Our Approach

Sacred medicines and handmade pieces gathered directly through our relationships with Indigenous communities, traditional guides, and grandmothers who carry these traditions. Each purchase supports the people and families who sustain themselves through their medicine, craftsmanship, and ancestral arts.

This is where we should have it linked to learn more – and the bigger writing can discuss all the ways our shop is different than others in the way we work

1.Rooted in Relationship

The Journey Back to Soul exists because of the relationships we have been blessed to build with Indigenous elders, traditional healers, medicine makers, artisans, and grandmothers across the Americas. The medicines we carry come from Indigenous communities who have stewarded these plants and their traditions across generations. The textiles, altar cloths, garments, jewelry, and handmade tools come directly from Indigenous artisans and grandmothers whose hands, knowledge, and creativity continue to keep these ancestral arts alive.

We believe reciprocity begins with honoring the people who make these offerings possible. We purchase medicines and handmade pieces directly through our relationships and pay full market value for the work, knowledge, time, and materials that go into them. When these medicines and creations travel from their communities to ours, our pricing also allows us to cover the costs of bringing them here and creating the space, resources, and infrastructure needed to share them with our community.

For us, reciprocity is an ongoing relationship. It means knowing who made what we carry, understanding where it comes from, honoring the traditions behind it, and creating a pathway for these medicines and ancestral arts to support the people and communities who continue to carry them forward.

We do not see ourselves as owners of these traditions. We see ourselves as stewards and bridges, carrying what has been entrusted to us with respect, gratitude, and a commitment to keeping the relationship alive.

2. Supporting Self-Sufficiency

Our relationship extends beyond the exchange of medicines and handmade pieces. We continue to visit the communities we are connected with and listen to what is needed, bringing supplies, materials, tools, and resources that help artisans and medicine makers continue their work.

By supporting the materials and resources needed to create their crafts, garments, textiles, ceremonial pieces, and medicines, we help strengthen the livelihoods they have built through their own knowledge and skills. Our intention is to support self-sufficiency and create opportunities for people to continue sustaining themselves through the traditions and crafts they carry.

We also bring support for the families and children within these communities, providing practical supplies and resources based on what is needed and requested. These exchanges are part of our ongoing commitment to reciprocity, relationship, and honoring the dignity and independence of the communities we are blessed to walk alongside.

3.Building Bridges Between Worlds

Part of our work is creating opportunities for people from the Western world to experience these relationships firsthand. When appropriate and welcomed by the communities we work with, we bring people with us into Indigenous communities so they can meet the people, see the land, witness the craftsmanship, and experience the traditions beyond what can be understood through a product or a story online.

We believe that meaningful cultural exchange begins with relationship. These experiences invite people to become more informed, respectful, and conscious of the traditions they are engaging with, while developing a deeper understanding of where medicines, teachings, crafts, and ceremonial tools come from.

Our hope is to help create bridges between worlds that are rooted in humility, respect, and reciprocity, so that people leave with a greater understanding of the responsibility that comes with receiving from another culture.

4.Conscious Stewardship

Our relationship with the Earth is part of how we approach everything we do. We continually look for ways to reduce unnecessary plastic, chemicals, and waste while choosing materials that are more supportive of the natural world.

For our hapé, we use glass containers to help preserve the medicine while reducing our reliance on single-use plastics. We also offer a refill program, where returning customers receive 10% off their refills. Each refill is sent in a biodegradable bag, allowing the same glass container to continue being used rather than replaced.

We extend this intention to the way we ship. From compostable mailers to more conscious packaging choices, we continually look for ways to lessen our footprint without compromising the care we put into what we send.

We know there is always more we can do. Our commitment is to keep learning, making more conscious choices, and choosing practices that honor the Earth that gives us everything we work with.

5.Integrity & Your Well-Being

Your well-being comes before innovation, trends, or profit. We believe that when working with traditional medicines, there is a responsibility to be transparent about where they come from, how they are made, and who has carried these practices across generations.

Our hapé is sourced directly from the Indigenous communities that make it. We do not alter, modify, blend, or reinvent these medicines to create proprietary formulas or something “unique” to our store. We believe these medicines belong in the hands of the people and lineages who have carried the knowledge of making them for generations.

This is a choice rooted in both respect and responsibility. We honor the Indigenous people who have preserved these medicines and the traditions surrounding them, while also honoring the body and vessel of the person who receives them.

We are not interested in changing traditional medicines simply because something new might be more marketable. We believe there is wisdom in knowing when to listen, when to learn, and when not to interfere. Our responsibility is to offer what has been entrusted to us as faithfully as possible, with transparency, reverence, and care.

The Journey Back to Soul is committed to integrity in every part of this work. We will always prioritize the well-being of our community, the dignity of the traditions we work with, and the relationships that make this offering possible.