About our team

Mark is the Master of Ceremony and the guardian of the Nature Temple. With great vision and a proactive attitude he leads and creates on all levels. He is an inspirational speaker, a marvellous musician and a powerful chanter during the retreats. He proved himself being an authentic bridge between the ancient knowledge and the modern Western culture.

As an extraordinary artist he is engaged with creating beauty in all its diversity, which is unmistakably found everywhere around the centre. Together with Maya he designed and built the Nature Temple, while guiding many volunteers to help out with the labour.

His teachers came from many different shamanic cultures, but above all the Huichol, the Shuar and the Shipibo traditions. After a full-time cycle of initiation into medicine plants and by collaborating intensively with many wisdom keepers, Mark has an incredible understanding about the use of sacred plants as a tool for transformation.

As the Master of Ceremony she knows how to travel the inner realms. She brings all her experience to keep the overview in group ceremonies, as she guided a few thousand people through a psychedelic experience in the past 30+ years that she is working in this field. During the ceremonies she also sings and plays the instruments.

Maya’s teachers came among other things from many different shamanic cultures, but above all the Huichol, the Shuar and the Shipibo traditions. After a full-time cycle of initiation into medicine plants and by collaborating intensively with many wisdom keepers, Maya has an incredible understanding about the use of sacred plants as a tool for transformation.

Together with Mark she leads the organisation with a clear vision and always with a positive attitude, complete devotion and clarity. In these multidimensional roles and tasks she is really in her element.

During the whole retreat Maya is very approachable to people. She is capable to stay present when the waves of the medicine get high and knows how to anticipate. Maya’s natural energy has the warmth of a loving mother, who can also be very resourceful when required. She is absolutely down to earth and has a mature sense of reality and she loves to make fun.

Laura has been an integral part of the centre for over 15 years and is deeply valued for her positive energy and joyful presence. From a young age, she was dedicated to movement and dance, completing preparatory training at the Dutch National Ballet Academy and studying Tai Chi.

She is a certified Critical Alignment Yoga (CAY) teacher with eight years of formal training and the founder of  ‘YogaDus’, her own studio in Amsterdam. Laura teaches students of all ages and experience levels. CAY focuses on skeletal alignment and supports free, stress-free movement in cooperation with gravity and conscious breathing. Through this work, she helps participants develop trust in their physical bodies and activate their natural capacity for self-healing during retreats.

Laura is also an experienced meditation and visualization guide. Her most recent study is TRE (Tension Release Exersises).

She has 25+ years of experience with psychedelic work and has studied repeatedly with her shamanic teacher in Ecuador. As a ceremonial facilitator, she is known for her attentive care, strong sense of responsibility for participants’ wellbeing, and her ability to recognize and respond to fundamental needs. She is the captain of the ceremonial team.

His path began in 1976, at the age of 22, when he started working with medicinal plants and natural psychedelics. During this time, he had the opportunity to study closely with traditional wisdom keepers from North America, who introduced him to shamanic practices such as sweat lodge ceremonies and vision quests.

Arend Jan brings extensive knowledge of shamanic traditions, plant medicine, human physiology, nutrition, and natural health practices. He is trained as a natural healthcare practitioner which brought him exceptional counselling and people skills. He maintains a deep connection to the healing qualities of plants and nature. Participants and colleagues alike often seek his guidance for alternative and holistic approaches to health.

Arend Jan is the respected elder of our team, widely appreciated for his integrity, precision, and calm dedication in everything he does. He has been a core team member for 9 years and is valued as a highly versatile and experienced all-round facilitator. As a ceremonial facilitator, he is experienced as attentive, reliable and kind, offering steady support grounded in wisdom and genuine care.

Sarah contributes to the retreats since the beginning of 2021 with her music, integration workshops and presence. From angelic to primal, she weaves a powerful web of sound with her voice and instruments to support you on your healing journey within.

As ‘Sarah Sounds’, she shares her songs and improvisations during ceremonial concerts and other events. She also offers Voice Expression workshops during the retreats, where she learns participants to use the voice as instrument to regulate emotions.

She uses her music in various marking points of live, like opening- and closing ceremonies to honour and celebrate transitions in life, such as childbirth, becoming a parent, but also loss and grieve. For Sarah, life is ceremony. She’s a lover of silence and subtlety. She creates save spaces with her presence and guides meditation workshops during our retreats.

Besides this she is also one of our integration teachers. During the 5 day retreats she helps people prepare for what comes after the retreat.

With formal training as a Nature Life Coach, Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) guide, breathwork and wellness coach, and in shamanic practices, Pascal is a versatile and valued member of the team. He has been connected to the centre since its very beginning since 2008.

During retreats, Pascal plays an active role across many aspects of the experience. He prepares nourishing meals, facilitates breathwork and meditation sessions, coaches participants and supports participants during ceremonies. He is known for gently challenging people to reconnect with their inner wisdom and step into the best version of themselves.

Pascal is experienced as compassionate, optimistic, and deeply sincere in his motivation to serve what is needed in each moment.

His extensive personal work with plant medicines has profoundly shaped his life path, guiding him toward greater self-awareness, spiritual depth, and a strong connection to the natural world.

Pascal is also one of our ground facilitators, meaning that he does the general maintenance of the centre and takes care for a clean and well prepared retreat.

Ivo is an accomplished musician and a valued contributor to our live music ceremonies. Since joining our music team in 2021, his percussion, particularly his drumming, has played an important role in elevating and guiding the ceremonial atmosphere.

His distinctive Celtic-inspired style, combined with advanced throat-singing techniques, creates a deeply earthy, authentic, and mystical soundscape that is consistently appreciated by participants.

Music has been central to Ivo’s life since childhood. He has performed on stage with ensembles such as the Metropole Orchestra and has toured extensively throughout the Netherlands and internationally.

Through his involvement in meditation and shamanic practices, Ivo further developed his path as a sound healer. He now facilitates numerous sound healing events across the Netherlands and composes original music under the name Universal Sound Shifts.

During retreats, she often offers relaxing chair massages, which many participants experience as a deeply grounding and restorative complement to the program. With intuitive sensitivity and skilled touch, she helps release muscular tension and supports the natural rebalancing of the body’s energy. She runs her own practice, The Art of Relaxation and Creation, in Amstelveen, where she provides massage therapy, coaching, and workshops. In addition, she has over ten years of experience working as a massage therapist in corporate settings.

Alongside her passion for bodywork, Ramona greatly enjoys cooking and contributes lovingly to our retreat kitchen with homemade soups, warm dishes, colorful salads, and her well-known specialty; homemade banana bread.

During psilocybin ceremonies, Ramona is a steady and reassuring presence. She is highly observant, approachable, and intuitive, with a remarkable ability to sense what participants need in each moment. This makes her an invaluable and trusted member of our facilitation team.

Joris supports our team primarily on a practical and operational level, taking care of maintenance, repairs, retreat preparations, and post-retreat clean-up. He is also a familiar presence in the kitchen, preparing nourishing breakfasts and dinners, ensuring that tea (and morning coffee) is always available, and keeping shared spaces well cared for throughout the day. These essential foundations create the stability and comfort that allow deeper retreat work and personal transformation to unfold, and for this we are deeply grateful to have such a reliable and dedicated partner in Joris.

Joris is a kind and quietly attentive young man with a genuine sense of care for both people and place. With consistency, patience, and heart, he tends to the centre itself, quite literally shaping the first and last moments of each retreat experience.

He runs his own business, Jorisje van Alles, a Dutch expression meaning “the person who can fix or arrange just about anything.” His grounded, empathetic nature and sincere desire to grow through life’s experiences, and to support others in doing the same, make him a valued and meaningful presence within our community.

Kristjan’s spiritual training and inspiration are rooted in the traditions of the Shuar culture of Ecuador and the Sámi culture of Finland. He has been part of the Earth Awareness team as a facilitator since 2019.

He is known for his calm presence and attentive awareness, working with focus and genuine care for each participant. With his open and grounded attitude, he creates a strong sense of safety and trust within the group.

Kristjan brings more than 20 years of personal experience working with psychedelics as a path for self-development and for exploring life’s deeper questions. For him, this is not only a practice but a way of life, which he has thoughtfully integrated into his spiritual hand-poke tattoo studio in Deventer (K581), where ceremonial elements form part of his creative process. In addition to his facilitation work, Kristjan is a visual artist and graphic designer and is a graduate of the art academy.