The Team
Nobody heals in isolation
Healing that goes to the root requires more than one set of hands. Payam works with a small, carefully assembled group of practitioners — each one chosen for depth of training, personal integrity, and visceral experience of the work.
A Village not a clinic
Traditional healing rarely happened in isolation.
The person crossing the threshold was held by elders, healers, family, and community — carried through the passage and back into life by people who knew the terrain, had done their own work, and understood what genuine healing requires.
That kind of container is rare in the modern world. This team is the closest equivalent we can build.
Every practitioner in this circle has sat with the medicines themselves. They know the work not only conceptually, but viscerally and spiritually. That direct relationship with the medicine is essential. It is what makes the collaboration real rather than merely professional.
Payam did not build a team. He built a village — made of people he trusts, people he has witnessed, and people he would trust in his own process.
How the team works
What every member of this team holds in common
Personal work first
Every person on this team has done — and continues to do — their own deep healing. Not as a credential, but as a prerequisite. You cannot take a seeker further than you have gone yourself. This is non-negotiable.
Integrity over protocol
None of the practitioners on this team are here because of acronyms. They are here because of how they show up — unblended, present, clean. A credential means nothing in ceremony. What matters is who you are when everything is open.
The seeker's truth, not ours
No one on this team is the arbiter of your truth. The work is not about finding the answer we think you need. It is about creating the conditions in which you can meet what is actually there — at the pace that honours the system.
The medicine is not the work
The plant medicines are teachers within a larger relational and somatic container — not the point in themselves. What happens before and after ceremony is where healing becomes permanent. The medicine opens the door. The work walks through it.
The Wider Circle
Beyond the named team
Confidential Clinical and Medical Advisors
Payam works alongside a trusted network of licensed clinicians and medical professionals — including physicians, psychiatrists, therapists, and specialists — who may provide screening, consultation, oversight, and support when appropriate.
Because of the licensing, legal, and professional boundaries that govern their work, not all members of this network can be named publicly. Their involvement is real, their discernment matters, and their participation helps ensure that this work is held with greater care.
Their privacy is not a weakness in the model. It reflects the complexity of bringing emerging forms of medicine work into relationship with existing clinical and medical systems — carefully, ethically, and without forcing public visibility before the field is ready.
Working with the team you already have
Payam does not ask seekers to leave their existing practitioners behind. When appropriate, and with the seeker’s consent, he works directly with their therapists, psychiatrists, physicians, and other trusted practitioners — sharing context, collaborating across modalities, and helping integrate what the medicine reveals into the broader picture of their care.
The approach is not possessive. It does not replace what is already working or place one framework above all others.
It is about supporting the seeker fully and honestly — from wherever they are, with whoever is already in their corner.
“The measure of this work is not loyalty to a method. It is what genuinely serves the best interest of the person sitting across from me.”
The Principle of the Work
USa · UK & EU
Payam
Founder, Principal Facilitator & Medicine Carrier
Twenty years at the intersection of Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, energy body work, and sacred plant medicines. Payam leads all ceremonies and is the primary point of contact for each seeker from first introduction through ongoing integration.
He does not call himself a shaman nor does he does not call himself a therapist. He walks both paths and has learned not to collapse into either — holding the rigour of Western therapeutic models and the depth of initiatory medicine work simultaneously.
UK & EU
Nic Burnand
L3 IFS-P · NVC-P · Facilitator
One of the most advanced IFS-trained practitioners in Europe, Nic brings extraordinary depth of parts work to both preparation and ceremony. His training in Somatic IFS bridges the gap between verbal protocol and the body's intelligence — allowing the work to reach what talk alone cannot access.
A Guild of Guides Netherlands practitioner, Nic's understanding of medicine space within an IFS framework makes him an essential collaborator for ceremonial work that requires the most careful holding of complex systems.
USa · UK & EU
Alicia Allison
Herbalist · Nutrition · Embodiment · Somatic Work · Facilitator
Alicia's practice spans the full arc of embodied healing — from the physical and nutritional foundations that make medicine work safe, to the somatic and embodiment practices that carry integration into the body after ceremony. Her doula training brings a particular quality of holding to the most delicate passages of the work.
She works across the US, UK, and Europe, and is a key collaborator for seekers who need sustained support through the integration phase and beyond.
USA · UK & EU
Nanda van Ginkel
MBSR (Brown University) · IFS · Hakomi · Hypnotherapy
Nanda brings a rare combination of contemplative depth and body-based therapeutic practice. Trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at Brown University, IFS, Hakomi, and hypnotherapy, she works at the meeting point of mindfulness, somatic healing, and parts work — a combination that is particularly valuable in preparation and in the delicate integration period. Currently working with Eco-Psychology to facilitate deep connection with healing and nature.
International · Medical Oversight
Dr Brian Jacob
MD FACS · New York
Dr. Brian Jacob is a board-certified surgeon with more than 20 years of experience caring for patients with chronic pain and complex postoperative conditions. Through his work with individuals experiencing persistent abdominal wall, groin, and neuropathic pain, he has developed a deep appreciation for the relationship between physical symptoms, the nervous system, emotional well-being, and psychological health. Dr. Jacob recognizes that chronic pain often involves both biological and psychosocial factors, and that meaningful healing may require attention to the whole person rather than a single diagnosis. In his role, he provides medical oversight, patient screening, and clinical guidance to help ensure that individuals are appropriately evaluated and supported throughout their healing journey.
USA · UK & EU
Joshua Welz
Somatic Experiencing · MA Divinity · BS Nutrition · Trauma-Informed Yoga
Joshua holds a rare combination of credentials and lived understanding — a Master's in Divinity, a degree in Nutrition, Somatic Experiencing training, and a specialisation in trauma-informed yoga. He brings spiritual depth, nutritional intelligence, and body-based practice to the preparation and integration phases — helping seekers build the structural foundation from which medicine work can root and integrate.
USA
Max Raphael
L2 IFS-P · Sound Healing · Embodiment
Max works at the intersection of IFS, sound healing, and embodiment practice. Sound in ceremony is not ambient — it is medicine in its own right, a vibration that moves through the body and speaks directly to parts that verbal process cannot reach. Max brings both the therapeutic depth of IFS and the ceremonial intelligence of sound healing to every phase he holds.
USA
Jane Farrar
L1 IFS-P (Certified) · Holistic Psychotherapy (JFKU)
Jane brings a decade of body and energy work into a practice that now integrates Internal Family Systems — a natural evolution for someone whose understanding of healing has always begun with the body. Her work is grounded in the belief that genuine freedom is a felt experience, not an abstraction — being fully present, trusting intuition, released from judgment into curiosity.
She holds deep appreciation for every person willing to meet themselves honestly. That willingness, in her view, is where healing begins.
USA
Achara Tarfa
L3 IFS-P (Certified) · CTCP-S
Achara, A former Speech-Language Therapist, she brings clinical precision into a practice now rooted in Internal Family Systems and Mindful Self-Compassion. Based in Florida, she holds space for individuals navigating their own healing with the presence of someone who has done this work herself.
Beyond her private practice, she trains therapists, counselors, and wellness practitioners through the Global Trauma Institute, where she serves as a Certified Trauma Care Practitioner Supervisor — working from the understanding that healing moves through communities, not just individuals.
The Next Steps
The team gathers together in service to each seeker we serve
Not everyone works with every member of the team. The collaboration is built around what each seeker needs, at each phase, with the practitioners best placed to hold that passage.