Our Facilitators
Dr. Duncan Still - Retreat Lead & Facilitator
Duncan is a GP by background as well as practising as an Integrative Doctor at the National Centre for Integrative Medicine (NCIM) and at Penny Brohn UK (a cancer charity specialising in holistic support of people affected by cancer). He teaches at Bristol and Sheffield Medical Schools (on psychedelics, integrative approaches to health and consultation techniques) and helps run a Diploma in Integrative Healthcare for NCIM.
His integrative approach to health, focuses on Lifestyle Medicine, Mind-Body interactions, Meditation/Mindfulness, Nature-based Health Interventions (aka ‘Green Care’) and the therapeutic use of touch. Before medicine he was a teacher and brings several years’ experience as a group facilitator.
Duncan also works as a Psychedelic Facilitator and is Academic Director for PsyEdu (one of the UK’s leading psychedelic education bodies) and as such has responsibility for running their flagship educational offering: the 1-yr Professional Certificate in Psychedelic Practice. For more info: https://www.psyedu.co.uk/
He has recently completed training as a Nature-based Practitioner with the Natural Academy and is keen to bring his various skills and interests together in facilitating Psychedelic Retreats with a focus on Nature Connection. He has long been interested in the potential for psychedelics as a therapeutic modality and is also interested in other altered states of consciousness such as Meditation, Breathwork, Fasting, Drumming and Dance.
He is a lover of Nature and Food and tries to bring both together as often as possible through foraging, kitchen experiments and picnicking!
Beatrix Bliss - Retreat Facilitator
For as long as I can remember I have been guided by a drive to be in service. This has seen me shapeshift through various archetypes exploring ways to best do that.
In my teens and 20s I explored the archetypes of activist, entrepreneur and educator in many different ways: teaching children in Brazil, setting up eco-initiatives as a Sabbatical Officer at Sussex Students’ Union, teaching young adults about community enterprise at Edventure:Frome, and an applied masters in sustainability at Forum for the Future. I even sailed a modern-day pirate ship from Holland to Brazil to explore alternatives to flying and trading under sail, bringing community-building initiatives from Brazil back to the UK.
In my late 20s I experienced a big initiation catalysed by the sudden death of my father. Around this time, I also found my shamanic teacher and plant medicines. I became part of the pioneering psilocybin-assisted retreats programme at the UK Psychedelic Society, before co-founding Alalaho. Alongside going through my own personal challenges, I helped develop this groundbreaking work, was supported along the way by pioneering teachers and mentors, and given opportunities to deepen my spiritual path and vocation.
Whilst plant medicines opened me up to connecting with life and death in profound ways, I’ve had to learn the art of integrating these peak experiences. This led me to explore a variety of psycho-spiritual tools, before eventually studying and qualifying as a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist. This practice more than anything has shown me that the body does indeed keep the score, that healing arises naturally when we align ourselves with the innate rhythms of nature and that when it comes to holding space, less is often more, and simple presence, trust and safety is paramount for healing to arise.
Having moved around a lot, I’ve spent the last five years deepening my roots on Dartmoor in Devon and slowing down my pace of life. Cocooned in a cottage next to the river Teign, I’ve been discovering the archetype of artist, aligning myself with a bubbling creative life force, channeling this muse through visual arts, writing, and recording music. I’m still grounded in archetypes that are in service, but finding ways that feel more receptive, effortless and come from a creative way of being.
Dr. Catherine Zollman - Retreat Facilitator
Dr. Catherine Zollman is Lead Integrative Doctor at Penny Brohn UK, a charity which provides Integrative Support and Self-Management Education for people affected by cancer. She is also an NHS GP, and has held various academic and NHS leadership posts including Clinical Lead for Personalised Care and Support for the Somerset, Wiltshire, Avon and Gloucestershire NHS Cancer Alliance. She studied medical oncology before specialising in General Practice and completing a Fellowship in Integrative Medicine (University of Arizona). In 1999 she co-authored the British Medical Journal’s “ABC of Complementary Medicine” series. She is involved in a number of national and international groups developing more integrative, holistic approaches to cancer.
Catherine has been interested in psycho-spiritual healing and development since she started working at the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in 1990. She started studying psychedelics as a means of supporting this work in 2019. She was a founder member of the Psychedelic Health Professionals Network’s first psychedelic facilitator training cohort from 2020-2021 and has facilitated retreats in the Netherlands and Portugal since 2022. She has been a Pod Learning Facilitator for PsyEdu’s Professional Certificate in Psychedelic Practice since its inception in 2023.
Catherine completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education at Cardiff University in 2004 and has been involved in teaching medical postgraduates and undergraduates since 2000, as Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the University of Bristol, as GP Training Course Organiser with the Severn Deanery, through supervising student placements in Integrative Oncology and Psychedelics in Modern Medicine, and has helped to develop and tutor on University of Bristol Medical School’s pioneering Whole Person Care and Effective Consulting Courses.
She believes that health professionals have an important role in helping people understand how building their own resilience can play a key part in managing their symptoms and improving their health. She believes that resilience can be developed physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually and has witnessed the power of health and other crises to inspire and facilitate significant post-traumatic growth and healing. She is very concerned about the connections between planetary and human health and believes that it is very hard for us to achieve optimum wellbeing if we consider ourselves as separate from nature. Psychedelics have the potential to support post-traumatic growth, improve whole-person resilience and to increase nature-connection, hence her keen interest in this field. In her individual work with patients and clients, Catherine works to help people find their own individual ways to connect with what matters to, and nourishes, them. She keeps up her own resilience through her enjoyment of cooking, eating and spending time with her friends and family, cycling, walking and swimming in nature, meditating, doing yoga, and playing the clarinet.
Jamie Pike - Retreat Lead & Facilitator
I love to work with our natures. Inner and outer. I am a mentor and a guide. My early career and training was as an HPC registered movement and drama therapist, working with diverse mental health needs. At some point in my late twenties, I was struck by Jiddu Krishnamurti’s saying that “it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society”. Since then, I have been exploring how to support healthy living (and dying) systems in family, community and business contexts. I like to see people not as individuals, but as interconnected relationships woven into a living field of possibilities. Through nature connection, coaching, therapeutic models and movement based approaches I support people to awaken to new patterns of living, working and being. I am also a director of the National Centre for Integrative Medicine, a member of the Psychedelic Healthcare Professionals Network and a partner of the Bio-leadership Project.