I arrived at this work through my own passage of unraveling and homecoming. Through encounters with expanded states of consciousness, wisdom traditions, and the quiet, persistent question of what it means to actually live in alignment from your center.
That question became a quest. That quest became a practice. The practice became Realived.
Tessa van de Ven
Realived emerged through immersion. In the Amazon, in ceremony, in studies, in practice, and in the tender space of sitting with myself and others at the edge of transformation.
This included stays with the Huni Kuin and Yawanawá peoples in the Brazilian Amazon, initiatory processes within the Mboumba Eyano branch of Bwiti tradition, and facilitation roles at Synthesis Retreat, Ligare, Tangerine, and others across Europe. Alongside this, clinical practicum experience in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, individual psilocybin support sessions, and years of personal integration work navigating identity dissolution, psycho-spiritual crisis, and deep encounters with natural and cosmological intelligences.
Formal study has run alongside practice throughout: the Psychedelic Assisted Therapy programme at Vancouver Island University, Transilience Psychedelic Leadership training, SOMA Breathwork, and Yin Yoga for Coaches and Therapists.
My approach is grounded, pragmatic, and empowering. Bridging insight with tangible action, and supporting lasting, integrated transformation.
Between 2016 and 2018, I travelled three times to the Brazilian Amazon to stay with indigenous peoples, learning about their traditions and plant medicine practices. These immersions were initiatory, relational, and deeply formative in how I understand ceremony, healing, and the intelligence of the natural world.
I have also attended psychedelic medicine-related conferences in Brazil and Europe, engaging with the global community of practitioners, researchers, and indigenous knowledge holders shaping this field.
Stayed with the Huni Kuin tribe in Jordão, Acre, Brazil, entering into the living traditions of one of the Amazon's most established plant medicine lineages.
Returned to visit the Huni Kuin village of Flor da Mata, deepening relationship with the people and the medicines they have stewarded for generations.
Travelled to Mutum, Acre, to stay at the village of Hushahu, a female Yawanawá shaman, and learn directly from indigenous women in ceremony leadership.
Graduate Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Vancouver Island University, Canada
2025 – 2026MSc in Business Communication and Digital Media
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
2010 – 2012Bachelor of Business Administration
Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
2005 – 2009
Feeling autonomous, connected to values, virtues and vision.
Reclaimed creativity as a birthright.
