FELLOWSHIP LEARNING
January - May 2027
Original Art by Rene Alvarado Martinez, Oaxaca, Mexico.
The Mazatec Fellowship
for Psychedelic Practitioners
A professional fellowship developed in partnership with Mazatec teachers from the Sierra Mazateca, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Learn directly with one of the living traditions that has stewarded these medicines for generations, and discover how its wisdom can inform and deepen your own practice.
Through a series of written content, live online learning sessions, ceremonial protocol and a multi-day immersive intensive in the Netherlands, participants learn across knowledge systems alongside Mazatec teachers and interdisciplinary faculty.
Note: This fellowship is rooted in the belief that the future of psychedelic care depends not only on understanding the molecule, but on cultivating the context, relationships, and caring capacity that have carried these medicines across generations.
A fellowship, not a training in ceremony.
We do not certify anyone in Mazatec tradition and we do not teach participants to imitate it. We teach what Mazatec teachers choose to share, and the professional capacities to bring it into Western practice with integrity.
Learn from the source, not from summaries.
The Mazatec content of this program is taught with Mazatec teachers, on their terms.
Reciprocity built in, not bolted on.
A defined share of fellowship revenue flows directly to Mazatec-led initiatives, with Mazatec say over what is taught and how. Details below.
From the source to your practice.
Eight learning journeys and one in-person intensive.
01 - From Treatment to Relationship
Rethinking the foundations of psychedelic care
Limits of symptom-reduction models
Healing as restoration of relationship
Individual, collective, and ecological dimensions of wellbeing
The future of psychedelic care and dialogue across knowledge systems
02 - The Return of the Mushroom
Why is the mushroom returning now?
Psilocybin across cultures and history
Mazatec understandings of the mushroom
Neuroscience, neuroplasticity, and altered states
The mushroom as teacher, relationship, and cultural invitation
03 - Mazatec Cosmology and Ways of Knowing
Learning from a living tradition
Introduction to the Mazatec worldview
Reciprocity and responsibility
Sacred relationship to place
Cultural context and knowledge stewardship
04 - Territory, Place & Biocultural Intelligence
Healing begins in relationship with place
Place-based knowledge systems
Territory as teacher
Ecological awareness and repair
Biocultural stewardship and living landscapes
05 - The Art of Accompaniment
Preparing and holding another human being
Clinical preparation and relational readiness
Presence, discernment, and ethical care
Trauma-informed accompaniment
Lessons from Mazatec and contemporary practice
06 - Relational Integration
Beyond the individual experience
Family, community, and systems integration
Reciprocity as integration
Long-term pathways of healing
Living the medicine beyond the session
07 - Practising Across Knowledge Systems
Science, tradition, and dialogue
Neuroscience and contemporary research
Indigenous and clinical perspectives in dialogue
Ethics of cultural interface
Building trust across worldviews
08 - Stewardship & Future Practice
Becoming a steward of psychedelic care
Reciprocal partnership models
Cultural continuity and responsibility
Governance, accountability, and ethics
Designing life-serving healing ecosystems
The Netherlands Intensive
The fellowship culminates in a multi-day immersive intensive in the Netherlands with Mazatec teachers and interdisciplinary faculty. Moving from dialogue into lived practice, participants deepen their understanding of preparation, ethics, relational care, integration, and the cultural context that has sustained these medicines across generations.
Through experiential learning, small-group practice, reflection, and direct engagement with Mazatec teachers, participants explore what it means to cultivate the capacity to care before the responsibility to carry psychedelic work into the lives of others. More than a practicum, the intensive is an opportunity to embody the relationships, responsibilities, and ways of seeing that underpin a more life-serving future for psychedelic care.
The intensive takes place within the legal Dutch framework. Additional details regarding experiential components will be shared with accepted participants.
Meet Your Mazatec Guides
Carmen Carrera Castillo
Carmen Carrera Castillo is from Mazatlán Villa de Flores in the Sierra Mazateca. For more than fifty years, she has preserved and practiced the traditional knowledge entrusted to her by her elders, accompanying people through Mazatec ceremonies with deep respect for her community’s worldview, spirituality, and ethics.
A registered nurse, traditional midwife, herbalist, and traditional cook, Carmen brings contemporary medical knowledge into dialogue with Mazatec ancestral wisdom. Her work is rooted in service, attentive listening, care for the land, and the responsible transmission of the living traditions of the Sierra Mazateca.
Aida Lorenzo Carrera
Aida Lorenzo Carrera is from Huautla de Jiménez in the Sierra Mazateca. She comes from a family dedicated to preserving and sharing the traditional knowledge passed down through generations of Mazatec elders and has spent many years supporting her mother, Carmen Carrera Castillo, in the preparation and accompaniment of traditional Mazatec ceremonies.
A nature guide and bioconstruction practitioner, Aida is devoted to cultivating respectful relationships with the land through sustainable tourism, ecological stewardship, and cultural education. Her work builds bridges between the living wisdom of the Mazatec tradition and people from around the world, grounded in humility, reciprocity, and care for all forms of life.
WHO IS IT FOR?For practitioners who carry real responsibility in psychedelic and transformational work.
Participation is by application. Cohorts stay small because the depth of this work depends on who is in the room. What matters is not seniority but active practice: you are currently working with people in therapeutic or transformational processes.
Psychedelic Therapists
Clinic Founders & Directors
Facilitators
Researchers
Integration Practitioners
Mental Health Innovators
OUTCOMES
What you will be able to do afterwards
01 - Ground your psychedelic work in a living tradition instead of secondhand summaries of it.
02 - Design integration processes that include family, community, and life context, not only the individual.
03 - Recognize and navigate cultural interface tensions in your own practice.
04 - Structure ethical, reciprocal working agreements with Indigenous knowledge holders.
05 - Explain the shift beyond the treatment model to colleagues, boards, and clients.
06 - Apply stewardship principles to how your clinic, practice, or program is governed.
STEWARDSHIP & RECIPROCITY
Building relationships that endure.
This fellowship exists because of the generosity, trust, and leadership of our Mazatec partners. Reciprocity is therefore not an addition to the programme, it is part of its foundation.
A defined portion of every fellowship directly supports Mazatec-led initiatives chosen by our Mazatec partners, including priorities such as cultural continuity, language preservation, elder support, youth education, and community wellbeing.
The Mazatec knowledge shared through this fellowship is co-developed with our Mazatec teachers. Decisions about cultural content, representation, and participation are made together, ensuring that what is shared remains grounded in the values, ethics, and intentions of the living tradition.
We are committed to transparency, long-term partnership, and shared stewardship. As the fellowship grows, so too should the relationships, opportunities, and benefits it creates for the communities that make this work possible.
Programme Details
Duration
Five-month fellowship combining live online learning with an immersive in-person experience.
Format
Eight live online learning journeys, interdisciplinary faculty dialogues, peer reflection, and one multi-day intensive in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands Intensive
A four-day immersive intensive with Mazatec teachers and interdisciplinary faculty, bringing the fellowship into lived practice through dialogue, experiential learning, and relational inquiry.
Cohort
Limited to 25 participants to foster meaningful dialogue, close faculty engagement, and a trusted international learning community.
Who Should Apply
Open to therapists, facilitators, healthcare professionals, researchers, coaches, and anyone committed to advancing the future of psychedelic care.
Language
English, with Spanish and Mazatec interpretation where appropriate.
Investment
Founding Cohort: €4,800
Tuition includes the complete five-month fellowship, all live online learning journeys, learning materials, and the four-day Netherlands intensive. Travel and accommodation are not included.
A dedicated portion of every participant's tuition is allocated to a Reciprocity Fund, supporting Mazatec-led cultural, educational, and community initiatives identified by our Mazatec partners. In this way, participation contributes not only to your own learning, but also to the continuity of the living tradition that makes the fellowship possible.
Flexible payment plans are available.
Applications
Applications are now open for the Founding Cohort. Places are limited and offered through an application process to ensure a diverse, committed learning community.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about the Fellowship
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The future of psychedelic care will be shaped by scientific discovery and by our capacity to learn across knowledge systems. This fellowship brings neuroscience and clinical practice into sustained dialogue with living Indigenous traditions, grounded in long-term relationship and reciprocity.
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The fellowship includes a four-day in-person intensive in the Netherlands. Any experiential component takes place within the Dutch legal framework (psilocybin truffles) and forms part of a much wider educational journey focused on preparation, accompaniment, integration, and responsible practice.
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The fellowship offers an opportunity to learn directly with Mazatec knowledge holders while remaining rooted in your own practice and responsibilities. Participants encounter Mazatec perspectives on healing, worldview, preparation, relationship, and stewardship. Ceremonial knowledge and practices remain within the cultural contexts and relationships through which they are carried.
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This question is woven directly into the fellowship.
Each programme grows from long-term relationships with the knowledge holders involved. Together, we determine what can be shared and how that knowledge enters the learning environment. We also establish clear boundaries around what remains within the tradition. Reciprocity and cultural continuity are built into the partnership from the beginning.
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Item descriptionDifferent knowledge systems make different dimensions of healing perceptible.
Clinical science offers powerful insights into safety and therapeutic outcomes. Living traditions carry generations of knowledge about relationship, preparation, community, place, and the responsibilities surrounding altered states.
Learning across these perspectives can expand what practitioners are capable of perceiving and, ultimately, how they care.
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This fellowship is designed around practitioner formation.
Alongside practical and clinical learning, participants explore the deeper capacities involved in accompanying another human being through profound experiences. The fellowship develops discernment and relational capacity while inviting practitioners into sustained inquiry around responsibility, worldview, and the kind of care they are helping bring into the world.
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The fellowship is designed for people already engaged with psychedelic care or related fields, including therapists and physicians, researchers and integration practitioners, clinic leaders and facilitators.
We are looking for participants who bring meaningful experience, a genuine commitment to learning, and readiness to engage respectfully with different knowledge systems.
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The fellowship culminates in a four-day immersive intensive in the Netherlands. Participants gather with Mazatec knowledge holders and interdisciplinary faculty to bring the preceding months of learning into embodied practice through dialogue and experiential learning, with time for reflection and relationship.
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Carmen Carrera Castillo and Aida Lorenzo Carrera are co-creators of the fellowship.
Their participation begins with the design of the programme and continues throughout the learning journey. Together, we determine what is appropriate to share, how it is contextualized, and the boundaries necessary to protect the integrity of the tradition.
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Every participant contributes directly to the continuity of the living tradition from which they are learning. A fixed reciprocity contribution supports priorities identified by our Mazatec partners, with the intention of strengthening cultural continuity and community-led initiatives over time.
Reciprocity is part of the architecture of the fellowship and of the relationships we hope to carry far beyond a single cohort.
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You will leave with an expanded capacity to perceive and accompany psychedelic experience.
The fellowship deepens your understanding of how contemporary science and living traditions can inform one another. It develops a more relational orientation to care and a clearer understanding of the responsibilities that accompany work with altered states.
The intention is for this learning to continue unfolding through your practice long after the fellowship ends.
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A practitioner capable of moving between knowledge systems with rigor and humility, while remaining deeply rooted in relationship.
Someone who understands psychedelic care as a responsibility carried over time: responsibility to the person being accompanied and to the relationships surrounding their life, as well as to the communities and living traditions from which this field continues to learn.
The fellowship invites each participant to develop the discernment to know what they know, recognize the edges of that knowing, and remain receptive to what another way of seeing might reveal.
Ultimately, we hope to cultivate practitioners who can carry psychedelic care with greater depth, relationship, and responsibility into the world that is emerging.