Maria-Paula Almiron, CPsych, FPsych

As a young psychologist, I was blessed with generous mentors whose influence opened doors and left me an inheritance of knowledge and ethics that continues to serve me to date. My clinical career started in forensic services in one of the UK's maximum-security hospitals and evolved through universal and independent health systems. As it is often the case, my work with visionary plants started with my own transformation away from the paradigm of traditional Western Psychology. In becoming certified in psychedelic-assisted therapy, I learnt to bring together the knowledge I gathered through formal education with other ways of being with people and their pain. In the expanded state of consciousness, science and spirituality are of equal stand and relevance to healing and growth. Although to date we know relatively little about how it all works, the help that these compounds have brought to people in need cannot be ignored. The work I do is attentive to the rituals that surround visionary experiences. I hold space and ceremony for integration in all kinds of places, be it the mountains, the jungle or the city.