About guiding truffle ceremony

As guides of truffle ceremonies, I find transparency about our relationship with the medicine and our experience with this work of vital importance. Therefor I share a few words about my journey into this work with you here.

The Sanctuary From 2008 onwards, I worked with psilocybin truffles for my own inner explorations. Over the years, I undertook many truffle and other psychedelic experiences, as well as plant medicine ceremonies, deepening into understanding this work (and myself). In 2020 I was invited to guide in a psilohuasca retreat of The Sanctuary - 3-day retreats offering high doses of truffles and Caapi (a vine from the Amazone). Since then, I stayed on as one of their guides in these 3-day retreats until my pregnancy in 2004, guiding in about eight retreats a year and also supporting them with the communication and organisation around the retreat weekends.

Spinoza

It was at The Sanctuary that someone of Spinoza experienced my guiding and music, after which Spinoza asked me to join their team of guides. Spinoza offers high-end, high-dose truffle retreats. I guided in about 60 Spinoza ceremonies over the course of 3,5 years with a beautiful team of fellow guides. We rotated positions of leading the retreat. I served within Spinoza until April 2026, when I felt it was time to give more space again to my own creations.

​ Minidosing: DNYS, Yoga Moves, FIT B&M

About half a year before I joined Spinoza, in 2022, I started offering monthly Minidosing Ceremonies with yin yoga and cacao at De Nieuwe Yogaschool in Amsterdam - the place that has been my 'home shala' as both a yoga student and a yoga instructor for over 10 years. Since 2026 I am now also offering a nervous-system-informed Cacao & Truffle Facilitator Training at De Nieuwe Yogaschool, together with other wonderful and very experienced facilitators including Marjolein Vos, Mariken Hogenhout, and medical doctor for explaining the physiology behind the medicines we offer.

In 2004 the Minidosing Ceremonies expanded to Utrecht, where I offer them about 8 times per year in Yoga Moves. Additionally, I offer weekend retreats with breath work, yin yoga and a Minidosing Ceremony several times a year at Kuuroord De Schouw with FIT Boyd&Mind. The Intention From day one, these Minidosing Ceremonies at DNYS were sold out, with waiting lists. The groups became bigger and the events more frequent. Early on in this development, I went into ceremony with the truffles myself with the question if this 'success' was something that was actually serving life, i.e. if I should be saying yes to this.

The clarity that I received from that ceremony was that my intention with this work is to help re-establish our conscious connection with, and appreciation, respect and gratitude for the earth and the fellow beings that we share this gift of life with. I understood that as long as this remains my primary intention, I can do this work in a life-serving way. (Over the years I did however limit the number of participants and increased the number of assistants to ensure a certain level of quality and presence that I like to offer in my ceremonies.)

This original intention has remained and expanded to include the intention to support each participant in their unique reason for joining a ceremony and the next step in their inner evolution. Also, and perhaps most fundamentally, I have come to see ceremony as a prayer: a gathering to celebrate life, remember our true nature and (re)connect with our authentic life path. The inner 'work' that is brought up in a ceremony, I see as stepping stones and learning blocks that each of us carry, enabling us to transform inherited conditioning and the pain or misconceptions that we hold, into compassion, widsom and conscious embodiment. Women's Ceremonies For some time (2003-2004) I also offered Vision Walks (one-day, medium-dose ceremonies guided together with Leonie Eshuis) where we offer the experience of psilocybin while walking in nature. Now in a stage of life with a young family, these Vision Walks have evolved into a one-day full-dose Women's ceremony in a beautiful place close to the forest.

The Underlying Modalities The guidance that I bring is based on compassionate presence and a nervous-system-informed approach. I have trained - and am still training - extensively in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) which is a modality that aims to embody compassionate presence and authenticity as an attitude and awareness that permeates all of life. My training as a Breath Coach taught me about the Polyvagal Theory and how to work in a nervous-system-informed and trauma-informed way. Additionally, Internal Family Systems (IFS) has shown to be a very interesting and useful lens when working with our inner landscape in ceremony, and therefor I am increasingly deepening my understanding of IFS as well. My Personal Inspiration In addition to the above, on my personal path, I am most inspired by the Nonduality teachings of Rupert Spira and the Engaged (Zen) Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh. Musically, I enjoy the Bhakti tradition, and with my harmonium and guitar I bring both mantra's as well as medicine songs into the ceremony. I do daily asana and breath practices, study continuously and go into ceremony myself about once per season. I see my inner work as the foundation of guiding ceremony. 

Walking Each Other Home Finally I feel like stating the obvious: that guides are also just human beings, with good intentions, blind spots, abilities and inabilities. Offering a ceremony for me is practice in itself: a moment of reflection and learning, and part of my own ever-continuing growing process. Ultimately, as Ram Das said, we are all walking each other home. I guide to the best of my ability and hope that this contributes to the highest good of those participating, and of all beings everywhere.

For questions, sharings or feedback, please reach out.