Meet our team
We are a constellation of people from different walks of life, united by our desire to serve people on their journey of healing.
Each retreat is made special by the team of dedicated humans bringing our vision to life, and we do our best to create the right balance of skills, experience and personalities on our retreats by bringing together trusted friends and colleagues. Each retreat has 4 to 6 team members to give you plenty of personalised attention.
We collaborate with therapists, musicians, meditation and movement practicionners, kitchen magicians, and all sorts of angels and humans on a path of service and transformation. All of us share a long-standing relationship with magic mushrooms and the desire to serve this medicine with respect, professionalism and a lot of love.
Cecile
Founder & Retreat Coordinator
Cecile is a free and curious spirit who has been fascinated by altered states of consciousness all her life.Certain that there must be more to the world than meets the eye, she began to explore psychedelics on a quest for self discovery that goes on until today, combining academic study, travelling to indigenous territories where these medicines grow and working with reputable institutions and skilled mentors.
Over 15 years of personal exploration with mushrooms and Ayahuasca gradually taught her to leave the realm of the mind and enter that of the heart, to go from seeking transcendance to embodying loving presence, and to live a life of service and community. Plant medicine has helped Cecile to come to terms with a rare genetic condition she was born with, to recover from depression and anxiety and to cultivate a passion for life and for fulfilling relationships with others. It is from this embodied place of self-healing that she holds space for others.
Cecile holds a Bsc in Neuroscience from King’s College London and a Masters in Public Health from Charite Medical University in Berlin, and is currently starting a Phd Project researching the integration of plant medicine into an indigenous mental health clinic in Mexico.
Her experience spans 10 years of psychedelic activism, practice and research, collaborating with established institutions, indigenous practicionners and at the community level. From receiving her foundational training in psilocybin therapy in the Netherlands with Truffles Therapy in 2019, to 5 years of research work with the Takiwasi center, an ayahuasca addiction treatment clinic in Peru, and to an ongoing mentorship relationship with the Nierika Intercultural Medicine Center in Mexico and to volunteering in psychedelic emergency care in festivals with Kosmicare, Cecile has a thirst for knowledge and is perpetually learning to improve her practice and support the causes she believes in.
She has also published research on Ayahuasca and Amazonian medicine and teaches about psychedelic therapy in university. She coordinates the group and private retreat programmes in Coração Medicina with her experience spanning caring for people in hundreds of mushroom journeys over the last five years.
Cecile strives to embody the qualities and values that the medicines have brought to her life: responsability, reciprocity, compassion and harmony with the natural world. A firm believer in giving access to heartfelt, professional and affordable psychedelic experiences to those who may benefit from them, she founded Coração Medicina with a vision of service, love, and connection.
Lucas is a 36 year old psychotherapist that was born and has lived all his life in Portugal. His African roots and Christian background have shaped his development, and nowadays he is an occasional traveller who doesn’t follow an organised religion or ideology but connects deeply with a spiritual approach to life.
As a trans person, his process of transition and affirmation was a powerful way to wake up to unconscious conditioning, and he started discovering and experiencing his being through his journey of deconstruction, reconstruction and making conscious decisions.
Lucas considers himself curious about the varied transformational processes humans can experience, and vows to support them with presence and respect, and, as much as possible, to be free of jugements through his own self enquiry on his beliefs, dynamics and prejudices. Enchanted by what makes each being unique from the depth of the human psyche to the wisdom of the body, from the strengths of emotions to the essence of the soul, Lucas is a lover and a seeker of a conscious, connected and free life.
Having completed his master’s degree in clinical psychology in Lisbon, he became more open to the expansion of the mind and wider dimensions, exploring theories that go beyond the psyche, from the alliance between psychoanalysis and spirituality to human design, astrology, tzolkin and psychedelics. Once he started to turn to non-ordinary states of consciousness, he felt how profoundly transformative they can be and decided to pursue further training in supporting people in their experiences with psychedelics and plant medicines. Lucas followed extensive training with Psychedelics Today, the Vital psychedelic facilitation training on Intervention and Integration of expanded states of consciousness processed, as well as the queering psychedelics course from the Chacruna Institute, dedicating his life to the people he serves in retreats and in his private practice. Lucas is also an active member of the ILGA psychological service and the “It gets better” Portugal association, offering psychological care to LGBTQIA+ people.
Some of Lucas’ characteristics you may connect with are: Sun in aquarius, Taurus rising, moon in Cancer; 4/6 generator with emotional authority (Human Design), INDJ (Advocate profile in 16 personalities), Yellow Rythmic Seed Kin from the Twolkin, the law of time.
lucas
Psychotherapist
Andrea
Musician
Andrea is an international multi-instrumentalist and published scientist with a dedication to the arts and academics. Her work involves the integration between motion and sound, alternative education for all ages in health and music, and the execution of community based arts and healing.
The Berlin-based artist is a recipient of several scholarships and grants in music including Aktion Mensch, Kulturelle Bildung, and Global Health Disrupted. Through her extensive international experiences with marginalised communities in Tanzania, Nepal, the Amazon, and the Andes, she became passionate about utilising community music as a tool to facilitate communication and inclusion.
Andrea currently works internationally as a freelance musician, utilising her skills to collaborate with circus, dance, theatre, and ceremonial ritual.
As a musician and scientist, Andrea is committed to empowering individuals by including and integrating special needs populations in and outside of schools and in performative settings. Her interest in movement and music has led her to explore a variety of digital technologies around sound and integrating motion into the overall creation of the soundscape.
Andrea continues to lead music and health based workshops at renown universities such as Charite, works closely together with companies such as Remo, and is the music and health project officer for the NGO “Global Health Disrupted”.
With extensive personal experience with plant medicines and her skills playing instruments from around the world, Andie elegantly crafts soundscapes and atmospheres that guide, support, soothe and activate the process of participants, with sensitivity and care. She also also holds some of the mindfulness workshops with a focus on Yoga Nidra and somatic and voice activation. A generous and playful spirit, she brings extra attention and care to the participants and team.
Luis is a gentle and sensitive being who lives and work in Sintra, Portugal as a private chef. An avid explorer of the psyche and with a curious mind around plant medicines and Earth based wisdom traditions, he loves being around nature, meeting new people and preparing food. His mission will be to make sure your body will have the food it needs so that the medicine can enter the best way possible, while delightening your sense and uplifting your spirit.
Having moved away from the stress of 5-star hotel catering into the more soulful crafting of menus for small scale events, Luis takes his pride and joy in providing a menu that turn our retreats into a true culinary adventure: from Japanese to Middle Eastern recipes, as well as many creations of his own, he will share a delicious, nourishing menu every day.
Luis is also a keen mycologist, foraging and growing mushrooms and cultivates a loving relationship to the fungal dimensions. He is excited to meet you all.
Luis
Chef
IsAAc
Yoga, Wim Hof & Breathwork facilitator
Isaac’s journey began in the world of ballet, where he excelled technically with top ballet companies across Europe and the U.K. Despite his technical prowess, he constantly faced critiques about his need to relax his upper body, unaware at the time that he was grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder. This internal battle, combined with the immense pressure of ballet, led Isaac to leave his dance career at 25 to focus on personal healing, as his anxiety overshadowed his dreams of stardom.
Yoga, a practice he discovered at 18, became his sanctuary and pathway to recovery. Building upon his passion for asana practice, yoga therapy and sanskrit studies, Isaac went on to explore other modalities such as transcendental meditation, Wim Hof techniques and Buteyko breathwork. In his teaching, he strives to bring to his students the practices which he has found most beneficial through his own journey of healing, and hope to equip his students with tools for greater inner peace, creating a more harmonious world one class at a time.
When he is not living off grid in Portugal or teaching abroad, Isaac regularly travels to India to continue his own studies with his teachers. He is also a dedicated student of the plant and fungal medicines, having sat in ceremony with various indigenous traditions.
With his attentive teaching style, his depth of knowledge and wide range of tools for improving mental and physical health, Isaac's teachings and presence are a precious contributions to our retreats.
Suze is the guardian of the land of Pagan Poetry for the last 12 years, living off grid and caring for the land and all its beings. She has been a vision quester for 15 years, participating and holding quests in the UK and Portugal and holds that space with a graceful blend of deep reverence and simplicity, sincerity and love.
Originally working in special needs care for the British National Health Service, Suze felt called to develop a wider toolbox for holistic care, and received formal training in aromatherapy massage, Bowen Technique,and breathwork facilitation.
Suze uses the drum and the breath as gateways to connect to the inner world, to the unseen and the sacredness of the land around us and as tools to restore the balance within and without.
Suze’s joy lays in drumming, prayer, singing and dancing on the land and making cups of tea for people. She is also the keeper of the labyrinth, an intentional space she built herself on the land, and a powerful medicine in its own right. Guided by her huge heart and the wisdom of her own journey of coming into her strenght, she brings personal attention to each of our participant with deeply felt care.
Suze
Breathwork, Shamanic drumming and Vision Quest Facilitator
Ellie has been working with psilocybin on her own healing journey as well as serving at retreats and ceremonies for the past 4 years in Holland and Portual.
Mushrooms have helped her to see humanity and nature are not separate, and that not only are mushrooms a medicine, but a technological tool which can be used to evolve harmoniously with ourselves and the Earth. Although mushrooms don’t fix all of our problems or answer our bigger questions, they can definitely restore a belief in magic and faith that there is much more to what meets the eye.
As our retreat assistant, Ellie will be there for you along the way as you make this discovery- it truly is beautiful beyond belief.
Ellie
Retreat assistant
Lisa
Microdosing & Integration Coach
Energetic and warm, I'm Lisa. driven by a deep passion for the connection between mind and body. I'll show you how they can work together or challenge each other, and guide you in regaining control when needed.
Coaching and facilitating are my true passions, and it brings me immense joy to be alongside you throughout your life's journey, providing you with the tools to navigate any situation. It's about empowering your self-regulation skills and radical self-acceptance with a generous dose of kindness.
My path back to my authentic self mirrors my journey to becoming a facilitator. After engaging with psychologists, coaches, delving into books, and pursuing life coaching training, my quest for the right path led me to a course that felt like a breath of fresh air. Completing that course inspired me to immediately enroll in their facilitator program. This transformative journey allowed me to extend kindness and acceptance to every aspect of myself that were once overlooked, and support others as they walk that path.
I have completed studies to become a life coach at 2 different institutes in Belgium and completed the Facilitator program at Earth Pulse Academy. I have also worked as an educator in a high school, guiding teenagers.
I am truly excited to embark on this journey with you!
Nathan
Somatic & Group work facilitator
Nathan Ryheul is a dedicated and passionate somatic practitioner with a deep interest in embodiment, intimacy, animism, and group dynamics. His journey is driven by a profound curiosity to explore the various ways these elements can enhance well-being and foster meaningful connections—with oneself, others, and the world around us.
Nathan is particularly drawn to the subtle and often unexplored dimensions of intimacy and human connection. He is fascinated by the layers of connection that exist beneath the surface of everyday interactions, believing that there is a wealth of discovery to be made in these more hidden spaces of self and relationship. His work revolves around guiding individuals and groups to explore these deeper layers, uncovering parts of themselves and their relationships that are often overlooked or avoided in conventional life.
His path has been shaped by a rich and diverse array of trainings, with two key influences standing out: Druidism and Embodied Intimacy. These two disciplines serve as the foundation of his approach, offering both spiritual and somatic dimensions to his work. Druidism contributes a deep sense of reverence for the natural world and an animistic worldview, while embodied intimacy provides the tools and practices to connect with others in a mindful, authentic, and grounded way.
These teachings combine to color the work Nathan offers, infusing the spaces he holds with a sense of presence and respect for the sacredness of connection and a good dose of light heartedness !
As a guide, Nathan is honored to support others in their journeys, helping them navigate the complex terrain of intimacy, embodiment, and group dynamics in ways that promote healing, growth, and connection. His work is an invitation to dive deeper into ourselves and the world around us, uncovering the richness of life that often remains unseen or unexplored.
Susy
Womb work, breathwork & women's retreat facilitator
Susy Nana is a certified breathwork facilitator and Womb awakening guide.
Originally born in Czech Republic and now living in Portugal, her own quest for healing and growth took her to study breathwork facilitation with the international school Alchemy of Breath. The profound healing of traumas that she experienced through this breathwork practice led her to feel called to dedicate herself life to learn the ways of the womb, the center of life, where it all begins.
An avid learner, Susy is as dedicated in accumulating evidence-based knowledge on the anatomy and physiology of the womb as she is to refine her intuitive connection to this portal of life. She continues to follow courses and training in this vast field, while offering consultations in Womb Wisdom to the world.
In her womb counselling practice, Susy works with diverse profiles, from women with cancer, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, endometriosis and women struggling with fertility, miscarriage and abortions, to many who simply feel called to reawaken and heal their connection to their womb. Starting with specialist practical advice on health and well-being, Susy's services go further by offering women a way to establish a felt connection to the womb and the female body. She invites women to feel into their physical and energy body through shamanic tools and embodiement practices ranging from breathwork, intuitive movement, plant medicines, spirit animals and self-empowered bodywork.
Susy is proud to share that through her counselling practice she has already supported women in bringing more than ten babies to this world, and that hundreds have benefited from learning to reconnect to their innate womb wisdom. She is honoured to offer support and guidance on this ancient path of deep rememberance of our feminine essence and the magic of life, holding space with diligence, grace and a lot of love.
