Discover the Depth and Embodied Experience of Our Instructors for the Psilocybin Facilitator Program

Meeting heart-to-heart, in deep rapport with our students and the medicine

The Foundations of Psychedelic Therapy at the Leela School

Eli first encountered psychedelics in the late 1960s. An awakening experience with LSD in 1972 inspired him to pass on his realization by leading LSD circles. In the early 1980s, he was one of the pioneers of using MDMA and LSD for therapeutic purposes, in working with sexual trauma and PTSD, in his private practice in San Francisco.

A life long search for freedom took Eli Jaxon-Bear around the world. His search ended when he was drawn to India (1990) where he met his final teacher, Sri H.W.L Poonja, lovingly known as Papaji; a direct disciple of the renowned Indian Sage Ramana Maharshi.

Now, Psychedelics are being used for profound healing and awakening through trainings at the Leela School. This is your opportunity to discover the depth for yourself.

Meet your experienced instructors for the 2025 Cohort

Our instructors come from a variety of fields including psychology, medicine, education, public service and human rights. They exhibit a maturity of character, depth of being and mastery of the skills needed to support students and clients in deep healing and personal development.

Eli Jaxon-Bear, Lead Educator, Experiential 1:1 and Group Facilitation Skills Specialist

Eli Jaxon-Bear is an American spiritual teacher, author and founder of the Leela School of Awakening. Eli’s approach to training therapists combines his 40 years of developing new therapeutic skills with his teacher’s transmission of silence. He ran the clinical hypnosis certification program at Esalen Institute, Big Sur California, and Institute Dr Schmida, Vienna, from 1983 to 1992.

Eli trained with and was inspired by various spiritual traditions - from Zen to Native American ways. His 18 year-long spiritual search, deepened and matured his skills, and led him to meet his final teacher Papaji. Confirming Eli’s realization, Papaji sent him back to the West with the instructions: “Let both client and therapist wake up.” This psilocybin project is in service of that mission."

Lisa Schumacher, Lead Educator, 1:1, Integration & Group Facilitation Skills Specialist

Lisa has been by Eli's side for over 20 years and is one of the founding teachers at the Leela School. She co-teaches the Leela School certification program, the advanced skills retreats and enneagram courses. Directly instructed to give Satsang by her teacher Gangaji, Lisa offers spiritual retreats in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe in support of awakening for all. She operates a private practice as a Leela Therapist and Spiritual Mentor in Southern Oregon. As part of this, she has a special interest in the effective integration of psychedelic experiences for deeper self-realization.

Jared Franks, Instructor, Integration, 1:1 and Group Facilitation Skills Specialist

Jared is a founding teacher of the Leela School, an experienced Leela Therapist and Mentor, a Neurolinguistics and the Enneagram Specialist, based in Australia. He co-teaches the main Leela Therapy Certification Program and facilitates continued professional development courses and retreats within the Leela School. He runs a private Leela therapy practice from Byron Bay, Australia and holds awakening retreats in Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

Jared has a depth of personal experience with psychedelics and is looking forward to the legal use for insight, healing and awakening. As part of the psilocybin training program, he is sharing the practical skills for working with clients in 1:1 and group settings, and deepening in self-inquiry.

Crea Land, MHSc, Instructor, Racial Equity, Trauma, and Integration Specialist

Crea holds a graduate diploma and a Masters in Health Science in Psychotherapy from Auckland University of Technology. She is a member of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists and a Mentor at the Leela School.

Crea was born in Virginia, USA, with Lithuanian and Latvian ancestry and has been based in Aotearoa, NZ for the last 28 years. She has worked therapeutically and alongside indigenous Maori and Pacific Island people, in an ongoing exchange of learning. Since being in Tamaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, New Zealand for the last 25 years, Crea has been examining her own internalised racism, and is passionate about creating learning experiences for others to inquire for themselves. For the last 25 years she has been in private practice with individuals, couples and groups. Crea has worked extensively with both women and men survivors of sexual abuse and trauma. She loves being alongside others in their internal journeying, inviting her clients and students into the depths, in support of discovering their true selves.Having had many of her own transformative experiences with sacred medicines, Crea is grateful to be alongside others in their internal journeying, in support of discovering their true selves.

Anna Keppen, Instructor, Core Facilitation & Administration Specialist

Anna Keppen is a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT-A), registered yoga teacher trainer RYT-500 and a 2024 graduate of the Leela Psilocybin Facilitator training.

Since a young age Anna has studied healing modalities across cultures, specifically in ethnobotany and psychedelic plant medicine. Anna has been supporting the facilitation of psychedelic plant medicine ceremonies for ten years. She obtained her Peruvian residency in 2018, and spent an extensive amount of time with a Shipibo lineage in the Amazon jungle of northern Peru.

Anna has international roles, including having worked as a facilitator at Aya Healing Retreats in the Amazon jungle since 2018, and has roles as a licensed clinician for individual and family therapy, couples work and group therapy in southern Oregon.

Anna has a passion for supporting folks in finding inner peace, processing grief, exploring joy and empowering clients within their own lives.

Bonny Carter Koeber M.D. Guest Instructor, Pharmacology & Administration Specialist

Bonny Koeber is a board certified Anesthesiologist who practiced in Texas for over thirty years. Her fellowship training was in the anesthetic care of pregnant women. She had a particular interest in depression that is occasionally associated with childbirth and in Major Depression. She developed several different study protocols using ketamine for the treatment of major depression during the years of her practice. Bonny currently lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Leigh Estok, Program Director and Administrative Director

K

eigh Estok has been the Administrative Director at The Leela School for the past 10 years. She is happy to also include the role of Program Director in 2025. In the past few years, her curiosity around this sacred plant medicine has opened up a whole new world for her, and knows that everyone can benefit from this beautiful therapy. She is also a Licensed Psilocybin Facilitator in the state of Oregon, and finds so much joy in sitting for people who partake in this divine healing.

perfecting trance skills; online one day course

Joey Bloom, Mentor, 1:1 and Core Facilitation Skills Specialist

Joey Bloom is an instructor and mentor in the Leela School of Awakening. Last year he received his license to legally facilitate psilocybin journeys for people in Oregon. He has seen first hand both in his own experiences and sitting for others how sacred this plant medicine is and how be deeply powerful it is, lending itself to profound realizations, insights and true discoveries of peace and joy. Joey is truly humbled and honored to serve in this capacity.

Karlis Williams, Guest Speaker

Karlis was born in Boston, MA. He was raised in the ghettos of Boston, Massachusetts, Memphis, Tennessee, Jonesboro, Arkansas and the surrounding Delta southern areas. He was in and out of juvenile facilities and prison a lot of his life. He had an epiphany in a maximum security prison in Arkansas, which led to him waking up. He has been out for over six years now. And he never stayed out over six months as an adult. He has devoted his life to giving back in any way he can. He feels that this is what it was all for, “To help and assist those who are going through what he went through”.

Jonathan Goldman, Guest Speaker

Jonathan Goldman began practicing acupuncture in 1976. His spiritual healership and mediumship were awakened through his experiences in the mountains and jungles of Brasil, beginning in 1988. He was led to develop the multi-leveled, spiritually-based energy medicine work of Transformational Energy Healing and the Chakra Map, a unique, accessible, and applicable way of viewing the Human Energy Vehicle (HEV).He is the author of Gift of The Body, which he describes as, “A textbook for the adventure school of your life.”

Jonathan has been leading self transformational workshops and training healers since 1994. He co-founded the Essential Light Institute in 2008. He has been an initiate in the spiritual path of the Holy Daime, an Amazonian-based path that uses the plant teacher of Daime (ayahuasca) as its sacrament, since 1990. He was instrumental in freeing the Daime from US government interference. He lives in Ashland, Oregon. He is the co-leader, with his wife Jane Seligson, of the Daime spiritual community of The Church of the Holy Light of the Queen. He and his family lead self transformational Daime retreats in various locations, as well as ceremonies in their community.

Discover the Program with our Facilitators

Book a free 20min introductory call with one of our facilitators to get all of your questions answered.

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Meet Ji: Student in Our 2024 Psilocybin Facilitator Training

"I remember getting off the phone and just sobbing because I've never experienced something so powerful with so little words.

Through the process, really finding who I authentically am, was something I was not expecting. This deepening relationship with who I am - who I truly am am - as well as with others.

This school has literally transformed my life. And it's still transforming my life. And I can't wait for the next retreat. The first retreat was so mind -blowing and magical.

There's a feeling that the staff truly cares and they are there with the most beautiful and integral intentions. And that's just not something I can find in most places."

Sacred Therapeutics with a Quiet Mind and an Open Heart

The Psilocybin Facilitator Training Program

Emerge from this program with confidence to hold space for profound, transformative plant medicine journeys. Expand on your knowledge of plant medicine through embodied, experiential training. And cultivate deeper self-awareness, compassion, and presence in yourself.

Apply now to be a facilitator

Our 2025 Cohort is Accepting Applications. Limited spaces available.