Taia

I am a ceremonialist, writer, educator and spiritual counselor. My holistic approach is rooted in the wisdom of the earth, the guidance of the soul, and the brilliance of the body. Decades of study and practice in yoga, earth-based initiatory pathways, and Eastern, Western and Indigenous Psychologies converge in my work. As a facilitator of integral transformation, I cultivate sanctuaries that support participants to connect with the healing intelligence alive inside us and inside nature.

Decades of devotion to the Santo Daime—a syncretic, entheogenic tradition from the Amazon—center my practice in ancestral wisdom, while ongoing scholarship and training as a psilocybin facilitator aligns me with the science at the frontier of consciousness research. Doctoral studies in emergent praxes deepen my offerings, and embed me in a network of mentorship and accountability that is essential to my capacity to do this work with integrity.

I view transformation, and consciousness expansion as human rights, and believe self-realization and sacred activism are inseparable. I use nonhierarchical, inclusive, and trauma-informed lenses. I speak English and Spanish. As a first-generation Turtle Islander of Norwegian and Polish Jewish heritage, living on Coast Salish land, I experience white, CIS-gender, able-bodied, middle-class privilege. I am committed to directing this towards dismantling internalized and externalized patterns of oppression in all the ways I can.

To you who long for a life of meaning; you who feels estranged by the dominant paradigm; you whose spirituality does not conform to organized religious codes, you who seeks an authentic connection with your soul, and with the soul-nourishing powers of the earth—I welcome you with open arms.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

  • PhD student in East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (currently enrolled)

  • MA in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (May 2025)

  • Inner Trek’s Psilocybin Facilitator Certification program (March 2023)

  • 8 Limbs Yoga Centers Teacher Training (2015)

  • Vancouver Film School Digital Design Program (2005)

  • Esalen Institute Massage Certification Program (2001)

  • Ida Rolf Institute, Rolfing Trainings 1 & 2 (2001)

  • Naropa University, BA in Ecopsychology and Creative Arts Therapies (1999)