Psychedelic Symposium: A Trip into your Experience
Sunday, August 15, 2021
10:00 am – 4:00 pm CST
Welcome to our very first Minneapolis Psychedelic conference where we join voices from throughout the psychedelic community to share, reflect, and integrate our conscious experiences. Collective progress is supported by the many ways of knowing. We support this sentiment by nurturing access to and representations of the cultural, environmental, scientific, spiritual, and communal explorations of psychedelics. We want to center everyday people in the plant medicine community as valid explorers with the agency to experience, reflect, heal, and contribute.
Our goal with this conference is to confront some very real issues within the psychedelic community. Since psychedelics have launched into the mainstream in the last few years, things have been messy to say the least. All eyes of psychedelics with the hope of being a billion dollar industry. And the culture shifts. Capitalism infiltrates the medicine, and healers and intention are exploited. The racial and academic hierarchy also permeate the community. We see White academia, investor companies, and Big Pharma reaching for domination while the everyday person, particularly Black and Brown voices, fall victim to criminalization, academic skepticism, exclusion in professional spaces, and medicinal disregard. This colonizing trend will not be taken lightly and we plan to address it. Let’s lead by example.
This is an opportunity for the collective to consciously connect, listen, be heard, comprehend, heal, and empathize.
Priorities for this first conference:
Decriminalize psychedelic experiences: POC are disproportionately stigmatized and criminalized for psychoactive experimentation while White academics are praised for their exotic pursuits in medicine.
Increase access to alternative career and lifestyle resources: Lack of knowledge on professional careers in the industry and personal lifestyle, leave marginalized communities at a disadvantage.
Decrease drug misinformation: Transparent drug education enhances risk reduction, prevents drug related deaths and addictions, as well as opens the dialogue for intellectual debate. Critical thinking is a necessary skill!
Address social justice issues in the psychedelic community: Only recently has the community begun to recognize the lack of diversity within the psychedelic space. Recent research explores psychedelic assisted therapy as a means for healing racial trauma. But these efforts are lost if the lack of representation creates barriers for healing.
Grow community involvement in sustainable health and wellness practices: We want to add to the sustainable pursuits of our community. The beautiful community gardens and farmers market. These sustainable practices should be alive and well throughout the community.
The Capri Theater is an anchor of trust, reliability, and innovation. We want to not only honor the achievements of the Capri as a historic center for community, but highlight the capacity for intellectual conversation and progressive leadership. These conferences have been held in spaces like Cooper Union in Manhattan, New York and Berkley University in California. We want the Capri to be added to this list of names and contribute to hosting these liberating conversations. The Capri is located in North Minneapolis, a predominantly Black community in the process of rebuilding and creating community.
Speaker Schedule
| *Schedule subject to change | Saturday, August 14: |
| 10:00 am – 10:10 am | Registration |
| 10:10 am – 10:15 am | Introduction |
| 10:15 am – 10:45 am | Korey Matlock: Embarking on a Journey of the Self with Sacred Teachers |
| 10:50 am – 11:20 am | William Padilla-Brown: Intro to Meta programming the Human Biocomputer with Psychedelics |
| 11:25 am – 11:55 am | Mailae Halstead: Ketamine and Treating Racial Trauma |
| 11:55 am – 12:25 pm | David Paurus: The Changing Nature of Reality |
| 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm | Intermission |
| 1:05 pm – 1:35 pm | Panel Discussion- Academic Psychedelic Research: Jessica Nielson, Christine Diindilsi McCleave, Day Host – Jablonski, Ranji Varghese, & Manoj Doss |
| 1:40 pm – 2:10 pm | Marcus Harcus: Holy Herb & Sacred Mushrooms: Education & Advocacy for Health & Liberation |
| 2:15 pm – 2:45 pm | Abdul “Duli” Wilkins: Singularity Consciousness & Spontaneous Healing with Bufo |
| 2:50 pm – 3:20 pm | Mama Ayanna Iyi: Psychedelics and Unlocking the Womb |
| 3:25 pm – 3:30 pm | Closing Comments |
| 3:30 pm – 4:00 pm *sharp* | Mingle & Closing |
Workshops
| Workshop |
| De’Ja Whitfield Psychedelic Enhancement Through Flower Essences Booth & Workshop |
| Courtney Osborn Mushroom Cultivation Booth & Workshop |
| Poe Yoni CBD Infusions Booth & Workshop |
| Shireen June Ghanatabadi How to Identify a Grounding Archetype Room 1 |
| Catherine Griffith Plant Medicine Protocol Room 2 |
| Kayla Felten Psychedelic Considerations for Spiritual Abuse Survivors Room 3 |
Tickets
We have decided to make the conference a free event. Our goal is to bring this education to as many people as possible, especially for underserved communities and we can’t do that with financial barriers in place. We want there to be no reason not to attend and we hope this does just that. Refunds have been processed for those who have already purchased tickets. If you would like, you can make a donation via Venmo ($BigPsych) or Cashapp ($BigPsychh). A public announcement will be made about the shift to a free event after we canvas in our focus communities so they have priority. We will be requiring people to reserve their free ticket to be mindful of capacity. Workshops are still pre-registered and found in the same place free tickets are reserved on our “Shop” page.
Thank you for your support and understanding that we are new community organizers. Staying true to our values is a work in progress. We are so excited for this conference and look forward to sharing the experience with you.
Speakers
Korey Matlock
Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates
For over 20 years, Korey has walked through the world, gaining experience as a food medicine healer; infused by her experiences with: social justice advocacy, youth counseling and advocacy, racial justice practice, and tenets of food justice in addition to her plant medicine alchemy and culinary expertise.
Korey has journeyed with Master plant teacher, Ayahuasca, for the last 12 years and has survived near death communions with this teacher. In which shed gained the gift of empathic senses/psychic sonar. Mushroom and Cannabis teachers are Korey’s primary earth and cosmic guides. Korey has communed personally with mushrooms, through various health imbalances, and soul fragmentation: which she perceives as the origin point of disease. These understandings drive her passion for Food As Medicine Justice and protection of Sacred Plants.
From the culmination of these practices, she is a wisdom carrier, informed through her personal healing. As an intuitive empath, with a deeply cultivated relationship to the spiritual plane, she works one-to-one with channeled information. Individuals who have worked with Korey, often gain greater awareness as to the unique gift of their souls. Her individualized support builds confidence, assisting individuals towards sovereignty and sharing the art of coming into the right relationship with the 4 sacred foods.
Korey has learned how to fast her body for various sacred ceremonies and is bringing this knowledge through an eclectic live online teachings in her “Food As Medicine” Series. As a constant student of life, learning with plant teachers has kept Korey working with the 4 sacred foods of the Medicine wheel, Sweatlodge, Tipi meetings, Vision Quest and SunDance ceremony as her commitment to the next 7 generations.
Her intention is to bring forth a foundation for the next 7 generations, and stresses the urgency of education on how to prepare the body for communion in the psychotropic sense. Utilizing an approach of a specific “diet,” the whole body, mind, and spirit synchronizes to permit deeper healing and capacity to receive insights/teachings from plant medicine teachers. In her talk she will be sharing tenets of the “diet” and provide contexts for how it may be applied to your personal experience.
Jessica Nielson, PhD
Jessica Nielson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and the Institute for Health Informatics at the University of Minnesota (UMN). Jessica has been researching the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca to treat posttraumatic stress (PTS) since 2016, and is currently the Principal Investigator for the VISUP study, the first psilocybin clinical research study at UMN investigating how psilocybin impacts visual perception and neuroplasticity in the human brain.
Panel Description:
This panel presentation will cover a broad range of perspectives of psychedelic research within the academic setting. We will bring together a neuroscientist and psychiatrist conducting psilocybin clinical research at the University of Minnesota, a previous research participant from the completed pharmacokinetic study conducted at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the perspective of a budding graduate student planning a dissertation to assess traditional plant medicine healing for trauma, as well as a meta-physician working in various fields of medicine and public health.
Christine Diindilsi McCleave, MA
Chief Executive Officer, National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, is an enrolled citizen of Turtle Mountain Ojibwe Nation and a leader and an activist for Indigenous Rights advocating for truth, justice, and healing for the genocidal policy of U.S. Indian Boarding Schools. Diindiisi McCleave completed her Master of Arts in Leadership research on the spectrum of spiritual practices between traditional Native American spirituality and Christianity and the legacy of the boarding schools on spiritual activities and Indian Activism today and the Native American Church’s use of peyote as a sacrament. Most recently, she was accepted into the Indigenous Studies doctoral program at University of Alaska where she will conduct an ethnobiographic study on healing intergenerational trauma through indigenous ceremony with traditional psychedelic plant medicines. Diindiisi McCleave has dedicated her life and work to pursuing truth and healing for the Indigenous survivors of historical trauma at the hands of colonialism and settler-states. She is one of the primary investigators for the “Child Removal in Native Communities: An Anonymous Survey” currently being conducted with the University of Minnesota, and recently published a scholarly article titled, “The Catholic Church and U.S. Indian Boarding Schools: What Colonial Empire Has to do With God” in the Journal of the West: Catholic Indian Mission Schools: Colonial or Decolonized spaces in the American West (Vol. 59, No. 3, Summer 2020). In 2020, Diindiisi McCleave was instrumental in writing H.R.8420 – Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy Act—the first bill ever introduced to for a commission addressing boarding school policy in the U.S. She is also a member of the Truth and Reconciliation working group for the City of Minneapolis.
Day Host – Jablonski
Day Host – Jablonski is an educator, EMT, and wildcrafting aromatherapist who organizes the Madison Psychedelic Society. Since volunteering in a psilocybin pharmacokinetic study at the UW Madison in 2014, she has participated in the psychedelic movement by encouraging community conversation, giving demystifying presentations, and hosting monthly public meetings with the MPS.
Ranji Varghese, MD
Dr. Ranji Varghese is board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine. He completed his medical school training at the University of California, Irvine and his specialty training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He currently serves as Medical Director for Choices Psychotherapy and The Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin Healthcare.
He is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Minnesota where he has published in peer reviewed journals, serves as Principal Investigator on a human subject trial utilizing high density-EEG as a tool to better understand dissociative sleep states and provides Clinical Supervision and didactic lectures for Sleep Medicine Fellows.
As part of his personal, clinical and research interests into the varied states of consciousness, he is co-investigator of the VISUP trial, the first FDA approved psilocybin trial in the state of Minnesota. His role includes assisting in the development of research protocols and safety standards, and serving as a safety and research monitor during human subject psilocybin administration.
Manoj Doss, DO, MPA, MUSA
Dr. Doss is a meta-physician who has spent his professional career -0. His interest in ketamine and psychedelic-assisted medicine started after the loss of a friend who struggled with burnout and depression. He believes that the pure medical model does not meet the current needs of the population. As a preventive medicine provider, he understands that the bio-psycho-spiritual approach is how we can help address the increasing rates of depression, anxiety, chronic pain, addiction, and suicide. Dr. Doss believes that ketamine assisted-psychotherapy is the practical application of this model in the clinical setting, and that the medicine is a tool to complement therapy, not a cure itself. He is a firm believer in post-traumatic growth, and seeks for all his patients to become stronger after experiencing trauma.
Dr. Doss is a board-certified physician and is a co-founder of the the Institute for Integrative Therapies (IIT), the first clinic dedicated to solely providing psychedelic therapies in Minnesota. Under the supervision of Dr. Paul Wolfson, he has received Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy training at the Ketamine Training Center. He is also employed by HealthPartners as a staff physician, assistant faculty member, and Assistant Medical Director for General Mills. In addition to clinical work, Dr. Doss is an environmental health consultant working on projects that study the built environment’s impact on human health, including the State’s CVH and Diabetes 2030 Plan. He hails originally from Virginia and now calls Minnesota his home along with his wife (MN native) and two dogs. His goals in the coming years are to be an advocate for psychedelic therapies within the medical community, contribute to academic literature, and create a community of psychedelic practitioners.”
Mailae Halstead, M.S, NCC
Mailae Halstead is a Nationally Certified Counselor currently based out of Tolland, Connecticut. While much of her work is spent treating PTSD and OCD using empirically supported treatments, she is passionate about practicing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy that centers cultural humility and empowerment. Mailae is part of the Connecticut, Expanded Access site sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelics (MAPS) using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD. She also regularly provides ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of depression, PTSD, and anxiety. Mailae aspires to contribute to a future with equitable and de-stigmatized access to psychedelic healing.
Mama Ayanna Iyi
Ayana Iyi is a modern day witch with ancient sensibilities, utilizing entheogenic plants in her work as a Psychic and Medium. Ayana has an intimate relationship to spirit going back to early childhood. Sharing many decades of experience working as a healer of immense knowledge and power. Incorporating teaching fungi into her work was the perfect complement to accessing the ancient worlds of the divine feminine. Many testify to the fullness, depth and passion that Ayana brings to the Psychedelic community.
Ayana Iyi Detroit native has realized that her journey as Warrior High Priestess is a journey of wisdom, innerstanding and truth. As a visionary in her communities and throughout the US, she inspires women to reclaim their Birthright(s) as Goddess, Warrior and Mother through counsel, tarot and entheogenic ceremony. Most importantly, by divine example. Wife, Elder and Mother to many, Ayana works effortlessly to provide spiritual guidance for all of her sisters and daughters. Showing that total acceptance, love and knowledge of self is her code of life through Profundity, Intelligence, Silence and Truth.
Stig Carlson
Stig paved his self taught path by learning to cultivate mushrooms outside of an academic setting. Like Jade, he explored traditional forms of education at the University of Minnesota and concluded that this was not the space for him. Instead, he successfully practiced cultivation in a home environment before entering the commercial cultivation world at Mississippi Mushrooms. After the unfortunate closure of Mississippi Mushrooms, he continues to focus on his at home cultivation practices while also becoming a Master Herbalist at the Midwest School of Herbal Studies. He is also a mushroom cultivation consultant, helping wellness and retreat centers develop their own pantry of medicinal goods. Well versed in the culture of cultivation and psychedelia, he continues his independent studies as an advocate for progress. He has been experimenting with psychedelics since 2012.
This talk will be centered on the interpersonal relationships we carry with fungi. How and why developing this union is critical to working with these medicines. What we as healers, travelers, and advocates can gain and learn from this medicine outside of the experience they provide. The traits that come with cultivation help us to facilitate a mutual respect and understanding which instills reciprocal agency between humans and medicine. I will express these ideas through stories, experiences, and thought. Understanding and respecting the connections as friends, teachers, lovers, and family we facilitate with our medicine is paramount to community based model of psychedelic healing and rejuvenation.
William Padilla-Brown
Founder of MycoSymbiotics, William Padilla-Brown is a social entrepreneur, citizen scientist, mycologist, amateur ‘psychologist’, urban shaman, writer, you-tube vlogger, contributing editor for Fungi mag, researcher, poet, and father. William holds Permaculture Design Certificates acquired through Susquehanna Permaculture and NGOZI. William is leading the country in the field of Cordyceps cultivation. William regularly teaches at mushrooms clubs around the country, festivals, Agricultural conferences, and more.
David Paurus
I became involved in the Native American Church in 2017, I have been taught many lessons throughout my journeys and I am called to share those stories with everyone who wishes to hear.
Attorney at Law • Corrections Crew Leader • AFSCME Local 34 Union Steward • Tree Removal Doula
I plan to speak about the following topics: Plant Medicine Teachings of Freedom and Control • The Illusion of Land Ownership, Navigating Control Systems • The Physics of the Magical Universe
Marcus Harcus
Marcus Harcus is a loving family man, writer, organizer, non-profit advocate / lobbyist, social entrepreneur, nature lover and traveler from north Minneapolis. He has worked mostly in the non-profit sector on a wide variety of issues related to youth development, community development, education policy, housing policy, state employment policy, etc. For the past seven years, Marcus has lobbied for the full legalization of Cannabis in Minnesota.
I am 43 y/o, and have been a Cannabis consumer for 23 years. During this past year, the toughest of my life (not because of the pandemic), I became a lover of sacred mushrooms. In my mid-twenties, I almost became a pharmacist, but decided against that career path after working in a family practice medical clinic and hospital pharmacy where I decided it would be unethical for me to earn a living dispensing pharmaceuticals that commonly damage human organs and personalities. Today I am proud to be a passionate proponent of natural plant based medicine, particularly Cannabis, and now I’m ready to advocate for the decriminalization of Psilocybin and public education about its health benefits.
Abdul “Duli” Wilkins
“The Beantown Ghetto Shaman” is a visual artist, certified Massage Therapist, Reiki Master, Yoga Teacher and intuitive healer from Boston. He grew up in the inner city of Roxbury and was influenced by his father and mother from a very young age to value the study of metaphysics, mysticism, occult information and spirituality. In college at Northeastern University Duli was introduced to psilocybin mushrooms which had a very life changing affect on him and ever since has been exploring the benefits of “Teaching Plants and Fungi”. Through personal experience he advocates the use of entheogens in a sacred manner. Duli strongly believes that “Urban Shamanism” can help heal trauma based issues, bring people together from various backgrounds/races and bring a new found awareness of self and connection to the earth and Great Spirit!
Kyle Keller
Kyle Keller, MSW LICSW is a Certified Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapist by the California Institute of Integrative Therapies (CIIS), and recently received his MAPS MDMA training certificate (for parts A-D). Kyle has 16 years of experience working across a wide variety of settings, and draws inspiration from various psychological and philosophical orientations, scientific models, and art forms.
Kyle first came across psychedelic research from the 1950s and 1960s while studying transpersonal psychology in his undergraduate psychology program, and has since been increasingly intrigued by their implications across multiple domains of knowledge, including psychology, philosophy, history and sociology. Of particular interest, is the longstanding relationship that human beings have had with psychedelic substances, and how these may play a role in the shaping of both culture and belief system across cultures and millenia.
Kyle currently practices as a Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapist and plans to help facilitate MDMA and psilocybin therapy as these become available for clinic use.
Kyle is also a musician, and aims to deepen his understanding of how music, art and design can be leveraged to optimize “set and setting” and contribute to healing experiences. Kyle strives to incorporate creativity and collaboration into every session.
Kyle has experience working with PTSD, depression, anxiety, identity concerns, existential crises and specializes in working with OCD (including religiosity, and “pure O”).
Workshop Hosts
Poe Yoni
Poe Yoni is a budding herbalist, poet and hand-crafter. She follows Spirit when it comes to self expression and creativity. In the Summer of 2018 she released her first collection of poetry Before the Jade Grew which was created using paper she made by hand. Poe Yoni opened Pyoni Apothecary during Black History Month of 2021. Pyoni Apothecary is a space where she sells Herbal Medicines in order to connect people to the healing they are seeking.
Workshop description
In this workshop we will make our very own CBD infused products with the help of Lily Springs Farms’ magical hemp crops and learn how to create ritual within our uses. Oftentimes we use Cannabis as an escape or a reliever of some sort. No shame in that! Sometimes we need to take a short break to come back recharged and full of gratitude. There’s always more we can learn and share about Cannabis. In addition to that, we should make time to fully honor this sacred teacher when we can. All living beings enjoy being appreciated and Cannabis is no exception.
This workshop will be streamlined to match the desires of those who attend, making each workshop unique. For example, if the majority of the attendees are looking to make their body feel more like a home with the help of Cannabis, we will create a salve or a body butter to adorn skin with the love and calm it deserves. If the majority of attendees are seeking to connect more with the creative aspects that Cannabis can bring, then we will make an herbal tea to boost that flow of creative energy. You’ll be receiving an email with more details from me over the Summer.
This workshop is for those looking to expand their relationship with Cannabis with some hands on learning. It is for those who are open to talking about the complexities of this sacred plant, and their relationship with humans throughout the ages. We will discuss the good, the bad and the absolutely racist events in history that have led to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people since the 1960s. We must simultaneously hold space to appreciate the Medicinal and culinary ventures we will soon be able to take, while also acknowledging the families who have been wrongfully torn apart over the very same plant. We will also hold space for laughter and your favorite Cannabis Infused moments as well! I look forward to connecting with y’all and seeing where Spirit takes us during this Cannabis As Ritual Workshop!
De’Ja Whitfield
De’Ja Whitfield (she/her) is an herbalist and founder of Community Herbalism Project. Through her work she focuses on education of local plants and accessibility of herbal remedies. She combines ancestrally-rooted Earth wisdom with modern clinical application of medicinal plants.
Workshop Description:
De’Ja’s workshop will be on Flower Essences, a vibrational medicine tool that helps dissolve old psychological and emotional patterns to assist the body in healing itself. The workshop will include a brief history of flower essences, a demonstration on how to make and use them, and those who attend the workshop will take home their own essence.
Shireen Ghanatabadi, MA, LPCC, SEP, NASM
Shireen Ghanatabadi is a trauma therapist, who comes from an eclectic background professionally and personally. She integrates neurobiology, somatic experiencing, movement, ecotherapy, parts work, art, plant medicine, and energy work into her healing practice. Shireen has experience working with folx struggling with trauma, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and folx who identify as immigrants (including the generations that follow), multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and/or multi-religious/spiritual—as well as the challenges that may exists within those layers.
As a first generation Iranian-American, multi-racial and multi-religious/spiritual human, Shireen is dedicated to using an anti-racist, decolonizing, and non-pathologizing lens when working with folx and moving through life. She received a BS in Psychology with an emphasis in Kinesiology from the University of MN and a MA in Counseling and Psychological Services from Saint Mary’s. She is trained in Somatic Experiencing and is a certified personal trainer. When practicing energy work, Shireen uses Shafa (Persian healing) and Reiki (Japanese healing art form).
Shireen’s passion for supporting those using psychedelics as medicine (through a harm reduction lens) for deep, authentic healing, stems from her own healing journey and witnessing others find their inner healer with the assistance of psychedelic medicine.
Workshop Description
During this time, participants will be guided through an embodiment practice where they will learn how to identify an anchor/grounding archetype, also called a competent protector, using mindful visualization through sensations and emotions. By tuning into sensations in our bodies, we can truly connect with what is nurturing and healing for our entire beings. This practice is a helpful tool to access and drop into when experiencing distress of any kind whether in everyday life or in states of elevated consciousness. Space for questions and further exploration will also be provided if time allows. I am excited to share space with y’all.
Courtney Osborn
Myco-Operative is a start up Mycological Research company located in North East Minneapolis. Recently Myco-Op has been assisting in the first U.S. grown Beefsteak mushroom! (Fistulina Hepatica). Myco-op has been culturing Minnesota mushrooms for cultivation and preservation purposes the last few years. Myco-Op is also exploring new ways of mushroom extractions for supplemental purposes.
Workshop Description
Courtney Osborn, lead Mycologist and founder of Myco-Op will be hosting a workshop educating methods of low tech and low cost mushroom cultivation. This workshop is beginner friendly. Questions welcome!
Kayla Felten, MSW, LICSW
Kayla Felten, MSW, LICSW (she/her) has been an advocate for religious trauma and spiritual abuse survivors throughout her career, which has brought her to psychedelic assisted psychotherapy work as an additional focus to support those in the process of reclaiming inner peace, relational harmony, autonomy, pleasure, and identity. Kayla is the co-founder of the Reclamation Collective, a religious trauma & spiritual abuse advocacy organization, and was initially invited to facilitate support groups for survivors of spiritual abuse due to abuses of power taking place in plant medicine and yogi contexts. This work allows her to bring her focus full-circle in taking inventory of the spiritual power dynamics in the therapeutic relationship, particularly when exploring medicine and consciousness within that relationship. Kayla currently provides Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy at the Institute for Integrative Therapies in St. Paul, MN.
Workshop Description
Psychedelic Considerations for Spiritual Abuse Survivors: This workshop will hold space for clinicians and medicine workers to explore what kinds of boundaries and protections can be co-created in the therapeutic relationship to best honor the autonomy, spirituality, and healing journey of spiritual abuse survivors. Especially for those who may have been harmed or exploited in spiritual and/or religious spaces, the spiritual sensations and activation that can occur in a psychedelic experience deserves to be held and honored.
Catherine Griffith
Catherine was born in Duluth, Minnesota. From her young age she walked the world with an actively open third eye, as she grew older that connection continued to develop and grow.
In Catherine’s early twenties her journey brought her to the Virgin Islands, where she lived for 4 years. While living down there she began to work with the water and interact with its consciousness. The water taught her how to slow down and help heal herself. After she left the islands she traveled to India to study Hatha Yoga. She was exposed to many different healing modalities that were all centered around going within to heal oneself. While in India she learned about Thai Yoga Massage and decided that was the next evolution on her journey. Catherine travelled to Chaing Mai Thailand to study at the Sunshine School, where she completed beginner and advanced training in the Thai Yoga Massage program. While in Thailand Catherine came across a Muay Chaya martial arts program and decided to stay and study with this master. While there she continued to learn about the human psyche and its many inner workings. Learning how to become the observer and learning how to become the master of the mind once again.
In 2016 she began to reconnect with her Native American ancestral roots, which led her to begin her Hanbleceya also know as Vision Quest, where she completed her four year commitment. This year Catherine will complete her fourth year of working with the Cedar at Paradise Sundance South Dakota. She continues to study with her elders as she learns to care for the ancient traditions and ways to walk with all life.
Workshop Description
In her workshop Catherine will discuss ways in which we can show up with respect, first for ourselves and then for the ways in which we interact with the outer world and elements that we come in to contact with. She will discuss basic protocols that can assist anyone when they interact with plants and the natural world.
Sponsors
Minnesota Legit (Stone Arch Glass)
Institute for Integrative Therapies (IIT)
Psychonauts of Minnesota
Volunteer
If you are interested in volunteering at the conference, sign up below!
* This is not a space for trade and/or sale of drugs.