Elizma Bellingan, MA
Professional Psychotherapist
Guadalajara JAL
I have an integrative approach to working with clients that include aspects of physical, emotional, cognitive, relational, and spiritual healing. By addressing multiple levels of the human experience the chances of successful treatment and balance are more likely.
My practice is informed by my training as a somatic-based psychotherapist and spending over a decade working with the ritual use of ayahuasca in traditional Peruvian ceremonial settings.
I was born and raised in South Africa and currently reside and practice in Mexico. I did my graduate studies in the US at Naropa University and graduated in 2009 as a professional somatic-trained psychotherapist. During my internship, I worked in emergency psychiatric services for Boulder County Mental Health and served on the family therapy team of a community-based family therapy clinic where I worked with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families.
After my graduation, I spent time in the amazon forest outside of Iquitos, Peru apprenticing and learning about the ritual use of Ayahuasca within traditional mestizo and Achuar lineages. It was in the jungle, fresh out of graduate school in 2009, that I saw participants healing psychological trauma and distress much faster and with much more depth compared to western models of psychological healing. This sparked a personal and professional curiosity in me about how these sacred rituals and sacred plants work and in addition how the two models of healing (ritual healing with sacred plants and western models of psychological healing) could be integrated into more effective healing strategies and experiences for clients looking for relief, health and meaning. Throughout the years I continued my studies with regular dietas in the jungle, lived in Peru and work together with my husband, a Naropa-trained transpersonal psychotherapist and certified Holotropic Breathwork facilitator, for over a decade guiding participants through deep and transformational healing processes.