Vanessa Cruz, LPN II, RYT 200, CHWC

Licensed Practical Nurse, End of Life Doula, and Psychedelic Guide
(She/Ella/Dadee)

Vanessa began learning about plant medicines from her grandmother and great grandmother in the mountains of New Mexico at 9 years old. Since that time, she has been immersed in various healing paths through herbalism, curanderismo, yoga, breathwork, meditation, and psychedelic medicines to reconnect to her indigenous roots. As a member of marginalized communities, Vanessa is devoted to justice, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in the psychedelic space and aims to actively understand the psychology of oppressed and impoverished communities.

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. Working with Vanessa, we invite traditional knowledge to restore connection to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing through a decolonized approach.

In death work, end-of-life is considered a natural transition from the physical world to the spirit world. As such, the transition is watched over with great care to help the person’s spirit make their journey. Working with Sacred plants and medicines is a crucial part of Indigenous culture and can be attuned to the needs of the user through sacred ritual; engaging the unseen, the unknown, the darkness, which oftentimes includes mystical encounters. Vanessa’s own spiritual connection as well as her own medicine experiences, we work together in navigating your own unique medicine and spiritual journey whatever that may look like.

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. Vanessa was also trained by advanced practitioners at the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness in Psilocybin Support Services and Harm Reduction. In addition to this, she has successfully completed Psychedelic First Aid training which includes CPR certification, psychedelic mental health crisis intervention and suicide intervention training. Vanessa has also completed 40 plus continuing education hours as a Cannabis Nurse educator supporting individuals exploring Cannabis as medicine and has completed the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion certification through Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Vanessa co-guides a monthly group Herb & Bones encouraging conversations about death and psychedelics.

When Vanessa isn’t busy adding to her list of certifications, you will find her in the mountains hiking, forest bathing, herb collecting, and wading in streams, rivers and lakes with her family and fur baby.

Specialties

• Cannabis-Assisted Psychedelic Guiding
• Psilocybin Support Services
• Ketamine-Assisted Psychedelic Guiding
• Grief, Loss, Death & Dying
• Community based work for marginalized populations
• Psychedelic Preparation & Integration
• Microdosing Harm Reduction Education
• Cannabis 101
• Spiritual Care for Healing & Transformation
• Individuals looking for non-traditional and break-through approaches to healing
• Nurturing meaningful relationships
• Deep dive into root cause of symptoms outside of the traditional medical model
• Individuals recovering from single event trauma or near-death experiences

Supporting individuals through:

• Terminal illness or a loved one with a terminal illness
• Grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, and feeling stuck
• Chronic pain
• Loss of a pet
• Fear of death and the unknown
• Navigating death with dignity, MAiD (medical aid in dying)
• Healthcare professional Burn-Out
• The transition from recreational to intentional psychedelic use
• Experiencing psychedelics for the first time
• Microdosing harm reduction and education
• Religious trauma
• Deepening connection to nature
• Difficult life transitions and personal growth