Bridging Worlds: Where Science Meets Spirit

An integrative training in psychedelic-assisted practice, ceremonial work, and trauma-informed group facilitation

Co-facilitated by Dr. Lauren Macdonald and Beáta Alföldi
With guest teachers, wisdom keepers, and ceremonial leaders

August 2026 — January 2027

OVERVIEW

Bridging Worlds is a six-month experiential training for practitioners who feel called to work at the intersection of psychedelic-assisted therapy, relational and somatic practices, and earth-centred ceremonial traditions.

It is designed for guides, space holders, clinicians, therapists, shamanic practitioners, and group facilitators supporting healing and transformation with plant medicines across clinical, ceremonial, and community contexts.

Across the six months, we explore trauma-informed practice, ethical and culturally respectful facilitation, ceremonial awareness, and embodied ways of holding space. The training brings contemporary psychedelic-assisted therapy into respectful relationship with somatic, relational, and earth-based practices, with ongoing attention to ethics, cultural humility, and the historical and cultural contexts surrounding this work.

At its heart, Bridging Worlds is a meeting place where different ways of knowing can coexist without being reduced to a single framework. It invites therapeutic practice into relationship with the Sacred, reconnecting the clinical with the ceremonial, the personal with the collective, and human healing with the living wisdom of the Earth.

This training brings together:

  • Clinical psychedelic-assisted therapy, trauma‑informed care, and psychotherapeutic presence

  • Earth-centred practices, ceremonial frameworks, and ancestral wisdom

  • Somatic practice, nervous system awareness, and embodied relational attunement

  • Group dynamics, communitas, and collective field awareness

  • Ethical awareness, intercultural integrity, and conscious reciprocity

Over six months the training unfolds through live online teaching held fortnightly, alongside an in-person immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley. The immersion includes guided ceremonies with Wachuma and psilocybin, held by trained ceremonial facilitators, and is supported by preparation and integration.

Throughout the training programme, learning is supported through reflective supervision, embodied practice, and ongoing group dialogue, allowing insight to be integrated into both personal life and professional practice.

THE LEARNING CONTAINER

AUGUST 2026 - JANUARY 2027

The programme is held in a small cohort of 20 participants, allowing for depth, continuity, and relational learning.

12 live 2-hour online sessions take place fortnightly (alternate Sundays at 9:00am UK time), designed to support integration alongside daily life and professional practice. Throughout the programme, we are joined by 15 guest teachers, wisdom keepers, clinicians, and ceremonial leaders.

Between sessions, we encourage all students to take part in peer practice groups. These spaces offer an opportunity for reflective discussion, skills practice, and group-based exercises that support ongoing integration and embodied understanding.

Participants receive a comprehensive training manual, alongside curated readings and resources to support learning, reflection, and integration throughout the programme.

THE JOURNEY

Foundations of the Bridge

This opening phase establishes the ethical, trauma-informed, relational, and culturally aware foundations of facilitation. Participants explore safety, boundaries, and embodied presence, alongside the responsibilities inherent in working across different cultural and healing traditions.. This phase lays the groundwork for the in-person immersion and the applied work that follows.

Peru immersion

Midway through the programme, participants gather for a residential immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley. This phase integrates guided ceremonial work, held in respectful collaboration with local traditions, alongside trauma-informed preparation, embodied and relational practice, and structured integration support. Ceremonies are held by ceremonial leaders working in their own lineages and traditions, offering participants the opportunity to experience and learn from distinct approaches to ceremony and facilitation.

Integration and applied practice

The final phase supports participants to integrate their learning and experience into their personal lives and professional contexts. Emphasis is placed on discernment, ethical application, and the ongoing relationship with practice beyond the training itself. Integration is held as a relational process, with space for reflection, dialogue, and continued learning within the group as participants begin to apply this work in their own contexts.

PHASE I: FOUNDATIONS OF THE BRIDGE

August 2026 - October 2026

Through live online teaching and shared inquiry, this phase introduces key principles that underpin the rest of the training, including relational field-building, trauma-informed facilitation, preparation for altered states, ceremonial awareness, and the practice of right relationship.

This phase is held through six live online sessions, supported by guest teachers and panel conversations that bring multiple perspectives into dialogue.

Module 1 - Building the Bridge: Clinical, Somatic, Relational & Ceremonial Perspectives

Module 2 - Shamanic Principles of Ceremony & the Living World

Module 3 - Trauma-Informed Facilitation & Somatic Awareness

Module 4 - Walking Between Worlds: Clinical, Ceremonial & Cultural Frameworks for Altered States

Module 5 - Screening, Preparation & Therapeutic Frameworks

Module 6 - Ethics, Cultural Humility & Scope of Practice

PHASE II: PERU IMMERSION

25th OCT–1st NOV 2026

At the heart of Bridging Worlds is a residential immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley. This phase is not separate from the training, but its living centre, where what has been explored online is embodied through direct, relational experience.

Opening with Q’ero Elders - Tipon, 26th October 2026

Following arrival and acclimatisation on 25th October, the group will spend a day in ceremony with Q’ero elders of the High Andes, wisdom keepers of an unbroken earth-honouring lineage.

We will take part in a Despacho ceremony, receive a traditional mesa cloth blessing, and offer prayers and gifts to Pachamama (Mother Earth) in reciprocity and gratitude.

Live-in Retreat at Raices Inkas Retreat Centre, Sacred Valley - 27th October - 1st November 2026

The group then enters a five-night, six-day practicum anchoring the teachings through direct ceremonial and workshop experience. Participants will engage in two ancestral plant-medicine ceremonies with Wachuma (San Pedro Cactus) and Psilocybin (Sacred Mushrooms). You will learn the energetic and logistical protocols of ceremonial facilitation, guided by a shamanic and earth-centred perspective of energy, space, protection, and alignment.

Throughout this immersion, you will deepen your connection with the land, awaken your unique gifts, and develop trauma-informed sensitivity through direct, lived experience of working with the wisdom of sacred earth medicines.

The immersion also includes:

  • Despacho offerings in reciprocity with the land and local community

  • Daily integration circles and group processing

  • Somatic practices, movement, and breath for regulation and embodiment

  • Voice activation and simple song practices

  • Nature-based rituals and time with the land

  • A traditional Temazcal ceremony led by local practitioners

Throughout this week, participants will deepen their connection with the land, refine their capacity to respond to group fields in ceremony-informed spaces, and experience in their own bodies what it is to be held, seen, and guided through expanded states.

PHASE III: INTEGRATION & APPLIED PRACTICE

November 2026 - January 2027

The final three months focus on integration, mentorship, and applied practice.

Participants synthesise their experiences through reflective practice, peer supervision, and embodied application, anchoring their learning into both personal and professional life.

Six live online learning modules emphasise ethical leadership, sustainability, integration, energetics and relational care - ensuring that transformation becomes lived wisdom.

Module 7 - The Medicine of Sound, Voice & Frequency

Module 8 - Energetic Attunement & Subtle Field Awareness

Module 9 - Facilitating Altered States & Supporting Non-Ordinary Experiences

Module 10 - Relational Awareness, Therapeutic Presence, Group Dynamics & Shadow Work

Module 11 - Integration: Making Meaning & Embodying Insight

Module 12 - Ceremonial Leadership, Apprenticeship & the Initiatory Path

LEARNING OUTCOMES

TRAINING LEADS

Dr. Lauren Macdonald and Beáta Alföldi

IN COLLABORATION WITH

This programme brings together a carefully curated faculty whose work reflects depth, integrity, and lived experience across clinical, ceremonial, and community contexts. Each offers a distinct perspective on expanded states, relational healing, and ethical practice.

Guest Faculty & Guides

  • Joe Tafur, MD

    Joe is a Colombian-American integrative medicine physician, trained curandero, and author. He is the author of The Fellowship of the River and Medicine Song, exploring the convergence of spiritual healing, Indigenous wisdom, and modern psychedelic therapies. Joe co-founded Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual in the Peruvian Amazon, where he trained in curanderismo, and is the founder and Executive Director of Modern Spirit, a nonprofit bridging ancestral practices and contemporary healthcare.

  • Annie Spencer

    Annie is a ceremonialist and workshop facilitator with over 40 years’ experience. With a background in humanistic psychology and earth-based spiritual traditions, she is skilled at moving between spiritual teachings and the disciplines of psychology. She was apprenticed in a North American tradition and has been studying Mayan teachings from Guatemala for the past 20 years. Annie honours the traditions of her own land while enlivening them through teachings from other ancient ways.

  • Puma Quispe Singona

    Puma is an Andean ceremonial leader and wisdom keeper who has shared his teachings internationally since his teenage years. Initiated at age six through a sacred lightning rite and trained by his grandfather, Don Maximo of the Rainbow Lineage, he carries forward ancestral traditions. A practitioner of Wachuma and Ayahuasca from coastal and Amazonian lineages, he is the founder of the Noqan Kani Global Community Centre in Chinchero, Peru. Through Pumadventures, he leads journeys to sacred sites, supporting healing and connection.

  • Dr Janelle Trees

    Janelle is a Goori / Dhanggati woman, a TCM acupuncturist and General Practitioner who has worked in regional, rural, and remote Australia and internationally. Her clinical and educational work spans Indigenous health, emergency medicine, addiction medicine and palliative care. Her approach is shaped by a commitment to culturally safe, holistic and relational healing. A founding member of EndWise, Janelle brings Aboriginal perspectives on care, community, and cycles of life and death to conversations about end-of-life support and ethical psychedelic-assisted therapy.

  • Tina Swann

    Tina is a Māori facilitator, educator, and traditional healer based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her work centres Indigenous values, whānau wellbeing, and relational accountability, with experience across facilitation, advisory, and community-based roles. She has supported marae-based kaupapa exploring rongoā Māori and psychedelic-assisted approaches, offering guidance grounded in decolonial, community-centred perspectives on care, responsibility, and collective wellbeing.

  • Anna-Leigh Hodge

    Anna-Leigh is a Māori (Te Rarawa, Ngātiwai) and Health Psychologist from Aotearoa New Zealand, a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland, and a member of the Manawa Ora Research team. Her work is grounded in Kaupapa Māori and centres Indigenous-led approaches to healing, research, and psychedelic care. She is a student of rongoā Māori (traditional Māori medicine) and a Māori Clinical Research Fellow. Anna-Leigh leads Tū Wairua, a marae-based kaupapa exploring rongoā Māori alongside psychedelic-assisted approaches.

  • Marc Aixalà

    Marc is a psychologist, psychotherapist, and co-founder of the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS). He has extensive experience supporting people through challenging and non-ordinary psychedelic experiences, including harm reduction, crisis support, and integration. Marc is the author of Psychedelic Integration: Psychotherapy for Non-Ordinary States.

  • Philip Carr-Gomm

    Philip is a psychologist and author of over 20 books. He was leader of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids for 32 years and has worked with the Synthesis Institute in their training and retreat teams, holding their Psychedelic Practitioner certificate. He is now involved in the ACER psychedelic integration programme and teaches the Psychosynthesis Certificate Course for the Alef Trust. He is co-author of the Druid Animal and Plant Oracles and the DruidCraft Tarot, and author of The Druid Way and The Gift of the Night.

  • Lucine Eusani

    Lucine is an embodiment facilitator, Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) practitioner, and psychedelic integration specialist. Her work bridges Somatic IFS, IFIO (Intimacy From the Inside Out), embodied movement, and integration support. She has over two decades of experience in trauma-informed therapy and somatic practice, and spent several years in the Peruvian Amazon working at an ayahuasca centre and apprenticing in Amazonian shamanic traditions.

  • Dr Tim Read

    Tim is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, author, and educator with over two decades of experience in liaison psychiatry, crisis intervention, and psychotherapy training. He has trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, group analysis, transpersonal psychology, and Holotropic Breathwork, and is actively involved in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research, training, and supervision. Tim is co-founder of the Institute of Psychedelic Therapies and the author and editor of several influential texts, including Walking Shadows and Breaking Open.

  • Mary Bonett

    Mary is an integrative somatic therapist, yoga teacher, and psychedelic guide whose work centres trauma-informed, body-based approaches to healing. She brings over a decade of experience supporting individuals and groups in retreat and therapeutic settings, including work with survivors of trauma, violence, substance misuse, and complex mental health challenges. Her work focuses on nervous system regulation, relational presence, and embodied safety through somatic, breath, voice, and movement-based practices.

  • Adèle La France, PhD

    Adèle is a clinical psychologist, research scientist, author, and co-developer of emotion-focused treatment modalities, including Emotion-Focused Family Therapy. She is a leader in the research and practice of psychedelic medicine, with experience across ayahuasca, MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine. Adèle is currently the clinical investigator and strategy lead for a MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study for eating disorders, and a clinical trainer and supervisor with Imperial College’s Centre for Psychedelic Research.

  • Stephen Jenkinson

    Stephen is a writer, cultural teacher, and elder, and co-founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. With a background in palliative care and theological studies, his work centres grief, elderhood, ancestry, and animist European traditions. His teaching invites a deep reckoning with mortality, belonging, and the responsibilities of being human in times of cultural and ecological uncertainty.

  • Sergio Rodriguez-Castillo

    Sergio is a psychotherapist and psychedelic-assisted therapy practitioner with over 20 years of experience in sacred medicine. With a background in law and advanced training in Integral Counseling and East-West Psychology, he works at the intersection of psychotherapy, psycho-spiritual practice, and traditional plant medicine. He apprenticed for over a decade with a Mazatec curandera and leads groups exploring Mexico’s sacred mushroom tradition.

  • Jennifer Danby

    Jennifer is Systemic Psychotherapist, Clinical Lead and Supervisor. Based in the UK, she was the lead therapist on the Panorexia Trial at Imperial College London and is now involved in delivering training and supervision for psychedelic assisted practices in trial and retreat settings. Her work is trauma informed, systemically focused and strongly influenced by Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) in which she is a certified supervisor and trainer.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications are now open

All applicants are invited to have a discovery call before confirming a place on the training. These conversations are a chance to answer questions and ensure the training is aligned with your experience, intentions, and scope of practice.

Calls will be held from January 2026.

To begin the process, please complete the application form below. We will then be in touch to arrange your call.

The early bird rate is available until 1st March 2026.

Places are limited and offered on a rolling basis. Once the cohort is full, applications will close.

TUITION, SCHOLARSHIPS & PAYMENT OPTIONS

August 2026 – January 2027

The full tuition for Bridging Worlds is €6,500. An early bird rate of €5,500 is available for those who pay in full by 1st March 2026.

Payment plans

Monthly payment plans are available following an initial deposit. If you would like to explore this option, details are shared as part of the application process.

Scholarships and access

A limited number of partial scholarships are available for applicants from under-represented backgrounds and for those currently experiencing financial hardship. These are offered in recognition of the systemic and financial barriers that can make access to this work more challenging, and reflect our commitment to widening access while maintaining the depth and integrity of the training.

Reciprocity

A portion of each participant’s tuition contributes to Indigenous-led and ecological initiatives in the region. These contributions are offered in consultation with our Indigenous advisor, Puma Quispe Singona, as part of an ongoing commitment to reciprocity and care for the lands and communities that support this work.

Practical considerations

Tuition does not include international or domestic travel to and from Cusco, Peru. Participants are responsible for arranging appropriate travel and health insurance, as well as meeting passport and visa requirements relevant to their country of residence. Further practical guidance is provided to accepted participants.

RELATIONSHIP TO CULTURE & LINEAGE

Please note this training is not a lineage-based apprenticeship and does not teach Indigenous ceremonial practices. It offers a contemporary and culturally respectful pathway for facilitators to deepen their capacity to support expanded states with safety and integrity, without drawing on or replicating traditional forms.

This approach recognises that different ways of working with plant medicines and psychedelics arise from distinct cultural, historical, and relational contexts, and are not interchangeable. Rather than seeking to integrate or replicate traditional practices, the training supports practitioners to work with greater awareness, responsibility, and respect for the lineages and communities from which this work originates.

Participants are supported to strengthen the quality, integrity, and relational depth of the work already within their scope of practice, while cultivating a personal relationship with ceremony and spirituality grounded in their own body, land, ancestry, and lived experience.

FAQ