Mind, Body, Spirit, Community & Nature

Welcome to the Preparation, Navigation, and Integration course - Onaya's flagship online course designed to support each stage of your psychedelic and spiritual process. This course combines insights from experts and leaders in the field, meeting at the intersections of western science and indigenous wisdom. The information and practices provided will help you to best engage your mind, body, spirit, and community, throughout your journey. By taking a holistic approach to healing, the therapeutic potential of your psychedelic and spiritual experience can be optimised.

The offering

  • Integrated wisdom

    By valuing diverse ways of understanding the world, we believe we can benefit from different approaches when working therapeutically with psychedelic and spiritual practices. This course uniquely merges modern science and Indigenous wisdom, learning from our elders and from nature, blending teachings from a trauma-informed and bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach.

  • Enhanced self-awareness & authenticity

    We will support you in the reconnection back to yourself, others, environment, and to spirit, through exercises designed to help you realign with our interconnected nature of self. The course introduces ideas and tools for increasing mindful awareness and living in line with your authentic aspirations.

  • Holistic & tailored

    This course will address holistically how we can prepare for, navigate, and integrate the profound healing potential of psychedelic and spiritual journeys. Through Onaya's expertise in evidence-based research, this course brings in information gathering tools and interactive exercises which can help provide a personalised journey thats tailor made for you.

Course curriculum

    1. Introduction: Welcome to the Reconnection Process

    1. Preparation - Core I: Preparing for Ceremony

    2. Values Based Intention Setting

    3. Assessment Tools for Preparedness

    4. Ayahuasca & Master Plant Dietas Preparation

    5. Onaya Meditation (15 minutes)

    6. Preparation Journal

    7. Recommended Resources

    1. Preparation - Core II: Understanding Psychedelics

    2. Classical & Atypical Psychedelics Info

    3. Example Ceremonial Recipes

    4. Understanding your Gut Microbiome

    5. Recommended Resources

    1. Navigation - Core I: Navigating the Journey

    2. Guide to Choosing Good Psychedelic Facilitators

    3. Ceremonial Tools: Fast Shift Method (w/Dr Mark Atkinson) (5 min)

    4. Onaya Meditation (15 minutes)

    5. Ceremonial Music

    6. Navigation Journal

    7. Recommended Resources

    1. Navigation - Core II: Altered States

    2. Ceremonial Tools: Effortless Meditation (w/Dr Mark Atkinson) (50 min)

    3. Breathwork

    4. Music To Breathe To (20 minutes)

    5. Grounding Exercises

    6. Recommended Resources

    1. Integration - Core I: Getting Home

    2. Psychedelic Integration Aftercare Plan

    3. Onaya Meditation (15 minutes)

    4. Dream Interpretation

    5. Integration Journal (Getting Home)

    6. Recommended Resources

About this course

  • $380.00
  • 45 lessons

Core Modules Breakdown

  • What will I learn in Module I: Preparation?

    The Preparation Module involves information and exercises surrounding two main core sessions as follows:

    Core I: Preparing for Ceremony - What is set and setting; how to prepare the body, mind, spirit, and community; trauma-informed considerations

    Core II: Understanding Psychedelics - Information for available treatment options; past - understanding the context; present; recent development, clinical application; future, ethics and sustainability

  • What will I learn in Module II: Navigation?

    The Navigation Module involves information and exercises surrounding two main core sessions as follows:

    Core I: Navigating the Journey - What is ceremony? - Ceremonial etiquettes (1-2-1 & group) - Faith in guides and facilitators, trusting the process - Dosage - The release - Healing songs - Ceremonial toolkit - Embodied practices and holding space - What to do if all else fails

    Core II: Altered States - Heightened sensitivity - Visionary and transcendent states - Trauma and emotional processing - Meaning making

  • What will I learn in Module III: Integration?

    The Integration Module involves information and exercises surrounding two main core sessions as follows:

    Core I: Getting Home - What is integration? - Self-care and connecting with a supportive community - Professional help and therapy - Cautions

    Core II: Staying Well - Importance of maintenance - Personal growth, relationships and spirit - Pitfalls

  • What is In & Through?

    In this ever-growing part of the course, we will be inviting world-class experts in the field for deep-dive conversations exploring science, spirituality, and psychedelics. This will benefit those seeking more in-depth knowledge of disciplines beyond the core modules.

Meet your instructors

Course Director Dr. Simon Ruffell

Dr. Simon Ruffell, a psychiatrist with a PhD in ayahuasca and mental health, combines Western medicine, research psychology, and traditional plant medicine expertise. He has focused on ayahuasca research since 2016, and as CEO of Onaya Health and co-founder of Onaya Science, he collaborates with universities and Indigenous-led organizations to study ayahuasca's effects in Amazonian settings. Simon aims to bridge Indigenous and Western perspectives on plant healing. He is currently training in Shipibo curanderismo under Keyo Sui Rono and Don Rono Lopez.

Integrative Transpersonal & Trauma Psychotherapist (trainee) Maria Nazdravan

Maria is a dreamwork facilitator, writer, and integrative transpersonal and trauma psychotherapist (trainee). She is passionate about helping others learn the symbolic language of the unconscious and unlock the hidden meaning of their dreams. She founded Dreamwork Circle in April 2023, offering a supportive space for monthly classes and weekly dream circles that foster self-discovery and transformation.

Course Director Dr. WaiFung Tsang

Hailing from Hong Kong, Onaya's COO Dr WaiFung is a research psychologist with years of clinical experience primarily in the field of addiction, neurodevelopment and trauma, exhibiting a keen interest in psychedelic research. Currently based at the Maudsley Hospital, King’s College London, he is a co-founder of Onaya Science specialising in Amazonian indigenous ayahuasca research. He is also training in Shipibo Curanderismo and a talented musician with his band United Freedom Collective, signed to the acclaimed UK label, DamaDama, Ninja Tune.

Shipibo Curandera Doña Angela Lopez

Doña Angela is a Shipibo curandera working at the Ayahuasca Foundation. She has done extensive plant dietas and has a soft and motherly energy in ceremony and in life. She’s also a tremendously talented artist, making clothing, jewelry, and crafts in her traditional Shipibo style. With decades of experience in the familial lineage of a plant medicine tradition passed down from generation to generation, she continues to develop her own style, especially with the uniqueness of her singing.

Somatic Expert Dr. Esme Dark

Esme specialises in somatic and psychedelic therapy, bringing together the mind and the body in holistic practice. After working for many years as a senior clinical psychologist in refugee mental health in Australia, Thailand and the UK, she is now a core therapist in some of the biggest psychedelic trials in Australia.

Human Potential Expert Dr. Mark Atkinson

Dr. Mark Atkinson is an internationally-renowned pioneer in the field of human potential development and optimal health medicine. Through his work as a medical doctor, leadership coach and human potential teacher, Mark has helped thousands of people to optimize their health and unlock higher levels of wellbeing, performance, and consciousness. He is an author of bestselling books and the founder of the Human Potential Academy and the Human Potential Coach Certification Program. He received his medical degree from Imperial College London.

Author & Anthropologist Dr Jeremy Narby

Jeremy Narby is an anthropologist, author, and advocate for indigenous knowledge, especially in the Amazon. His book *The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge* (1998) explores connections between shamanic visions and molecular biology. With extensive fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, he champions indigenous rights and traditional knowledge. Through NGOs like Nouvelle Planète, he supports sustainable development and promotes a holistic understanding of knowledge that bridges indigenous wisdom and modern science.

Esoteric Scholar Julian Vayne

Julian’s journey into group ritual practice began within the Western Esoteric Tradition when he was 16. Since then he has worked in ceremony with practitioners from many different lands and lineages. Julian is a senior member of the Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros and widely recognized as one of Britain’s leading occultists. Today Julian is the author of books, essays, journals and articles in both the academic and esoteric press. He sees his work as part of the process to help re-imagine an earth-centered, non-dogmatic, open-source spirituality.

Indigenous Cultural Educator Jem Stone

Co-founder of IPAT- Indigenous Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and Rebirthing Breathwork Australia, Jem Stone is a First Nations Woman with mixed heritage, Cultural Educator, Wellness Practitioner and Trainer who is passionately integrating original knowledge systems into education and wellness spaces through connection and decolonised learning methods. Jem is trained as a Psychedelic Assisted Therapist, Wayapa Wuurrk Practitioner and Trainer, We Al-li Facilitator, Rebirthing Breathwork Therapist and Educator, Meditation and Yoga instructor who is passionate about creating safe, inclusive, decolonised spaces for healing.

Testimonials

Joshua E.

"This course had taught me so much in an area that I had almost no idea in. It provided me with such clarity on how to get the most out of my experience and deepened my respect for indigenous cultures. Deep gratitude."

Ellie Y.

"Onaya is the leading the way for psychedelic research and practice, I benefited a great deal from their beautiful marrying of worlds. I began this journey to heal myself, now I understand that in doing so, I heal others around me too."

Susanna R.

"This prep and integration course is rich in interesting information and well grounded in research and tradition. I had no idea humans and nature can build sacred relationships like this, it makes so much sense! I'm reassured to know I can do it too through everyday practices. What a game changer!"