Built for what happens after the ceremony

How it began

I thought it was a networking opportunity

In 2020 I signed up for an ayahuasca retreat for entrepreneurs because I thought it was a networking opportunity. I could not have been more wrong.

More about me

Why Ceremonia exists

If you meet God and go home still unkind to yourself, what was it for?

For a long time the medicine was my only tool. I would see something true, then fail to carry it back into my marriage, my work and the way I held myself. The experience was real. The integration was missing.

So we built Ceremonia for people who arrive prepared, are held with care in ceremony, and leave with practice and a community to come back to. Most people who find us are capable, functional and quietly stuck. They are not broken.

We do not promise transformation. We do promise the integrity of the container.

How every program is held

The same shape every time

Every program has the same shape: one month of virtual preparation, a one-week in-person retreat, then one month of virtual integration included, with an optional two-month extension.

We keep at least one facilitator for every four participants. Jo Ann Forristal, a family nurse practitioner, is on site during the retreat, and a nurse practitioner reviews every medical intake. Some medications and conditions are not compatible with ceremony, and we tell you plainly.

How it works · Questions and answers · Meet the team

What we stand on

Honest about what this is and is not

Ceremonia is a nonprofit. We hold ceremony as a faith practice, and we do not tell you what to believe. Psilocybin and ayahuasca are not approved as treatments. We do not claim clinical outcomes, and results vary.

We draw on traditions from around the world and say so out loud. We never pretend a tradition is ours when it is not.

Our values · Licensing and faith · Inspiration, not appropriation