Many of you have asked: What happens in a plant ceremony?
Working with sacred plant medicine feels, to me, like midwifing a birth—only that what’s being born is a deeper version of yourself. Each ceremony is a unique and mysterious unfolding. You never quite know what will emerge—and that’s precisely the magic. My role is to be fully present, deeply attuned, and ready to support whatever needs to surface.
The Structure: Before, During, and After the Ceremony
Every first plant ceremony is framed within a three-part process:
Deep Dive (3 hours) — Held a day or a few days before, this session allows us to explore your survival strategies, trauma history, emotional blocks, and intentions for transformation. I use Voice Dialogue to help you recognise your primary parts (the selves that dominate your daily life) and your disowned parts (the aspects of yourself that were once suppressed or denied).
The Ceremony — Guided by plant medicine, the journey begins. I function as a medium between the plant and your nervous system, attuning myself energetically and somatically to your process. I stay in the background, allowing you to lead, stepping in only with supportive questions or gentle (sometimes also affirmed) guidance when needed. Most often, you will lie on your back while I hold your feet and work along the ten energy lines of your body, inspired by Thai massage—an ancient grounding technique that promotes safety and emotional release.
Integration — A day or a few days after the ceremony, we meet again. This session is crucial. It is where we develop rituals and (spiritual) practices that allow the neural changes sparked during the journey to be anchored in daily life. Especially during the first 21 days, your nervous system is in a state of heightened neuroplasticity—a window during which new neural pathways are easier to form, supporting lasting transformation.
What Happens in the Brain During a Plant Medicine Journey?
Plant medicines—especially psychedelics like psilocybin, ayahuasca, or sassafras—affect the default mode network (DMN), a brain system responsible for ego structure, rumination, and self-referential thinking. These substances reduce activity in the DMN, allowing more open, fluid communication between different brain regions. This state of increased connectivity is sometimes referred to as “entropy” in neuroscience—a loosening of fixed mental patterns, which allows suppressed memories, emotions, or parts of the psyche to come to the surface.
This is why a plant medicine journey can feel like years of therapy condensed into hours. The protective filters loosen, and disowned parts of the psyche feel safer to emerge. Vulnerability becomes more accessible. Long-held trauma, often stored not just psychologically but somatically (in the body), can finally release.
As Dr. Bessel van der Kolk famously wrote in The Body Keeps the Score, the body holds onto trauma and memory even when the conscious mind forgets. Plant medicine works at the level of the body, the nervous system, and—some would say—the soul. It can access trauma stored in what many refer to as “trauma DNA,” intergenerational patterns passed down through epigenetics.
My Role: Medium Between the Plant and You
Over years of experience, I have developed the ability to attune to my clients' nervous systems—almost like “logging in.” I travel with you. This doesn’t mean interfering but rather holding space with complete presence. Through reflective questions, touch, and energetic connection, I support the process without steering it.
My touch focuses on the feet and legs, inspired by my in-depth training in Thai Massage with Ralf Marzen and Takis at the Sunshine House Network. The legs are our base—they ground us. Working on the ten Sen energy lines creates a state of physical relaxation and inner safety. When the body feels safe, the heart opens.
When vulnerability surfaces, I use a range of tools to support emotional release, including:
Breathwork
Sound release (encouraging vocal expression)
Movement or shaking
Eye-gazing for relational repair
My own voice and (live) music, as a resonant field to help unstick emotion
Inner Safety Is Key
There are no “bad trips.” Only unsafe settings.
Without the right environment and a grounded guide, a ceremony can become overwhelming—even retraumatizing. But within a safe, sacred container, every emotion serves a purpose. Anger, sadness, fear, grief—none of these are negative. They are simply parts of you that haven’t yet had the chance to be heard.
My job is to hold the space, especially when things get intense. To stay grounded. To guide you back to yourself, again and again.
Why This Work Is Transformative—and Demands Integrity
This work is pioneering—at least in the Western world. But it is not new. For centuries, indigenous cultures across the globe—from the Amazon to the Andes, from Africa to Asia—have worked with sacred plant medicines in ceremonial contexts. These traditions were (and are) deeply spiritual, intentional, and rooted in a profound relationship with the Earth.
To work with plant medicine today is to stand on the shoulders of those who have carried this wisdom for generations. It is essential that we approach this work with deep reverence and humility, recognising the holiness of the plants and the cultures that have protected them.
In the Western context, where plant medicine is becoming more visible and accessible, there is a great responsibility: to honour the origins, to acknowledge the ancestral guardians of this wisdom, and to never treat the plants as a quick fix or commodity. Awareness alone makes a difference—because it transforms how we approach, hold, and integrate this work.
At the same time, let it be said clearly: plant medicine is not THE way. It is one way.
There are many paths to healing and inner transformation. Some are drawn to psychotherapy, others to meditation, breathwork, art, relational work, movement, or spiritual practice. What matters is not the method, but the sincerity of your intention and your readiness to meet yourself more fully.
Working with plant medicine invites a deep kind of honesty. It’s not for everyone. And that’s not a judgment—it’s a recognition of how personal and sacred the healing journey is. If you feel the call, you’ll know. And if not, your path is just as valid and powerful.
We are all finding our way home—each through a different door.
Because this work is still not fully accepted in mainstream society, please share this content only with people you trust. Protect the sacredness of this work.
Why I Can Guide You
I can only accompany someone else as far as I’ve dared to go myself.
Over the past two decades, I’ve walked this path with radical commitment. This work has taken me through some of the darkest, most vulnerable places within myself. I have cried my eyes out. I have screamed to the sky, collapsed into the earth, and surrendered parts of myself I didn’t even know I was still holding. There were moments I felt completely lost—disconnected from myself and alienated from the world around me. At times, I truly feared I might lose my mind.
But I stayed. I stayed with the pain, with the questions, with the uncomfortable truths. I chose the path of healing again and again, even when it was messy, raw, and uncertain.
For years, I’ve prioritised inner work over comfort—choosing trainings and therapeutic immersion over holidays. I’ve relocated my life to be closer to nature, which remains my greatest teacher and source of healing. I’ve committed to regular supervision, personal sessions, and daily practice to continue deepening my understanding of my own patterns, shadows, and essence.
I work mostly in a client-led way, meaning I don’t interfere with the process unless it becomes therapeutically necessary. This might be when someone is stuck in a particular energy or emotional blockage they can’t move through on their own, or when they wish to access parts of themselves that are typically disowned or hidden in everyday life.
In those moments, I may draw on the principle of induction—an energetic and relational process where I connect with that particular part or frequency within myself and, through resonance, help evoke or awaken it in the other person. It’s a subtle, intuitive way of co-regulating and guiding someone toward deeper integration—never by force, always in service of what wants to emerge.
I don’t see myself as above or beyond anyone I work with. I am on this path too. What I can offer is presence, safety, experience, and a finely attuned compass—because I’ve traveled these inner landscapes myself. I know where home is within me now. And that’s what allows me to hold space while you find your way home, in your own time, in your own way.
