Kambo Training By ckpi
What is Kambo?
Kambo (also known as Sapo locally to Peruvians) is the venom from Phyllomedusa bicolor, the Amazonian giant monkey tree frog. This medicine is well known around Peru and Brazil as the “vaccine of the forest.”
It is most easily understood as a detoxifying purgative, immune-boosting medicine, and a powerful treatment for chronic pain and drug dependency. You can read more about the Kambo ceremony here.
Learn to Partner with Kambo
Kambo (aka Kambo, Sapo) is a sacred and revered medicine of the Matsés people and other indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest. Their traditional use of Kambo ranged from pre-hunt preparation spiritual and cleansing tool; to rights of passage and initiations; to healing medicine ally.
Today we are grateful for joining the thousands years of sacred practice of partnering with this potent medicine (despite many years of attempts to eradicate indigenous peoples’ practices such as these), and providing in depth, professional training.
About Our Kambo Practitioner Training with CKPI
Safely working with Kambo—alone or administering it—requires proper and professional training. As stewards of this ancient practice of healing, we see it as our responsibility to train practitioners and solo users so that complications or issues are kept to a minimum.
CKPI offer a variety of experiences to work with Kambo.
We recommend our Kambo Self-Healing Program for those wanting to work with Kambo for self-healing purposes and learn how to self-apply with the support of a sitter.
For those wanting to become a Certified Kambo Practitioner (CKP) with no prior Kambo experience, we recommend our Kambo Initiation Training Program.
For CKP or other Kambo practitioners looking to deepen their knowledge and skills in administering Kambo, we have our Advanced Kambo Practitioner Training.
Kambo Practitioner Training Programs
Safely Learn Kambo Self-Application
Our Kambo Self-Healing Training course teaches self-administration fundamentals with an indigenous traditional focus. The course commences with 6 to 8 hours of principal theory, the prerequisite to working with Kambo in a traditional context. This is where participants learn the how and why of our approach, emphasizing the importance of safety and preservation of ceremonial form.
Initiation: Kambo Practitioner Training
Our foundational Kambo Practitioner Training: Initiation teaches the fundamentals for administering Kambo on clients.
The course begins with 8-10 hours of theory where you learn the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of Kambo.
Following the classroom training, we then move on to 60 hours of practical training where you learn the art of self-applying (aka ‘mini dosing’), giving support as a Kambo Practitioner Assistant, and then move on to administering Kambo on actual patients under the supervision of a Certified Kambo Practitioner (CKP) Instructor or CPK Instructor Trainee.
The practical training phase is rigorous and holistic in working with this sacred medicine. You will undergo the initiation process to develop a profound understanding of the “healing trinity.” This is the magic of this sacred medicine, as it has the ability to cleanse, heal, and flourish the physical, emotional, and spiritual beings within us.
Our Initiation training will provide graduates with the knowledge, skills, and experience to confidently apply Kambo medicine to patients.
Initiation: Kambo Practitioner Training
Our foundational Kambo Practitioner Training: Initiation teaches the fundamentals for administering Kambo on clients.
The course begins with 8-10 hours of theory where you learn the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of Kambo.
Following the classroom training, we then move on to 60 hours of practical training where you learn the art of self-applying (aka ‘mini dosing’), giving support as a Kambo Practitioner Assistant, and then move on to administering Kambo on actual patients under the supervision of a Certified Kambo Practitioner (CKP) Instructor or CPK Instructor Trainee.
The practical training phase is rigorous and holistic in working with this sacred medicine. You will undergo the initiation process to develop a profound understanding of the “healing trinity.” This is the magic of this sacred medicine, as it has the ability to cleanse, heal, and flourish the physical, emotional, and spiritual beings within us.
Our Initiation training will provide graduates with the knowledge, skills, and experience to confidently apply Kambo medicine to patients.
Advanced: Kambo Practitioner Training
The Advanced Kambo Practitioner Training is for those with little to no experience applying Kambo. It includes and builds upon all the knowledge and practice from the Initiation training.
The Advanced training will provide you the knowledge, skills, and experience to confidently apply Kambo medicine to patients.
Master: Kambo Practitioner Training
This training is an immersive training experience for those who have completed the Advanced Kambo Practitioner program.
You will be visiting the Matsés People in their own community and learning from them their application of Kambo and other traditional medicines.
This master training allows for a deeper knowledge and confidence in applying the medicine, and spiritual connection with Kambo.
In order to participate in this training, graduation from our Advanced Kambo Practitioner program is required.
Honoring and Working with Kambo
Kambo treatments should only be received by skilled Kambo practitioners, fully trained in the Amazon by initiated elders.
There are many Westernized training and certification programs arising today claiming to train Kambo practitioners in some official capacity, though it should be noted that there is no standardized certification for such trainings.
Further, many of these training do not include handling the frog, the ritual venom extraction, or include any indigenous history regarding the Kambo medicine.
In order to truly understand Kambo medicine, one must be initiated through the indigenous tradition of Kambo application (which includes catching and extracting the venom from the frog itself!). This can only be done by being trained in the Amazon, by an initiated trainer, or the indigenous elders themselves.
Why Train With CKPI?
Let’s be realistic, Kambo has been spreading like wildfire.
While it won’t be that everyone and their sister is a Kambo Practitioner, popular culture will inevitably become more aware of — and attracted to — this medicine just like ayahuasca and other once-mysterious entheogens.
People and fly-by-night organizations are setting up Kambo practitioner training courses like popup restaurants and discerning who to learn from is something that we don’t take lightly.
This new interest has many positives and negatives. It is always beautiful when anything Amazonian is brought to the mainstream collective. From gold, to rubber, to healing medicine—Humankind does not have the best track record when it comes to sustainably stewarding these gifts of Earth and Indigenous Culture.
When our instructors came out of the Jungle to reintegrate, they found that a lot of Kambo being served worldwide was being administered with little to no regard to the honor of the legacy and tradition of Kambo.
We believe this, among some other factors, is limiting Kambo’s effectiveness and, in fact, creating unsafe practices. The healing potential of Kambo is far greater than we currently understand, and that potential only begins to unlock when administered in the traditional way.
Rather than reacting out of fear, we decided that if the wildfire of Kambo is going to spread, at least we can help spread it with tradition, honor, respect, and safety. It’s our intention and commitment to continue honoring the frog, the cultures that have partnered with it, and the ecosystem in which they both thrive.
CKPI’s History with Kambo
We have been working with Kambo since 2011. Before, it was a catchphrase, a pop-culture fad, or before it was a ‘cool’ thing to do or add to they psychonauts belt.
We were privileged enough to work with an Elder Matsés at our center in the Amazon in 2011. Our instructors were able to live and study full-time in the Amazon jungle for many years. Combined, they have a total of over 13 years of living in the Amazon.
During this time, they learned how important it is to keep the legacy and tradition of Kambo sacred. They learned that Kambo’s Spirit is deep with the Matsés People because they have 1000’s of years of honoring the tradition passed through countless generations.
The Matses Elders have honored the frog, the Spirit, the Jungle, and themselves by honoring their sacred tradition. Our instructors were able to connect to the ‘Kambo Spirit’ through the guidance of the elder Matsés and the essence of the jungle. We lived with Source during this time, and She taught us how to live in unity and humility with Her. We started administering Kambo in 2012 to all of our guests, seeing its potent healing power.
Working with Kambo Spirit
We have learned that as individual humans, we are nothing more than mediums holding space. By casting aside “self,” we allow the frog to do its work. If the Kambo Spirit has called you to us, then it’s meant to be.
We are humble and do this out of love for the sacred frogs. They allow us to be their ambassadors to the world. To help the world heal. It is the frogs and the Kambo Spirit that hold the healing power, not us. Being an ambassador to something so much bigger than the individual means that every action we take is a reflection on Kambo. This is why we require all students to have current CPR certification.
Protecting and Honoring the Frogs
As ambassadors of the Kambo Spirit, we began to ask some big questions. With the ‘wild spread’ of this incredible medicine, who is making sure that it is sustainable? Who is looking out for these guys, other than the Matsés?
There is an ever-increasing demand for this miraculous medicine in the western world, and we felt called to act in love. That’s why we are the first to dedicate a Phyllomedusa bicolor sanctuary to study them and allow them to procreate. We are beginning to work with biologists, scientists, and conservationists to ensure that we are not blindly pillaging or hurting this species.
We harvest our medicine from the frogs in our reserve. We can ensure that harvesting is done in a loving and sustainable way. We can step into the role of a caretaker of these incredible beings, giving them a safe space to live, and also bring healing to the world.
Our trained and verified Certified Kambo Practitioners have direct access to this pure medicine, knowing that they are serving not only sustainable medicine but medicine that was harvested with integrity, love, and respect. Medicine that they themselves have a personal bond with.
Considering Other Kambo Training Programs?
You will probably be looking around at other training programs available.
We have some questions that can help be a guide to finding the right person to train under:
- Have they lived in the jungle for more than 365 consecutive days?
- Have they spent an extended amount of time with the Matsés?
- Are they fluent or bilingual in Spanish or Portuguese? This is imperative to learn from the elders.
- Where did the instructor receive their training, and by who? Did this person live in the Amazon and have a direct connection to the Matsés?
- How many people has the instructor trained?
- Do they teach in the traditional way, as the Matsés do?
- What is their emergency response training?
- Why did they begin working with Kambo in the first place?
- Why did they become a Kambo Practitioner?
- Why are they now an instructor?
- Do they use water or saliva to mix the medicine?
- What is their intention with training others?
- Where do they get their medicine? Have they been to that source? Is it being harvested sustainably with minimum to no impact on the frogs?
These are all paramount questions. Each will give you insight into the training you would receive, and to the heart of whom you will receive this training from. Becoming a Kambo Practitioner is about more than any title. It is about carrying the Spirit of Kambo with you and within you. It is about allowing the Spirit of Kambo to act through you. We believe the only way one can begin to integrate with the Spirit of Kambo is by honoring its legacy.
We Support Safe, Honest, and Passionate Kambo Self-Healing Training
We are passionate about Kambo. Passionate about the healing effects, passionate about the Spirit of Kambo, the frogs, and the Jungle. The reason we choose to remain traditional is because it resonates with us to the core. For us, there is nothing that compares to carrying this connection with roots that sink deep into Mother Earth.
We truly hope that you will one day be able to share this same Sacred Space with Kambo.
Kambo education through integrity, honoring tradition.
Upcoming Training
Useful Resources
New Ownership and Management at RHC
Rainforest Healing Center is transitioning to new ownership and management. Ximena Garcia is now handling operations and other center management responsibilities as Omar focuses on Kambo education and training worldwide.
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