Black and white close-up of a woman with her hands and loose hair framing her face

Our methods

We have
our methods.

There are many ways to come to know ourselves. Through the body, the imagination, the stories we carry, and the mysteries we have yet to understand. At FADEN, we weave together contemporary therapeutic practices, ancient traditions, creative expression, and the wisdom of the natural world. Each offers a different doorway into the human experience, and each reminds us that there is always more to discover.

The hands that hold it

Lineage,
not trend.

Clinical practice and training at the source, from the founders of these methods to the institutions studying them, held alongside matriarchal knowledge systems: what women have long carried and passed hand to hand, heart to heart.

  • Lindsay Olshan, LMFT, ATR

    Full biography →

    Over 20 years as a licensed marriage and family therapist and registered art therapist. Trained by Dr. Michael Mithoefer and Annie Mithoefer of MAPS, and Mary Cosimano and Dr. William Richards of Johns Hopkins. CIIS certificate in psychedelic assisted therapy.

  • Stacia Butterfield

    Full biography →

    On Stanislav Grof’s training staff since 2006, working closely with the founder of Holotropic Breathwork for more than thirteen years, from Tel Aviv University to MAPS Psychedelic Science.

  • Alli Darling, MS, LAc

    Full biography →

    Licensed acupuncturist with twenty years in Western herbology, weaving functional medicine and lab analysis with classical Chinese medicine.

  • Marcela Beltrán del Río

    Full biography →

    Certified in Oxygen Advantage and BREATHWAVE conscious breathing, studying transpersonal psychology at the Pneuma Institute, and trained in presence practice at Eckhart Tolle’s School of Awakening.

  • Sofie Bautista Lorenzo

    Full biography →

    Ritual work woven with deep, intuitive bodywork, trained through lineage and her own personal work in Mexico.

  • Sara Shaeffer Burt

    Full biography →

    Two decades in plant medicine and more than ten years guiding hundreds of clients in intentional microdosing practice.

  • Shawndra McCrorey

    Full biography →

    An experience architect for food, wine and hospitality, with work alongside A16 and Restoration Hardware. She brings professional rigour together with beauty, and a fine sense of how to nourish the subtle, deep work of each gathering.

  • Melissa Gisler Modanlou

    Full biography →

    Board certified Functional Nutritionist and Advanced Sommelier, integrating food, science and tradition.

These practices are distinct, not interchangeable or offered at every gathering. Each carries its own clinical, cultural and legal context.

01

Psychedelic-Assisted Exploration

Only where legally permitted and appropriately supervised.

Psychedelics invite us beyond the familiar boundaries of perception, into non-ordinary states of consciousness where memory, emotion, and imagination may reveal themselves in unexpected ways. Sometimes what we encounter is beautiful, sometimes bewildering, and often a little of both. With thoughtful preparation, skilled support, and integration, we make room for these experiences to become part of a deeper understanding of ourselves.

02

Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Clinical service. Licensed providers only.

Ketamine is a dissociative medicine that can soften our usual sense of self, offering a different vantage point from which to witness our inner lives. Within the support of a therapeutic relationship, these non-ordinary states may allow us to approach familiar stories, emotions, and patterns with a little more space and curiosity. The work lies not only in what we experience, but in how we come to understand it.

03

Holotropic Breathwork

Experiential.

Developed by Stanislav and Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork uses accelerated breathing, evocative music, and skilled facilitation to invite non-ordinary states of consciousness without substances. The breath may carry us into vivid imagery, long-held emotions, physical sensations, or unexpected stillness. It is a practice of allowing rather than directing, trusting that not everything meaningful arrives through words.

04

Somatic Practice

Attention to the body.

The body has a remarkable memory, holding traces of our experiences in the smallest gestures, tensions, and impulses. Through gentle movement, sensation, breath, and attentive listening, somatic practices help us become acquainted with this quieter language. Sometimes the smallest shift, an unclenched jaw or a fuller breath, tells us something the mind has been trying to understand for years.

05

Art Therapy & Creative Expression

Clinical & experiential.

Long before we could explain ourselves, we knew how to make marks, shapes, and stories with our hands. Art therapy and creative expression return us to this instinctive language, using paint, clay, paper, and other materials to explore what lives beneath the surface of words. There is no need to be an artist; sometimes a single line on a page knows exactly where to begin.

06

Acupuncture & Bodywork

Licensed practitioners, where offered.

Rooted in East Asian medicine, acupuncture invites us to consider the body as an interconnected landscape, influenced by the seasons, our emotions, and the rhythms of living. Drawing from Five Element theory, acupuncture, ear seeding, moxibustion, and therapeutic touch, our practitioners offer individualized care that attends to the person as a whole. There is wisdom in remembering that we, too, are creatures of nature.

07

Yoga, Movement & Sound

Experiential.

Sometimes the body needs to move before the mind can settle, and sometimes a single sound can draw our attention somewhere words cannot reach. Through yoga, intuitive movement, music, rhythm, and stillness, we explore the many ways the body expresses and experiences life. There is room for the wild dance, the trembling voice, and the simple pleasure of doing absolutely nothing.

08

Ritual, Ceremony & Cacao

Offered with lineage and attribution.

For as long as we have gathered around fires, human beings have created rituals to honor beginnings, endings, love, grief, and the great mysteries in between. Through symbolic gestures, song, shared intention, and ceremonial cacao, we give shape to moments that deserve more than a passing glance. These practices remind us that meaning is something we make together, with reverence for the cultures and traditions that have carried them across generations.

09

Sacred Heat Ritual / Temazcal

Traditional practice.

Rooted in Mesoamerican tradition, the temazcal is a ceremonial sweat bath where heat, steam, darkness, and shared presence create a powerful encounter with the elements. Often understood through themes of purification, renewal, and returning to the earth, it is a practice rich with cultural and spiritual meaning. Within its warmth, we are invited to listen to the body, honor our limits, and remember the ancient human practice of gathering in ceremony.

10

Nature-Based Experience

Experiential.

The natural world has been speaking long before we learned to listen. Through encounters with animals, plants, weather, and the particular spirit of a place, we remember that we are participants in a living world, not merely observers of it. A horse's sensitivity, the patience of a tree, or the sudden appearance of a fox may offer no answers at all, only the beautiful reminder that life is much larger than our own concerns.

11

Myth & Story

A map and a mirror.

Myth and story help us locate ourselves within the greater patterns of life, the timeless cycles of love, loss, descent, renewal, and return. Through ancient narratives, folklore, poetry, and archetypal imagery, we begin to recognize our own experiences as part of something much older and larger than ourselves. These stories remind us that while our lives are uniquely our own, we are also moving through the same great mysteries that human beings have been navigating since the beginning of time.

12

Preparation & Integration

Before and beyond the gathering.

The most meaningful journeys rarely begin when we arrive, and they certainly do not end when we leave. Preparation helps us approach the unknown with intention and trust, while integration gives us time to tend what has been stirred, through conversation, reflection, creative practice, and the small choices of everyday life. Sometimes the real transformation is not what happens in an extraordinary moment, but what quietly changes in the way we live afterward.

The art and science of

Holding
space.

To sit beside someone without needing to supply the answer. To meet the depth with steadiness, and leave room for her own knowing. Reverence lives in these gestures, and rigour in the care that surrounds them.

  • Thoughtful preparation
  • Informed consent, freely given
  • Experienced, credentialed facilitators
  • Careful individual screening
  • Individualised support
  • Integration that continues after you leave
  • A psychologically informed container
A woman sitting attentively beside another woman resting beneath a blanket
Witnessing is part of the method.