The Process
Unhurried from first contact to ongoing support.
This is not a retreat package. It is a sustained relationship — one that begins long before ceremony and continues long after it. Every phase has a purpose. None is skipped.
A gradual body-based approach
Working with permission
of the nervous system, the mind and spirit
The Western approach to psychedelic medicine often treats dosage as a variable to be maximised — more medicine, stronger experience, deeper healing. Payam's view is the opposite. Flooding a system that is not ready does not accelerate healing. It bypasses the protective parts that were placed there for good reason.
Titration means working in conversation with the body. Starting where the system actually is. Building the relationship between the person, the facilitator, and the medicine. The medicine is not administered — it is offered, in dialogue with what the system can currently hold
"Working with permission of the system — gradually entering the space — that is the healing process. Not bypassing the parts by flooding."
This is why preparation is not a preliminary. It is the work. And it is why this process cannot be compressed into a weekend.
The timeline varies.
The thoroughness does not.
A Bespoke Process
No two journeys through this work are the same — and no two teams are assembled identically. From the first conversation, Payam begins composing the specific combination of practitioners whose depth, training, and lived experience of the work most precisely meets what this particular person is carrying at this particular moment in their life.
01
Introduction
First Contact
This work is offered by introduction only. If someone whose judgment you trust has sent you here, reach out. A brief conversation — not an intake form, not a questionnaire — will tell both of us whether this is the right moment and the right fit.
The first conversation is not a sales call. It is a genuine assessment of fit — for both parties. Payam is not looking to fill spots. He is looking for people for whom this work is genuinely appropriate at this moment in their lives.
Sometimes the answer is: not yet. That is an honest and honourable answer, and it will be given with care and without judgment.
Who you meet
Payam · Nic Burnand
02
Assessment
Screening & Medical Review
A thorough review of your physical and psychological health — not as a bureaucratic requirement, but as genuine care. Some conditions are contraindicated. Some personality structures require a different approach. Some timings are simply not right.
Dr Brian Jacob, MD FACS (Mount Sinai, New York) provides medical oversight for this phase — reviewing physical health, medications, and any contraindications. This is not a rubber stamp. It is a substantive clinical assessment.
Psychological readiness is assessed alongside medical clearance. The question is not simply whether the medicines are physically safe — it is whether this person's system is ready to work with them, at this dose, at this moment in their life.
Who you meet
Payam · Dr Brian Jacob
03
Preparation
Psychedelic Preparation
The most underestimated phase of medicine work. What you bring to the mat — the state of your system, the managers that have been met and those still asleep, the relationship between you and the medicine — determines what is possible in ceremony. Preparation is not formality. It is the work.
Preparation spans multiple sessions over weeks or months depending on what is needed. IFS mapping begins here — identifying the protective structures, the managers running the show, the exiles they are guarding. Somatic work begins. The relationship between you and Payam deepens. The nervous system begins to learn that this is safe.
Practical preparation is also addressed: diet, medications, sleep, the circumstances of your life. The container for ceremony must be built before ceremony begins. You will also begin to meet the medicines — starting with lower-intensity ceremonial medicines that help the system understand what it is being invited into
Who you meet
Payam · Nic Burnand
Or as indicated by need, availability & geographical location
04
The Work
Ceremony
Multi-day ceremony held in the Netherlands, Portugal, or the United States — location determined in consultation based on your situation and applicable legal context.
Payam operates within jurisdictions where the ceremonial use of plant medicines is legally permitted, decriminalized, or recognised as a protected sacred practice — including recognised Native American sacramental traditions carried by authorised medicine keepers.
The structure, medicines, and duration are built around you — not around a standard protocol. Payam sits with you throughout, from first to last moment.
Ceremony typically spans four to five days. The opening medicine sequence — tobacco, rapé, sananga — is used to read the system and establish the field. The primary medicine or medicines are selected and titrated in conversation with the system's readiness in real time. There is no predetermined dose. There is no predetermined outcome.
Payam tracks the field throughout — the energy of the room, the body's signals, the state of the parts — and works actively within the ceremony alongside the medicine. This is not holding space. This is a Spirit Walker in the spirit realm with you, ten steps ahead, knowing the landscape.
A third party is always present in a defined role: safety, documentation, and support — never interpretation or facilitation. Gender-matched where needed.
Who you meet
Payam · Nic Burnand · Alicia Allison
As indicated by need, availability or geographical location
05
After Ceremony
Integration
What arose in ceremony must be met, held, and slowly rooted into life. Integration is not a debrief. It is the phase where the medicine's teaching becomes a different way of being — where insight becomes embodied change rather than a memorable experience that fades.
Integration begins the morning after ceremony and continues for weeks or months. The material that surfaced is worked — in IFS sessions, in somatic work, in embodiment practice, in the nutritional and lifestyle adjustments that help the system consolidate what changed.
The protectors that may have been overlooked will return. This is expected, not alarming. They need to be updated — shown that the exile they were guarding has been witnessed, that their protection is no longer needed in the same way. This is careful, unhurried work.
Who you meet
Payam · Nic Burnand
Or as indicated by need, availability & geographical location
06
The Long Arc
Some seekers return for subsequent ceremony after a period of integration. Some find that the single passage was sufficient. Some continue with individual practitioners on the team for ongoing IFS, somatic work, or embodiment practice. The relationship is not designed to create dependency — it is designed to create wholeness.
For those who wish to go deeper: additional ceremony is available when the system has had time to integrate what the first passage opened. The decision is always made collaboratively, with full attention to readiness rather than desire.
Ongoing Support
The work does not end with integration. The matrix of your life — the relationships, the roles, the patterns built around version 1.0 — will need time to reorganise around who you are becoming. Ongoing support is available for as long as it is useful.
Who you meet
US Team · UK & EU Team
Or as indicated by need, availability & geographical location
When you are ready
The first step is a conversation
Not a commitment. Not an application. A conversation — to understand where you are, what you are carrying, and whether this is the right moment and the right fit.