Men's Psychotherapy & Plant Medicine Experiential Group

Ayahuasca Retreat in Oakland, California, United States
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  • Retreat Info

    About the Retreat:

    This program is open to male identified participants and is designed to facilitate experiential awareness of the healing processes that plant medicines are capable of producing, within a container that brings together psychotherapy and indigenous healing traditions. The program is limited to 8 participants. Over the course of six months, each will participate in weekly individual therapy, twice-monthly group talk-therapy, and group plant medicine ceremonies every other month. Throughout the program, participants will receive support, insight, and resources for their integration. Members will have the opportunity to share their healing journeys with others to strengthen the collective healing process. As a group, we will come to understand the breadth of experience that is possible within therapeutic and ceremonial plant medicine settings. We will have the opportunity to build meaningful relationships amongst each other within a safe container of vulnerability and authenticity. Upon completion of this program, participants will have first-hand knowledge of the therapeutic effects of plant medicine, based on their own unique personal experience. Individual and Group therapy will help to further what is gained through ceremony by immersing us in our process in a practical and accessible way.

    Description of Services:

    Program Outline:

    • Individual talk-therapy session once a week, via Zoom
    • Group talk-therapy session twice a month, via Zoom
    • One weekend of plant medicine ceremony every other month. Over six months, this will be a total of three weekend ceremonies. Ceremonies will be held on Friday and Saturday nights, and for those who would like to do three nights, there will be an optional Thursday night. Ceremonies will be held at a location to be determined in northern California.

      Program begins: week of Jan 8th 2024

      Program ends: week of June 10th 2024

      Tentative dates for the 2024 ceremonies:

      February 23rd & 24th, with the option to join on the 22nd

      April 5th & 6th, with the option to join on the 4th

      May 24th & 25th, with the option to join on the 23rd

    Practitioners:

    Gerard A Artesona MFT

    I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and have worked intimately within the traditions of Amazonian plant medicines since 2010. I offer a synthesis of these perspectives based on my education and training, my experience as a mental health practitioner, and my ongoing learning with the powerful entheogen Yaje. As a mental health practitioner, I have worked in group rehabilitation homes, psychiatric hospitals, community mental health settings, and in private practice. While working at John Muir Behavior Health Hospital in Concord, I facilitated group process and therapy sessions for adolescents and adults. I have worked with people at all ages and life stages, including people who are coming of age, navigating major life transitions, undergoing detox and treatment for addiction, and experiencing altered mental states and spiritual emergence. I currently focus my work on my private practice.

    I have had interest in the healing potential of entheogens since 2005, which inspired me to relocate to California from Delaware to pursue graduate studies in Transpersonal Psychology. Shortly after moving to California, I was exposed to the medicine of ayahuasca for the first time. Through the years, I have worked with cultural elders in Peru, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Ecuador. Currently, I am focusing my learnings on the narratives and perspectives surrounding the use of Yaje within the Tukano speaking lineages of the Koreguaje and Secoya; tribes that are native to present-day Colombia and Ecuador, and which share a great level of cultural similarity and have historically existed as a single social unit.

    Team/Medical Staff:

    Gerard A Artesona MFT

  • Details

    Founder(s) / CEO: Gerard A Artesona MFT
    Group Size: 8
    Price Range: $3,900 -$8,580
    Specializing In: Depression

  • Our Process

    Overview of Experience:

    Participants should expect the following:

    ● A consistent container for individual therapy, self-reflection, and personal growth.

    ● A safe and intimate community of peers in which to share one's process with others, give and receive support, and create a collective healing environment.

    ● Opportunity to cultivate a relationship with plant medicine in a ceremonial setting based in one's own therapeutic process.

    ● Experiential awareness of personal and collective healing through plant medicine, and the variety of altered states that it can produce.

    ● Participants should understand the importance of their own individual effort as a vital and necessary part in order to enact the changes they desire to see in their life. The outcomes achieved from this program are dependent upon one's own committed effort.

    Intake Process:

    We will have our initial consult by phone or video chat. During this time, I can better understand what your particular goals are for this group and discuss what would be needed to best commit to it. Additionally, I use this time to screen for any potential medical or psychiatric issues prior that could be inappropriate for this program.

    Psychedelic Substances Offered: Ayahuasca
    How does this Center source medicine?:

    The medicine itself comes direct from the virgin jungle. It is harvested and cooked by a traditional elder and his sons who cultivate and source vines from the wild for this particular remedy. This brew contains only the vine and leaf, no tobacco, datura, or other potentially dangerous admixtures.

    Practice reciprocity with local communities?: Yes

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