate to communicate with English speakers.

Learn more about their work at Tribu Expansión via Facebook and reach them via WhatsApp at 999-604-0153. 

Claire Tyrpak
Claire Tyrpak
Claire Tyrpak retired to Mérida in 2021 after a career managing programs for nonprofits, government and a university in the United States. She has been a world traveler since the 1980s and Mexico is the fifth country in which she has lived.
- Advertisement -spot_img
AVAILABLE NOWspot_img
ADVERTISEMENTspot_img
Verified by ExactMetrics