I am immensely grateful to have been invited by Tania and Peter from Mind Medicine Australia to join a three-day workshop with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Licia Sky. This experience became a profound and inspiring journey in a beautiful setting, surrounded by the most compassionate people. Together, we co-created a beautiful dance of healing, learning, and transformative energy—a sacred space where wounds could be witnessed and transformation could unfold.
Photo: Workshop Participants
Within this sanctuary of compassion—a carefully crafted safe container—everyone was invited to truly see their authentic selves through genuine connection, psychodrama, and the practice of living fully present. The atmosphere itself became a healing element, allowing vulnerability to transform into strength through collective witnessing and support.
For me, witnessing the profound impact of psychodrama directed by Dr. van der Kolk and Licia was nothing short of revelatory. Like skilled conductors of human experience, they guided wounded healers to see and feel alternative realities beyond the traumas and stories that had consumed and limited their ways of being. This wasn’t merely talking about healing—it was embodied experience. Through fully present, ongoing deconstructed experiences, and the gentle, compassionate, authentic direction of Dr. van der Kolk, participants began seeing new possibilities that catalyzed the formation of new neural pathways. In these sacred moments, they experienced alternative possibilities and genuinely felt what had previously remained unfelt and unintegrated. What struck me most was how the common challenge in psychotherapy—dependency—dissolved naturally through the very essence of psychodrama, as participants became active creators rather than passive recipients of their healing journey.
This transformation connects deeply to the power of visualization—a bridge between imagination and physical reality. Research extensively documents this power, from athletes imagining muscle growth to achievers mentally rehearsing their goals. Even Nikola Tesla used visualization to experiment with his inventions before physically creating them, testing and refining them in the laboratory of his mind before bringing them into material form. Similarly, in psychodrama, visualization places the protagonist into a vivid and compelling alternate reality—a reality where healing principles of forgiveness, release, and reconnection to one’s true self naturally unfold, not as intellectual concepts but as lived experience.
Photo: Licia Sky, Yatong Wen and Dr Bessel van der Kolk
The genius of this experience lay in its integration of multiple healing modalities. When combined with somatic experiences, traumas stored in the body—those wordless memories held in muscle and tissue—surfaced into awareness. This integration allowed protagonists to recognize the interconnectedness of their reality: how body holds what mind cannot express, how present reactions echo past wounds, and what had remained hidden behind their conscious awareness—particularly childhood trauma (This is also what Dr Gabor Maté emphasized significantly) and inappropriate parenting experiences. The body and mind began working together rather than remaining fragmented and at odds.
Through this integrative approach, the creation of ideal characters profoundly empowered participants. These embodied representations served as bridges between pain and possibility, enabling participants to recognize what had been missing in their original experiences and to reveal their ever-existing capacity for self-compassion and self-healing. What was once fractured began forming new constellations of wholeness.
This journey revealed a profound truth: true liberation from suffering emerges through unconditional acceptance and compassion toward oneself. Yet this liberation requires self-realization of the fundamental roots beneath surface-level experiences—a seeing and knowing that penetrates beyond symptoms to sources. As clarity dawned for participants, freedom followed naturally, like morning light dissolving night shadows without effort or struggle.
What made all this possible was the foundation established by the lovely people in the room: a safe container, holistic understanding of human suffering, shadow work by the people themselves, and genuine compassion and curiosity. These elements weren’t just techniques but embodied principles—essential not just to accompany a person temporarily but to serve as living examples of the love and presence we all seek. This approach allows people to eventually walk independently, guided by their ever-present inner light that we help illuminate rather than claiming to create.
Dr. van der Kolk also talked about MDMA’s huge potential in treating deep-rooted trauma.
MDMA creates a unique neurobiological state by releasing serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin while reducing amygdala activity (fear center) and increasing prefrontal cortex engagement. This combination allows patients to access and process traumatic memories with less emotional overwhelm.
It helps break entrenched neural patterns formed by trauma. By creating a temporary state of increased emotional openness and reduced fear, MDMA therapy provides an opportunity for the brain to form new, healthier connections around traumatic experiences.
Photo: Dr Bessel van der Kolk and Yatong Wen
By the workshop’s conclusion, something remarkable had occurred: The light within ourselves illuminating profoundly —not as a concept but as a felt reality—like a river that had always been flowing through our hearts but had been covered by ambiguity and debris of past pain. In this rediscovery, we unearthed abundant self-love strong enough to prevent us from falling back into the depths of old patterns. Now carrying this inner illumination like torches, we continue our journey beyond the workshop—up metaphorical mountain tops and through life’s valleys—forever changed by having experienced our own capacity for transformation. And so our stories continue to unfold, branching out to touch others with the same healing presence we received, creating ripples of transformation far beyond the three days we shared together.
Great Love to Tania & Peter and Tribe at Mind Medicine Australia. There’s so much sense of belonging flowing through my heart. ❤
Learn more about Dr van der Kolk’s workshop here.
Learn more about our Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies (CPAT)™ here.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi
Photo: Peter Hunt AM, Yatong Wen and Tania de Jong AM
