Atman Retreat
Safe, Legal Psilocybin Experiences in Jamaica
Jamaica is one of the few countries in the world where psilocybin mushrooms are legal, which is why we've chosen it to host our retreats.
Our team of experienced facilitators is here to help you prepare for, navigate, and integrate your psychedelic journey.
The benefits of psilocybin have been studied at universities like Johns Hopkins, NYU, and Imperial College London.
The Atman Retreat venue is a beautiful and historic 18th-century property situated on the shores of the Montego Bay Lagoon, a large saltwater inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
We’ll pick you up at the airport and it’s a short drive to the villa. You’ll have time to unpack your bags, settle in, and get a feel for the space. Have a snack, enjoy the ocean view, and start meeting others in your group.
Through a combination of novel, fun and intuitive activities, you’ll get to know the facilitators and other members of your group. You’ll be briefed on what to expect from psilocybin, led through intention setting exercises, and have 1-on-1 check-in time with a facilitator throughout.
Your psilocybin experience takes place the second day of the retreat, in a comfortable indoor setting. The music, space and atmosphere are curated to deepen and enhance the effects of psychedelics. You’ll also have access to outdoor nature and the beach.
The following day is spent resting, processing, and integrating. Here you’ll be guided through exercises to explore and apply the insights you’ve gained. We might do yoga or meditation as a group, and you’ll have time to yourself to read, write, or just enjoy the tropical weather.
On the last day, we’ll take you back to the airport for your flight home. You’ll be provided with a farewell package of integration materials, and you’re invited to stay in touch with your group members online. A facilitator will check in with you on a follow up call a couple of weeks after your retreat.
As a holistic healer, Sasha blends the best of transpersonal psychology, spiritual wisdom, and emotional intelligence with the leading psychological and psychedelic sciences. With over 11 years experience as a mental health counselor, she utilizes her unique, intuitive capacities to guide you to discover the core beliefs, habits, and patterns not in alignment with your life’s passion and truth.
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Hello! I’m Zach. I am a guide on the journey of personal transformation and awakening. I offer this with a background in somatic therapy, energy work, and Earth medicine traditions. I have spent over 15 years training with teachers from Taoist and Buddhist ritual healing traditions. I also incorporate Hakomi somatic therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, meditation, Qigong, and Hatha yoga. I’m a multi-instrumentalist and use music as a way to connect to emotions, our bodies, and as a constant invitation to the Ayurvedic element of Space and the fundamental quality of Listening. I am from Alaska and grew up being held by vast wilderness. I am an advocate for every person’s innate connection and reciprocity with nature. The Earth offers boundless wisdom and healing, and we are alive at a time where the invitation to come into right relationship with our environment is crucial. My experience and practice is informed by my own path of healing from PTSD, depression, and several major physical ailments, as well as my ongoing inquiries into self-exploration, metaphysics, and cosmology. I’ve learned a tremendous amount on this journey, and I feel deeply grateful for the opportunity to share this work with others. I welcome whatever brings you to this inquiry as a gateway to knowing yourself, letting go of what you no longer need, and cultivating a fulfilling, meaningful life. Using mindfulness, curiosity, and kindness, we can approach challenging life situations and emotional states to discover insight and healing. We find greater access to living our lives creatively, responsive to the moment with grace. We deepen our capacities to give and receive love, nourishment, and care. We reconnect to the wisdom of our bodies, intuition, and the natural world. With deep gratitude to all of my teachers and guides, I live in service to healing, liberation, and realization for all of humankind.
Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy, EMDR Therapy and yoga all appeal to me because these therapies help people reach deeper levels within themselves and find their ability to heal. There is a letting go and self-processing that provides a foundation for seeing from new vantage points, and an expanded consciousness of a one’s story, life, and experience of being. The body and mind provide protection from harm long after the threat is gone, leaving us in limited cycles of thoughts and feelings. Mind expanding therapies allow the body to process the past, experience safety and peace in the present, and manage adversity in the future. Being witness and providing the support to people as they venture through is truly an honor and privilege. I learned Transcendental Meditation when I was just 10 years old and I didn’t realize at the time how it would change the trajectory of my life. Meditation has provided me momentary calm in the face of tragedy, and at other times in my life a complete sense of serenity. And still there are days I can’t calm my mind. That’s when I rely on yoga postures, mantras, connecting with my pets and the environment to find balance. Early in my professional career, I worked in New York City in advertising and marketing research. I loved the work, but I could feel that something was missing and that was my need work with people. A little soul searching brought me back to the career I’d wanted to pursue when I was in college, so I went graduate school received my MSW at UCONN. After graduate school, I enthusiastically attended numerous post-graduate courses including EMDR Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a yearlong training in dissociation, many addiction trainings, as well as becoming a registered yoga teacher. The promising research on psychedelics along with personal experiences years ago inspired me to become trained in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. I volunteered with MAPS and attended their week-long training in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy, and also participated in a Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy training. I have over ten years of experience working in several different settings including outpatient mental health, substance abuse treatment and hospice, as well as extensive training and experience in Motivational Interviewing and Trauma, P.T.S.D. and Addiction treatment.
I completed my dissertation on psychedelics at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). It is being published by North Atlantic Books as The Psilocybin Connection: Psychedelics, the Transformation of Consciousness, and Evolution of the Planet—An Integral Approach and will be distributed by Penguin Random House. The release date is April 5th 2022. Aside from academic work, I have undergone several major trainings, including graduating from the Hakomi Somatic-Psychotherapy program and training within the Mazatec mushroom tradition. I assisted the Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Certificate Training at CIIS for two years and mentored at the newly emerging School of Consciousness Medicine. I run a free monthly integration group called “Developing a Relationship with Sacred Mushrooms” with the San Francisco Psychedelic Society. I also taught a class on psychedelic psychotherapy at John F. Kennedy University, and worked with the Cosmic Mass for a year, a project to reimagine ritual in a postmodern culture. Having attended Burning Man for almost a decade, I have led two camps, and will again be volunteering at the Zendo Psychedelic Harm Reduction Center. Psychedelics, specifically psilocybin mushrooms, set the course for my academic career, first graduating from the University of Arizona with a major in Philosophy and minors in both Physics and Psychology, and then earning a master’s in Consciousness and Transformative Studies from John F. Kennedy University.
51 years ago at the age of 17, I had my first glimpse into the vastness of human consciousness through a psychedelic experience. This experience led me on a lifelong journey of exploring human consciousness and human potential through various spiritual practices and working with sacred medicines. As a retired Registered Massage Therapist I work with non-ordinary states of consciousness through a somatic approach. My personal experience has shown me that deep healing and insights happen from a place beyond the mind. Every impression we receive throughout our lives is stored in the body as an energetic imprint. Much of it is long forgotten cognitively, but all of it is remembered on a deeper sensory level. In 2006, after decades of meditation training and spiritual explorations, I returned to medicine work better-informed to work from a more mature, intentional place. My work is a synthesis of many of the trainings I have completed including, a 150-hour trauma focused, psychedelic therapy training, 18-month Mindfulness Yoga & Meditation training with Spirit Rock meditation centre, 7-day professional training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) with Jon Kabat-Zinn, 200-hour yoga teacher training with Nosara Institute, and Yin Yoga teacher training with Paul Greeley. I’ve also trained and volunteered at both the Victoria & Toronto Hospices. My body centred approach incorporates many modalities and energy techniques I’ve studied and practiced as a Registered Massage Therapist. As interest in psychedelics and psychedelic therapy is growing exponentially, it is a critical time to create Codes of Ethics and Best Practices for therapists and guides working with these powerful medicines. I’m currently spearheading an Ethics Committee with the Canadian Psychedelic Association (CPA) and they will soon post my guide on how to choose a psychedelic therapist on their website. We’re at a critical and fragile time for all life forms on this planet. I feel that a profound awakening to our interconnectedness and natural environment can alleviate some of the suffering and environmental destruction we face. Entheogens, used for a higher purpose, in a careful, safe, and intentional way, can be an important tool for healing, both personally and globally.
I am a counselor, shamanic guide, musician, and energy healer. I have been working as a guide since 2016 - working with individuals, couples, and groups. My knowledge base is grounded both in scientific paradigms (neuroscience and psychology) as well as spiritual paradigms (shamanism, intuitive and energetic work, chakras, etc.). I incorporate energy healing, sound healing, Hakomi principles and practices, and intuitive guidance into my healing practice. With my grounding, loving guidance, I have helped clients be free of the cycle of depression, reduce anxiety, find life purpose, connect with their ancestors and past lives, gain clarity on their relationships, heal from childhood trauma, foster self love, and much more. In my mid-twenties, I spent years working with a traditional therapist and had gotten to a point of feeling frustrated and stuck around my path toward healing. I started working with shamanic healers in expanded states of consciousness and finally was able to break through places where I had felt so stagnant. Through this work, I was finally able to make significant shifts in myself and my life. I understood the power of this work and found my calling. It is an honor to be of service in this way. My training and education includes: Shamanic Guiding with Expanded States based in the Mazatec Tradition; Core Shamanism: Divination, Soul Retrieval, Extraction, Death, Dying, and Beyond; 2-year Comprehensive Hakomi Therapy Training; M.A. in East-West Psychology from The California Institute of Integral Studies; B.A. in Cognitive Science from U.C. Berkeley; Clairvoyant Training from Intuitive Way; Energy Work Training from Intuitive Way; Level 1 Reiki Master
I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and Associate Professional Clinical Counselor that utilizes depth psychology as a foundation in my therapeutic work with individuals suffering from various dependencies, including problematic substance use, and co-occurring mental health conditions. I have received numerous comprehensive trainings in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapeutic modalities, including the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy training and Polaris Insight Center’s Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy training. I acquired my Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Through the process of going through graduate school, I discovered that human suffering is perhaps less pathological and more of a process manifesting from the unconscious. Carl Jung proclaimed that, “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” I believe that psychedelics are an effective way to access and work with the unconscious, and that such encounters could mend the pain at the root of human suffering and promote a sense of wholeness that contribute to lasting changes in an individual’s life. I am an advocate for the soul and work in the service of the psyche to bring unconscious material to the conscious to facilitate transformation and growth. I am a lover of animals and nature, and a connoisseur of adventures.
Over the past 10 years through personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and a growing body of scientific research, it’s become clear to me that psychedelics are uniquely powerful tools for creating profound, positive change in people’s lives. Psychedelics have long played an important role in my own life. I had my first psilocybin experience at 16, and it deeply shifted my sense of self worth as a young person. Further psychedelic experiences through my later teens and early twenties helped me solve personal problems, improve relationships, and provided me with insights into the world and the nature of my own mind I otherwise never would have had. Towards the end of my undergraduate degree at McGill University, I discovered psychedelic research, in particular the MAPS MDMA trials and psilocybin studies at Johns Hopkins. The prospect of a level-headed, evidence-based return of psychedelics to our culture was incredibly exciting. What good luck, I thought, to be alive right at the time of the “psychedelic renaissance”. After university I spent three years travelling, living abroad, and working remotely. During this time I’d write about personal development, spirituality, and psychedelics on my blog, Freedom and Fulfilment, which has now reached almost a million people worldwide. My interest in psychedelics grew over this time, along with the belief that increasing access to high quality psychedelic experiences could be deeply impactful in a positive way. In mid-2018, I started putting together the pieces of what would become Atman Retreat. I’m fortunate enough to have had support from some very smart, competent people, and to have found an exceptional group of facilitators along the way. We’re honored to offer the opportunity for people to explore the full potential of psychedelics in a safe, legal way. Today I’m based in Toronto, Canada. I’m also a regular meditator, and have been practicing for over 9 years. Other interests include applied ethics, personality psychology, transpersonal psychology, yoga, and nonduality. Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see you soon on a retreat!
Justin is the covering physician (doctor on call) for Atman Retreat, available throughout our psilocybin sessions. He practices general medicine as a medical officer at St. James Public Health Services and Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Justin received his MB,BS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) from The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.
Alex advises on safety practices and provides input on the participant intake process for Atman Retreat. His main professional interests are addiction medicine and longterm patient relationships, and he is excited about developments in both clinical and non-clinical applications of psychedelics. Alex received his MD from the NYU School of Medicine, and holds a BSc from McGill University.
As a holistic healer, Sasha blends the best of transpersonal psychology, spiritual wisdom, and emotional intelligence with the leading psychological and psychedelic sciences. With over 11 years experience as a mental health counselor, she utilizes her unique, intuitive capacities to guide you to discover the core beliefs, habits, and patterns not in alignment with your life’s passion and truth.
Hello! I’m Zach. I am a guide on the journey of personal transformation and awakening. I offer this with a background in somatic therapy, energy work, and Earth medicine traditions. I have spent over 15 years training with teachers from Taoist and Buddhist ritual healing traditions. I also incorporate Hakomi somatic therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, meditation, Qigong, and Hatha yoga. I’m a multi-instrumentalist and use music as a way to connect to emotions, our bodies, and as a constant invitation to the Ayurvedic element of Space and the fundamental quality of Listening. I am from Alaska and grew up being held by vast wilderness. I am an advocate for every person’s innate connection and reciprocity with nature. The Earth offers boundless wisdom and healing, and we are alive at a time where the invitation to come into right relationship with our environment is crucial. My experience and practice is informed by my own path of healing from PTSD, depression, and several major physical ailments, as well as my ongoing inquiries into self-exploration, metaphysics, and cosmology. I’ve learned a tremendous amount on this journey, and I feel deeply grateful for the opportunity to share this work with others. I welcome whatever brings you to this inquiry as a gateway to knowing yourself, letting go of what you no longer need, and cultivating a fulfilling, meaningful life. Using mindfulness, curiosity, and kindness, we can approach challenging life situations and emotional states to discover insight and healing. We find greater access to living our lives creatively, responsive to the moment with grace. We deepen our capacities to give and receive love, nourishment, and care. We reconnect to the wisdom of our bodies, intuition, and the natural world. With deep gratitude to all of my teachers and guides, I live in service to healing, liberation, and realization for all of humankind.
Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy, EMDR Therapy and yoga all appeal to me because these therapies help people reach deeper levels within themselves and find their ability to heal. There is a letting go and self-processing that provides a foundation for seeing from new vantage points, and an expanded consciousness of a one’s story, life, and experience of being. The body and mind provide protection from harm long after the threat is gone, leaving us in limited cycles of thoughts and feelings. Mind expanding therapies allow the body to process the past, experience safety and peace in the present, and manage adversity in the future. Being witness and providing the support to people as they venture through is truly an honor and privilege. I learned Transcendental Meditation when I was just 10 years old and I didn’t realize at the time how it would change the trajectory of my life. Meditation has provided me momentary calm in the face of tragedy, and at other times in my life a complete sense of serenity. And still there are days I can’t calm my mind. That’s when I rely on yoga postures, mantras, connecting with my pets and the environment to find balance. Early in my professional career, I worked in New York City in advertising and marketing research. I loved the work, but I could feel that something was missing and that was my need work with people. A little soul searching brought me back to the career I’d wanted to pursue when I was in college, so I went graduate school received my MSW at UCONN. After graduate school, I enthusiastically attended numerous post-graduate courses including EMDR Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a yearlong training in dissociation, many addiction trainings, as well as becoming a registered yoga teacher. The promising research on psychedelics along with personal experiences years ago inspired me to become trained in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. I volunteered with MAPS and attended their week-long training in MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy, and also participated in a Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy training. I have over ten years of experience working in several different settings including outpatient mental health, substance abuse treatment and hospice, as well as extensive training and experience in Motivational Interviewing and Trauma, P.T.S.D. and Addiction treatment.
I completed my dissertation on psychedelics at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). It is being published by North Atlantic Books as The Psilocybin Connection: Psychedelics, the Transformation of Consciousness, and Evolution of the Planet—An Integral Approach and will be distributed by Penguin Random House. The release date is April 5th 2022. Aside from academic work, I have undergone several major trainings, including graduating from the Hakomi Somatic-Psychotherapy program and training within the Mazatec mushroom tradition. I assisted the Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Certificate Training at CIIS for two years and mentored at the newly emerging School of Consciousness Medicine. I run a free monthly integration group called “Developing a Relationship with Sacred Mushrooms” with the San Francisco Psychedelic Society. I also taught a class on psychedelic psychotherapy at John F. Kennedy University, and worked with the Cosmic Mass for a year, a project to reimagine ritual in a postmodern culture. Having attended Burning Man for almost a decade, I have led two camps, and will again be volunteering at the Zendo Psychedelic Harm Reduction Center. Psychedelics, specifically psilocybin mushrooms, set the course for my academic career, first graduating from the University of Arizona with a major in Philosophy and minors in both Physics and Psychology, and then earning a master’s in Consciousness and Transformative Studies from John F. Kennedy University.
51 years ago at the age of 17, I had my first glimpse into the vastness of human consciousness through a psychedelic experience. This experience led me on a lifelong journey of exploring human consciousness and human potential through various spiritual practices and working with sacred medicines. As a retired Registered Massage Therapist I work with non-ordinary states of consciousness through a somatic approach. My personal experience has shown me that deep healing and insights happen from a place beyond the mind. Every impression we receive throughout our lives is stored in the body as an energetic imprint. Much of it is long forgotten cognitively, but all of it is remembered on a deeper sensory level. In 2006, after decades of meditation training and spiritual explorations, I returned to medicine work better-informed to work from a more mature, intentional place. My work is a synthesis of many of the trainings I have completed including, a 150-hour trauma focused, psychedelic therapy training, 18-month Mindfulness Yoga & Meditation training with Spirit Rock meditation centre, 7-day professional training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) with Jon Kabat-Zinn, 200-hour yoga teacher training with Nosara Institute, and Yin Yoga teacher training with Paul Greeley. I’ve also trained and volunteered at both the Victoria & Toronto Hospices. My body centred approach incorporates many modalities and energy techniques I’ve studied and practiced as a Registered Massage Therapist. As interest in psychedelics and psychedelic therapy is growing exponentially, it is a critical time to create Codes of Ethics and Best Practices for therapists and guides working with these powerful medicines. I’m currently spearheading an Ethics Committee with the Canadian Psychedelic Association (CPA) and they will soon post my guide on how to choose a psychedelic therapist on their website. We’re at a critical and fragile time for all life forms on this planet. I feel that a profound awakening to our interconnectedness and natural environment can alleviate some of the suffering and environmental destruction we face. Entheogens, used for a higher purpose, in a careful, safe, and intentional way, can be an important tool for healing, both personally and globally.
I am a counselor, shamanic guide, musician, and energy healer. I have been working as a guide since 2016 - working with individuals, couples, and groups. My knowledge base is grounded both in scientific paradigms (neuroscience and psychology) as well as spiritual paradigms (shamanism, intuitive and energetic work, chakras, etc.). I incorporate energy healing, sound healing, Hakomi principles and practices, and intuitive guidance into my healing practice. With my grounding, loving guidance, I have helped clients be free of the cycle of depression, reduce anxiety, find life purpose, connect with their ancestors and past lives, gain clarity on their relationships, heal from childhood trauma, foster self love, and much more. In my mid-twenties, I spent years working with a traditional therapist and had gotten to a point of feeling frustrated and stuck around my path toward healing. I started working with shamanic healers in expanded states of consciousness and finally was able to break through places where I had felt so stagnant. Through this work, I was finally able to make significant shifts in myself and my life. I understood the power of this work and found my calling. It is an honor to be of service in this way. My training and education includes: Shamanic Guiding with Expanded States based in the Mazatec Tradition; Core Shamanism: Divination, Soul Retrieval, Extraction, Death, Dying, and Beyond; 2-year Comprehensive Hakomi Therapy Training; M.A. in East-West Psychology from The California Institute of Integral Studies; B.A. in Cognitive Science from U.C. Berkeley; Clairvoyant Training from Intuitive Way; Energy Work Training from Intuitive Way; Level 1 Reiki Master
I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and Associate Professional Clinical Counselor that utilizes depth psychology as a foundation in my therapeutic work with individuals suffering from various dependencies, including problematic substance use, and co-occurring mental health conditions. I have received numerous comprehensive trainings in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapeutic modalities, including the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy training and Polaris Insight Center’s Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy training. I acquired my Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Through the process of going through graduate school, I discovered that human suffering is perhaps less pathological and more of a process manifesting from the unconscious. Carl Jung proclaimed that, “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” I believe that psychedelics are an effective way to access and work with the unconscious, and that such encounters could mend the pain at the root of human suffering and promote a sense of wholeness that contribute to lasting changes in an individual’s life. I am an advocate for the soul and work in the service of the psyche to bring unconscious material to the conscious to facilitate transformation and growth. I am a lover of animals and nature, and a connoisseur of adventures.
Over the past 10 years through personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and a growing body of scientific research, it’s become clear to me that psychedelics are uniquely powerful tools for creating profound, positive change in people’s lives. Psychedelics have long played an important role in my own life. I had my first psilocybin experience at 16, and it deeply shifted my sense of self worth as a young person. Further psychedelic experiences through my later teens and early twenties helped me solve personal problems, improve relationships, and provided me with insights into the world and the nature of my own mind I otherwise never would have had. Towards the end of my undergraduate degree at McGill University, I discovered psychedelic research, in particular the MAPS MDMA trials and psilocybin studies at Johns Hopkins. The prospect of a level-headed, evidence-based return of psychedelics to our culture was incredibly exciting. What good luck, I thought, to be alive right at the time of the “psychedelic renaissance”. After university I spent three years travelling, living abroad, and working remotely. During this time I’d write about personal development, spirituality, and psychedelics on my blog, Freedom and Fulfilment, which has now reached almost a million people worldwide. My interest in psychedelics grew over this time, along with the belief that increasing access to high quality psychedelic experiences could be deeply impactful in a positive way. In mid-2018, I started putting together the pieces of what would become Atman Retreat. I’m fortunate enough to have had support from some very smart, competent people, and to have found an exceptional group of facilitators along the way. We’re honored to offer the opportunity for people to explore the full potential of psychedelics in a safe, legal way. Today I’m based in Toronto, Canada. I’m also a regular meditator, and have been practicing for over 9 years. Other interests include applied ethics, personality psychology, transpersonal psychology, yoga, and nonduality. Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see you soon on a retreat!
Justin is the covering physician (doctor on call) for Atman Retreat, available throughout our psilocybin sessions. He practices general medicine as a medical officer at St. James Public Health Services and Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Justin received his MB,BS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) from The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.
Alex advises on safety practices and provides input on the participant intake process for Atman Retreat. His main professional interests are addiction medicine and longterm patient relationships, and he is excited about developments in both clinical and non-clinical applications of psychedelics. Alex received his MD from the NYU School of Medicine, and holds a BSc from McGill University.
