October 28, 2025 • 56 mins
In this episode, we explore inner healing through altered states of consciousness. Joining me is Irina Vlada, a psychologist, author, and entrepreneur known for her pioneering work in developing holistic ketamine treatment programs that have led to profound personal transformations.
Irina specializes in Psychedelics & Addiction Recovery, merging yogic tools for deeply life-transformative experiences.
In the pod we talk about:
· Irina’s personal journey from the Himalayan yogic tradition to psychedelics and ketamine.
· How psychedelics, spirituality, psychology, and wellness intersect for powerful inner healing.
· How ayahuasca can facilitate profound psychological and spiritual experiences, while yoga provides the integrative framework for embodying change.
· How ketamine and yogic techniques like breathwork can synergize to create a more comprehensive healing experience. Please note! Ketamine is not a recreational drug.
· We discuss the work of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, researching the healing potential of MDMA and other psychedelics.
The experiences expressed in this episode are purely personal and educational, and not intended for the promotion of ayahuasca, ketamine, or any other psychedelic modality.
About Irina:
Irina Vlada, PhD(c), Research in Psychedelics & Addiction Recovery | East West Psychology | Ketamine Integration | Awareness and Transformation Coach.
She places a strong emphasis on the significance of psychedelic preparation and integration protocols to fortify the nervous system. Currently pursuing her PhD, Irina's research is centered around Neuroplasticity and Healing through altered states of consciousness.
Irina’s path is deeply rooted in the discovery and exploration of the authentic self. She is the co-founder of Evolve Wellness App, founder of Breathwise Coaching for personal transformation, and an Integration Coach with Mindbloom.
References:
https://www.instagram.com/irinavlada__/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Hello and welcome. I'm Tatiana.
If you're new here, thanks for listening to the Conscious Diva
podcast. Joining me in this episode is
Irina Vlada, a psychologist, author and entrepreneur known
for her pioneering work in developing holistic ketamine
treatment programs. Irina specializes in
psychedelics and addiction recovery, where she merges yogic
tools for deeply life transformative experiences.
(00:30):
And Please note, the experiencesexpressed in this episode are
purely personal and not intendedfor the recommendation of
ayahuasca, ketamine, or any other psychedelic modality.
On the pod. We talk about Irina's personal
journey from the Himalayan yogictradition to psychedelics and
ketamine, and how psychedelics, spirituality, psychology, and
Wellness intersect for powerful inner healing.
(00:52):
And we also talk about how ketamine and yoga techniques
like breathwork can synergize tocreate a more comprehensive
healing experience. And Please note, ketamine is not
a recreational drug. We also discussed the work of
MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies, researching the healingpotential of MDMA and other
psychedelics. I hope you enjoy this episode
(01:14):
and if you love it, please give me a review and a like and
follow me on Instagram at The Conscious Diva.
Thank you so much for listening.Thank you so much for being here
this morning. It's so nice to chat to you.
Thank you. You know, I would love for you
to begin with sharing your storybecause when we first met, you
were in a very different place in your life and several years
(01:37):
ago and so many things have evolved and that have taken you
to this really wonderful place. When I start to share my
journey, I always make an accenton the fact that I, I do have a
journey of an immigrant. So I did arrive to United States
twenty years ago. And, you know, I was born and
raised in Russia. I came to a foreign country
(02:00):
across the ocean all by myself. And it does define a lot of
things, you know, it, it definesa character in some way.
It takes courage, you know, it takes excitement.
But being an immigrant who is inaffording land all alone and at
the time I didn't speak any English, so I think it also
(02:22):
brought a lot of challenges. It showed me the deep
disconnection that one can experience, disconnection from
the family first and foremost, right, Disconnection from your
culture, everything that you know.
But I think the deepest challenge that not just me, but
(02:43):
many people actually facing and experiencing is a deep
disconnection from yourself. So for a long time I was on this
path of self discovery and yes, that path never really ends, but
but there is a certain point of arrival when we do get sense of
self. Well, it took me a while.
(03:03):
So until we arrive into that place, you know, we feel quite
lost, we feel quite challenged. We feel very alone, lonely and.
And on that journey of search for meaning, search for self,
search for truth, I came across very powerful modalities,
(03:26):
Eastern wisdom. That is how yoga entered my life
and truly carried me through a lot of challenges because as you
know yourself, it is a powerful,powerful, powerful, powerful
practice that can enliven your soul and refine your mind,
refine your nervous system. So I've been on the process of
(03:49):
personal transformation for quite some time.
Somewhere along the way I did become a self-awareness coach
because of course, I was learning all the, all the tools
that now I could share with others and a lot of wisdom, a
lot of studies. And where I am today is even
(04:10):
further, I'm in the field of psychology now I, I'm doing my
PhD research on psychedelic medicine and addiction recovery.
So we're looking deeply into thehuman suffering, right?
How to elevate that human suffering potentially through
psychedelic medicine and also the right of healing modalities
(04:33):
that I recommend and advocate for in preparation practices for
psychedelic journey and of course for the integration
process. So I would say journey
continues, you know, journey of personal transformation,
continuous journey of education,continuous journey of healing
(04:54):
and coaching. It goes on.
But as of today, that is definitely more anchored, a more
peaceful state and where I know who I am.
And you can just hug the sense of self and you can trust that
sense of self. So in this busy and dynamic
(05:14):
world, you, you do know who you are.
You become that space for yourself, that home.
I think it's really important for listeners to understand like
your so you gave a real snapshotthere of your experience.
But you know, I could see your transformation of the last
several years, five years, say, for even the way your whole look
has completely shifted and evolved from your hair was
(05:38):
longer and it was blonde and your whole, you know, the way
you styled yourself, the way youpresented outwardly was very
different to now. And, and that is a testament to
the fact that you've really comeback to like your inner
confidence, your inner self love, and you're projecting
that, you know, the, the way you, you show up in the world
is, is so beautiful. And you can, I think that's so
wonderfully reflected in the wayyour appearance is, You know,
(06:01):
you don't need to be, you know, for lack of a better
description, showing oneself offbecause you know who you are.
And that comes through in your, your natural radiance and your
intelligence. And so I'd love just to
backtrack and maybe talk a little bit more about what yoga
did for you initially. You've had this wonderful
experience that took you in another direction.
(06:23):
And then you also realized there's more, right?
Like there's more which led to your your current path.
Yes, yes. And thank you so much for
pointing out that it is visible and that the transformation is
obvious. And that is a true testimonial,
right? Because when things change
inside, of course they're going to project outside.
(06:48):
And when we don't know who we are and we don't feel quite at
home within ourselves, so what'sgoing to happen?
Of course, we're going to look outside, right?
And in a way, it's normal. So I'm kind of going to share
here in parallel with what I learned from yogic tradition.
So yes, the way our system is designed, the all the sensors,
(07:13):
right, they help us to look outward and sense the world
experience and collect this information right through smell,
through visual through touch through and world is quite
beautiful. And you know, we can get quite
distracted in it. So if we don't have an anchor
inside, if we don't know our values, who we are, which really
(07:34):
matters, right? We can look outside and we can
look for validation, confirmation, We can look for
things that are of course more shinier, grabbing our attention.
So I think for quite some time Iwas caught in that searching
outside, right? And it reflects in your
external, of course, it's kind of like, oh, how can I, you know
(07:58):
how I want to be more of this, or I want to be more of that,
You know, how can I? Instead of improving your inner
state, you're working hard on improving your outer look,
right? And and.
That's very true for many, many people, and it's not like
there's anything wrong with that.
It's just that state of mind or being at that point of time.
Exactly. And I think that's where yoga
(08:21):
actually came in very strongly. And even like before yoga, I'll
start with that suffering state or challenge state, right?
That state will force you to look inside when no matter what
you look like or what you have in this material world, it just
won't give you the satisfaction.It won't give you the actual
(08:44):
meaning that what you're lookingfor.
It doesn't really give your purpose if it's not aligned with
your inner values and your heart.
So yoga is an internal practice,right?
Yoga is the practice that bringsall the senses inward and
through the practice you begin to discover your inner world.
(09:05):
And of course the very first thing what you discover there in
my case and I think in many people cases on the
transformational journey, it's not a very pretty world inside,
no matter how pretty you're trying to be outside because
there are sadness that has been ignored, right?
There may be anger and frustration and a lot of self
(09:26):
doubt and very and very oppositeexperiences that might be of
your experience outside, you know, you can have an
illusionary confidence and the way you present yourself to the
world, but inside you actually feel again, lonely, broken,
doubtful, very weak. So for me, yoga was a practice
(09:48):
that gave me the tool to work onthat cleansing and refining
process first and foremost, right?
So we train in the focus throughthe practice so we're no longer
distracted by what's happening outside.
We learn to bring that awarenessin Word with every meditation,
with every breath work practice,with every Satsang, with every
(10:11):
trip to India, with every training, right, with every book
reading. So we bring in that awareness in
Word and then we're refining theself-awareness growth and we
learning the true values. We're cleaning.
It's like clean and deep cleans that is happening within your
nervous system and within your consciousness.
(10:33):
It's really challenging for a lot of people to take that deep
dive because the struggle is real.
And the pain, when we give ourselves permission to feel
into the pain where the whereverthe body's storing it and
holding it. And when we finally allow that,
that that's when freedom, true freedom of the self is given
permission to arise. But that can be very painful for
(10:55):
a lot of people because we as humans have this ability to
suppress everything, right? We have this really to suppress
what we no longer wish to feel, to keep ourselves safe.
So it's both a blessing and a curse, right?
But I think you've done this wonderful self exploration, but
it wasn't, you've reached this point with yoga where you, you
(11:15):
felt you needed to to go deeper and actually explore the
assistance of other modalities beyond yoga.
So what, what happened there? How did what led you down that
path of psychedelics? So I will start by saying that
(11:36):
that psychedelics are not necessarily a medicine for
everyone, right? And I really want to make it
clear and. I just want to add to that
quickly that also not everyone goes through these
transformations with the yogic practices and then says, OK, I
need something else. Yoga's not doing it for me, but
there. But there can be moments where
(11:58):
an application or modality of some other assistance can really
because a person may be so locked in, in their
subconscious, so locked in and afraid to let go that they
actually need the guidance and the other tools in a safe and
supported environment. So just wanted to add add to
that. I appreciate that.
(12:18):
Yes, very good. And I was very conflicted at
first because being a Yogi, you know, we're trying to stay away
from any substance. Some people really go to
extremes and they don't even drink the coffee.
I spent years of restraining myself from alcohol and I
haven't, you know, been eating meat for over 15 years probably.
(12:44):
So the yogic practice also comeswith the sattvic way of living
and eating. And that does represent, you
know, the lifestyle that is freeof substance.
So it was a very big conflict for me to even consider
something else that will alter your consciousness, not in a
(13:04):
natural way, right? Because we can experience the
altered states of consciousness through the breath work, through
the state of deep meditation, mantra chanting and even other
tantric practices, right handling and and so and so on
within the tradition. So at the beginning it was a lot
of personal conflict for me. But what was also present and
(13:28):
truth, the level of my anxiety was not subsiding.
So at the time, I was already inthe yogic practice for almost 10
years and I do have a very traditional and very consistent
practice. So it was also very alarming to
me that there's something in my nervous system that is just not
(13:49):
quite getting there. Definitely a transformation,
definitely a progress, definitely life is more elevated
and you can see that the progress and you can see the
fruits of all your inner work. But I struggled with a lot of
very deep inner anxiety that wasat sometimes, you know, very
(14:13):
debilitating in a way. It could be very frightening and
paralyzing. So that was that was the reason.
That was the gateway that actually made me consider
something else. Consider the psychedelics.
I have a quick question around that.
When you were feeling the anxiety arise and you had, and
I'm assuming here that through your years of the yogic
(14:36):
practice, you were able to shed different layers and then at
some point realizing as you justdescribed this, but this anxiety
is still coming up. Were you ever able to connect
what was causing anxiety from from your childhood or your
past? And was that the reason why you
(14:57):
needed to to use another modality for assistance?
Or would you were you unable to pinpoint that at all?
So from what my awareness was atthe time and the way I could
explain and connect to my anxiety, it was their consistent
cycle of survival mode throughout my life.
(15:19):
Actually, not necessarily maybe in the childhood, even though
I'm sure a lot of things stems from there.
But it was traumatic experiences, you know, already
in an adult life and then continue like re traumatizing
and relieving. Like I just couldn't get out of
that visual cycle, right? Like that karmic cycle.
(15:40):
And it put me in a state of thisconstant survival mode where you
can't trust, you almost can't trust.
You don't trust, trust yourself.You're not connected very
deeply, right? And then you don't trust your
environment. And therefore it reflects you
don't trust your relationship. You know, I've been through two
divorces. So you don't really trust the
(16:01):
partner that you're in. And then it's a, it's a very
disconnected and very lonely place.
So even when the life would shift and it would give me more
safe and pleasant environment, the trauma was still there.
So for me to go deeper and heal those traumatic experiences, I
(16:27):
had to consider a different medicine.
How are you introduced to to psychedelics?
Did someone just say hey why don't you try this?
Or was it something you were considering for some time?
I started with the plant medicine and what's interesting
about the plant medicine and I experienced that the moment you
learn about the medicine, it's start to call you, it calls your
soul, it connects with your inner being and it's just
(16:53):
interesting, the psychedelic that ayahuasca plant medicine
was my very first medicine and I've done it with Colombian
shaman. I've done it in the United
States, but it was in a practicewith the Colombian shaman in a
tradition, yes, with the Colombian Tita, as they call
them, in a very traditional way of receiving the ayahuasca
(17:17):
medicine. And since I've learned and I've
heard the word, it's almost would wake me up at night
because it would be like an alarm within my system that
everything would just like maybenot scream, but vibrate and it
would be like ayahuasca, ayahuasca, ayahuasca, ayahuasca.
And it I was perceived by me that there are answers there,
(17:42):
right? And there is a calling there.
And that is the comforting understanding that plant
medicine does come from the Mother Earth and it has been
used by ancient traditions, right?
The native people who actually had very deep relationship with
(18:03):
the Mother Earth. So from that understanding, it
began to give me a lot of comfort with the medicine.
Not every psychedelic medicine is the plant medicine.
And unfortunately, in the UnitedStates, in the professional
world, we only have quite a few.We have ketamine that we can use
(18:30):
in the medical setting, right? And it is a psychedelic, but
it's not a classic psychedelic. So it's not planned.
It's actually a chemical. And then right now we have 2
states that did legalize the psilocybin.
And psilocybin is the psychedelic component of magic
mushrooms. So psilocybin actually does
(18:50):
represent the planned medicine and things like ayahuasca,
Aberdeen, they, they are plant medicine, but unfortunately
they're not illegally and widelyavailable.
Yeah. And then?
And the reason for that is because of the way I, it's, I
don't want to say produced, but it's a process.
(19:13):
It's not like you can package it.
It's not like Solace even we canpackage literally, it can be in
a tablet form or in liquid form.It's not, it's a lot easier than
to, to, to sell, I suppose. Well, ayahuasca is much more
traditionally, as you know, something that required a
ceremony and it really still should be that because it's so
(19:34):
sacred. And same with the so anything
from the plants that are a gift to us to work with should be
really honored, and I was going to say consumed, but honored in
a very ceremonial and respectfuland ritual way.
It's not. It's not a recreational product
that a lot of people just abuse as such.
(19:56):
And the product is very intense too.
It has an immense power. This medicines have an immense
power. And what you would know about
the power, that power has a potential to heal and transform,
but at the same time, that powercan be very.
Whitening, it can be very intense, it can be re
(20:18):
traumatizing if our nervous system is not prepared, if our
nervous system is not strong enough.
And in most cases it is not because people who do come to
those medicines intentionally, right?
They come with mental health challenges like myself, some
people struggle with anxiety, some people struggle with
(20:39):
depression, some people strugglewith suicidal ideation.
People have deep traumas, peoplehave addictions, people have
chronic pain, and people are suffering.
So yes, their nervous system is not in the balanced ultimate
state. It's not even at the baseline,
right? So the main message and the main
(21:01):
out of my personal experience, but also throughout the
professional experience that I've been having in the last
five years now with psychedelic medicine is that we must focus
just as much on preparation and integration process as we're
focusing on the psychedelic journey itself.
(21:21):
So we can honor our nervous system, our mind, prepare our
understanding and really hold a safe container for ourselves,
take care of our body as well. Because a special diet needs to
come with this to support the journey right?
(21:41):
And afterwards as well. So we want to do this medicine
very consciously so it can support us to shift into more
conscious life choices. So we not just doing it
mindlessly either hoping for quick solutions.
What can happen sometimes. You know, that's a whole other
(22:03):
conversation and challenge that people do look for magic pill
and they just like quick fix, right?
But unfortunately, yes, right. But we, you know, we come for
this medicine very consciously. So let's take time, right?
So let's take time to prepare, let's take time to understand,
(22:25):
let's take time to lower the expectation and focus on
intention because intention willcarry you through.
Your intention is not only for the psychedelic journey, your
intention for your transformation, for your
healing. That will actually be that
bridge right through the journeyand after, through the
(22:46):
psychedelic journey and after. 100% and you know, said so
beautifully. Thank you.
And it is really critical and and even even though I I'm going
to ask you about you or how you work in a moment, but even when
I'm working with my clients and I'm not administering
psychedelics, but the intention,as you know, because you've done
a session with me, that intention is so critical to
unlocking oneself. So, Cher, now how are you
(23:10):
integrating your because it's been really amazing for you to
bring the yogic practice into what you're doing to help the
person, help support clients integrate, help support, you
know them before they start taking the medicine, the
synthesized medicine so that they can the ketamine so that
(23:30):
they're able to be in a more grounded, safe space.
But first, just share about yourexperience with ketamine.
When did you go from Ayahuasca? Yes, yes, great question.
And I think it's a crucial question because as incredible
and eye opening and hard expending experience was
(23:53):
ayahuasca I had, it took me quite a few years to integrate
and stabilize. And if it wouldn't be for yogic
tools, it would be a lot more challenging to integrate the
psychedelic experience because for all the reasons that I'm
mentioning, because of the intensity, because of all the
(24:15):
openings that are happening and how much the consciousness can
actually expand. Describe that really quickly
before you can continue because I think it's important for
people to understand because some people may have had those
feelings and don't even realize what they are, you know, because
I mean, you and I know what those feel like.
And, and they can be quite frightening, but at the same
time so expansive and so many things can happen so quickly and
(24:38):
then also have a delayed effect where then you have because
parts of the body, our organs hold and store so many emotions
that as we're releasing and unlocking, suddenly you might
feel a wave of something, right?So just explain in your own
experience what happened, what that was like for you.
Yes. So as I like to talk about the
ayahuasca, as I reflect back, you know, even though my
(25:01):
intention was to heal the anxiety, but what happens in
psychedelic experience is that it's extremely dynamic.
So it gives you so much information, so much happening
in like split seconds, right? So we can never even remember
everything that happened in our psychedelic journey.
(25:22):
So what happens afterwards is that you can be extremely
overwhelmed with everything thatyou've just seen and experienced
and even your desire to rememberit.
And one of the integration practices are journaling because
we're trying to get things, you know, in like into our memory in
like, we, we want to embody as much information as we can, but
(25:45):
I don't think it's actually possible because of the
expansion that is happening through the medicine, right?
So the, the, the benefits and the healing components that I've
experienced, I went through my own rebirth experience from my
(26:06):
mother's wound. I've seen the ancient
civilizations coming and going. So understanding that
uncertainty and impermanence of reality was very powerful for
me, right? So you can kind of, if you truly
understand the concept of impermanence you and you
(26:29):
understand the wisdom in that, that that is really no steel or
anchoring moment right In this dynamic universe and this
existence, it can give you a sense of peace in a way.
And you can start to make peace with the uncertainty and find
your own flow with the dynamism of life that is happening around
(26:50):
you. So that was very powerful lesson
for me as well. I've also experienced going
quite not just out of my body, but maybe out of the existing
universe as well as it sounds. And it was very foreign for me
out there. And for the first time, I
(27:11):
actually desired nothing else but being back in this
particular body experience. I just had chills and it made me
emotional. Because through the suffering,
you ready to quit. You don't have meaning, you
don't have an anchor. You don't value your own life
because your life doesn't feel good to you.
(27:33):
So you're almost like betraying your own self and all the God's
gifts and all the chances that you have in this beautiful life
because you don't see it. You don't see an opportunity.
You don't see the abundance right?
You, you, you don't see the, the, the, the beauty of this
nature. So for me to lose all of it and
(27:55):
being in some I'm showing like I'm doing the faraway space, but
of course there is no distance, there is no time and you know
and necessarily. Like in the lack of awareness.
Yes, correct. And I desired nothing else but
come back. So my journey of coming back
(28:16):
into the body was through my ownrebirth experience, like and I
and I either it was a new rebirth, or maybe it was a
memory of my initial birth, you know, as I was in my mother's
womb as an embryo and then actually coming through the
birth channel and grabbing theirearth because we were the, the,
(28:40):
the ceremony was outside. We were on the mats on the
ground and it was in the middle of the night.
And for me with my hand, with mybare hands, grabbing the earth
and smelling the earth, the soil, right and touching the
grass and having this earthly embodied experience was the most
(29:02):
meaningful thing that I couldn'teven dream about.
South Ayahuasca was able to showme this and give me the life
meaning back. That was a benefit.
But the all this beautiful dreamand all this amazing sensations
(29:22):
go away very quickly and you shrink back into the same body.
And that leftover of your initial suffering is still
there. So nobody is canceling that.
Nobody's canceling anxiety, nobody's canceling depression.
But now you have this grand understanding of reality and
(29:46):
existence, right? So what you're going to do with
it? And instead of eliminating
anxiety, you can actually get even more overwhelmed and
without a proper tools that can ground you even deeper, that can
refine your nervous system, thatcan stabilize your breath.
And through the deep breath experiences, we can actually
(30:10):
imitate in a way or experiencingthe, the, the expanded states of
consciousness. Again, maybe not to that extent
or maybe so right. Like it depends on your personal
practice and the depth and the power that you put into your
practice. So that's why yoga was a crucial
(30:30):
component. So to me, psychedelics can quite
not exist without yoga. And I know that might sounds a
little revolutionary, you know, not every yogic person will
agree with that. And that's OK, you know, And
that's perfectly fine because like I said, this journey is not
(30:52):
for everyone. But for people who do choose the
psychedelic medicine, they do need an additional support.
And I and I do want them to knowthis because I was blessed was
being introduced to a yogic tradition.
I was blessed with my travels toIndia, to one of the most
profound sites where I could be with the source of wisdom, with
(31:16):
our teacher and safe and trustedsource that could actually give
me also the amazing support, give me the tools.
But not everybody have that. It's true and also with with
yoga, as it's mostly taught in the West, it's asana.
So it's just a physical practiceand and there's some teachers
(31:40):
that are also including panayamabreath work, but a majority,
especially if you go into a way,a very western style gym to do a
yoga class, it's likely it's notgoing to be that deep or
expansive. You may feel something that's
not true for everybody. I'm generalizing, of course, But
when you explore and if yoga, ifyou feel that pull and you can
(32:02):
explore something deeper, those practices, the asana is really
designed to turnify the body forus to be able to sit in
meditation for hours and hours. It's not this body sculpting
practice, right, that a lot of people use it as and and that's
that's totally fine, of course, but the practice you're talking
about is really amazing. Those those tools of the breath
(32:25):
of the careers of the movement, these action orientated and very
unblocking practices are incredible and they are designed
to to stabilize the nervous system.
They also will radically shake the nervous system right and and
make you feel things you've never felt before.
(32:45):
But then as you've talked about this integration, the really
important this, this is a massive point.
So just talk about now how you then went were exposed to.
Ketamine, right? So I worked with Colombian
chairman for quite some time andit was profound experiences as I
shared. Well, how many times did you did
you do ayahuasca? Firstly, was it?
(33:06):
Was it because that's not something you go and do every
weekend? No, it's not.
I would say I had around 10 ceremonies in the in the every
year period. So yes, that's not something you
do every weekend because of the intensity of the experience.
Yes, but the Katamine I was introduced to through
(33:28):
professional work because after the ayahuasca experiences and
combining it with the yogic tools, I started to coach people
who went through similar journeys and Academy companies,
telemedicine companies, they came very popular because a lot
(33:48):
of people who struggling with mental health challenges, they
don't have access to plant medicine again, like you know
that that's another thing not people don't have access to
that. So because they're not widely
available and they're not legal in a system, the beauty of
(34:11):
ketamine is that the medicine isextremely safe and it is legal
in medical industry. So, and that was my connection
to ketamine, that you can actually trust the medicine.
It works in a very short period of time.
The session is a lot shorter. So we're Speaking of one hour to
(34:35):
an hour and a half versus psilocybin is 6 hours to 8
hours. Ayahuasca can be up to 12 hours,
up again is up to 72 hours. So those are very deep intense
experiences, right? So ketamine within one hour to
90 minutes you have a very similar experiences, just
psychedelic experiences. You can have the auto body
(34:58):
experience. You definitely becoming an
observer because you get into a dissociated state.
You also can connect deeply, even though you're an observant
state, but you still have an opportunity to connect to
certain insights, to connect to the old memories, to receive
(35:20):
realizations as you actually observing, you know, your inner
environment, your inner state ofconsciousness.
So I was introduced to Kadamine through a professional work and
I think first time in above. Yeah, like four years ago, five
years ago, and in about just in the period of one year, a year
(35:45):
and a half. I've talked to almost 200
people, like a lot of people whowent through Academy journeys as
an integration coach. And I've seen a tremendous
amount of potential of that medicine, what doesn't
necessarily save you or heal allyour challenges, but it does
(36:08):
give you a step forward. It does give you an opportunity
to progress. It does give you a window
through which you have a neuroplastic state.
You're able to shift your consciousness, you're able to
shift your awareness yourself, awareness expense, of course, in
(36:28):
any of those journeys. And you, you have this window of
an opportunity when you, your mind is less densed.
And I, I, I think that's one of the most important thing like
how cadamine actually works. It helps to shed a few layers
right of that danced consciousness, some limiting
(36:51):
beliefs that we are so locked inor we have some traumatic
memories and we're defined by them.
We create this story around themand Katamin, just like it
doesn't necessarily heal the trauma, but it's going to unlock
a few things and you're going tofeel more grounded.
You're going to feel more spacious in your physical body,
(37:13):
more spacious in your mind. And from that space, if you do
have a proper integration, you have a way higher opportunity to
create a change. What do you say to people that
think that it's addictive? You know, there's been
celebrities in the news that have died, but they are
obviously getting it in a very different setting to go into a
(37:35):
center where it's being safely administered.
So we're just love you to talk to those points because ketamine
is still came in use. While legal in some states,
there's still a lot of stigma around it.
Yes. And the stigma does come from,
unfortunately, their people's experiences who are using it
(37:56):
unintentionally. And ketamine does have a stigma
of being a party drug. What personally is extremely
challenging for me to understandbecause when we say party, we
want, you know, we envision something dynamic, maybe music
festival, maybe, you know, goingout.
And ketamine is the medicine that is anesthetic anesthetic
(38:18):
like it puts your body into a depressed and you actually you
have to have a safety measure for Academy journeys that we
administrate that you need to bein a very safe environment and
don't move because you've very wobbly, right?
You're not stable at all. So it's very important to be
either in a chair or in a couch in a horizontal position, but
(38:42):
not in the movement. So this I could never quite
understand how people actually use it in a party scene.
But I think what happens is thatthey mixed ketamine with a lot
of other things, right? So they do mixed stimulants that
are more of a dynamic drug and has a dynamic effect on you with
(39:04):
the ketamine that gives you moreof that disassociated
experience. So when that mix to happens, it
becomes extremely unsafe becauseketamine is chemical, it's not a
plant medicine. So then it mixed with other
chemicals and that it affecting your brain chemistry, it
affecting your body chemistry, and anything can happen from
(39:27):
that. It's like completely
unpredictable because it's completely unsafe.
Well, you said the word disassociation and so I think
for maybe somebody who who's depressed or experiencing
already a level of disassociation from themselves
and awareness to then take ketamine or or and a ketamine
like product as you just described in a party scenario.
(39:49):
I can understand how that can then they, they might be, you
know, addicted or drawn to wanting to continue with that
process because they are very much already perhaps living in a
state of disassociation from themselves without even
realizing it, right? Without even having the
awareness of that, which again comes back to the practice of
yoga. When we can do these yogic
(40:11):
practices and integrate, we're able to come back to the self,
right? But the truth of who we are,
which then puts us in a place of.
Being able to associate with allof our issues, all of our
problems, and understand where they come from.
So can you talk to this point a little bit more and really
expand on what integration does?For you, yes.
So that is quite a true to what you're saying that even outside
(40:36):
of a party, even with an intentional use, ketamine can
give you a sense of relief, right?
That if someone is in their deepstate of suffering, you know,
they, they can have a sense of relief.
And when the moment people have a sense of relief, they want to
repeat that, right? So people are not focusing on
doing an actual heavy lifting work through integration and,
(40:58):
and I'll get to that, right? And do the processing and
working with the coach, working with the therapist, they just
now potentially want an escape that they experienced in
ketamine. The thing is the ketamine is
very short lasting. So even if that addictive
thought will be there, but ketamine is it's, it's a one
(41:21):
hour journey. So even if you want to repeat
it, like how often you're going to repeat it, you can't be in
that state for extended period of time like that that you know,
you can increase the dose what will be detrimental to your
body. And even if with the increase of
the dose, you're not going to prolong the state.
(41:43):
And unfortunately it can happen.That's why in a medical setting,
we we go through a very deep screening.
So people do meet with the doctor and go through
questionnairing. So we're trying to screen people
with the potential of certain things, but of of this addictive
(42:06):
pattern challenges. And even though ketamine
actually also have been known for treating addiction itself as
well. If people have addiction with us
substances, because if it is done intentionally, even though
it going to give that relief foryou.
But if you there intentionally and you work with the coach or a
(42:27):
therapist and you begin to integrate your insights or your
ketamine experiences into your regular life, you begin to feel
relief in your life. And that's the magic that needs
to happen. So not that unconscious relief
that we can have, you know, in the journey itself, but the
(42:48):
actual embodied experience, you know, of elevating the suffering
and integrating the insight intoyour life, embodying the new
knowledge so you can actually create a real change in your
life. But we have to continue to
monitor who get prescribed, how they get administered, how often
(43:10):
they come to see the doctor. All of those things still have
to be monitored. Yes, I agree.
And so how do we integrate? How would a person in who's
never, who's not familiar with what that would even means?
What does that experience feel like?
So for me integration is embodiment, right?
(43:30):
So it integration is not only related to psychedelics.
We can integrate any experience,right?
We, I mean, yoga, there's a lot of people and yoga too.
Yes, we have to integrate exactly because medicine will
shake things up just like yoga can, right?
We're going to have a lot of newinsights in our awareness and we
(43:55):
need to process this. We need to embody this.
We need to and go through different modalities, but one of
the most important one I think is a talk therapy to process
actually your experience and connect your experience to your
intention. So we're kind of like looking,
(44:16):
well, it's not necessarily back.I feel like the intention is
more of a northern star. So let's look, you know, let's
look up again, you know, to connect to the intention, but
then also connecting to the nextstep forward.
So this this beautiful connection that is happening.
So we're not just mindlessly administered, you know,
(44:36):
psychedelics, we actually, we have an intention, we have a
purpose, we're working on something and either we got the
insight or not. We definitely had a certain body
experience. We definitely, you know, that is
definitely take take a waste from any psychedelic journey.
So coaching will help us to process it verbally, but I think
(44:59):
that a lot of practices that also help us to integrate it on
the somatic level. So that's again, that's where
the Kriya yoga comes in. That's where breath work comes
in, That's where cold therapy comes in because we have to
continue to strengthen the nervous system, anything that's
strengthening the nervous systemand more mindful life choices
(45:24):
through that connection with ourintention and what is the next
step forward? So this step by step process
where we begin to embody either it's a new version of me or a
new pattern that I desire to implement in my life, right?
New way of showing up in life, releasing the old story,
(45:47):
identifying was the new story ofwho you are and who you desire
to be relationship as well. You know, if you're moving away
from a broken, challenging, toxic relationship, great.
Who do you choose to be? How do you choose to show up?
So psychedelic can give you an insight, a certain experience, a
(46:08):
certain healing, but then the integration process is like what
are you going to do with it? Are you going to integrate?
What is going to be your day-to-day step by step
commitment to become that personright that you had the glimpse
to feel or to meet in your journey?
(46:29):
How are you now teaching people?So you're a coach.
What do you do as a coach? Where are you working and what
are you studying? You mentioned you're getting
your PhD. Yes, yes.
So I've been actually a virtual coach for quite some time and I
do love that part of technology era that we all live in because
(46:52):
it's a great flexibility not only for myself but also for my
clients. But it's very interesting, like
during COVID when everything andeveryone went online, right?
Even the meditation and the yogic practice went online.
Even the yogic training was Himalayas.
When we couldn't get to India, everybody went online, including
the yogic masters, right? So.
(47:14):
And my teacher, 27th generation Eppali shaman, we were doing
fire ceremonies online. I still had to get all the
things, but we would do them, yeah.
Magic right, but you know, if weunderstand the energy then that
that's no problem, right we connect what what and then it
gives us this opportunity to connect, but at the same time
(47:35):
it's really convenient for everyone so that I do work
online and I travel quite a bad personally as you know I do have
a home in Miami, but I spent some time in Middle East right
now so even there is a time difference, you know but I see
the clients on zoom. What I do have in person is the
(47:59):
medical practice and the doctor Michelle winner who I
collaborate with so for the medical practice is a little bit
different. You know you're still you're you
with the medicine you do need toto be in in the present.
So the when the person actually have the journey itself.
So it does have happen in the physical location.
(48:22):
It happens at the ketamine clinic and doctor Michelle
Winner, she has quite a few. She has four locations in South
Florida. So it depends on conveniency.
You know of the client which oneis more convenient for their
home address I would say. You can also monitor the person
and then they get to have a morefull.
(48:44):
Experience, absolutely, and the preparation can happen online,
right? But of course, the Academy
journey itself has to be in person and as safe as possible.
And I think that feeling of safety is not always defined by
just a safe environment. What is of course important, but
I think it's the level of connection that has happened,
(49:06):
right? So if I work with someone in a
preparation process, in a coaching process, and that does
happen virtually, and that's fine, but we establish a
connection, we establish a relationship.
So when we meet in person for Academy Journey, a person
actually feels like they have this great support.
(49:26):
They have their coach, they havethe nurse, they have the doctor,
they have the medical team. So I believe that whole
preparation process is not only educational and again, like
prepping over the nervous system, but it's also a
relationship building. So we're building that safety,
we're building that connection and that is something that is
(49:47):
very nurturing and very important to enter.
Like it gives you that sense of safety and you can be more
relaxed, more calm, more present.
So then you're entering the psychedelic journey from a very
different. State that's really beautiful to
hold to hold them in that safe environment yes and are you is
that clinic are those clinics associated with maps at all like
(50:10):
if you went onto the maps website and looked.
Up we we're very connected you know with MAPS, but not like
business is not associated, but we've done you know some events
together and a doctor Michelle is connected with Rick Dublin
and they in communication and wealways support one another speak
(50:32):
at the conferences. And so yes, everybody as a
community, I would say working on a same mission, advocating
for the power of psychedelic medicine in intentional and
clinical use, so. What does maps stand for?
MAPS is the multidisciplinary association of psychedelics and
(50:55):
they do support a psychedelic community at variety of the
angles. So they are lobbying in the more
of a political sense of things, but they're also raising money
and supporting clinical trials and the multiple clinical
trials. The most recent one is done with
the MDMA. So we are working hard on
(51:20):
approving MDMA medicine for treatment of PTSD and
depression. People with deep, deep, deep
trauma. Your PhD, What are you studying?
Yes, my PhD is going to be a research on addiction recovery
and psychedelics and specifically focused on
(51:43):
preparation and integration process.
So my question is how their psychedelic medicine impact the
addiction recovery people with deep traumatic experiences and
spiritual disconnection, emotional disbalance, right?
(52:03):
And if psychedelic medicine actually have a potential to
heal and transform people who are deeply suffering and deeply
troubled by addiction. Yeah, well done.
And how can people find you? You know, where you have a
different, you've got a few different things happening and
you've also didn't you lead retreats or you organize them,
(52:25):
right? Yes, it's true.
So since I am Miami based, we dohave quite a few consistent
events going on in city of Miamithat are more of an educational
psychedelic events that are actually combined with the yogic
practices. So I love to have a psychedelic
(52:46):
panel that is providing information and can answer any
questions, but at the same time I like to show people a practice
of mindfulness, breath work and meditation to help them to
understand why those modalities are important for preparation
and integration process. Since the September of the last
year, we have a nine month program at this standard spa and
(53:11):
hotel in Miami. Quite magical space, very famous
spot in Miami and they're loved by many.
So it's fun to actually do the day retreats.
We're doing a day retreat. So you spend 90 minutes with us,
you educate and you're practicing and then you have
access to the spa with the soundhealing to to continue to
(53:33):
integrate now the information and your personal experience.
We do lead catamine retreats as well.
Those are not as frequent, but there is also an opportunity to
have a private catamine retreat here in Miami as well.
That's a more of a complex process because again, as I
(53:54):
mentioned, all the medical screening that is happening in
the meeting with the doctor, thewhole preparation process that
would happen prior. So it is a possibility, but we
have to be in a more of a deeperwork and contact in the relation
working relationship together versus that they retreat at the
standard spa. You can just show up, you know,
(54:17):
once a month and learn some stuff and experience some yogic
tools and a lot of fun. Yes.
And you can find me on Instagramand on LinkedIn, one of my
mission now as well. So how can we continue to
support people who are in a challenged position?
(54:38):
Because the one most important thing that helped me to move
forward is just you. You don't quit, you just don't
quit. You don't have an option to
quit. You show up no matter what.
And even if your way of showing up is just being like this and
bad, then be like this and bad. But but you don't quit.
You don't quit this life, you know, you continue to be
(54:59):
courageous. It does take courage.
I think this life is quite intense, you know, and it takes
courage to, to. Show up.
You see through, yeah. Show up even when you don't have
a strength or faith or purpose. So you have to keep looking for
that internally. Yes, it's in here, isn't it?
(55:22):
Yes. So you have a website, use it
breath wise, is that it? Or you.
My website isbreathwise.co.co and my breath wise website has
some information about my coaching practice and also an
opportunity to book a session and connect with me through the
(55:42):
website as well. Yes.
Well, thank you so much. It was wonderful to chat to you.
It's awesome. And you know, I just think that
you've shared some really wonderful wisdom.
So thank you very, very much. Thank you for having me.
It has been a blessing to know you.
It has been a blessing to be in a personal session with you
(56:03):
through your gifts and talents. And it has been just a joy to
see your smile. So thank you so much for giving
this opportunity and hearing what I have to say.
Thank you so much and you're welcome.
Hello and welcome. I'm Tatiana.
If you're new here, thanks for listening to the Conscious Diva
podcast. Joining me in this episode is
Irina Vlada, a psychologist, author and entrepreneur known
for her pioneering work in developing holistic ketamine
treatment programs. Irina specializes in
psychedelics and addiction recovery, where she merges yogic
tools for deeply life transformative experiences.
(00:30):
And Please note, the experiencesexpressed in this episode are
purely personal and not intendedfor the recommendation of
ayahuasca, ketamine, or any other psychedelic modality.
On the pod. We talk about Irina's personal
journey from the Himalayan yogictradition to psychedelics and
ketamine, and how psychedelics, spirituality, psychology, and
Wellness intersect for powerful inner healing.
(00:52):
And we also talk about how ketamine and yoga techniques
like breathwork can synergize tocreate a more comprehensive
healing experience. And Please note, ketamine is not
a recreational drug. We also discussed the work of
MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies, researching the healingpotential of MDMA and other
psychedelics. I hope you enjoy this episode
(01:14):
and if you love it, please give me a review and a like and
follow me on Instagram at The Conscious Diva.
Thank you so much for listening.Thank you so much for being here
this morning. It's so nice to chat to you.
Thank you. You know, I would love for you
to begin with sharing your storybecause when we first met, you
were in a very different place in your life and several years
(01:37):
ago and so many things have evolved and that have taken you
to this really wonderful place. When I start to share my
journey, I always make an accenton the fact that I, I do have a
journey of an immigrant. So I did arrive to United States
twenty years ago. And, you know, I was born and
raised in Russia. I came to a foreign country
(02:00):
across the ocean all by myself. And it does define a lot of
things, you know, it, it definesa character in some way.
It takes courage, you know, it takes excitement.
But being an immigrant who is inaffording land all alone and at
the time I didn't speak any English, so I think it also
(02:22):
brought a lot of challenges. It showed me the deep
disconnection that one can experience, disconnection from
the family first and foremost, right, Disconnection from your
culture, everything that you know.
But I think the deepest challenge that not just me, but
(02:43):
many people actually facing and experiencing is a deep
disconnection from yourself. So for a long time I was on this
path of self discovery and yes, that path never really ends, but
but there is a certain point of arrival when we do get sense of
self. Well, it took me a while.
(03:03):
So until we arrive into that place, you know, we feel quite
lost, we feel quite challenged. We feel very alone, lonely and.
And on that journey of search for meaning, search for self,
search for truth, I came across very powerful modalities,
(03:26):
Eastern wisdom. That is how yoga entered my life
and truly carried me through a lot of challenges because as you
know yourself, it is a powerful,powerful, powerful, powerful
practice that can enliven your soul and refine your mind,
refine your nervous system. So I've been on the process of
(03:49):
personal transformation for quite some time.
Somewhere along the way I did become a self-awareness coach
because of course, I was learning all the, all the tools
that now I could share with others and a lot of wisdom, a
lot of studies. And where I am today is even
(04:10):
further, I'm in the field of psychology now I, I'm doing my
PhD research on psychedelic medicine and addiction recovery.
So we're looking deeply into thehuman suffering, right?
How to elevate that human suffering potentially through
psychedelic medicine and also the right of healing modalities
(04:33):
that I recommend and advocate for in preparation practices for
psychedelic journey and of course for the integration
process. So I would say journey
continues, you know, journey of personal transformation,
continuous journey of education,continuous journey of healing
(04:54):
and coaching. It goes on.
But as of today, that is definitely more anchored, a more
peaceful state and where I know who I am.
And you can just hug the sense of self and you can trust that
sense of self. So in this busy and dynamic
(05:14):
world, you, you do know who you are.
You become that space for yourself, that home.
I think it's really important for listeners to understand like
your so you gave a real snapshotthere of your experience.
But you know, I could see your transformation of the last
several years, five years, say, for even the way your whole look
has completely shifted and evolved from your hair was
(05:38):
longer and it was blonde and your whole, you know, the way
you styled yourself, the way youpresented outwardly was very
different to now. And, and that is a testament to
the fact that you've really comeback to like your inner
confidence, your inner self love, and you're projecting
that, you know, the, the way you, you show up in the world
is, is so beautiful. And you can, I think that's so
wonderfully reflected in the wayyour appearance is, You know,
(06:01):
you don't need to be, you know, for lack of a better
description, showing oneself offbecause you know who you are.
And that comes through in your, your natural radiance and your
intelligence. And so I'd love just to
backtrack and maybe talk a little bit more about what yoga
did for you initially. You've had this wonderful
experience that took you in another direction.
(06:23):
And then you also realized there's more, right?
Like there's more which led to your your current path.
Yes, yes. And thank you so much for
pointing out that it is visible and that the transformation is
obvious. And that is a true testimonial,
right? Because when things change
inside, of course they're going to project outside.
(06:48):
And when we don't know who we are and we don't feel quite at
home within ourselves, so what'sgoing to happen?
Of course, we're going to look outside, right?
And in a way, it's normal. So I'm kind of going to share
here in parallel with what I learned from yogic tradition.
So yes, the way our system is designed, the all the sensors,
(07:13):
right, they help us to look outward and sense the world
experience and collect this information right through smell,
through visual through touch through and world is quite
beautiful. And you know, we can get quite
distracted in it. So if we don't have an anchor
inside, if we don't know our values, who we are, which really
(07:34):
matters, right? We can look outside and we can
look for validation, confirmation, We can look for
things that are of course more shinier, grabbing our attention.
So I think for quite some time Iwas caught in that searching
outside, right? And it reflects in your
external, of course, it's kind of like, oh, how can I, you know
(07:58):
how I want to be more of this, or I want to be more of that,
You know, how can I? Instead of improving your inner
state, you're working hard on improving your outer look,
right? And and.
That's very true for many, many people, and it's not like
there's anything wrong with that.
It's just that state of mind or being at that point of time.
Exactly. And I think that's where yoga
(08:21):
actually came in very strongly. And even like before yoga, I'll
start with that suffering state or challenge state, right?
That state will force you to look inside when no matter what
you look like or what you have in this material world, it just
won't give you the satisfaction.It won't give you the actual
(08:44):
meaning that what you're lookingfor.
It doesn't really give your purpose if it's not aligned with
your inner values and your heart.
So yoga is an internal practice,right?
Yoga is the practice that bringsall the senses inward and
through the practice you begin to discover your inner world.
(09:05):
And of course the very first thing what you discover there in
my case and I think in many people cases on the
transformational journey, it's not a very pretty world inside,
no matter how pretty you're trying to be outside because
there are sadness that has been ignored, right?
There may be anger and frustration and a lot of self
(09:26):
doubt and very and very oppositeexperiences that might be of
your experience outside, you know, you can have an
illusionary confidence and the way you present yourself to the
world, but inside you actually feel again, lonely, broken,
doubtful, very weak. So for me, yoga was a practice
(09:48):
that gave me the tool to work onthat cleansing and refining
process first and foremost, right?
So we train in the focus throughthe practice so we're no longer
distracted by what's happening outside.
We learn to bring that awarenessin Word with every meditation,
with every breath work practice,with every Satsang, with every
(10:11):
trip to India, with every training, right, with every book
reading. So we bring in that awareness in
Word and then we're refining theself-awareness growth and we
learning the true values. We're cleaning.
It's like clean and deep cleans that is happening within your
nervous system and within your consciousness.
(10:33):
It's really challenging for a lot of people to take that deep
dive because the struggle is real.
And the pain, when we give ourselves permission to feel
into the pain where the whereverthe body's storing it and
holding it. And when we finally allow that,
that that's when freedom, true freedom of the self is given
permission to arise. But that can be very painful for
(10:55):
a lot of people because we as humans have this ability to
suppress everything, right? We have this really to suppress
what we no longer wish to feel, to keep ourselves safe.
So it's both a blessing and a curse, right?
But I think you've done this wonderful self exploration, but
it wasn't, you've reached this point with yoga where you, you
(11:15):
felt you needed to to go deeper and actually explore the
assistance of other modalities beyond yoga.
So what, what happened there? How did what led you down that
path of psychedelics? So I will start by saying that
(11:36):
that psychedelics are not necessarily a medicine for
everyone, right? And I really want to make it
clear and. I just want to add to that
quickly that also not everyone goes through these
transformations with the yogic practices and then says, OK, I
need something else. Yoga's not doing it for me, but
there. But there can be moments where
(11:58):
an application or modality of some other assistance can really
because a person may be so locked in, in their
subconscious, so locked in and afraid to let go that they
actually need the guidance and the other tools in a safe and
supported environment. So just wanted to add add to
that. I appreciate that.
(12:18):
Yes, very good. And I was very conflicted at
first because being a Yogi, you know, we're trying to stay away
from any substance. Some people really go to
extremes and they don't even drink the coffee.
I spent years of restraining myself from alcohol and I
haven't, you know, been eating meat for over 15 years probably.
(12:44):
So the yogic practice also comeswith the sattvic way of living
and eating. And that does represent, you
know, the lifestyle that is freeof substance.
So it was a very big conflict for me to even consider
something else that will alter your consciousness, not in a
(13:04):
natural way, right? Because we can experience the
altered states of consciousness through the breath work, through
the state of deep meditation, mantra chanting and even other
tantric practices, right handling and and so and so on
within the tradition. So at the beginning it was a lot
of personal conflict for me. But what was also present and
(13:28):
truth, the level of my anxiety was not subsiding.
So at the time, I was already inthe yogic practice for almost 10
years and I do have a very traditional and very consistent
practice. So it was also very alarming to
me that there's something in my nervous system that is just not
(13:49):
quite getting there. Definitely a transformation,
definitely a progress, definitely life is more elevated
and you can see that the progress and you can see the
fruits of all your inner work. But I struggled with a lot of
very deep inner anxiety that wasat sometimes, you know, very
(14:13):
debilitating in a way. It could be very frightening and
paralyzing. So that was that was the reason.
That was the gateway that actually made me consider
something else. Consider the psychedelics.
I have a quick question around that.
When you were feeling the anxiety arise and you had, and
I'm assuming here that through your years of the yogic
(14:36):
practice, you were able to shed different layers and then at
some point realizing as you justdescribed this, but this anxiety
is still coming up. Were you ever able to connect
what was causing anxiety from from your childhood or your
past? And was that the reason why you
(14:57):
needed to to use another modality for assistance?
Or would you were you unable to pinpoint that at all?
So from what my awareness was atthe time and the way I could
explain and connect to my anxiety, it was their consistent
cycle of survival mode throughout my life.
(15:19):
Actually, not necessarily maybe in the childhood, even though
I'm sure a lot of things stems from there.
But it was traumatic experiences, you know, already
in an adult life and then continue like re traumatizing
and relieving. Like I just couldn't get out of
that visual cycle, right? Like that karmic cycle.
(15:40):
And it put me in a state of thisconstant survival mode where you
can't trust, you almost can't trust.
You don't trust, trust yourself.You're not connected very
deeply, right? And then you don't trust your
environment. And therefore it reflects you
don't trust your relationship. You know, I've been through two
divorces. So you don't really trust the
(16:01):
partner that you're in. And then it's a, it's a very
disconnected and very lonely place.
So even when the life would shift and it would give me more
safe and pleasant environment, the trauma was still there.
So for me to go deeper and heal those traumatic experiences, I
(16:27):
had to consider a different medicine.
How are you introduced to to psychedelics?
Did someone just say hey why don't you try this?
Or was it something you were considering for some time?
I started with the plant medicine and what's interesting
about the plant medicine and I experienced that the moment you
learn about the medicine, it's start to call you, it calls your
soul, it connects with your inner being and it's just
(16:53):
interesting, the psychedelic that ayahuasca plant medicine
was my very first medicine and I've done it with Colombian
shaman. I've done it in the United
States, but it was in a practicewith the Colombian shaman in a
tradition, yes, with the Colombian Tita, as they call
them, in a very traditional way of receiving the ayahuasca
(17:17):
medicine. And since I've learned and I've
heard the word, it's almost would wake me up at night
because it would be like an alarm within my system that
everything would just like maybenot scream, but vibrate and it
would be like ayahuasca, ayahuasca, ayahuasca, ayahuasca.
And it I was perceived by me that there are answers there,
(17:42):
right? And there is a calling there.
And that is the comforting understanding that plant
medicine does come from the Mother Earth and it has been
used by ancient traditions, right?
The native people who actually had very deep relationship with
(18:03):
the Mother Earth. So from that understanding, it
began to give me a lot of comfort with the medicine.
Not every psychedelic medicine is the plant medicine.
And unfortunately, in the UnitedStates, in the professional
world, we only have quite a few.We have ketamine that we can use
(18:30):
in the medical setting, right? And it is a psychedelic, but
it's not a classic psychedelic. So it's not planned.
It's actually a chemical. And then right now we have 2
states that did legalize the psilocybin.
And psilocybin is the psychedelic component of magic
mushrooms. So psilocybin actually does
(18:50):
represent the planned medicine and things like ayahuasca,
Aberdeen, they, they are plant medicine, but unfortunately
they're not illegally and widelyavailable.
Yeah. And then?
And the reason for that is because of the way I, it's, I
don't want to say produced, but it's a process.
(19:13):
It's not like you can package it.
It's not like Solace even we canpackage literally, it can be in
a tablet form or in liquid form.It's not, it's a lot easier than
to, to, to sell, I suppose. Well, ayahuasca is much more
traditionally, as you know, something that required a
ceremony and it really still should be that because it's so
(19:34):
sacred. And same with the so anything
from the plants that are a gift to us to work with should be
really honored, and I was going to say consumed, but honored in
a very ceremonial and respectfuland ritual way.
It's not. It's not a recreational product
that a lot of people just abuse as such.
(19:56):
And the product is very intense too.
It has an immense power. This medicines have an immense
power. And what you would know about
the power, that power has a potential to heal and transform,
but at the same time, that powercan be very.
Whitening, it can be very intense, it can be re
(20:18):
traumatizing if our nervous system is not prepared, if our
nervous system is not strong enough.
And in most cases it is not because people who do come to
those medicines intentionally, right?
They come with mental health challenges like myself, some
people struggle with anxiety, some people struggle with
(20:39):
depression, some people strugglewith suicidal ideation.
People have deep traumas, peoplehave addictions, people have
chronic pain, and people are suffering.
So yes, their nervous system is not in the balanced ultimate
state. It's not even at the baseline,
right? So the main message and the main
(21:01):
out of my personal experience, but also throughout the
professional experience that I've been having in the last
five years now with psychedelic medicine is that we must focus
just as much on preparation and integration process as we're
focusing on the psychedelic journey itself.
(21:21):
So we can honor our nervous system, our mind, prepare our
understanding and really hold a safe container for ourselves,
take care of our body as well. Because a special diet needs to
come with this to support the journey right?
(21:41):
And afterwards as well. So we want to do this medicine
very consciously so it can support us to shift into more
conscious life choices. So we not just doing it
mindlessly either hoping for quick solutions.
What can happen sometimes. You know, that's a whole other
(22:03):
conversation and challenge that people do look for magic pill
and they just like quick fix, right?
But unfortunately, yes, right. But we, you know, we come for
this medicine very consciously. So let's take time, right?
So let's take time to prepare, let's take time to understand,
(22:25):
let's take time to lower the expectation and focus on
intention because intention willcarry you through.
Your intention is not only for the psychedelic journey, your
intention for your transformation, for your
healing. That will actually be that
bridge right through the journeyand after, through the
(22:46):
psychedelic journey and after. 100% and you know, said so
beautifully. Thank you.
And it is really critical and and even even though I I'm going
to ask you about you or how you work in a moment, but even when
I'm working with my clients and I'm not administering
psychedelics, but the intention,as you know, because you've done
a session with me, that intention is so critical to
unlocking oneself. So, Cher, now how are you
(23:10):
integrating your because it's been really amazing for you to
bring the yogic practice into what you're doing to help the
person, help support clients integrate, help support, you
know them before they start taking the medicine, the
synthesized medicine so that they can the ketamine so that
(23:30):
they're able to be in a more grounded, safe space.
But first, just share about yourexperience with ketamine.
When did you go from Ayahuasca? Yes, yes, great question.
And I think it's a crucial question because as incredible
and eye opening and hard expending experience was
(23:53):
ayahuasca I had, it took me quite a few years to integrate
and stabilize. And if it wouldn't be for yogic
tools, it would be a lot more challenging to integrate the
psychedelic experience because for all the reasons that I'm
mentioning, because of the intensity, because of all the
(24:15):
openings that are happening and how much the consciousness can
actually expand. Describe that really quickly
before you can continue because I think it's important for
people to understand because some people may have had those
feelings and don't even realize what they are, you know, because
I mean, you and I know what those feel like.
And, and they can be quite frightening, but at the same
time so expansive and so many things can happen so quickly and
(24:38):
then also have a delayed effect where then you have because
parts of the body, our organs hold and store so many emotions
that as we're releasing and unlocking, suddenly you might
feel a wave of something, right?So just explain in your own
experience what happened, what that was like for you.
Yes. So as I like to talk about the
ayahuasca, as I reflect back, you know, even though my
(25:01):
intention was to heal the anxiety, but what happens in
psychedelic experience is that it's extremely dynamic.
So it gives you so much information, so much happening
in like split seconds, right? So we can never even remember
everything that happened in our psychedelic journey.
(25:22):
So what happens afterwards is that you can be extremely
overwhelmed with everything thatyou've just seen and experienced
and even your desire to rememberit.
And one of the integration practices are journaling because
we're trying to get things, you know, in like into our memory in
like, we, we want to embody as much information as we can, but
(25:45):
I don't think it's actually possible because of the
expansion that is happening through the medicine, right?
So the, the, the benefits and the healing components that I've
experienced, I went through my own rebirth experience from my
(26:06):
mother's wound. I've seen the ancient
civilizations coming and going. So understanding that
uncertainty and impermanence of reality was very powerful for
me, right? So you can kind of, if you truly
understand the concept of impermanence you and you
(26:29):
understand the wisdom in that, that that is really no steel or
anchoring moment right In this dynamic universe and this
existence, it can give you a sense of peace in a way.
And you can start to make peace with the uncertainty and find
your own flow with the dynamism of life that is happening around
(26:50):
you. So that was very powerful lesson
for me as well. I've also experienced going
quite not just out of my body, but maybe out of the existing
universe as well as it sounds. And it was very foreign for me
out there. And for the first time, I
(27:11):
actually desired nothing else but being back in this
particular body experience. I just had chills and it made me
emotional. Because through the suffering,
you ready to quit. You don't have meaning, you
don't have an anchor. You don't value your own life
because your life doesn't feel good to you.
(27:33):
So you're almost like betraying your own self and all the God's
gifts and all the chances that you have in this beautiful life
because you don't see it. You don't see an opportunity.
You don't see the abundance right?
You, you, you don't see the, the, the, the beauty of this
nature. So for me to lose all of it and
(27:55):
being in some I'm showing like I'm doing the faraway space, but
of course there is no distance, there is no time and you know
and necessarily. Like in the lack of awareness.
Yes, correct. And I desired nothing else but
come back. So my journey of coming back
(28:16):
into the body was through my ownrebirth experience, like and I
and I either it was a new rebirth, or maybe it was a
memory of my initial birth, you know, as I was in my mother's
womb as an embryo and then actually coming through the
birth channel and grabbing theirearth because we were the, the,
(28:40):
the ceremony was outside. We were on the mats on the
ground and it was in the middle of the night.
And for me with my hand, with mybare hands, grabbing the earth
and smelling the earth, the soil, right and touching the
grass and having this earthly embodied experience was the most
(29:02):
meaningful thing that I couldn'teven dream about.
South Ayahuasca was able to showme this and give me the life
meaning back. That was a benefit.
But the all this beautiful dreamand all this amazing sensations
(29:22):
go away very quickly and you shrink back into the same body.
And that leftover of your initial suffering is still
there. So nobody is canceling that.
Nobody's canceling anxiety, nobody's canceling depression.
But now you have this grand understanding of reality and
(29:46):
existence, right? So what you're going to do with
it? And instead of eliminating
anxiety, you can actually get even more overwhelmed and
without a proper tools that can ground you even deeper, that can
refine your nervous system, thatcan stabilize your breath.
And through the deep breath experiences, we can actually
(30:10):
imitate in a way or experiencingthe, the, the expanded states of
consciousness. Again, maybe not to that extent
or maybe so right. Like it depends on your personal
practice and the depth and the power that you put into your
practice. So that's why yoga was a crucial
(30:30):
component. So to me, psychedelics can quite
not exist without yoga. And I know that might sounds a
little revolutionary, you know, not every yogic person will
agree with that. And that's OK, you know, And
that's perfectly fine because like I said, this journey is not
(30:52):
for everyone. But for people who do choose the
psychedelic medicine, they do need an additional support.
And I and I do want them to knowthis because I was blessed was
being introduced to a yogic tradition.
I was blessed with my travels toIndia, to one of the most
profound sites where I could be with the source of wisdom, with
(31:16):
our teacher and safe and trustedsource that could actually give
me also the amazing support, give me the tools.
But not everybody have that. It's true and also with with
yoga, as it's mostly taught in the West, it's asana.
So it's just a physical practiceand and there's some teachers
(31:40):
that are also including panayamabreath work, but a majority,
especially if you go into a way,a very western style gym to do a
yoga class, it's likely it's notgoing to be that deep or
expansive. You may feel something that's
not true for everybody. I'm generalizing, of course, But
when you explore and if yoga, ifyou feel that pull and you can
(32:02):
explore something deeper, those practices, the asana is really
designed to turnify the body forus to be able to sit in
meditation for hours and hours. It's not this body sculpting
practice, right, that a lot of people use it as and and that's
that's totally fine, of course, but the practice you're talking
about is really amazing. Those those tools of the breath
(32:25):
of the careers of the movement, these action orientated and very
unblocking practices are incredible and they are designed
to to stabilize the nervous system.
They also will radically shake the nervous system right and and
make you feel things you've never felt before.
(32:45):
But then as you've talked about this integration, the really
important this, this is a massive point.
So just talk about now how you then went were exposed to.
Ketamine, right? So I worked with Colombian
chairman for quite some time andit was profound experiences as I
shared. Well, how many times did you did
you do ayahuasca? Firstly, was it?
(33:06):
Was it because that's not something you go and do every
weekend? No, it's not.
I would say I had around 10 ceremonies in the in the every
year period. So yes, that's not something you
do every weekend because of the intensity of the experience.
Yes, but the Katamine I was introduced to through
(33:28):
professional work because after the ayahuasca experiences and
combining it with the yogic tools, I started to coach people
who went through similar journeys and Academy companies,
telemedicine companies, they came very popular because a lot
(33:48):
of people who struggling with mental health challenges, they
don't have access to plant medicine again, like you know
that that's another thing not people don't have access to
that. So because they're not widely
available and they're not legal in a system, the beauty of
(34:11):
ketamine is that the medicine isextremely safe and it is legal
in medical industry. So, and that was my connection
to ketamine, that you can actually trust the medicine.
It works in a very short period of time.
The session is a lot shorter. So we're Speaking of one hour to
(34:35):
an hour and a half versus psilocybin is 6 hours to 8
hours. Ayahuasca can be up to 12 hours,
up again is up to 72 hours. So those are very deep intense
experiences, right? So ketamine within one hour to
90 minutes you have a very similar experiences, just
psychedelic experiences. You can have the auto body
(34:58):
experience. You definitely becoming an
observer because you get into a dissociated state.
You also can connect deeply, even though you're an observant
state, but you still have an opportunity to connect to
certain insights, to connect to the old memories, to receive
(35:20):
realizations as you actually observing, you know, your inner
environment, your inner state ofconsciousness.
So I was introduced to Kadamine through a professional work and
I think first time in above. Yeah, like four years ago, five
years ago, and in about just in the period of one year, a year
(35:45):
and a half. I've talked to almost 200
people, like a lot of people whowent through Academy journeys as
an integration coach. And I've seen a tremendous
amount of potential of that medicine, what doesn't
necessarily save you or heal allyour challenges, but it does
(36:08):
give you a step forward. It does give you an opportunity
to progress. It does give you a window
through which you have a neuroplastic state.
You're able to shift your consciousness, you're able to
shift your awareness yourself, awareness expense, of course, in
(36:28):
any of those journeys. And you, you have this window of
an opportunity when you, your mind is less densed.
And I, I, I think that's one of the most important thing like
how cadamine actually works. It helps to shed a few layers
right of that danced consciousness, some limiting
(36:51):
beliefs that we are so locked inor we have some traumatic
memories and we're defined by them.
We create this story around themand Katamin, just like it
doesn't necessarily heal the trauma, but it's going to unlock
a few things and you're going tofeel more grounded.
You're going to feel more spacious in your physical body,
(37:13):
more spacious in your mind. And from that space, if you do
have a proper integration, you have a way higher opportunity to
create a change. What do you say to people that
think that it's addictive? You know, there's been
celebrities in the news that have died, but they are
obviously getting it in a very different setting to go into a
(37:35):
center where it's being safely administered.
So we're just love you to talk to those points because ketamine
is still came in use. While legal in some states,
there's still a lot of stigma around it.
Yes. And the stigma does come from,
unfortunately, their people's experiences who are using it
(37:56):
unintentionally. And ketamine does have a stigma
of being a party drug. What personally is extremely
challenging for me to understandbecause when we say party, we
want, you know, we envision something dynamic, maybe music
festival, maybe, you know, goingout.
And ketamine is the medicine that is anesthetic anesthetic
(38:18):
like it puts your body into a depressed and you actually you
have to have a safety measure for Academy journeys that we
administrate that you need to bein a very safe environment and
don't move because you've very wobbly, right?
You're not stable at all. So it's very important to be
either in a chair or in a couch in a horizontal position, but
(38:42):
not in the movement. So this I could never quite
understand how people actually use it in a party scene.
But I think what happens is thatthey mixed ketamine with a lot
of other things, right? So they do mixed stimulants that
are more of a dynamic drug and has a dynamic effect on you with
(39:04):
the ketamine that gives you moreof that disassociated
experience. So when that mix to happens, it
becomes extremely unsafe becauseketamine is chemical, it's not a
plant medicine. So then it mixed with other
chemicals and that it affecting your brain chemistry, it
affecting your body chemistry, and anything can happen from
(39:27):
that. It's like completely
unpredictable because it's completely unsafe.
Well, you said the word disassociation and so I think
for maybe somebody who who's depressed or experiencing
already a level of disassociation from themselves
and awareness to then take ketamine or or and a ketamine
like product as you just described in a party scenario.
(39:49):
I can understand how that can then they, they might be, you
know, addicted or drawn to wanting to continue with that
process because they are very much already perhaps living in a
state of disassociation from themselves without even
realizing it, right? Without even having the
awareness of that, which again comes back to the practice of
yoga. When we can do these yogic
(40:11):
practices and integrate, we're able to come back to the self,
right? But the truth of who we are,
which then puts us in a place of.
Being able to associate with allof our issues, all of our
problems, and understand where they come from.
So can you talk to this point a little bit more and really
expand on what integration does?For you, yes.
So that is quite a true to what you're saying that even outside
(40:36):
of a party, even with an intentional use, ketamine can
give you a sense of relief, right?
That if someone is in their deepstate of suffering, you know,
they, they can have a sense of relief.
And when the moment people have a sense of relief, they want to
repeat that, right? So people are not focusing on
doing an actual heavy lifting work through integration and,
(40:58):
and I'll get to that, right? And do the processing and
working with the coach, working with the therapist, they just
now potentially want an escape that they experienced in
ketamine. The thing is the ketamine is
very short lasting. So even if that addictive
thought will be there, but ketamine is it's, it's a one
(41:21):
hour journey. So even if you want to repeat
it, like how often you're going to repeat it, you can't be in
that state for extended period of time like that that you know,
you can increase the dose what will be detrimental to your
body. And even if with the increase of
the dose, you're not going to prolong the state.
(41:43):
And unfortunately it can happen.That's why in a medical setting,
we we go through a very deep screening.
So people do meet with the doctor and go through
questionnairing. So we're trying to screen people
with the potential of certain things, but of of this addictive
(42:06):
pattern challenges. And even though ketamine
actually also have been known for treating addiction itself as
well. If people have addiction with us
substances, because if it is done intentionally, even though
it going to give that relief foryou.
But if you there intentionally and you work with the coach or a
(42:27):
therapist and you begin to integrate your insights or your
ketamine experiences into your regular life, you begin to feel
relief in your life. And that's the magic that needs
to happen. So not that unconscious relief
that we can have, you know, in the journey itself, but the
(42:48):
actual embodied experience, you know, of elevating the suffering
and integrating the insight intoyour life, embodying the new
knowledge so you can actually create a real change in your
life. But we have to continue to
monitor who get prescribed, how they get administered, how often
(43:10):
they come to see the doctor. All of those things still have
to be monitored. Yes, I agree.
And so how do we integrate? How would a person in who's
never, who's not familiar with what that would even means?
What does that experience feel like?
So for me integration is embodiment, right?
(43:30):
So it integration is not only related to psychedelics.
We can integrate any experience,right?
We, I mean, yoga, there's a lot of people and yoga too.
Yes, we have to integrate exactly because medicine will
shake things up just like yoga can, right?
We're going to have a lot of newinsights in our awareness and we
(43:55):
need to process this. We need to embody this.
We need to and go through different modalities, but one of
the most important one I think is a talk therapy to process
actually your experience and connect your experience to your
intention. So we're kind of like looking,
(44:16):
well, it's not necessarily back.I feel like the intention is
more of a northern star. So let's look, you know, let's
look up again, you know, to connect to the intention, but
then also connecting to the nextstep forward.
So this this beautiful connection that is happening.
So we're not just mindlessly administered, you know,
(44:36):
psychedelics, we actually, we have an intention, we have a
purpose, we're working on something and either we got the
insight or not. We definitely had a certain body
experience. We definitely, you know, that is
definitely take take a waste from any psychedelic journey.
So coaching will help us to process it verbally, but I think
(44:59):
that a lot of practices that also help us to integrate it on
the somatic level. So that's again, that's where
the Kriya yoga comes in. That's where breath work comes
in, That's where cold therapy comes in because we have to
continue to strengthen the nervous system, anything that's
strengthening the nervous systemand more mindful life choices
(45:24):
through that connection with ourintention and what is the next
step forward? So this step by step process
where we begin to embody either it's a new version of me or a
new pattern that I desire to implement in my life, right?
New way of showing up in life, releasing the old story,
(45:47):
identifying was the new story ofwho you are and who you desire
to be relationship as well. You know, if you're moving away
from a broken, challenging, toxic relationship, great.
Who do you choose to be? How do you choose to show up?
So psychedelic can give you an insight, a certain experience, a
(46:08):
certain healing, but then the integration process is like what
are you going to do with it? Are you going to integrate?
What is going to be your day-to-day step by step
commitment to become that personright that you had the glimpse
to feel or to meet in your journey?
(46:29):
How are you now teaching people?So you're a coach.
What do you do as a coach? Where are you working and what
are you studying? You mentioned you're getting
your PhD. Yes, yes.
So I've been actually a virtual coach for quite some time and I
do love that part of technology era that we all live in because
(46:52):
it's a great flexibility not only for myself but also for my
clients. But it's very interesting, like
during COVID when everything andeveryone went online, right?
Even the meditation and the yogic practice went online.
Even the yogic training was Himalayas.
When we couldn't get to India, everybody went online, including
the yogic masters, right? So.
(47:14):
And my teacher, 27th generation Eppali shaman, we were doing
fire ceremonies online. I still had to get all the
things, but we would do them, yeah.
Magic right, but you know, if weunderstand the energy then that
that's no problem, right we connect what what and then it
gives us this opportunity to connect, but at the same time
(47:35):
it's really convenient for everyone so that I do work
online and I travel quite a bad personally as you know I do have
a home in Miami, but I spent some time in Middle East right
now so even there is a time difference, you know but I see
the clients on zoom. What I do have in person is the
(47:59):
medical practice and the doctor Michelle winner who I
collaborate with so for the medical practice is a little bit
different. You know you're still you're you
with the medicine you do need toto be in in the present.
So the when the person actually have the journey itself.
So it does have happen in the physical location.
(48:22):
It happens at the ketamine clinic and doctor Michelle
Winner, she has quite a few. She has four locations in South
Florida. So it depends on conveniency.
You know of the client which oneis more convenient for their
home address I would say. You can also monitor the person
and then they get to have a morefull.
(48:44):
Experience, absolutely, and the preparation can happen online,
right? But of course, the Academy
journey itself has to be in person and as safe as possible.
And I think that feeling of safety is not always defined by
just a safe environment. What is of course important, but
I think it's the level of connection that has happened,
(49:06):
right? So if I work with someone in a
preparation process, in a coaching process, and that does
happen virtually, and that's fine, but we establish a
connection, we establish a relationship.
So when we meet in person for Academy Journey, a person
actually feels like they have this great support.
(49:26):
They have their coach, they havethe nurse, they have the doctor,
they have the medical team. So I believe that whole
preparation process is not only educational and again, like
prepping over the nervous system, but it's also a
relationship building. So we're building that safety,
we're building that connection and that is something that is
(49:47):
very nurturing and very important to enter.
Like it gives you that sense of safety and you can be more
relaxed, more calm, more present.
So then you're entering the psychedelic journey from a very
different. State that's really beautiful to
hold to hold them in that safe environment yes and are you is
that clinic are those clinics associated with maps at all like
(50:10):
if you went onto the maps website and looked.
Up we we're very connected you know with MAPS, but not like
business is not associated, but we've done you know some events
together and a doctor Michelle is connected with Rick Dublin
and they in communication and wealways support one another speak
(50:32):
at the conferences. And so yes, everybody as a
community, I would say working on a same mission, advocating
for the power of psychedelic medicine in intentional and
clinical use, so. What does maps stand for?
MAPS is the multidisciplinary association of psychedelics and
(50:55):
they do support a psychedelic community at variety of the
angles. So they are lobbying in the more
of a political sense of things, but they're also raising money
and supporting clinical trials and the multiple clinical
trials. The most recent one is done with
the MDMA. So we are working hard on
(51:20):
approving MDMA medicine for treatment of PTSD and
depression. People with deep, deep, deep
trauma. Your PhD, What are you studying?
Yes, my PhD is going to be a research on addiction recovery
and psychedelics and specifically focused on
(51:43):
preparation and integration process.
So my question is how their psychedelic medicine impact the
addiction recovery people with deep traumatic experiences and
spiritual disconnection, emotional disbalance, right?
(52:03):
And if psychedelic medicine actually have a potential to
heal and transform people who are deeply suffering and deeply
troubled by addiction. Yeah, well done.
And how can people find you? You know, where you have a
different, you've got a few different things happening and
you've also didn't you lead retreats or you organize them,
(52:25):
right? Yes, it's true.
So since I am Miami based, we dohave quite a few consistent
events going on in city of Miamithat are more of an educational
psychedelic events that are actually combined with the yogic
practices. So I love to have a psychedelic
(52:46):
panel that is providing information and can answer any
questions, but at the same time I like to show people a practice
of mindfulness, breath work and meditation to help them to
understand why those modalities are important for preparation
and integration process. Since the September of the last
year, we have a nine month program at this standard spa and
(53:11):
hotel in Miami. Quite magical space, very famous
spot in Miami and they're loved by many.
So it's fun to actually do the day retreats.
We're doing a day retreat. So you spend 90 minutes with us,
you educate and you're practicing and then you have
access to the spa with the soundhealing to to continue to
(53:33):
integrate now the information and your personal experience.
We do lead catamine retreats as well.
Those are not as frequent, but there is also an opportunity to
have a private catamine retreat here in Miami as well.
That's a more of a complex process because again, as I
(53:54):
mentioned, all the medical screening that is happening in
the meeting with the doctor, thewhole preparation process that
would happen prior. So it is a possibility, but we
have to be in a more of a deeperwork and contact in the relation
working relationship together versus that they retreat at the
standard spa. You can just show up, you know,
(54:17):
once a month and learn some stuff and experience some yogic
tools and a lot of fun. Yes.
And you can find me on Instagramand on LinkedIn, one of my
mission now as well. So how can we continue to
support people who are in a challenged position?
(54:38):
Because the one most important thing that helped me to move
forward is just you. You don't quit, you just don't
quit. You don't have an option to
quit. You show up no matter what.
And even if your way of showing up is just being like this and
bad, then be like this and bad. But but you don't quit.
You don't quit this life, you know, you continue to be
(54:59):
courageous. It does take courage.
I think this life is quite intense, you know, and it takes
courage to, to. Show up.
You see through, yeah. Show up even when you don't have
a strength or faith or purpose. So you have to keep looking for
that internally. Yes, it's in here, isn't it?
(55:22):
Yes. So you have a website, use it
breath wise, is that it? Or you.
My website isbreathwise.co.co and my breath wise website has
some information about my coaching practice and also an
opportunity to book a session and connect with me through the
(55:42):
website as well. Yes.
Well, thank you so much. It was wonderful to chat to you.
It's awesome. And you know, I just think that
you've shared some really wonderful wisdom.
So thank you very, very much. Thank you for having me.
It has been a blessing to know you.
It has been a blessing to be in a personal session with you
(56:03):
through your gifts and talents. And it has been just a joy to
see your smile. So thank you so much for giving
this opportunity and hearing what I have to say.
Thank you so much and you're welcome.
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