Healing Together: An MDMA-Assisted Therapy Session for Couples in Lake Atitlan

Location icon
Atitlán, Guatemala
Users icon
Up to 2 in group
Date
Open Dates

Retreat Highlights

  • Legal
  • Safe
  • Personal, private, 1:1 care and attention
  • Experienced and knowledgeable practitioners
  • Purpose over profit
  • Empowerment through education

About this Retreat

Your Guides

Details of this retreat

We are a nonprofit association offering legal, individual 1:1 psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions to those in need. MDMA-assisted couples therapy offers a path to profound intimacy, healing, and trust. MDMA (often called "the love drug") enhances empathy, trust, and emotional openness, allowing couples to navigate difficult conversations without defensiveness or blame. This experience can help heal deep wounds by letting go of past conflicts land emotional barriers. It also enhances communication and allows participants to speak and listen with clarity, vulnerability, and compassion.

Our protocol primarily focuses on trust, as it is the cornerstone of lasting love and the essential foundation for a deep, enduring connection. By creating a safe and supportive environment, MDMA-assisted therapy allows couples to reconnect on a deeper level, fostering mutual understanding and emotional closeness.

Whether you're seeking to heal old wounds, improve communication, or reignite the spark in your relationship, this therapy offers the possibility to build a stronger, more resilient bond. Many participants in clinical studies with MDMA have reported improved relational functioning—including greater emotional openness and empathy with partners,
increased emotional safety and bonding, enhanced communication skills, reduction in PTSD symptoms and relational distress. Couples report feeling more connected, empathic, and open after sessions. Preliminary findings suggest MDMA helps reduce defensiveness, help address attachment wounds and relational trauma, allowing both partners to engage more constructively with each other on challenging topics.

We are graduates of Somatic Plant Medicine Integration certification and have completed professional training in the Trauma-informed Plant Medicine Masterclass offered by Atira Tan. We are signatories of the North Star ethics pledge for psychedelic practitioners, guided by integrity and sincerity as foundational principles in our work.

Based on the standard protocol for clinical practice developed by Johns Hopkins University, Imperial College London, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and others, our sessions are conducted individually, in comfortable, quiet, cosy indoor environments, close to nature, with one or more monitors present at all times to offer non-intrusive, non-directive care and support. We invite individuals to embark on a long-term, multi-stage journey with us, in which the session itself is merely one phase.

Our approach is grounded in psychosomatic therapy and incorporates elements of Dr Peter Levine´s Somatic Experiencing, Dr David Bercelli´s Trauma Release Exercises, emotional release exercises from the Reichian tradition of body-based psychoanalysis, and breathwork-based methods of nervous-system autoregulation.

Schedule

To ensure the experience of everyone is as beneficial as possible, we do not host group retreats but invite individuals to embark on a long-term, multi-stage journey with us, in which the session itself is merely one phase. During the intake phase, we conduct a thorough medical and psychological pre-screening process to ensure the safety of the experience for all candidates.

Once applications are accepted and dates arranged, the preparation phase includes the presentation of introductory educational content, and an introductory video interview to get to know each other and to discuss intentions and upcoming steps.

We meet you at the site around 10 am. The session begins with a preparatory discussion, during which we set and record intentions, work through doubts and fears, and provide "flight instructions" about how to navigate any challenging experiences that may arise. We then take you through a series of psychosomatic emotional and trauma release exercises that you can use during the trip, and conclude the preparation session with a tea ceremony including an infusion of herbal extracts shown in several clinical trials to reduce anxiety significantly in patients awaiting surgery. This is particularly apt as a high dose psychedelic session is comparable to performing a deep surgical operation on your own mind.

After the tea ceremony, we guide you through breathing exercises to relax and calm the mind as the effects begin to take hold. Once you start feeling the effects more strongly, we provide earphones and eyeshades in order for you to immerse yourself in the experience.

Once the effects subside, around 6 hours later, we provide opportunities for you to record the experience in writing or through audio. We close the session around 8pm.
Note: Schedule is approximate and may change

Getting Here

Location icon Mycosomatic Magic, Atitlán, Guatemala

Directions

We are located in a lush and vibrant valley in the mountains surrounding Lake Atitlan. The trip begins on the journey out here! Riding from Guatemala City to Lake Atitlan, the pace of life shifts and the landscape transforms, delivering you to a verdant paradise.

If you're flying into the country, you'll want to fly into Guatemala City. There are private shuttles that go from the airport to Panajachel, the major town on the lake. There are also public buses from Guatemala City to Panajachel or San Pablo. Once in Panajachel or San Pablo, you can take a boat to Tzununa, where we will greet you! We can also organize a shuttle from the airport directly to our location.

Accommodation

Per person fee for MDMA couples therapy

Venue & Amenities

A/C in Rooms icon A/C in Rooms
Free Wifi icon Free Wifi
Spa icon Spa
Sauna icon Sauna
Pool icon Pool
Towels icon Towels
Free Parking icon Free Parking
Kitchen icon Kitchen
Tour Assistance icon Tour Assistance
Hot Tub icon Hot Tub
Coffee/Tea icon Coffee/Tea
Cafe icon Cafe
Restaurant icon Restaurant
Fitness Center icon Fitness Center
Yoga Studio icon Yoga Studio
Housekeeping icon Housekeeping
Bicycles For Rent icon Bicycles For Rent
Our settings are natural, private locations surrounded by the picturesque beauty of Lake Atitlan.

What's Included

  • Introductory discovery call
  • Full medical and psychological prescreening to ensure safety of applicants
  • Educational content to assist with preparation
  • Private 1:1 psychedelic session
  • Educational content to assist with integration
  • Access to voluntary participation in scientific research

What's Not Included

  • Travel to and from site
  • Meals
  • Accomodation

Customer Reviews

5.00 out of 5.0 average rating

5.0
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Reality Bending Journey
I'm so grateful that I landed on Mycosomatic Magic for my first experience with mushrooms. Elena was an incredible guide, from the moment we had our first call I was put at ease by her calming presence and grounding nature. It's clear she has extensive experience, and an intuitive ability to know just what you need throughout the journey.

While words cannot capture the intensity of the journey, the messages and learnings I had and continue to have in the weeks after my session have opened doors for awarenesses that I don't believe I could have otherwise arrived at. Thank you Elena and team for facilitating such a nurturing , attentive, and safe environment.

5.0
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Wonderful experience
I have attended several of these types of experiences in the past, but Elena made this experience so much more than the others. Her warmth, openness understanding, generosity... She is both a wonderful person and a gifted guide. Thank you Elena for helping make my experience so meaningful and memerable.

5.0
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Mindblowingly Healing
Siddiq very kindly squeezed me in at the last minute when I arrived in Malaga, with Malwina as my facilitator. I didn't leave much time for us to properly prep but as I had a good amount of previous experience we decided to proceed anyway. I completed my intake form and when we met and talked for almost 90 mins before my journey began and this put me completely at ease with her as my facilitator.

I had the biggest dose I had ever had and it was very challenging at times. But Malwina took it all in her stride and I felt she was with me all the way! I felt she saw my pain and it was this my heart needed. There was a lot of somatic release too. Malwina seemed to know what I needed even before I did. Although she gave me the space I needed, I felt she was absolutely attuned to me throughout. She is meant to be doing this work. I hope I am priveleged enough to do another journey with her.

I also loved the mountain location very much. Immersed in nature and super quiet. The space was just perfect and the rainy foggy weather made it all the more mystical and special. And I very much loved sweet Kamba who made a couple of visits to us, including one in the night so she could sleep in the warmth. Loved it.

My experience was incredible and I would definitely not hesitate to recommend Mycosomatic Magic, and especially Malwina. Thank you so much!

5.0
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Mushroom Experience
I had a fantastic experience with magic mushrooms with Siddiq and Peyton from Fungi Academy. Both Siddiq and Peyton were available before the experience to answer questions and talk about the process. They sent a plethora of information for me to read and watch beforehand to better prepare me for the "journey." I felt extremely supported even before I met them. During my mushroom experience they were both with me to make sure I was supported. I felt they were as important to the "trip" as the mushrooms themselves. I'm thankful for this experience and so grateful to have had the care and support of both Siddiq and Peyton. They are definitely light workers who are passionate about helping people get what they desire from a magic mushroom experience.

5.0
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Dying in El Gastor
Can you imagine having to create the universe just to come and die in El Gastor?

Several variations of this "mantra" ran through my head during the first part of my experience. While I was still resisting the idea of dying, this thought brought a smile to my face and helped me relax.

The universe and all its contents were already doing and undoing themselves, and I was getting thoroughly lost. The only guiding thread was the music—vibration at its core, but vibration arranged in a way to be pleasurable for a perceiving consciousness.

Every now and then, my dry lips would sting against each other, briefly reminding me of my body and everything else. The mantra would repeat, bringing a relaxed smile, along with questions about why this doing and undoing of the universe was necessary. Why bother?

Thanks to the music, it was easy to understand this as a process similar to that of a musician transforming vibration into something beautiful. It was a satisfactory explanation for that momentary lapse of reason, and then I was gone again.

But why dying anyway?

The idea of dying is terrifying, especially in our individualistic society where we invest so much energy in developing our sense of self. For me, this manifested some years ago as crippling hypochondria. Mind you, at the time of my experience with Elena, this was no longer the case. Significant personal work had already occurred, but the topic of death remained deeply important to me.

That's why it was so significant when Elena suggested I go on a hike the day before the experience. I ended up on the summit of a small mountain, with vultures circling overhead. They were searching for something to eat, and I was unaware that some part of me was ready to feed them.

Before the experience, it wasn't just this suggested hike that held meaning, but how intently Elena listened to me (no easy task, as I can babble endlessly). I know she truly listened because she provided so many reading recommendations that proved invaluable both in the integration work and my broader personal journey. Elena is one of the most well-read individuals you'll meet, and she delights in sharing her knowledge.

I'm deeply grateful for this experience, through which I achieved what I was seeking. My intentions were simple: silence in my head and a connection to others that transcends words. When we sat together at noon, before drinking the potion, I knew this would be different from my many other psychedelic experiences—there wasn't the faintest trace of anxiety within me because I trusted Elena completely. This degree of trust helped me easily surrender what little remained of myself in the first part of the experience.

A quick trip to the bathroom did the trick—a functional journey to avoid wetting the bed. Afterward, it felt like a small eternity to replace my headphones and blindfold, as closing my eyes was enough to make me disappear. Eventually, I managed to put them back on and peacefully parted ways with my ego. The last bit of consciousness working to control my bladder could finally relax, and with it went my final anchor to bodily sensation.

I won't delve too deeply into reporting what I experienced then, as I feel it would be futile. If you've been there, you know that words are inadequate tools to describe it.

Coming out of it was easy and organic. Eventually, I asked if we could go for a walk, and we were fortunate enough to see an almost full moon shining over the Sierra. But in that moment, I could have found beauty in literally everything.

I cannot express enough gratitude for Elena and everything she shared with me. Her approach to this work is exemplary—she was remarkably clear about boundaries and provided detailed guidance on managing the experience. Her explicit communication style created a container of trust that allowed this transformative experience to unfold naturally.

The integration work continues to reveal new layers of insight, and I find myself experiencing a remarkable surge of vitality. There's an unmistakable shift in my energy that's so apparent, it's even caught my wife by surprise. She often looks at me with amazement, joking that if these are the results, she'll happily send me back for monthly sessions. Her observation makes me smile, as it confirms what I feel internally—a profound renewal that extends beyond the immediate experience into my daily life.

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