Why I Facilitate Psycho-Spiritual Iboga Retreats
- Ibogawaken Admin
- Feb 20
- 3 min read
There is a difference between speaking about Iboga and living in relationship with it.
Eight years in relationship with Iboga
Over the past eight years, my understanding of Iboga has evolved through devotion, mentorship, initiation, and lived experience. I was initiated within the Missoko Bwiti tradition and spent significant time in Africa at Moughenda’s village, deepening my understanding of the tradition. Those experiences shaped me deeply, and perhaps more importantly, taught me humility.
Bwiti and Western Adaptation
Bwiti is not one thing. It carries multiple branches, lineages, and ceremonial expressions. Traditional village ceremonies are rich, layered, and culturally embedded in ways that cannot be replicated outside their homeland.
What we practice here in British Columbia is not traditional village ceremony.
It is a psycho-spiritual retreat context: structured, screened, intentional, and adapted responsibly for Western participants. This model was taught to us by our teacher, who was given instruction by Iboga medicine on how to guide Westerners in a Western way while maintaining respect for the tradition.
Retreat Preparation
There is preparation. There is medical review. There is integration, the most important part. There are boundaries.
Boundaries in this work are not about control, they are about safety and integrity. Ceremony is done a specific way. The structure we were taught is honored. Preparation is not optional or casual; it is part of the medicine itself. The dietary guidelines, the emotional readiness, the screening process, all of it matters.
When someone steps into this container, they are stepping into something that has been held and refined over years of training and experience. The boundaries are there so the work can go deep, without chaos.
Structure Behind the Ceremony
And during ceremony, there is what I lovingly call the “long fire talk” where many are gently (or not so gently) invited to sit in a chair longer than they’d prefer, listening, sharing, and discovering that discomfort is often the doorway. Eventually, you move to a comfortable mat, eye mask on, and begin the inward journey.
There is music. There is reverence. There is deep self-work.
Facing ourselves in ways we didn’t expect can be confronting and profoundly freeing. We learn to move with what presents rather than trying to control it.
It often takes years to reach the place where we are ready to make real change. Taking a week to begin unraveling what we’ve built around ourselves is a powerful place to start. For that week, within the container of retreat, screens are gone. Distraction is gone. There may even be boredom.
And that boredom? It teaches.
Iboga as a Teacher
I do not claim to recreate Africa.
I carry what was taught to me from Africa and translate it carefully into a contained Western retreat setting. I hold space informed by tradition, mentorship, and experience, with responsibility.
For some, Iboga is approached as detox. For others, as introspection. For me, it is first and foremost a teacher.
Bwiti translates to “the study of life,” and Iboga is used as a sacrament within that study.
Our retreat setting here in the Kootenays is quieter. Smaller. Contained. The focus is not spectacle, but relaxation, reflection, and meaningful healing.
Participants are screened carefully. This work is not for everyone. Emotional stability, physical readiness, and willingness to prepare are essential.
Iboga deserves respect. So does the tradition it comes from. And so do the people who feel called to sit with it.
This is not about intensity.
It is about integrity.
If you would like to learn more about our structured Iboga retreats in British Columbia, you can explore retreat details here.
With respect,
Sherry Healing
Founder, IBOGAwaken
British Columbia, Canada