28: The Quiet Wisdom of Slowing Down w/Jennifer Tessler

In this episode, Pascal sits down with Jennifer Tessler, the director of Alalaho, a Nectara partner retreat center in the Netherlands and Spain. Alalaho was a pioneer in the field of legal psilocybin-assisted retreats in Europe.

Alalaho is rooted in five core values: honesty, heart, commitment, brilliance, and magic. They stand for deep, authentic healing that honors the full spectrum of human experience, offering transformative journeys guided by love, patience, and creativity. Through their retreats, Alalaho fosters a space for personal and collective growth, where participants are invited to slow down, trust the process, and connect to the deeper wisdom within. 

In this conversation, Jennifer shares her insights from over a thousand days spent in meditation and her journey into slowing down in both personal and professional realms. We explore how intentional slowness and deep trust in the organic unfolding of healing can affect people seeking healing and also how a retreat space in the plant medicine space changes when it prioritizes slowness and small over speed and scale.

Main Themes

• The Powerful Meaning of the Word Alalaho
• Depth over Width, Intention over Scale
• The Tibetan Perspective on Healing
• The Jaguar Archetype and Meditation
• Balancing Action and Stillness 
• Challenges and Rewards of Running Smaller Retreats 
• The Importance of Togetherness‍

Notable Quotes

1. “The word Alalaho comes from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and it’s a word that points to the nature of mind, in particular to the aspect of space and that capacity of the mind to hold the whole spectrum of human experience.” – Jennifer 

2. “The archetype of the jaguar teaches us to have divine self-care for ourselves but also pounce when it's the right time to do so.” – Pascal 

3. “Scale and impact is still important to us, but not at the expense of sacrificing the depth, longevity, and deep-rootedness of the work that we do.” – Jennifer 

4. “We always talk about integration as a lifelong journey…not just about getting better for ourselves, but healing for the sake of helping the world become the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.” – Jennifer

5. “The slow work is that the things that happen and are really deep are most of the time quite unnoticeable… there’s a lot of evolution and growth, but it’s gradual and almost imperceptible in the moment.” – Jennifer

6. “Traditional Tibetan thinking believes in transformation… but they also have such a relaxed relationship to their own neurosis. There’s this acceptance, like, ‘that’s part of the human realm,’ and it’s so refreshing.” – Jennifer ‍

Join an Alalaho Retreat‍

Explore Alalaho's upcoming retreats in the Netherlands or Spain and see if they are a good fit for you. Use the code 'NECTARA150' for 150 EUR OFF..