Maria-Paula Almiron, CPsych, FPsych

As a young psychologist, I was guided by mentors on paths I would have otherwise not walked and was left with a rich legacy of knowledge and ethics. My earliest encounters with trauma were in the 1990's post Balkan war, volunteering with displaced refugees seeking asylum in the Netherlands. I spent my formative years in the UK, assessing and treating forensic inpatients detained in conditions of maximum security. My career developed across public and private healthcare and at both extreme ends of privilege and exclusion. My current practice is at the junction of science and spirituality and longs to enter mainstream care systems for the greater good. The present version of me is the result of years of formal education, dedication to personal growth and a critical revision of what it means to be in a caring profession. As it is often the case, my journey with visionary plants started with my own transformation and philosophical alignment with the teachings of silence, pilgrimage, contemplation and service. I am in ethical relationship with all medicines I facilitate for therapeutic or actualization purposes. My strengths are in my self-examined nature, relatability to others and commitment to collectively growing consciousness.