Team and approach
Six people, two kinds of knowledge. Practitioners trained in Gabon hold the ceremony; our physician and a psychologist hold the body and the mind; one onboarding lead holds the thread from your first message to your last call. Nothing is outsourced.
Our approach
Most places make you choose: a ceremony without a physician, or a clinic without the tradition. We decided the medicine deserves both, and that they should not be confused. The practitioner decides the dose and holds the night; the physician decides who is cleared and keeps the heart safe; the psychologist decides what the mind can hold and carries what comes after. Each has the last word in their domain.
Our practitioners graduated from the Bwiti House Training Program in Gabon, founded by Moughenda Mikala, a tenth-generation Missoko Bwiti shaman. The ceremony is held the way it is held in Gabon: the fire, Missoko Bwiti Music and sacred Songs played all night, the protections, the life review the next day. Read The Missoko Bwiti tradition.
ECG and blood panel before travel, IV access before any dose, cardiac telemetry through every ceremony, magnesium and electrolytes per protocol, a hospital twenty minutes away. About one applicant in five is declined or postponed. Read the Safety page.
More than 110 biomarkers, sleep and heart-rate variability from your wearable, validated questionnaires for mood, anxiety and craving. We compare at four, eight and twelve weeks and we tell you what we see, whether or not it is what we hoped.
Small enough that the practitioners know your story and the medical team knows your vitals. Long enough that the change made in one night has three months of calls, data and honest conversation to become a life.
The team
General physician
Graduated from Universidad Autónoma de Durango, Mexico. Reviews every application, decides who is cleared, and leads the protocol. She signs the safety declaration, and takes your call.
On site she runs the intake, the daily vitals and the cardiac protocol during every ceremony. Before you fly she reads your ECG and blood panel and calls you with the result, whatever it is.
Missoko Bwiti traditional practitioner
Graduated with distinction from the Bwiti House Training Program in 2012, trained by a tenth-generation Missoko Bwiti shaman in Gabon, with fourteen years of practice and thousands of participants guided. Present at every ceremony: he hosts the fire talks, guides your life review, watches your vitals and offers counseling before, during and after the retreat.
Michael sets and paces every dose. He opens the space, holds the night with the music, and the next day sits with each guest for the life review. Guests describe him as calm, direct and impossible to fool.
Former U.S. Navy SEAL, Bwiti provider
A former U.S. Navy SEAL with ten years of service, Cory came to iboga after living the hard transition out of the military himself. Initiated into the Bwiti tradition in Gabon and a graduate of the Bwiti House Training Program, he holds ceremonies and retreats in Mexico with respect for the tradition, personal accountability and practical integration: for him, healing is as much the work that follows as the experience itself.
Cory leads the veterans' retreats with Michael and holds ceremonies through the year. Guests who served say the difference is not what he says but that he does not need it explained.
Psychologist
Psychologist in addiction and behavioral health, with close to a decade at the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico. She holds the psychological arc of the retreat, from screening and preparation to integration, and meets people quietly, without pressure.
Tania screens for what iboga cannot hold, prepares guests for what it can, and carries the three months of integration: the calls, the plan, the hard weeks. Her frame is clinical; her manner is not.
Lead provider, Bwiti House graduate
Her first ceremony ten years ago changed her life; she then apprenticed beside experienced providers through hundreds of ceremonies and graduated from the Bwiti House Iboga Provider Training in Gabon. A Certified Peer and Family Support Specialist in the United States for seven years, she bridges lived experience and professional care, grounded, ethical and nurturing.
Trained in Gabon like Michael and Cory, Jenny holds ceremonies with them and is beside the mats all night, the first face guests see at dawn. She leads the ceremony support on every retreat and the women's retreat in November.
Guest onboarding
Lisa is your point of contact from the first inquiry to the end of integration. She coordinates guest care, retreat logistics and preparation, keeps you informed at every step and stays close after you return home. Her approach is warm and grounded: every guest should feel seen, prepared and cared for throughout their journey.
Every question, every flight change, every taper timeline goes through Lisa. Guests have one number for the whole journey, and it is hers.
Who does what
Lisa, with Michael or Cory for the tradition side of the conversation.
Dr Villarreal reads your ECG and bloodwork and clears you; Tania joins when the history asks for it.
Lisa sends the guidelines and keeps the thread; Tania holds the preparation call; the physician plans any taper with your doctor.
Lisa meets you; Dr Villarreal takes vitals and history; Michael opens the first fire talk.
Michael, Cory and Jenny hold the ceremony, Michael sets the doses, Jenny is beside the mats; the physician watches the telemetry.
The medical team checks on you; Michael guides the life review; Tania works with what came up.
Tania and the medical team on the integration calls; Lisa reachable throughout; the data reviewed against your baseline.
Calls with the team at $100 an hour, a summary for your clinician on request, and a door that stays open.
Lineage and reciprocity
The knowledge behind every ceremony belongs to the Bwiti of Gabon. Our practitioners were trained there; our bark comes from cultivated plants through the Bwiti House network; guests who feel called to initiation are sent there; and part of what we do sustains the training of the next generation of practitioners. Ask us about it on the discovery call.
Credentials, in one place
Licenses and certificates are shown on request during the discovery call.
You've carried this long enough. Start with a conversation with our medical team.
