Your Facilitators

Higher Growth programs & circles are led by experienced therapists trained in psychedelic guiding & integration.

Main Facilitator

Hi, I’m Carla,

My passion for psychedelic integration work began when I was 28 & worked as a psychiatric research assistant in mood disorders (not involving psychedelics) for Dr. Paul Grof in Ottawa. During that time I was introduced to his brother, Dr. Stan Grof’s concepts of psychedelic psychotherapy which gave me a new sense of hope & understanding related to mental illness & psychedelics. For more details about my professional qualifications please go here.

“After having personally conducted over the last fifty years more than four thousand psychedelic sessions, I have developed great awe and respect for these compounds and their enormous potential, both positive and negative. They are powerful tools and, like any tool, they can be used skillfully, ineptly, or destructively. The result will be critically dependent on the set and setting.”

— Dr. Stanislav Grof

I have now worked in mental health for about 15 years & have specialized in psychedelic integration for the past 5. In addition to teaching these Higher Growth courses, I lead a team of Psychedelic Integration Counsellors at Strength in Heart Counselling & I also work 1-1 with individual clients to push the boundaries of "normal" to uncover & deconstruct the root causes of their suffering.

Over the past 20 years I have been on a transformative personal & professional journey into healing with non-ordinary state based approaches, both with psychedelic substances & without substance (e.g. meditation, breathwork, hypnosis, etc.). These courses are based on a template of my experience, training & invaluable mentorship, enriched by the experiences of the hundreds of people whom I have had the honour to support.

Guest facilitators

Jerad Lamarche, Yoga Teacher & Breathwork Facilitator

Jerad has been teaching yoga for 12 years & specializes in pranayama & meditation. He teaches traditional yogic breathing practices used for expanding subtle awareness, life-energy, and nervous system resilience. Different than most yoga & meditation instruction which take a “follow-along” approach, Jerad takes a custom tailored approach to teaching his students. He specializes both in getting people started in proper yoga breathing techniques, as well as advanced training in deep pranayama which goes hand in hand with meditative integration practices.