Our Faculty
Stanislav Grof, M.D., Phd., is a psychiatrist with more than sixty years of experience in research of holotropic states of consciousness, a large and important subgroup of non-ordinary states that have healing, transformative, heuristic, and evolutionary potential. In the past, he was Principal Investigator in a psychedelic research program at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA.
Currently, he is Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, CA, conducts professional training programs in Holotropic Breathwork and transpersonal psychology, and gives lectures and seminars worldwide. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA). In 2007, he was granted the prestigious Award >Vision 97< from the Václav and Dagmar Havel Foundation in Prague and in 2010 the Thomas R. Verny Award from the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) for his pivotal contributions to this field. He received an honorary Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology ( ITP) and in 2018 another one for Psychedelic Therapy and Healing Arts from the Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, California.
Among his publications are over 150 articles in professional journals and the books Beyond the Brain; LSD Psychotherapy; The Cosmic Game; Psychology of the Future; The Ultimate Journey; When the Impossible Happens; Healing Our Deepest Wounds; Modern Consciousness Research and the Understanding of Art; The Stormy Search for the Self; Spiritual Emergency; and Holotropic Breathwork (the last three with Christina Grof who passed away in June 2014). He was also invited as consultant for special effects in the Metro Goldwyn Meyer science fiction movie Brainstorm and 20th Century Fox science fiction movie Millenium.
Since April 2016, Stan has been married to Brigitte Grof. They live together in Germany and California conducting seminars, trainings and holotropic breathwork workshops and trainings worldwide.
In August 2019 his life´s work encyclopedia “ The Way of the Psychonaut” got published and the documentary film about his life and work got released “ The Way of the Psychonaut- Stan Grof and the journey of consciousness” (www.thewayofthepsychonaut.com)..
In May 2020, together with his wife Brigitte Grof, they launched their new training in working with Holotropic States of Consciousness, the international Grof® Legacy Training (www.grof-legacy-training.com).
His website is: www.stanislavgrof.com
Brigitte Grof , MA, PhD (h.c.), is a psychologist, psychotherapist and artist. An early psychedelic experience that impacted her deeply inspired to study psychology, but when her questions remained unanswered she shifted her focus to art. Then, in 1985 she found Stanislav Grof’s books and decided to meet him, later traveling to The Esalen Institute to participate in a month-long Holotropic Breathwork seminar. She eventually participated in a 3-year training in Switzerland. Since 1989 she has facilitated breathwork in Germany, France and Czechoslovakia. From the beginning of the Grof Training she offered modules in Germany and a three year training. She currently has a private psychotherapy practice in Wiesbaden, Germany. Since 2016 she is married to Stan Grof and they traveled together to China, to Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Rebublic. In 2020, the Grof’s launched Grof® Legacy Training for working with holotropic states of consciousness (www.grof-legacy-training.com).
In 2022 she received an Honorary PhD from Ubiquity University for her lifelong work with Transpersonal Psychology, holotropic breathwork, Holotropic States of Consciousness and art , and for co- creating the international Grof® Legacy Training together with her husband Stanislav Grof.
www.brigittegrof.com
Neil Hanon, MD, FRCPC, is a psychiatrist in Kelowna, British Columbia and is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is the Year 3 Director (the clinical year) of the Southern Medical Program of UBC in Kelowna. Dr. Hanon has been teaching medical students, Psychiatry residents, and Family Practise residents clinically and didactically since 1996. Dr. Hanon also does inpatient work at Kelowna General Hospital, and outpatient work at Outreach Urban Health (an Interior Health operated, primary care clinic where he works with homeless, street entrenched people often struggling with addictions and other mental health challenges), and at his private practise. In 2018 he was awarded the Clinical Faculty Award for excellence in clinical teaching by the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.
Dr. Hanon has a research interest in legally sanctioned trials with ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin for the treatment of complicated grief, treatment resistant depression, and severe addictions. Dr. Hanon got involved in Holotropic Breathwork first as a participant to help with his grief after the death of his 17 year old son, then continued on to become certified as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator in 2015. Dr. Hanon was fortunate to have Dr. Ralph Metzner as his teacher and mentor from 2015 until Ralph’s death in 2019. Dr. Hanon was one of the Founding members of Relief For Grief which has transformed into Jamaica Grief Retreats, a non profit organization that takes grieving parents to Jamaica for healing ceremonies with legal psilocybin mushrooms. Since 2015 Dr. Hanon has been facilitating Holotropic Breathwork groups.
Carolyn J Green, BHSc (PT), PhD is a Grof® Breathwork facilitator and pharmaceutical drug safety and policy researcher living on
Vancouver Island. She completed the Grof’s 2-year training in holotropic breathwork in 1999. For over 20 years she has been leading workshops in non-ordinary states of consciousness and offering apprentice opportunities. Her personal adventures in self-discovery with breathwork began with Dr. Ingrid Pacey in 1993. She has degrees from McMaster, University of British Columbia (Public Health), University of Victoria (Health Informatics) and the University of Alberta (Knowledge Translation). As a physiotherapist she lived and worked in China, Africa, the Caribbean and Nepal. She has organized experiential workshops from 2017 in partnership with with the Psychedelic Psychotherapy Forum. She is a founding director and trainer with Grof Legacy Training Canada. For Carolyn the holotropic paradigm is invaluable because it blends the best of western scientific scholarly practices with the practical wisdom of long-standing spiritual traditions to access the power within. She is deeply committed to research as well as training and supporting those following the Way of the Psychonaut.
Dr Ingrid Pacey MBBS, FRCPC Ingrid is a psychiatrist who had a private psychotherapy practice in Vancouver for 47 years. She retired from private practice in 2019. She worked mostly but not exclusively with women, and her practice came to focus on trauma survivors especially of early childhood sexual abuse. In addition to traditional psychiatric training, she sought additional training in Gestalt Therapy, Bioenergetics, Art training and eventually in 1987-1990 in Holotropic Breathwork with Stan and Christina Grof. She attended numerous conferences on trauma therapy, complex PTSD and dissociative identity disorders. She facilitated monthly weekend Holotropic Breathwork groups from 1989-2004 mostly with her partner Wendy Barrett and also with Jane Cooper. Ingrid and Wendy pioneered ongoing Holotropic Breathwork groups for trauma survivors. From 1990-2004 they facilitated annual 5 day Holotropic Breathwork groups at Hollyhock, some with meditation and periods of silence, and some with a focus on creativity. With her experience in Holotropic Breathwork and trauma therapy, Ingrid became involved with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research for trauma survivors, for MAPS (US). She was the Principal Investigator for the first research study in Canada 2012-2016. In 2021 she became a trainer for Therapsil, a BC organization advocating for legalization of psilocybin and for training in psilocybin -assisted therapy for end of life distress. Ingrid is now a trainer for Grof Legacy Training, in Canada led by Carolyn Green and Dr Neil Hanon. She is again facilitating Holotropic Breathwork groups in the context of training. Her chapter on MDMA and Holotropic Breathwork appears in “Psychedelics and Psychotherapy”ed Dr Tim Read and Maria Papaspyrou. She lives with her spouse of 40 years, Wendy Barrett. She has 2 children and 3 grandchildren and a malamute named Misty.
Robert Décarie, BSc, MSc: After 25 years of a career in wildlife management and conservation in the private sector and in government, Robert readjusted the course of his life to deepen its meaning and let it take the direction that called for it. He trained and certified in psychological counseling with the Centre de relation d’aide de Montréal (CRAM). He also trained there in relational therapy (couple therapy), support for the bereaved and professional regulation. He has also perfected himself in related humanistic psychological approaches (Gestalt, Jungian dreamwork, Person Centered Therapy). He is now training toward certification in Focusing. He practices therapy since 2011. He opened himself to Transpersonal Psychology when he started practicing Holotropic Breakwork® and his training to become a certified facilitator in 2008. He certified with Grof Transpersonal Training in 2015 and facilitates HB workshops in Gatineau since then. He paints, sculpts, writes, leads groups in forest wandering and is practicing focusing and mindfulness meditation as gateways to the body and the heart, and to support integration of deep inner work.
JANE COOPER:
Jane Cooper, BSc, MA, CHyp, CCC, works in private practice as a Transpersonal Psychotherapist in Calgary, respectfully acknowledging the land as the traditional territories of the Tsuut’ina, Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Iyaxe Nakoda Nations and the Metis Nation of Alberta, Region 3. She walks with western credentials and a lifetime of mystical experiences that inform her personal and professional life. Jane is passionate about experiential work and is a practitioner who believes in the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. Whether in ceremony, in therapy sessions or facilitating holotropic breathwork, she is grateful for the opportunity to be present for people and ‘bear’ witness in their awakening to themselves. Her work is and has always been to be in service to healing.
Jane’s western training includes a Masters in Counselling Psychology, a Bachelor of Science, and certifications in Holotropic Breathwork, Life Skills Coaching, Addiction Counselling, Clinical Hypnotherapy, Reiki III, and Internal Family Systems therapy.
Since Jane was a young child, she has experienced life with the awareness of spiritual (non- physical) dimensions and realms. Jane experienced deep connections with spirit and the healing potential of Indigenous ceremonies in a Sweatlodge in 1986 and through her call to apprentice with a shaman in Africa in 1991. In 1993 she had her first experience with holotropic breathwork at a retreat where she met Stan and Christina Grof. It was here where she connected with the power of non-ordinary states, began training with Stan and Christina to facilitate holotropic breathwork and started her apprenticeship with Dr. Ingrid Pacey. That same year, Jane was welcomed into a Native American Church ceremony as well as a Sundance and has continued these spiritual practices since.
Jane has facilitated hundreds of holotropic breathwork group workshops and remains very passionate about offering opportunities for individuals to experience this powerful work.
She is excited to contribute to Grof Legacy Training, the emerging field of psychedelic assisted therapy, and the overall awareness for the healing potential of non-ordinary states. Jane feels very honored to contribute to the transmission of Stan Grof’s teachings and supports the leadership of Indigenous ways of knowing in guiding this work. She believes the traditional wisdom/spiritual practices and work in non-ordinary states of consciousness has been guiding our species since we have walked this planet and is passionate to contribute to the awakening of the ‘western mind’ as we work together with these master teachers and medicines.
Javier Charme is Proffessor and Director de la Formación Transpersonal Grof in South-américa since 2009. He is a clinical psychologist with a Transpersonal orientation. He has a private consultation practise in Santiago. He has worked as a facilitador de Respiración Holotrópica since 1999. He graduated in Psychology from the Universidad Santo Tomás de Chile and after that did his Masters en Psychology of the East and West at the California Institute for Integral Studies, CIIS USA 2003. He has facilitated at least a thousand participants in more than 400 group sessions of Respiración Holotrópica. He also uses different influences from eastern traditions including Raja Yoga, Advaita Vedanta and Tibetan Buddhism. He has explored holotropic states for over 32 years. As a committed psychonaut, he has experienced the use of psychedelics in native contexts with numerous taitas and thanks to Grofian Psychology he has experienced hundreds of high-dose psychedelic sessions with different compounds in a therapeutic context. He is one of the most experienced facilitators in the world and is an expert in holotropic states. He is authorized by Stanislav Grof to train psychedelic therapists.
Javier has participated in the training of hundreds of transpersonal therapists and psychologists in various postgraduate courses in South America. For a decade he taught several courses on Transpersonal Psychology and Transpersonal Psychotherapy at Universidad Del Pacífico, Chile. He has directed numerous theses and is an international lecturer on topics related to Psychology, holotropic states, psycho-spiritual crises and Transpersonal Psychology and psychotherapy. He has given and organized transpersonal conferences in several countries, leading training cycles and workshops in Chile, the United States, Europe, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Ecuador.
Paula Guzman is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice and a Grof ® Breathwork Facilitator and teacher.
She is Co-Director and Coordinator for Formación Transpersonal Grof® and Grof® Legacy Training for Latin America and Magister in Psychology of Physical activity and Sports, Universidad Central ChiIe & Universidad Islas Baleares Spain.
She is also University Professor, Universidad Autónoma and Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana, Chile in the Subjects of Clinical Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology, Psychological Theories (systemic, humanistic and transpersonal), Professional Abilities, and meditation. She has been a practitioner of meditation with different teachers for many years. She has lectured on different Programs on Mental training for sports, sports psychology and mindfulness for athletes. Relator at the program “Reducción de estrés con Mindfulness y Cognitivo Conductual integrado (MCCI) and Teacher at different programs related to mindfulness and psychology.
Paula has explored in depth psychedelic therapy with different compounds and has facilitated many sessions in holotropic states. She leads regular Eastern and Western meditation practices in Chile, being Co-director of the Drikung Kagyu Center of Vajrayana buddhism. She developed a mindfulness program for sportsmen.
Paula has organized several International Congresses on Transpersonal Psychology and Psychotherapy and modules on Transpersonal Psychology in South America.
Brigitte and Stan Grof are the developers and overseers of Grof Legacy Training. They will try to be on the introductory zoom call at the beginning of each course as well as the wrap up zoom call at the end of each course.
