Aymara qulliri and yatiri

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Andean highlands of Bolivia, Peru and Chile

What it is

What this is. This is not a psychotherapy. It is a living Aymara healing tradition of the Andean highlands of Bolivia, Peru and Chile, with its own practitioners and sources of authority. A psychotherapist does not practise it. This guide covers what communities, state bodies and scholars publish…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Within communities. Ethnography places recognition in the calling, training over time under an experienced teacher with permission from sacred places, and the community's judgement. The same source separates fully trained yatiris from amateurs and charlatans who compete for paying clients in the city. Yatiri wait to be asked for help, never initiate healing, and keep their ordinary community and farming duties.
• Bolivia. Law 459, the Traditional Ancestral Bolivian Medicine Law (19 December 2013), regulates practice and its link to the National Health System. It recognises four categories: traditional doctors, spiritual guides ("guías espirituales", recognised spiritual authorities who guard sacred sites), traditional midwives and naturists. The text does not use the words yatiri or qulliri. Practitioners outside Indigenous…
• Ch'amakani is described as a higher-ranked specialist who "works in darkness" and communicates with spirits. The encyclopedia summary describes the ch'amakani as the elder yatiri who trains an apprentice. The two accounts differ. Whether training is always given by a ch'amakani is.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• fear of community backlash; a child's welfare. Working when the client is safe and remains in care.
• turning structural harm into an individual deficit. Working when the client feels the formulation reflects their life.
• reliance on unknown practitioners in the new setting; isolation. Working when the client has a care network they trust.
• module fatigue; switch to open conversation if the client tires. Working when the formulation gains details the core CFI did not yield.
• shame or a sense of being tested; reassure that it will not change your care. Working when the client mentions later consultations spontaneously.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.