Cultivate profound healing through earth’s life-affirming mycelial medicine.
Join an Earth Medicine retreat
2 - 7 September | Sintra, Portugal
“One of the most incredible experiences of my life. I have a newfound acceptance, peace, and connection to nature and myself that I didn’t think was possible.”
— Laura Hodge
Immerse yourself…
Our psychedelic retreats are rooted in deep ecology + transpersonal psychology to cultivate healing, connection, awe and creativity.
This is a process of emerging, surrendering and remembering, where your true essence is enlivened and nourished.
Whether there is a yearning inside you for more than what has been prescribed, a curiosity edging you closer to the mystery, patterns mulching your authenticity, or whether you simply long to sit in circle with real reciprocal community, then you have arrived.
Welcome.
Here is an outline of our comprehensive programme.
Our approach
Ancestral
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Our ceremonies respectfully weave indigenous approaches to healing, honouring traditional animistic wisdom and rituals to create a sacred, transformative space. This ancestral foundation grounds our work in reverence and deep connection to lineage and place.
Ceremony offers us a healing containment to delve into the depths of our heart’s questions, sorrows, joys and dreams. It brings us back into a state of belonging, which balms the losses of the modern era. It is an alchemy of intention, song, prayer and elemental relationship, through which our personal and collective voices of longing and creativity are extended to the unseen dimensions of life, beyond our conscious minds and into the realms of nature and spirit.
This act is indigenous to the psyche, invoking a form of ‘direct knowing’, which is often ineffable but experienced through the fabric of our being.
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Ancient wisdom offers pathways to belonging and purpose, reconnecting us to timeless practices that foster personal healing and collective resilience (communitas).
Somatic
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We integrate somatic and transpersonal psychology into our retreats, guiding you to reconnect with your body and emotions as essential pathways to self-awareness and healing.
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Embodiment is key to unlocking stored trauma and accessing deeper emotional truths, allowing for profound transformation and sustained well-being.
Ecological
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Our ethos embodies deep ecological principles, fostering intimacy with the natural world (within and without) and regenerative ways of living.
We see psilocybin as a catalyst for personal, social and ecological change.
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Deep ecology restores our sense of interconnectedness with the earth, inspiring care, balance, and a renewed sense of purpose in a complex world.
Integrative
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From intake to post-retreat integration, we equip you with tools, practices, and a strong support network to ensure lasting growth and healing beyond the immersion.
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Integration bridges the insights of the retreat with everyday life, embodying long-term transformation and empowering you to navigate life’s complexities with clarity and resource.
Informed
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Our approach is informed by both science and ancient tradition, partnering with leading universities for psilocybin research while honourably drawing from immersive mentorships with master ceremonialists.
Specifially, we are currently conducting research with the Alef Trust of Liverpool John Moores University into the role of ceremony and ritual within psilocybin use.
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Bridging evidence-based research with ancestral practices ensures a grounded and holistic approach to healing, growing trust and transformative results.
Sensorial
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Each ceremony is brought to life with live music and immersive soundscapes (no playlists), creating a sensorially rich and interactive experience that deepens your journey into consciousness. This approach is highly unique to Rooted Healing, influenced by indigenous medicine ceremonies with master jungle entheogens.
The ceremonies and whole retreat provide a richly tactile, sensorial journey, bringing you back into connection and presence.
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Music and sensory immersion transcend words, opening pathways to creativity, emotion, and connection that amplify the psychedelic experience. Through an animistic lens, each song carries healing, spirit and prayer, guiding you through the experience.
Our ceremonies
We offer the unique opportunity to experience two very different ceremonies and ritual structures, each invoking different intentions and potential.
Nocturnal
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Our first ceremony begins in the evening and rests into the night—into the mystery, allowing a courtship with the womb-like darkness for an inward journey. Safely held inside a beautiful garden greenhouse studio (with underfloor heating), live music and soundscaping will guide your exploration into memory and consciousness, with at least 3 space holders.
Diurnal
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Our second ceremony takes place outside, shaded by a huge mothertree weeping willow. This ceremony allows for some more inward journeying, then moves into a unique ceremonial structure that invites collective witnessing, tending and healing. Held by at least 3 space holders, the whole group stays present with the ritual.
Our programme
Our home for the week…
Nestled in a beautiful woodland valley, only half an hour from Lisbon and fifteen minutes from Ericeira beach, The Shanti Space is a nourishing family-run sanctuary for retreats, to rest and restore well-being whilst bathed in the loving embrace of nature.
Inspired by self-reliance, The Shanti Space family wish to live more sustainably, eating from garden to plate and using natural energy resources. Here is a place to feel balanced in a nourishing environment supportive for freedom and growth.
“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things”
— Wendell Berry
Our food altar…
Enjoy delicious, organic, and seasonal meals thoughtfully prepared to nourish and support your retreat journey. Our menu includes grounding, brain-enriching options with a focus on balance, featuring meat, eggs, and cheese for those embracing a pro-metabolic approach, alongside a variety of vegetarian dishes.
What’s included?
6 days + 5 nights at the beautiful Shanti Space
Stunning private or shared rooms, with ensuite options
Organic nutrient dense meals and snacks, with restructured water
2 safe + powerful Earth Medicine ceremonies
Somatic + Transpersonal workshops
Breathwork, ecstatic dance + various integrative practices
Incredible nature access, inc. a 45 min hike through woodland
All herbs + medicines we offer throughout
Available 1on1 support with a renowned psychologist
A preparation and integration programme, inc:
1x preparation group call + 2x group integration calls
The initial connection (intake) call
What’s not included?
Your transport to and from the retreat (see shuttle options)
Massage therapies (optional extra)
Your guides
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Veronica Stanwell
Founder + Lead facilitator
As a multidisciplinary healing and creative arts practitioner, Veronica weaves her love for embodiment, ceremony, land and song into her facilitation. Her deep enquiry into expanded states of consciousness—rooted in the indigenous traditions of the Americas and Mother Europe’s native ways—guides her fascination with ancient approaches to healing. With over a decade of diverse facilitation experience and an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology from the Alef Trust, Veronica’s current endorsed research explores the transformative role of ceremony and ritual in psilocybin-assisted practices. She brings grounded compassion and resilience to this work, honouring the power of intentional ritual to shape personal and collective transformation. As the founder and director of Rooted Healing and host of the accompanying podcast, Veronica invites a renewed intimacy with life.
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Lilja Þorsteinsdóttir
Lead facilitator + 1 on 1s
Lilja is an experienced Psychologist from Iceland who specialises in group psychedelic integration, healing trauma, psychedelic harm reduction, and treating addiction and chronic pain and illness. She has created a safe platform full of courses to help people get in touch with their playfulness and creativity, increasing people’s self-understanding and connection with themselves and the world around them. Lilja offers needed perspective on both the healing potential of psychedelics in psychotherapy and the risks involved.
Lilja has also been immersed in native traditions in Ecuador to gain deeper insight into group psychedelic-assisted healing, learning with medicine keepers and masters and offering 1 on 1 support when needed. Lilja will be available throughout our time together, supporting ceremonies and leading sessions such as parts work and integration.
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Migjen Hasani
Support facilitator
A multi-musician and facilitator of communication, breath and connection practices, Migjen weaves his enquiry of entheogenic understanding into grounded group support. With a mixed German-Albanian heritage and fascination with cross-cultural wisdom exchange, he approaches this ancestral work with care, curiosity and humility. With experience supporting ceremonies during his 14 months in Latin America, Migjen will be offering his presence, percussion, songs and support in ceremony, also guiding practices for our rest and integration, along with ensuring the smooth running of our time together.
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Mariana Bragada (Meta)
Songful Support
Mariana is a singer, composer and producer from Trás-os-Montes (North Portugal) who currently dwells in Sintra. Her music is rooted in ancestral connection, invoking powerful remembrance in both concerts and ceremonial spaces. She has toured Europe and South America, where she also worked in theatre live-sound play.
She will be blessing us with her support, wisdom and presence for the week, and helping carry the ceremonies with song and sound.
Booking options + prices
Max group size: 14
2 - 7 September ‘25
4:30pm Arrival
11am Farewell
Dorm £1,750
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The dorm sleeps up to 8 people but we aim to cap bookings at 5 or 6 to maintain comfort. We prefer to keep the dorm non-mixed (usually women only) but we can’t guarantee this.
There are two shared bathrooms for the dorm, one next door, the other out in the courtyard.
Twin £1,860
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The shared bathroom is on the same floor, next to 2 bedrooms without ensuites.
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A good option for friends booking together or for people who want a convenient bathroom. but do not want a private ensuite.
Private £2,110
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There are 2 king privates with a shared bathroom on the same floor (next door). One private has a small terrace, both have garden views, First come first serve.
Private Ensuite £2,250
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There are 3 private ensuites on the upper floor of the main cottage. Two include a large terrace balcony, the third does not, but still has a garden view. First come, first serve.
Bursaries + Volunteering
Please note that every room is unique so your room may not look exactly like the rooms pictured here. They are all similar in size and decor, with bright colours and charming details, all with lovely garden views.
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We always encourage retreat participants who can, to gift forward so that future bursaries are possible for those who cannot afford retreat rates. If your heart is drawn to this but finances prevent you from joining, please do reach out and we can explore some options. We will prioritise locals and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We have 1 volunteer for every retreat and are always keen to hear from locals who can demonstrate a clear understanding and enthusiasm for this work, along with musical and/or space holding ability, such as embodiment practices. Volunteers can partake in all activities, and are asked to support the first ceremony and possibly 1 other workshop if their skillset suits. Food and accommodation is provided. Full support throughout is expected - prepping spaces, helping with dishes and tidying up etc.
Book your free call
Share your details to schedule a friendly call with us—a chance to connect and ask any questions you may have.
“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Read or listen to our resources
offset your travel
Ancient woodland, wildflower meadows and endangered species are sponsored with the future forest company every time you join us at a gathering or on a course, along with our own efforts to rewild the land where we live in Kernow.
FAQS
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Our maximum capacity is 14 participants, all well vetted. There is usually a diversity of backgrounds, with a mixture of worldviews, all coming together to sit humbly in circle, trying something new.
An open-hearted approach to our precious time together is important.
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Please allow ample travel time to arrive calmly to the retreat. FULL participation is required (please do not miss the opening or closing circle). Check in at 4:30pm, check out at 11am.
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Lisbon airport is 30 minutes by car. Shuttles are roughly 45eur each way and you can book through us. We can help you organise taxis to and from many places either side of the retreat and can send info once you’ve booked.
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Our retreat is next door to a national reserve, so when you climb down toward the stream and look through the fence, you may see some deer friends. There is also a wolf sanctuary next door, so—if we’re lucky—we may hear wolf howls as we sit around the fire or dance under the moon on the yoga deck.
There is ample beauty to explore if you choose to extend your visit to sap up more of the land, people, flora and fauna.
You might want to visit Sintra, Ericeira, Mafra, Malveira, Lisbon or Cascais… all within easeful reach.
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A ceremony with us is a carefully crafted experience designed to support deep introspection, healing and connection. Rooted in sacred traditions and informed by modern psychological insights, the ceremony takes place in a safe, nurturing environment guided by experienced facilitators.
You can expect thoughtful preparation leading up to the ceremony, including guidance on setting intentions and cultivating a grounded mindset. There will be a carefully held container with live music, sensory immersion, and symbolic rituals to support your journey. The journey that unfolds is unique for each participant, often accompanied by profound insights, emotional release, or a sense of awe and interconnectedness.
Compassionate facilitators will be present throughout to ensure your safety and provide guidance if needed. Along with dedicated time post-ceremony to reflect, share, and begin weaving insights into your life.
The experience is deeply personal and varies for everyone, but you’ll be supported at every stage to ensure it’s as meaningful and transformative as possible.
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Fungi medicine offers profound potential for healing and transformation. Studies show they can alleviate depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction by fostering new neural connections and enhancing emotional processing.
Beyond individual healing, this Earth Medicine can deepen one’s connection to nature, self, and community, nourishing a sense of interconnection and purpose. Many report experiences of awe, gratitude, and unity—qualities that can inspire sustainable, meaningful change. When paired with intentional ceremony and integration, medicinal mushrooms become a powerful catalyst for personal and collective transformation.
Read papers and rsearch via our resources.
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Psilocybin-containing mushrooms are decriminalised in Portugal, meaning personal use is not subject to criminal penalties. While we do not sell or provide psilocybin, we can discuss this topic in greater detail during our call to ensure clarity within the framework of the law.
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No. We have observed that some people (perhaps 1 in 10) do not access the kind of state they hope to in ceremony. The pattern we have noticed shows a correlation of this result with long term use of SSRIs (or indeed the effects of high expectations or comparison with previous entheogenic experiences). We endeavour to manage expectations for anyone joining who is currently taking antidepressants, as this does lower (but certainly not diminish) your capacity for a peak experience with the medicine.
Regardless, the true, integrative medicine lies in the totality of our time together. Whether through feeling seen and accepted in your truth, or through the insightful workshops, nourishment, nature, newfound friendships, and the radical act of rest in a frantic dominant culture (it is impossible to reduce into parts). Gifting yourself the space, expertise and time to heal, tend, grieve, grow and celebrate your life is vital in the healing and tending of this world.
Some of our testimonials featured on this page have come from people who didn’t get what they ‘wanted’ out of the ceremonies. Yet their words show an appreciation for the programme in itself.
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Yes and no - Please read our terms and conditions before booking.