Our Origin Story

Samskara was founded by Shabnam, a woman who endured more than 30 years of abuse by loved ones. When one abusive parent abandoned her, she was raised by the other, which consequently amplified and shifted the abuse into different formats. She experienced years of violence and financial insecurity. Home became a small apartment littered with cockroaches in a low-income housing project. Our founder’s country of origin is war-torn— she contended with conflict, immigration, insecurity, and the displacement of loved ones. Pervasive intergenerational trauma colored her existence. Sudden losses of people she loved devastated her.

Chronic illnesses emerged as she went on numbing herself from her wounds. In fact, it was achievement that became her survival strategy, and she went on to study at some of the world’s leading institutions, earning a PhD along the way. She helped run multimillion dollar programs in international diplomacy, trade, and development, advised a number of leaders across sectors, worked globally, and wrote a book. Her wounds were invisible to her; she misled herself and others into believing she was okay. She experienced both emotional and physical burnout, yet set panic and anxiety attacks aside to push forward. She married in the absence of her biological family, became pregnant and gave birth to children, lost a child, and continued to “go it alone” as her inner child so desperately yearned for the love of her parents. The estrangement and her daily reality in an orphan’s state of mind exacerbated her sadness and stress.

One morning she woke up and could not move her limbs. After her diagnoses, she learned of a traumatic brain injury, autoimmune disorder, dysautonomia, and heart ailments. She also learned that she had been living with C-PTSD. Determined to get help, she met with many doctors and specialists in both eastern and western medicine, all to no avail. Nearly every doctor appointment seemed like a dead-end. Same for the many unaffordable therapists and psychologists whose sofas she sat on with equal parts of frustration and disconnect. Desperate for answers as she grappled with her declining health, she heeded the call to move her young family to the Andes Mountains in South America; this was preceded by the events on an important fall day, when she met her subconscious. The rest is history.  

Our founder has built Samskara because of her personal journey. Each of our services is a direct result of what she did to heal, including sacred tools that she either did not know about or were so difficult to navigate once she did. She encountered numerous challenges in the process of getting help, and has created Samskara based on what she needed, but struggled to find, or ultimately could not find. Plant medicine practitioners vary, and false prophets are everywhere. Most conventional approaches do not work trauma out of the body. Hip and mass-marketed plant medicine retreats typically use a “one-size fits all” approach that mixes the recreational seekers with those in need of help. Profound, lasting change requires a different model. This work is delicate and not everyone is qualified. What will come in our brick and mortar are the exact same methods our founder created to heal herself, and we will deliver them to you. At present, we invite you to join us in our personalized and private plant medicine retreats.

Our founder lived her life with a broken heart; but she has risen with an open heart. 

Chances are she has been where you are. Shabnam knows she survived to build Samskara, and this is now her life’s work.

We await you with open arms, no matter what your struggle.