Embracing the Sacred: A Psilocybin Experience December 4 – 7, 2025
Following the success of our inaugural event, we are pleased to offer Embracing the Sacred once again, taking place December 4 – 7, 2025. This four-day immersive experience is designed to deepen our connection with self, community, nature, and spirit. PRATI trainers will cultivate a safe and supportive space for this work. Honoring indigenous wisdom and local traditions, our trainers will again include Alejandrina, a respected Mazatec medicine woman, alongside Dr. Amezcua, a Mexican psychiatrist with deep roots in this tradition.
Please note: This offering is exclusively available to PRATI alumni—those who have completed one of PRATI’s Foundational or End of Life trainings.
Over these four days, we will explore together a range of transformative experiences that include guided meditation, breathwork, journaling, prayer, poetry, nature, music, art, dance, and ceremony. We will explore how awe, service, and spiritual alignment can support the creation of a mystical experience. Participants will join together in deeper ceremony to facilitate an experience of unity and transcendence. As part of this experience, participants may elect to journey with or without plant medicine. This allows us to become more familiar with the mystical experience and learn how to support this process for others. To add further depth, the faculty will bring a spiritually diverse background and hold space for the widest possible container of spiritual beliefs.
We will limit the size of this event to 20 participants to engender greater rapport, connection and support.
Support Children in Need in Huautla de Jimenez, Mexico
We invite you to support our Embracing the Sacred colleague, friend, and teacher, “Abuela” Alejandrina Pedro, in her dedicated work with the orphans at Casa Hogar Paraíso Infantil. Your donation will have a direct and meaningful impact on the lives of these children, providing them with essential care and support. By contributing, you will be helping to make a tangible difference in their well-being and future opportunities.
Eligibility
All participants must have completed one of PRATI’s Foundational or End of Life trainings with two monitored ketamine journeys and receive clearance from our medical team.
Cost
$3800*
*Price does not include travel costs, accommodations, or meals. All participants are required to make a reservation with the venue in addition to making payment to PRATI.
Cancellation Policy
Deposits are non-refundable and non-transferable (with exceptions for Scholarship ticket holders). We are unable to transfer tuition payments to a subsequent event. Please understand that cancellations impose a burden on our staff and the below policy covers us in the event we are unable to fill a cancelled spot.
- Cancellations made more than 60 days before the training start date will receive a full refund of payment, minus the deposit.
- Cancellations made within 60 days of the training start date will receive a 50% refund of payment, minus the deposit.
- Cancellations made 4 weeks or less before the training start date are not eligible for a refund.
Scholarships
- Person of the Global Majority (historically/systemically excluded individuals)
- LGBTQIA2S+
- Person with a disability
- Veteran
- Person with financial need
Applicants will be notified via email once scholarship decisions are made.
Location and Accommodations
The Embracing the Sacred event will take place in the Highlands of Mexico at a secluded retreat center nestled in the mountains outside Mexico City. This stunning location offers farm-to-table dining, immersive nature experiences, and spa-like services. It is accessible via a 2-3 hour shuttle ride from Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport, which provides direct flights from most major U.S. cities.
Accommodations are priced separately at $1,200 USD per person for four nights in a shared room ($300 per night). Pricing for private rooms is TBD. This rate includes lodging, three meals per day, and snacks. Participants are responsible for their own transportation to and from the venue; information about a recommended shuttle service will be provided to participants.
Duration
The formal Embracing the Sacred program will run from December 4 – 7, 2025. We ask that all participants plan to arrive at the venue on December 3 to allow time to settle in before the immersion begins.
Trainers
This event will be curated by a diverse and multidisciplinary team of PRATI trainers, each bringing personal and professional expertise in psychedelic medicine and mystical encounters. This group will include psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and Indigenous healers, all collaborating to create a profound and meaningful experience.
Safety
PRATI emphasizes participant safety, beginning with a medical evaluation prior to the event and continuing throughout the entire experience. Our team will establish a nurturing container that encourages openness and personal exploration. With a high medically-trained and experienced staff to participant ratio, we will ensure adequate support and prompt response to any physical or emotional needs that may arise. This carefully structured setting, combined with our commitment to honesty, integrity and respect for each person’s unique journey, allows for a profound and transformative experience while prioritizing both physical and emotional well-being.
Harm Reduction Screening
Participants must complete a pre-event harm reduction screening to be cleared for the plant medicine component of the event. Screening appointments will be available on select dates in October and November.
Course Faculty – Mexico Partners
Alejandrina pedro castaneda
Alejandrina is a traditional healer of the Mazatec culture in Oaxaca, Mexico. She is trained in ancestral medicine and the use of sacred mushrooms in the Sierra Mazateca. Her knowledge is based on ancestral practices passed down from generation to generation, which have been used for centuries for religious and healing purposes.
Alejandrina supports the decriminalization of sacred mushrooms in Mexico, although this is a controversial topic among the collectives of the indigenous community. In Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Alejandrina performs healing practices, such as cleanses (purification rituals) and other treatments with medicinal plants. In her teachings, she shows that spirituality is rooted in the daily life of the Mazatec community, and sacred mushrooms are considered a tool for connection with the divine and healing.
Carmen Amezcua, md
Dr. Amezcua has more than 24 years of experience in health care leadership. Following her medical degree from UNAM, she received postgraduate degree in psychiatry from the National Institute of Psychiatry Juan Ramón de la Fuente with a specialty in adolescents and affective disorders. As a part of her training, she worked on community mental health projects at Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin.
Trained in Psychedelics assisted therapy by IPI, she currently teaches courses in medical cannabis, integrative psychiatry and psychedelic medicine. Dr. Amezcua is also an active participant in several community programs and NGOs. Mother, cook, artist and self-declared social phobic.
Claudia Janneth Chapa García, MD, FASAM
Born and raised in Monterrey, NL, México. Currently residing in Boerne,Texas. She completed Medical school in Universidad de Monterrey. Then pursued a Psychiatry residency at Lincoln Hospital at Bronx, NY were she treated severe mental illness, trauma and substance use disorders. There is where her passion for the treatment of trauma and addictions were born. She completed a fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry in Pittsburgh, PA with the Western Psychiatric Hospital/UPMC.
While in Pennsylvania, she acquired a fellowship by the Integrative Psychiatric Institute for Integrative Psychiatry and a diploma of for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy training, completing the MAPS requirements for treatment of PTSD with MDMA Assisted Therapy. Claudia has found an interconnection between allopathy and natural medicines which she utilizes in her day to day as recommendations for her patients.
PRATI Trainers
Scott Shannon, MD – Training Director
Scott has been a student of consciousness since his honor’s thesis on that topic at the University of Arizona in the 1970s. Following medical school, MDMA assisted psychotherapy became a facet of his practice before this medicine was scheduled in 1985. Scott has published four books on holistic and integrative mental health including the first textbook for this field in 2001.
Christine Pateros, RN MA – Training Operations Director
Chris Pateros serves as PRATI’s End of Life Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Course Director. She has been in the healing arts as a clinician since the 1980s. After “dying” in the Amazon jungle in 2011 in her own life affirming psychedelic journey, Chris’ course as a healer was transformed from clinical nurse and clinical drug researcher to shamanic energy healing practitioner and psychedelic nurse therapist.
Wilhelmina De Castro, LCSW, Executive Director
Wilhelmina De Castro, LCSW (She/They) serves as PRATI’s Executive Director and is trained in KAP (Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy) through PRATI and MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy through MAPS. They support organizations in building justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives, systems, and cultures.
German Ascani, MD
German Ascani, MD, has a broad range of clinical experience having worked over a decade in public psychiatry, community mental health systems, and private practice in California. In his current Colorado practice he uses an integrative approach and uses Ketamine, including Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy.
Stephanie Thomas, PharmD, NTP, CGP
Stephanie is PRATI’s event coordinator. She is a pharmacist, a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, and a certified GAPS practitioner focusing on the interplay between nutritional and mental health.
QVLN (Quetzal Guerrero) and DJ Sunny Z (Sunshine Zerda)
QVLN (Quetzal Guerrero) and DJ Sunny Z (Sunshine Zerda) are a dynamic husband-and-wife duo blending Afro-diasporic rhythms with global bass and electronic elements to create uplifting, genre-defying music. With a global musical education spanning Japan, Brazil, and Morocco, QVLN has released several acclaimed projects, including the chart-topping Afrohouse single “Queimar.” Sunny Z, a San Francisco native with a rich multicultural background, brings her passion for music curation and community engagement to the collaboration. Together, they have performed and studied worldwide—from sound healing in India to shows across Latin America, Australia, and beyond—united by a shared mission to inspire, connect, and elevate through sound.