YOUR MIND, BODY, AND HEART

FELICIA COCOTZIN RUIZ is an award-winning author, revered curandera, and respected herbal educator deeply rooted in the traditions of the Sonoran Desert. Felicia’s business name came to be after friends lovingly called her the “Kitchen Curandera”, as she was often found cooking and making remedies in her tiny kitchen. Her work in traditional healing has been featured in Forbes, Healthline, Spirituality & Health, and on Padma Lakshmi’s Taste the Nation on Hulu. With more than 30 years of initiation into spiritual wisdom traditions, folk herbalism, energetics, and esoteric studies, Felicia shares personalized guidance, luminous insight, and practical tools to help others awaken the innate magic aligned with their life purpose. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband, Jason, and their dog, Mars.

WHAT IS A CURANDERA? Curanderas are traditional healers, who carry knowledge of foods, herbs, and other cultural remedies working with the body, mind, and spirit. In curanderismo, it is believed that disease can be caused by psychological, physical, and spiritual factors, creating disharmony of the body, mind, or soul. Curanderas help bring people out of that diseased state and back into harmony with various remedies and little rituals. Curanderismo has been practiced throughout the Americas for over five hundred years, with each healer offering a unique skillset applying her natural gifts and training. Felicia’s own maternal great-grandmother was a curandera in northern New Mexico, where she caught babies, provided hands-on healing, and created herbal remedies for her community and family.

Felicia completed training as a massage practitioner from Bio-Link Therapeutic Massage Institute (1995), holds a certificate in holistic aromatherapy from the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (1996), is a graduate of the T. Colin Campbell Plant-Based Nutrition Studies Program (2014), is a yoga nidra instructor certified by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center of Los Angeles (2017), a former restaurant owner, and is a lead educator at the Herbal Academy. Felicia is also a founding member of the Patiloni Collective, a South Phoenix healing collective dedicated to community education, healing, and wellness for a holistically healthy future.

Felicia was given the title of Curandera with a ceremony held in her honor by one of her maestras, Patricia Federico, in the spring of 2018.

Felicia’s first book, Earth Medicines: Ancestral Wisdom, Healing Recipes, and Wellness Rituals from a Curandera, is the winner of the 2022 Eating the West Award and the winner of the 2023 League of the United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Book Award.

Felicia’s second book, Nana Lupita and the Magic Sopita, is an enchanting story that features the mystery of a grandmother’s secret recipe, a seek-and-find of healing plants, and bilingual words for young readers.

Luna and her little brother, Sol, are back for another adventure ―this time with a GIANT tortilla! Felicia’s third book, Tía Sofia and the Giant Tortilla, will be released August 12th!

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