Return to Yourself
Psychedelic Assisted Transformation
October 5-11, 2025
This is Not a Retreat.
This is a Return.
Initially, there was no mask. No strategy, no performance, no shrinking to fit the room. Only the original self: alive, whole, undiluted.
And then life happened.
Attachment required adaptation. We learned to trade pieces of ourselves for love, approval, and safety. We abandoned parts of our truth because survival demanded it. This was not a failure. It was intelligence.
But what once saved us now keeps us exiled from our own lives.
The invitation here is simple, though not easy: a return to the self you have not forgotten, only misplaced.
Not through thought. Not through effort. Through a slow and honest undoing.
Reconnection:
The Heart of the Work
We are born in authenticity. As infants, there is no separation between who we are and how we are. However, as our need for love, acceptance, and belonging clash with the imperfect reality of the world, we begin to split.
We trade authenticity for attachment because the brain is not wired to choose independence over connection. Survival depends on it. To be abandoned is death, and so we adapt.
This adaptation is quiet at first: swallowing words, dimming light, shaping ourselves to fit the mould of "good," "acceptable," "worthy." Over time, these adaptive strategies become so seamless that we forget they are strategies at all. We mistake them for personality.
The cost is profound.
What was once a survival mechanism becomes a prison. We move through life armoured, defended, performative. We struggle with intimacy, creativity, and meaning. We feel numb, disconnected, and unmoored. An untethered soul.
And worst of all, we forget that we are lost.
The work we do here is not about diagnosis or pathology. It’s about reconnection. Remembering the original self beneath the layers.
This is not a cognitive process. You cannot think your way back to authenticity. The mind (brilliant, guarded, loyal ) will defend its adaptations to the death.
To return requires a different kind of work: embodied, relational, surrendered.
The Role of Psilocybin:
Catalyst for Reconnection
Psilocybin is not the answer. It is the invitation.
Under its influence, we see the walls for what they are: protections, yes, but also prisons. We glimpse the self that remembers how to breathe, feel, love without fear.
At a biological level, psilocybin stimulates the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that encourages the growth of new neural pathways. In the wake of ceremony, the brain is in a state of heightened plasticity. Old patterns loosen. New possibilities emerge.
But biology is only part of the story.
The real work is relational.
Psychedelics dissolve the barriers between conscious and unconscious, self and other. They reveal the ways we have exiled parts of ourselves, the ways we have abandoned the authentic self in the name of safety.
BDNF and the Default Mode Network: Rewiring the Architecture of the Self
You are not hardwired. You are habit-wired. And the good news? Habits can be changed. Enter BDNF and the DMN.
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, BDNF, is the brain’s fertiliser. The miracle grow of neuroplasticity. It encourages the growth of new neurons, the repair of old ones, and the formation of new synaptic connections. When BDNF levels rise, your brain becomes malleable. Not in a chaotic way, but in a way that allows transformation to embed, not just visit.
BDNF is released through movement, breathwork, fasting, novelty. And, crucially, through the psychedelic experience. Psilocybin dramatically boosts BDNF, putting your brain in a state of heightened receptivity. But this window does not last forever. That is why preparation matters, and why integration is non-negotiable. BDNF opens the door. Practice is what keeps it open.
Then there is the Default Mode Network, the DMN. The brain’s internal narrator.
Constantly editing your experience into a coherent, and often limiting, story. It tells you who you are, what is possible, and what must be avoided. It is the voice of the adaptation.
Under psilocybin, DMN activity plummets. The habitual “I” dissolves. The boundaries blur. The ego steps back. This is not annihilation. It is an invitation to experience selfhood without the prison of old narratives.
When the DMN quiets and BDNF rises, you have both the silence and the soil. You are no longer trapped in your survival architecture. You are in a living, rewritable blueprint.
This is why timing matters. Ceremony is not the climax. It is the ignition. What you do with that fire. How you move, eat, sleep, relate. That determines whether the new pathways flourish or fade.
Plasticity is not magic. It is an opportunity. And you have to meet it with intention.
Your Hero’s Journey is Awaiting You
This isn’t a retreat. It’s a reckoning.
The Hero’s Journey isn’t a metaphor here. It’s the map.
You begin in the Ordinary World — the life you know. The coping mechanisms. The restlessness. The quiet ache that something essential has been buried. Then comes the Call: a whisper you can’t unhear. Change. And with it, the fear. The doubt. The hesitation.
That’s where we meet. In preparation, we study your story, your nervous system, your physiology. We listen. We question. We Prepare. You’re not stepping into the unknown alone. You’re stepping in seen, steady, supported.
Then comes Crossing the Threshold. You arrive. The safe container is set. Ceremony begins. The descent unfolds: memories surface, grief moves, visions rise. The ego loosens. The deeper self stirs.
The Reward follows. Not always clarity. Often, truth. Raw. Unexpected. Essential.
But the Return is where many falter. Insights fade without Integration. That’s why we walk beside you as you weave what was found into daily life, your work, your relationships, your world.
You don’t come back fixed. You come back real. Whole. Ready to live from something deeper than survival.
Ready to meet your guide to discuss your return to your authentic self?
Preparation: The Sacred Architecture Before the Descent
You do not climb Everest in flip flops. And you do not enter psychedelic space unprepared. Not if you want it to change your life rather than just blow your mind.
Preparation is not a checklist. It is a sacred architecture. It is the ground we till before the seeds of insight can be planted. You are not just learning about the medicine. You are learning how to meet yourself when the masks fall off.
This is where we build the vessel. Physical, emotional, relational. Full medical screening ensures your body is ready. Genetic testing and ECGs are not red tape. They are radical acts of care. Trauma mapping helps us understand your nervous system’s survival blueprint. So when something old rises in ceremony, we have already met it.
You will train in somatic grounding, breathwork, intermittent fasting, and nervous system resourcing. These are not trendy wellness hacks. They are rehearsals for the moment the ground gives way and your old story begins to crumble.
We do not throw people into the deep end and hope they swim. We build them a lifeboat. Preparation is how we earn the right to work with this medicine. With reverence, humility, and structure.
Because healing is not spontaneous combustion. It is a deliberate return.
Keeping You Safe:
Ethics, Not Formality
Before anything mystical happens, before a candle is lit or a rattle moves, we begin where it matters most: safety.
This work is powerful. Which means it carries real responsibility. Transformation demands structure. We don’t cut corners. We don’t guess. What we offer is not casual. It deserves the same rigour you’d expect from any serious therapeutic process.
That’s why every participant moves through a clear, three-stage screening.
1. Medical & Personal History
You’ll complete a detailed intake form: medical history, medications, psychiatric background, and your reasons for seeking this work. It’s not box-ticking. It’s understanding your readiness medically, emotionally, and psychologically.
2. Personal Consultation
If appropriate, you’ll meet directly with me. We’ll explore your intentions, clarify expectations, and ensure this is the right fit. You’re interviewing me as much as I’m evaluating readiness.
3. Medical Workup
Finally, you’ll complete a full blood panel and 12-lead ECG with your physician. We check cardiovascular health, organ function, and screen for hidden risks. This isn’t bureaucracy. It’s care.
Safety isn’t a formality. It’s how we honour the work, and you.
Set and Setting: The Psilocybin Factor
Psilocybin is not a magic bullet. It’s a magnifier. It doesn’t create something new. It brings what’s already there to the surface. That’s why set and setting matter. Without them, this isn’t therapy. It’s just tripping.
Set is your internal state, your mindset, emotional tone, unconscious expectations. If you enter frantic, shut down, or secretly hoping to bypass pain, psilocybin will show you all of it. That’s why preparation matters. Weeks before ceremony, we stabilise your nervous system, surface hidden dynamics, and establish clear intention. This makes the work navigable, not overwhelming.
Setting is the space that holds you. Who’s guiding? What does the room feel like? Is your body safe? Is the energy clean? Psilocybin sharpens perception. Every detail matters. We work in nature, in silence, in reverence. The space is held by trained facilitators. You are supported, seen, never left alone in deep waters.
Psilocybin isn’t dangerous. Poor preparation is. Poor setting is. When both are skillfully held, what unfolds isn’t random, it’s intelligent, precise, and deeply healing.
The difference is everything.
The Retreat at-a-glance
Ready to meet your guide to discuss your return to your authentic self?
Ceremony: Not a Trip. A Return.
Ceremony is not recreation. It is confrontation.
Held within a carefully tended relational field, ceremony allows the dismantling of adaptations in real time. Somatic anchoring ensures that when your mind scatters, your body remains a home.
We teach you to trust the process, and more critically, to trust yourself.
The group dynamic matters. Healing happens in relationship, and the presence of others becomes a mirror and a midwife. In your surrender, you are not alone.
The medicine will not save you. But it will strip away what no longer serves you — if you let it.
Integration:
Where the Real Work Begins
The ceremony is not the breakthrough. It is the broadcast. Integration is what tunes it into your life.
After the visions fade and the room goes quiet, you are left with a choice. Will you digest what the medicine revealed? Or file it away under “interesting experience”? Insight without embodiment is just spiritual tourism. Integration is where you take what was felt and forge it into how you live.
This is not journalling and green smoothies. This is nervous system regulation, structured dialogue, relationship repair, habit reformation. This is where the rewired brain is asked to practise. Again and again. Until the new path becomes the familiar one.
We offer you a container, not a pep talk. Relational integration sessions. Somatic anchoring. Community practice. Compassionate accountability. Not to remind you of what you saw. To help you become who you glimpsed.
The post ceremony window is biologically fertile. BDNF is high. The Default Mode Network is quiet. The ego is still licking its wounds. This is when change is possible. Not abstractly, but behaviourally.
Integration is not the afterparty. It is the pilgrimage home. Without it, you had an experience. With it, you have a new life.
This is
This retreat is for you if...
- You’re ready to meet yourself without the mask, the script, or the performance.
- You’ve done some inner work, but know it hasn’t reached the root
- You value science and soul, and want a process that honours both.
- You want personalised, trauma-informed care, not a large group trip in the woods.
- You’re done with numbing, bypassing, or spiritual fluff. You want truth, even if it stings.
This retreat is not for you if...
- You’re looking for a quick fix, a miracle, or a holiday with hallucinations.
- You expect someone else to do the work for you.
You see preparation and integration as optional extras. - You’re unwilling to sit with discomfort or face what lies beneath.
- You’re here to “see cool stuff” and share it on Instagram.
Meet Paul Sinclair: Lead Facilitator & Guide
Paul doesn’t just hold space. He’s lived inside the very spaces most people spend their lives avoiding.
As Lead Facilitator and Guide for this transformation, Paul brings something no certificate can confer: the authority of lived experience. A former nuclear engineer in the Royal Navy and veteran of the Falklands War, his early life was defined by pressure, precision, and silence. Later, he lit stages for iconic bands in the rock and roll world, all noise, chaos, and escape. And threaded through it all: two decades of heroin and cocaine addiction. Not rebellion. Survival.
What makes Paul uniquely qualified is not just what he’s studied: Compassionate Inquiry with Gabor Maté, Psychedelics Therapies and Integration, and Somatic Experiencing.
What sets him apart is that he’s lived the work. He knows what it means to lose yourself. He knows how long it takes to come home. And he knows how to walk with others while they do the same.
He works with everyone from CEOs to ex-soldiers, from high performers to those simply exhausted by pretending. Paul brings radical honesty, deep compassion, and an uncanny ability to see what’s real beneath what’s rehearsed.
During this transformation, he leads not from a pedestal, but from beside you, grounded, clear, and utterly unafraid of the dark.
And His Co-Facilitators
Meet Tiph Fedor: Integrative Psychedelic Therapist
Tiph is a registered Counsellor and Compassionate Inquiry Practitioner, Mentor, and Facilitator, as well as an Integrative Psychedelic Therapist, registered with the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy.
Trained by Eckhart Tolle as a certified Mindfulness Practitioner, she integrates deep presence with the principles of Compassionate Inquiry, guiding individuals through their trauma toward a place of authentic self-connection.
For over 30 years, she has worked with individuals and couples from around the world through her private practice, nestled in the peaceful Herefordshire countryside. Her own healing journey is inseparable from her work, as she believes that true therapeutic presence comes from a place of personal growth and deep self-awareness.
To her, the spiritual journey and the process of healing trauma are not separate paths but deeply intertwined, unfolding together in the pursuit of wholeness and inner transformation.
Meet Kim Craig: Threshold Guide and Shamanic Practitioner
Kim is a space holder, a threshold guide, and a witness to the raw beauty of becoming. She walks beside those crossing the great passages of life, birth, sobriety, grief, awakening, the moments when everything breaks and something ancient begins to stir beneath the surface.
She holds circles not for performance but for remembering. Places where masks fall, breath returns, and what was silenced begins to speak again. She serves as a doula and birthkeeper, not only for babies but for truths, holding individuals and families through the chaos and power of transition until they stand rooted and sovereign in their own knowing.
Her path was carved through recovery. Years of addiction taught me about shadow, shame, surrender, and how the long road home begins with a single act of honesty. That lived grit is the foundation of her one to one work with those choosing sobriety, truth, and self-responsibility.
As a shamanic practitioner, she offers drum journeys and energy healing to help people touch what has been forgotten, disowned, or buried beneath a life of coping. Whether through ceremony, story, or stillness, she holds spaces where the soul can finally exhale.
She believes in the intelligence of the body, the wisdom in rupture, and the power that returns when we stop running. This work is not about fixing. It is about remembering what was never broken.
Meet Dr Nadine Sinclair: Scientist. Strategist. Steward of Structure.
Nadine is a scientist by training and an advisor by vocation. Before co-founding Mind Matters, she managed complex global projects at McKinsey & Company and completed her doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. She brings over 30,000 hours of experience advising leaders across research, pharma, biotech, and government, translating complexity into clarity.
At the retreat, Nadine is the one weaving science into the soul work. A certified DNA Resilience practitioner, she offers precision-based guidance on sleep, movement, nourishment, and supplementation, rooted in both data and decades of experience. Her approach combines neuroscience, behavioural science, and deep systems thinking to support sustainable transformation.
She’s also the mastermind behind the scenes, quietly ensuring everything runs to plan, every detail is held, and the container stays strong enough for real work to happen.
When the deep waters get stirred, Nadine makes sure the boat still floats.
Ready to meet your guide to discuss your return to your authentic self?
Retreat Packages
Included: VAT, group transfer between Lisbon airport and venue, shared room (twin or triple)
Airfare, individual transfer between Lisbon airport and venue; health and travel insurance, blood test/ECG, psylocibin truffles, upgrade to single room; incidentals (e.g. massages, items bought from venue, shop, etc.)
*Twin available at €18,000 each under the Individual (single room)/Twin package (shared room)
What Previous Participants Share
Ready to meet your guide to discuss your return to your authentic self?
Frequently Asked Questions