Vanessa Cruz: Psychedelic Guide, Licensed Practical Nurse, End of Life Doula

Vanessa Cruz: Licensed Practical Nurse, End of Life Doula, and Psychedelic Guide

Vanessa began learning about plant medicines from her grandmother and great grandmother in the mountains of New Mexico at 5 years old. Since that time, she has been immersed in various healing paths through herbalism, curanderismo, yoga, breathwork, meditation, and earth medicines. As an Indigenous woman credentialed in Mindfulness Based Psychedelic Guiding, Vanessa supports individual’s direct experience of the sacred through ceremony, ritual, and spiritual connection. Inviting in practices and ceremonies held for generations allows an opportunity to celebrate, give gratitude, or prepare for various struggles or difficulties in life and death. Returning to ancestral knowledge and earth-based practices creates a conduit of transformation from fear to awe, pain to beauty, and anger into gratitude through a decolonized approach.

Vanessa received her practical nursing education through Concord Career Institute in Denver, CO, and has taken advanced nursing courses through Colorado State University – Pueblo. Vanessa completed MAPS MDMA Therapy Training Program, Ketamine Nurse Guide Training through KetaMD, and advanced training in Mindfulness-Based Psychedelic Therapy through the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness. She has completed 40 plus continuing education hours as a Cannabis Nurse educator supporting individuals exploring Cannabis as medicine. Vanessa co-facilitates a monthly group Herb & Bones encouraging conversations about death and psychedelics.