Overviews

Bridging Worlds is a six-month experiential training for practitioners who feel called to work at the intersection of psychedelic-assisted therapy, earth-centred practices, and sacred-medicine ceremonies.

This training is designed to support and deepen the practice of guides, spaceholders, clinicians, shamanic practitioners, therapists, and group facilitators who feel called to support healing and transformation with sacred plant medicines in both clinical and ceremonial settings.

Across the six months, we explore trauma-informed practice, ceremonial protocols, ethical and culturally respectful facilitation, and relational, embodied ways of holding space. This training weaves contemporary psychedelic-assisted therapy, somatic and relational frameworks, and earth-based ceremonial practices, supporting you to become a responsible, well-resourced, and attuned facilitator.

Bridging Worlds is for those who feel called to walk between worlds – bringing the structure of therapeutic practice into relationship with the Sacred; reconnecting the clinical with the ceremonial, the personal with the collective, and the human with the living wisdom of the Earth.

Click Here To Download The Full Curriculum

This training brings together:

  • Clinical psychedelic-assisted therapy, trauma-informed care, and psychotherapeutic presence
  • Earth-centred practices, ceremonial frameworks, and ancestral wisdom
  • Somatic practice, nervous system awareness, and embodied relational attunement
  • Group dynamics, communitas, and collective field awareness
  • Ethical awareness, intercultural integrity, and conscious reciprocity

Over six months you will move through twelve live teaching modules, supported by a in-person immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley, where you will receive guided ceremonies with the ancestral medicines of Wachuma and Psilocybin, held by trained ceremonial facilitators. Throughout, you are invited to integrate your experience through reflective supervision, embodied practice, and ongoing group support.

Of note: This training is not a lineage-based apprenticeship and does not teach traditional Indigenous ceremony. Instead, it offers a contemporary, culturally respectful pathway for facilitators to deepen their capacity to support expanded states safely, ethically, and without appropriating traditional forms.

You will be guided to strengthen the quality, integrity, and relational depth of the work already within your scope of practice – cultivating a personal relationship with ceremony and spirituality that arises from your own body, land, ancestry, and lived experience.

Online Training & In-person Peru Immersion

August 2026 - January 2027

  • Format: 6 month hybrid training (online and in-person Peru Immersion)
  • Cohort size: 20 participants
  • Modules: 12 live online workshops (2 hours, fortnightly) on alternate Sundays at 9:00am GMT

Phases of the training:

  • Phase I Foundations of the Bridge (9th August 2026 – 8th October 2026)
  • Phase II Peru Immersion (25th October 2026 – 1st November 2026)
  • Phase III Integration & Applied Practice (8th November 2026 – 17th January 2027)
  • Of note: This training program will include two additional online sessions to frame the journey with greater intention and integration.

The first will take place on 26th July 2026, two weeks before we open the main container, and will serve as our opening ceremony and introductions.

The second will be held on 31st January 2027, offering a closing ceremony and integration session to complete and anchor the work.

These two sessions bookend the training, creating a clear beginning and a powerful, grounded completion for the entire program.

Phase I: Foundations Of The Bridge

August 2026 - October 2026

The first three months establish the foundations of relational and ceremonial facilitation.

Participants explore safety, ethics, energetic boundaries, and embodied presence while developing the inner architecture required to hold others in transformation.

Six live online modules introduce relational field-building, trauma-informed facilitation, ceremonial work, preparation and the principles of ‘right relationship’.

Modules 1-6 (Pre Peru Immersion)

Module 1 – (9th August 2026) – Building the Bridge: Clinical, Somatic, Relational & Ceremonial Perspectives

Module 2 – (23rd August 2026) – Shamanic Principles of Ceremony & the Living World (with Guest Teacher)

Module 3 – (6th September 2026) – Trauma-Informed Facilitation & Somatic Awareness.

Module 4 – (20th September 2026) – Walking Between Worlds: Clinical, Ceremonial & Cultural Frameworks for Altered States (Guest Panel)

Module 6 – (18 October 2026) – Ethics, Cultural Humility & Scope of Practice (Guest Panel)

Phase II: Peru Immersion

  • Dates: 25th October to 1st November 2026

  • Location: Cusco, Sacred Valley, Peru

  • Leads: Beáta and Lauren, with Q'ero elders and local ceremonial practitioners

We gather in the Sacred Valley, where the land, the mountains, and the waters become our teachers. The immersion is not separate from the training, it is the living heart of it, where what has been explored in theory is embodied through direct experience.

Opening with Q'ero Elders - Tipon, 26th October 2026

We will arrive in Peru on 25th October to acclimatise and spend one day in ceremony with the Q’ero elders of the High Andes, wisdom keepers of an unbroken earth-honouring lineage.

Together, we take part in a Despacho ceremony, receive a traditional mesa cloth blessing, and offer prayers and gifts to Pachamama (Mother
Earth), in gratitude and reciprocity.

Live-in Retreat at Raices Inkas Retreat Centre, Sacred Valley - 27th October - 1st November 2026

Held amidst the majestic Andes in the Sacred Valley. This five-night, six-day practicum anchors the teachings through direct ceremonial
and workshop experience. Participants will engage in two ancestral plant-medicine ceremonies with Wachuma (San Pedro Cactus) and Psilocybin (Sacred Mushrooms). You will learn the energetic and logistical protocols of ceremonial facilitation, guided by a shamanic and earth-centred perspective of energy, space, protection, and alignment.

Throughout this immersion, you will deepen your connection with the land, awaken your unique gifts, and develop trauma-informed sensitivity through direct, lived experience of working with the wisdom of sacred earth medicines.

This immersion is a lived initiation into the heart of facilitation: walking the bridge between the measurable and the mysterious.

The immersion also includes:

  • Participation in Despacho offerings with Q’ero elders in reciprocity to the land and community
  • Daily integration circles and group processing
  • Somatic practices, movement, and breath to support regulation and embodiment
  • Voice activation and simple song practices to support expression and connection
  • Nature based rituals and time with the land
  • A traditional Temazcal ceremony, led by local practitioners

Throughout this week, participants will deepen their connection with the land,refine their capacity to respond to group fields in ceremony-informed spaces, and experience in their own bodies what it is to be held, seen, and guided through expanded states.

Phase III: Integration & Applied Practice

November 2026 - January 2027

The final three months focus on integration, mentorship, and applied practice.

Participants synthesise their experiences through reflective study, peer supervision, and embodied application, anchoring their learning into both personal and professional life.

Six live online learning modules emphasise ethical leadership, sustainability, integration, energetics and relational care – ensuring that transformation becomes lived wisdom.

Modules 7-12 (Post Peru Immersion)

Module 7 – (8th November 2026) – The Medicine of Sound, Voice & Frequency

Module 8 – (22nd November 2026) – Energetic Attunement & Subtle Field Awareness

Module 9 – (6th December 2026) – Facilitating Altered States & Supporting Non-Ordinary Experiences

Module 10 – (20th December 2026) – Relational Awareness, Therapeutic Presence, Group Dynamics & Shadow Work

Module 11 – (3rd January 2027) – Integration: Making Meaning & Embodying Insight

Module 12 – (17th January 2027) – Ceremonial Leadership, Apprenticeship & the Initiatory Path (with Guest Teachers)

Learning Outcomes

Clinical & Psychedelic-Assisted Competencies

Upon completion of Bridging Worlds, participants will be able to:

  • Demonstrate knowledge of current research, ethics, and therapeutic frameworks that inform safe, effective, and culturally respectful psychedelic practice
  • Apply and adapt trauma-informed principles to preparation, facilitation, and integration, honouring the innate healing wisdom of each participant.
  • Conduct comprehensive psychological screening and readiness assessments, evaluating risk, stability, contraindications, and suitability for psychedelic experiences in both clinical and ceremonial contexts.
  • Recognise, track, and respond to trauma responses and dysregulation states, whilst providing a grounded and attuned presence throughout.
  • Hold therapeutic presence with nuance and skill, responding appropriately to emotional, somatic, imaginal, archetypal, and spiritual material as it arises within expanded states.
  • Design and implement effective integration pathways that support meaning-making, behavioural change, emotional processing, and long-term wellbeing.
  • Identify and support ongoing integration difficulties as they arise, offering continuity of care and and making appropriate referrals to therapeutic, psychiatric, medical, or community resources when additional support is needed.

Ceremonial, Earth-Based & Energetic Competencies

Upon completion of Bridging Worlds, participants will be able to:

  • Create and hold a safe, coherent ceremonial container grounded in integrity, clarity, and intention.
  • Work respectfully with elemental, earth-based, and nature-led frameworks in ways that honour cultural lineages, avoid appropriation, and deepen connection to land and ancestry.
  • Facilitate sound, voice, and frequency-based practices for emotional, somatic, and energetic transformation within group and individual processes.
  • Track, interpret and respond to energetic movement, maintain boundaries, and uphold the integrity of ceremonial space.
  • Navigate group dynamics, facilitator shadow, projection, and power with awareness and humility.
  • Recognise and support mythic, archetypal, and initiatory processes, helping participants through transformative thresholds.

Professional & Ethical Competencies

Upon completion of Bridging Worlds, participants will be able to:

  • Uphold and evaluate clear ethical boundaries, cultural sensitivity, and professional codes of conduct across both clinical and ceremonial spaces.
  • Demonstrate and cultivate self-awareness, emotional regulation, and embodied presence.
  • Integrate clinical, somatic, relational, and ceremonial methodologies into a cohesive, responsible approach.
  • Document, assess, and reflect on medicine sessions/ceremonies using structured reflection, supervision, and feedback processes to support ongoing professional growth.
  • Recognise the limits of one’s scope of practice and respond with humility and discernment, collaborating with, or referring to, appropriate therapeutic, medical, or shamanic/spiritual practitioners when client needs extend beyond one’s expertise.
  • Engage in ongoing personal development, including self-care, contemplative practice, shadow work, and reflective inquiry.

Full Curriculum

If you are interested in learning more about the programme, we invite you to download our full curriculum document, with in-depth details of the entire programme.

Click Here To Download The Full Curriculum

About Your Facilitators

Co-facilitated by Dr. Lauren Macdonald and Beáta Alföldi - with guest teachers, wisdom keepers & ceremonial leaders. Please download the full curriculum to learn more about those joining us throughout the training

https://www.beataalfoldi.com/

Beáta Alföldi

Beáta Alföldi is an international retreat leader, medicine woman, author, shamanic practitioner, ceremonial leader, sound healer, workshop facilitator, seer, and keynote speaker known for guiding individuals through profound transformation.

After a longstanding career in professional dance, theatre and choreography. Beata’s path with sacred plant medicines began in 2007, in the Amazon and Andes of Peru, where she worked closely with curanderos and curanderas.

She later created the Integral Woman programme for the Awareness Institute in Sydney, where she completed a two-year diploma in Shamanic and Energetic Healing, and went on to design an internationally accredited training for shamanic practitioners, therapists, ceremonialists and spaceholders.

Beáta is recognised for the grounded, deeply transformational spaces she holds, where people are invited into true healing, empowerment, and evolution. She works with emotional depth and integrity, helping individuals meet and move through their most
tender and formative wounds. Often described as a “spiritual midwife,” she supports others in birthing their most authentic and liberated selves.

She contributed a chapter to Shamanism for the New Millennium, an Amazon #1 bestseller. Her internationally accredited shamanic training and facilitation programs, workshops, ceremonies, and retreats are offered worldwide.

She is a sought-after teacher, ceremonial leader and speaker.

Beáta’s work is infused with her own lived experience. She has not only walked but has also transformed immense grief and hardship, including the loss of her only son in childbirth. This initiatory journey informs the depth, compassion, and clarity she
brings to her service.

A full member of the International Energetic Healing Association, Beáta lives in the mountains of Sintra, Portugal. She is devoted to inspiring others to live lives that are authentic, free, empowered, and radiantly alive. She brings wisdom, courage, fierceness, and love to every space she holds.

https://drlaurenmacdonald.com/

Dr Lauren Macdonald

Dr Lauren Macdonald is a psychiatry doctor, psychedelic-assisted therapist, and group retreat facilitator working at the meeting point of science, soul, and spirit. Her work bridges Western medicine with traditional and earth-based healing approaches to support whole-person wellbeing, transformation, and flourishing.

At the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, Lauren has served as a clinical trial doctor and psychedelic therapist on pioneering studies exploring psilocybin-assisted therapy for anorexia nervosa and fibromyalgia, and DMT for treatment-resistant depression.

Alongside her clinical work, Lauren facilitates group retreats and leads experiential trainings that advance safe and ethical psychedelic-assisted therapy. Twice yearly, she co-hosts The Reconnection, a 12-week women’s psilocybin and somatic retreat programme. She is particularly passionate about the group model, where profound relational healing, shared insight, and a sense of communitas can emerge within a strong and supportive container.

Lauren’s integrative approach to health and healing grew out of her personal journey with stage IV cancer a decade ago. That experience opened the door to a more holistic way of working—one that honours the full spectrum of the human experience: body, mind, heart, and spirit. It also revealed what is so often missing in conventional medicine and led to the co-founding of Essence Medicine, an organisation offering psycho-spiritual support to individuals navigating life-threatening illness. She is also co-founder of End Wise, an Australian initiative expanding access to psilocybin-assisted therapy in palliative care.

Her work is informed by formal training in psychology and medicine, as well as studies in yoga, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Compassionate Inquiry, MDMA-assisted therapy, nutritional and environmental medicine, and nature-based therapeutic modalities. Lauren’s understanding of healing is also shaped by earth-based wisdom traditions, shamanic facilitator training, and a deep reverence for diverse ways of knowing and being.

Guest Faculty

Puma Quispe Singona

Adèle La France, PhD

Dr. Joe Tafur, MD

Annie Spencer

Dr Janelle Trees

Anna-Leigh Hodge

Marc Aixalà

Lucine Eusani

Tina Swann

Dr Tim Read

Philip Carr-Gomm

Stephen Jenkinson

Mary Bonett

Sergio Rodriguez-Castillo

Jennifer Danby

Tuition, Scholarships & Payment Plans

August 2026 - January 2027

  • Format: 6 month hybrid training (online and in-person Peru Immersion)
  • Immersion: 25th Oct – 1st Nov 2026 (7 days)
  • Modules: 12 live online workshops (2 hours, fortnightly) on alternate Sundays
  • Cohort size: 20 participants
  • Tuition: €6,500 (Early Bird €5,500 paid in full by 1st March 2026)
  • Payment Plans:Monthly installment plans are available (after initial deposit)
  • Scholarships: Available for under-represented applicants
  • Reciprocity: Percentage of tuition supports Indigenous-led and ecological initiatives in the region, offered in consultation with an Indigenous advisor as part of honouring the lands and communities that support this work.
  • Of note: Investment for the training does not include international or domestic airfares to and from Cusco, Peru. Participants are also required to hold compulsory comprehensive travel and health insurance for the duration of the program in Peru. In addition, all travellers must ensure they have a valid passport with a minimum of six months’ validity from the date of entry into Peru, along with any necessary visas or entry requirements relevant to their country of residence.

How To Apply

Applications are currently open for our 2026 intake and all applicants will complete an enrolment interview before confirming your place in the course.

We will be conducting interviews from January 2026.

Please complete the application form below and we will be in touch regarding your enrolment interview.

Early bird ends 1st March 2026.

Spaces are limited; once the programme fills, registration will close.

Click Here to apply

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this training for?

Bridging Worlds is designed for practitioners who are already holding, or preparing to hold, space around expanded states of consciousness. This includes (but isn’t limited to):

  • Psychedelic-assisted therapy practitioners
  • Clinicians, psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, and pastoral carers
  • Somatic therapists and bodyworkers
  • Group retreat facilitators
  • Breathwork, movement, and earth-based practitioners
  • Shamanic practitioners, energetic healers, and ceremonialists

If you are unsure whether your background is a good fit, you are welcome to apply and we can explore together during the interview process.

Do I need previous experience with psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) or ceremonial work?

No formal psychedelic training is required, but some prior experience in at least one of the following areas is preferred:

  • Clinical or therapeutic work
  • Somatic, trauma-informed, or body-based practice
  • Ceremonial, shamanic, or earth-based facilitation
  • Breathwork or other non-ordinary state modalities

We will ask you about your background in your application and interview so we can ensure the cohort feels cohesive and the training is an appropriate next step for you.

Is this a clinical qualification or a certification that enables me to work as a psychedelic-assisted therapist?

At present, there are no psychedelic therapy trainings formally endorsed or accredited by professional colleges such as RANZCP (Australia) or RCPsych (UK).

As such, Bridging Worlds is not:

  • A clinical qualification
  • A licence to offer psychedelic-assisted therapy

It is an experiential practitioner training that complements existing clinical training or apprenticeship by deepening your capacity to hold expanded states in trauma-informed, ethically grounded, and ceremonially literate ways.

You will receive a certificate of completion, which some participants may be able to use as CPD/continuing education, depending on their professional body.

How does this relate to other PAT or ceremonial trainings?

Bridging Worlds is designed as a bridge, not a replacement:

  • If you have psychedelic-assisted therapy training, this programme brings in ceremonial, somatic, group, and earth-based dimensions.
  • If you come from a ceremonial or shamanic background, it strengthens clinical understanding, trauma-informed practice, and ethical frameworks.

Rather than training you in one lineage, we support integration across your existing practice.

Is this Indigenous-led?

This programme is not Indigenous-led, and we name this clearly as part of our ethical responsibility.

We honour Indigenous and ancestral wisdom by:

  • Being transparent about our lineages and limits
  • Not recreating or teaching closed Indigenous ceremonies
  • Inviting Indigenous teachers as guests with clear boundaries
  • Offering reciprocity to Indigenous-led initiatives

Indigenous practices are offered as acts of honouring, not as lineage training.

What is included in the tuition fee – and what is not?

Included:

  • Six-month online training (12 live modules)
  • Guest teachers and ceremonial leaders
  • Seven-day immersion in Peru’s Sacred Valley
  • Twin-share accommodation during the immersion
  • All group meals, ceremonies, and workshops
  • Access to recordings
  • Certificate of completion

Not included:

  • Flights to/from Peru
  • Airport transfers in Cusco
  • Travel and health insurance
  • Visas and personal expenses

What is the time commitment?

From August 2026 to January 2027, you can expect:

  • Fortnightly 2-hour live online modules
  • 2–3 hours of reflection and practice per fortnight
  • A 7-day immersion in Peru

This is a cohort-based programme and prioritising attendance is important.

What if I can’t attend all live online sessions?

We understand that schedules can be complex.

  • Attendance at a minimum of 8 out of 12 live sessions is required
  • All sessions are recorded for later viewing

Please mention major conflicts in your application.

Why does the training include plant medicine ceremonies in Peru?

The Peru immersion allows participants to:

  • Experience well-held Wachuma and Psilocybin ceremonies
  • Learn directly from experienced ceremonial practitioners
  • Embodiment of expanded-state facilitation
  • Integrate clinical and ceremonial learning

Participation is subject to comprehensive screening, and non-medicine participation may be possible if required.

What are the psychological and medical screening criteria?

We carry out:

  • Medical history and medication review
  • Psychological and psychiatric assessment
  • Evaluation of stability and integration capacity

What is your deposit, refund, and cancellation policy?

  • €1,500 non-refundable deposit required
  • Remaining balance payable upfront or in instalments
  • Refunds beyond the deposit are time-limited

Are scholarships available?

Yes, limited partial scholarships are available, particularly for:

  • Marginalised or under-represented communities
  • Practitioners in low-resource settings
  • Those serving underserved populations

Can I use this training for CPD?

Many participants can count this training toward CPD or continuing education requirements, depending on their professional body.

Is this training tax deductible?

Professional development expenses may be tax deductible depending on your jurisdiction. Please consult your tax advisor.

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