[Solved] Legal psilocybin therapy with therapist

In the Netherlands, it is legal To undergo a psilocybin session via Triptherapie. Triptherapie works exclusively with legal forms of psychedelics. Specifically, psilocybin sessions use magic truffles (sclerotia) that contain psilocybin. Magic truffles do not fall under the prohibited substances of the Opium Act, unlike magic mushrooms (shrooms). Triptherapie itself confirms this: “At Triptherapie, we work with different legal psychedelic substances. Psilocybin in the form of magic truffles.”. Triptherapie also takes legal precautions for other substances - for instance, LSD and MDMA sessions use legal analogues or clients must have a legally obtained variant themselves. So you can be confident that a psilocybin session via Triptherapie is legal within Dutch law.

Therapists at Triptherapie

Below is a list of all therapists/tripsitters working at Triptherapie, with each person's full name, relevant education/training, specialisations, work experience and additional qualifications.

Marcel van der Putten

1. Full name: Marcel van der Putten (founder of Triptherapie).

2. Education and training: Has a background in the chemistry/biochemistry and a keen interest in philosophy, psychology and health. After completing his training in chemistry, he spent years self-taught in topics such as nutrition, sports, herbs/phytotherapy and general well-being. As a result, his approach is strongly holistic: he combines scientific knowledge about body and mind with lifestyle coaching.

3. Specialisations: In the early years of Marcel, Triptherapie mainly specialised in depression and negative self-image and its underlying biochemistry. In recent years, he has also focused a lot on anxiety symptoms and PTSD; he applies cautious exposure therapy within psychedelic sessions where necessary to treat trauma. He uses his broad knowledge of psychology, neurochemistry and lifestyle to guide clients with various complaints.

4. Work experience: Marcel is full-time trip supervisor and has the most experience of the team. He has been with Triptherapie since its inception (circa 2018) and has more than 2200 guided psychedelic sessions to his name. This makes him the most experienced tripsitter within Triptherapie and probably in the Netherlands. Before starting Triptherapie, Marcel worked in retail (gaming sector), but his passion for science and helping people led him to develop Triptherapie as a holistic practice.

5. Additional qualifications: In addition to his vast practical experience guiding sessions (both individual and group), Marcel also has extensive own experience with psychedelics (about 170 trips of his own) to better understand how this experience can be optimally guided therapeutically. His approach is holistic and personal: he also advises clients on lifestyle (diet, sleep, supplements) in preparation for the trip. Marcel is additionally founder and driving force behind Triptherapie and actively shares his knowledge through blogs and the Triptherapie forum.

Ronald Hochstenbach

1. Full name: Ronald Hochstenbach.

2. Education and training: Ronald is qualified psychosocial therapist with an extensive list of advanced training courses. Among other things, he has trained to Jungian Philosophical Therapist, Psychodrama therapist, Master Voice Dialogue and Transformational Psychology completed, as well as training in Internal Family Systems (IFS). In addition, he is certified Mindfulness and Compassion trainer. These various trainings (mostly through institutes such as RINO or other specialist trainers) give him a broad palette of therapeutic methods. As a result, Ronald has become deeply skilled in trauma treatment and modern psychotherapies.

3. Specialisations: Ronald's major specialisation is trauma and trauma-related issues. Helping people with unprocessed trauma - often without realising that their symptoms are related to it - is his mission. He himself is an experience expert in this field (he overcame complex PTSD and childhood depression) and he turns that experience into empathy and effective treatments. In addition, he specialises in PTSD, depression and anxiety from his background, and integrates spiritual or existential insights into therapy where appropriate. His approach aims to offer people a profound, healing experience, e.g. via psychedelic-assisted therapy, so that they can transform complaints such as self-hatred into self-love.

4. Work experience: Ronald has more than 20 years of experience in counselling, therapy and training. Over the years, he has more than 2,000 clients he had the opportunity to accompany his clients in various settings. After a personal spiritual quest (which included living in a monastery for several months), he started his four-year therapy training in the late 1990s and has been working as a therapist ever since. In addition to individual therapy, Ronald 12+ years of training given in mindfulness and (self)compassion. At Triptherapie, he works as psychedelic therapist particularly in the Brabant region, where he supervises clients during MDMA and psilocybin sessions.

5. Additional qualifications: Ronald combines a unique blend of eastern and western therapies. He is well versed in holistic breath work (via Stanislav Grof's holotropic breathing) and has knowledge of Buddhist psychology and philosophy, which deepens his therapeutic repertoire. He is also an experienced mindfulness/meditation teacher, which he deploys before and during trip sessions (e.g. breathing and mindfulness exercises to calm the client). Ronald is continuously upskilling: for example, he has studied recent literature (e.g. How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan) and modern methods like IFS to further enrich psychedelic therapy. His personal story - from overcoming trauma to finding his calling as a therapist - provides a deeply empathetic, compassionate attitude to clients.

Janneke van de Geijn

1. Full name: Janneke van de Geijn.

2. Education and training: Janneke is currently Applied Psychology student (Bachelor's degree, specialisation Psychology and Health, programme started in 2023). She has worked in 2022 the OERsterk leefstijlcoach training programme successfully completed, giving her a strong foundation in nutrition, exercise, relaxation and mindset coaching. Uniquely, Janneke has several First aid and assistance certificates: she has a CPR certificate, FIRST AID and EHBDD (First Aid For Drug Incidents) certification, as well as BLS/AED (basic life support and defibrillation). These basic medical skills enable her to act appropriately during sessions in emergencies. Janneke's original study path began in healthcare (nursing), but physical reasons forced her to abandon that; she then retrained as a management assistant and has been working as a self-employed executive secretary since 2011. However, her heart lies in caring for people, which is reflected in her current studies and work.

3. Specialisations: Janneke mainly profiles itself as holistic coach and confidential advisor. Through her very eventful life story and personal experience of adversity, she can empathise exceptionally well with the feelings and traumas of others. She has a keen sense of what people are going through and offers a warm, caring and safe climate for clients. Her focus is not so much on one clinical specialty, but on general mental health and lifestyle: she guides people in making positive lifestyle changes (healthier diet, exercise, mindset) to improve their well-being. In sessions, Janneke is often perceived by clients as “very caring and involved, almost motherly”, which is particularly supportive for people with trauma or lack of security.

4. Work experience: Within Triptherapie, Janneke fulfils several roles. It provides the first customer contact with new clients, accompany them during the intake and sets personal lifestyle plans up in preparation for the sessions. It also performs various organisational and administrative tasks behind the scenes. In addition, Janneke acts as confidential advisor: for clients who need a female guide or wish to discuss sensitive issues, she is a safe point of contact. Although her availability to actually guide trip sessions is limited (due to her studies and other duties), she selectively supervises individual sessions - especially for clients who explicitly desire her empathetic guidance. Before her work at Triptherapie, Janneke - as mentioned - worked as a personal assistant/management support; that organisational experience now comes in handy in ensuring the smooth running of session preparations and follow-up.

5. Additional qualifications: Janneke's lifestyle coach background is an important added value: she can help clients find a healthier balance in nutrition, sleep and stress, even apart from the psychedelic experience. She creates a tailor-made preparation advice for each client (including nutrition plan, hormone and neurotransmitter balance tips, and recommendations for educational books/podcasts). Moreover, her rescue skills (first aid/resuscitation) for extra safety during sessions - she is trained to provide physical support if needed. Janneke's core quality is her caring, empathetic attitude: she offers a listening ear, puts clients at ease and creates an atmosphere of trust. This, combined with her growing knowledge from psychology training, makes her an all-round counsellor who can offer both mental and practical support.

Sascha de Waal

1. Full name: Sascha de Waal.

2. Education and training: Sascha is university-educated psychologist. She obtained her Master's degree in clinical psychology (University of Amsterdam) and is a registered basic psychologist. She has also completed several follow-up courses, including the Basic course in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and a EMDR-training. These RINO-accredited courses have enhanced her therapeutic skills, especially in trauma and anxiety treatment. In addition, Sascha has also attended less common training courses, such as the “Barrel of Self-Esteem”, focusing on enhancing self-esteem. She continues to add to her knowledge with the latest developments in both mainstream and psychedelic therapy.

3. Specialisations: Thanks to her work background, Sascha has extensive experience with a variety of mental health issues. She has worked with clients with Addictions, depression, anxiety disorders, trauma (PTSD), personality problems, negative self-image, burnout and grief processing. This broad experience makes her a generalist within psychology, with a particular affinity for addiction treatment and trauma (due to her previous job in that sector). At Triptherapie, Sascha is able to combine her expertise with her interest in psychedelics. She strongly believes that psychedelic therapy can do a lot for the mental health sector, especially for people for whom traditional treatments do not sufficiently work. Her specialisation thus lies in integrating psychedelics into therapy for treatment-resistant complaints, in a responsible and informed manner. In addition, Sascha is interested in self-development and spirituality, which is reflected in her open attitude towards the deeply insightful experiences that psychedelics can offer.

4. Work experience: Sascha is since 2016 active as a psychologist. She began her career in the addiction care, where she spent several years treating clients with substance dependence and often co-morbid problems. She then worked within both the generalist mental health care if the specialist mental health care, and also in medical rehabilitation as an attending psychologist. These various positions have given her strong clinical insight. In her current role at Triptherapie (in addition to possibly regular work commitments), she is a psychedelic therapist who supervises individual sessions. She can draw on her experience with evidence-based therapies (CBT, EMDR) to support the preparation and integration of the trip.

5. Additional qualifications: Sascha's distinctive strength is that it has a qualified GZ professional is that too practical experience with psychedelics has. She has personally experienced how psychedelics have changed and enriched her view of the world and herself. This ensures that she can prepare clients well for what to expect and help them place the insights gained after the session. She works both scientifically and intuitively: although she is academically educated, she finds “from person to person”-contact more important than a strict therapist-patient relationship. She creates a safe, non-judgmental space where clients feel human rather than patient. Moreover, she keeps abreast of research on psychedelics for depression and PTSD, so she can guide her clients with up-to-date knowledge. Her approach combines professional structure with human warmth, supported by music and subtle guidance during the trip, to get maximum results from a single session (where sometimes regular therapy requires many sessions).

Reineke Brandt

1. Full name: Reineke Brandt.

2. Education and training: Reineke has been trained as psychologist and has also completed an impressive range of additional training in the field of complementary therapies. Thus, she is qualified (trauma-sensitive) yoga teacher, meditation & mindfulness teacher, breath coach and certified facilitator of Kundalini NRGY sessions. As a therapist, she has further specialised in EMDR and Brainspotting (a new trauma therapy akin to EMDR). She has received training in Trauma-sensitive heart coherence (HeartMath) and is trained in aromatherapy and AromaTouch massage. She also offers in her practice ear reflexology and ear acupuncture to. This broad range of training allows her to employ both mainstream and alternative treatment methods, depending on what best suits the client. Finally, Reineke has a year training psychedelic session counselling in which she learned to facilitate trip sessions safely and responsibly - with this, she is well versed in the specific do's and don'ts of psychedelic therapy.

3. Specialisations: Reineke's background with the police has made her specialise in stress and trauma management. She worked with police officers for many years and gained in-depth experience in how stress and trauma arise and how they can be dealt with. Trauma (treatment) is therefore a core part of her expertise. In addition, she has an affinity with grief and the end of life: Since 2023, Reineke has been working as a care volunteer in a hospice, assisting people in their last phase of life. This experience has further trauma sensitivity and compassion taught, which comes in handy immediately when guiding intense psychedelic processes. Her general specialisation is a holistic approach to wellbeing: through her knowledge of yoga, breathing and mindfulness, she is particularly adept at creating calm, body awareness and emotional processing during sessions. She can help clients release blockages at mental, physical and energetic levels. Also at depressive symptoms or loneliness Reineke can deploy her own experiential insight; she shares that psychedelics have helped her out of long-term gloom herself (her first ayahuasca experience was a “gamechanger” against loneliness). In short, Reineke specialises in trauma, stress, grief and overall personal growth, using both mainstream psychology and alternative forms of healing.

4. Work experience: Reineke has 22 years worked in the police force. She started there as a selection psychologist, but soon switched to operational police work as a uniformed supervisor. For more than a decade, she was “on the street” leading, until she returned to her field as an (occupational) psychologist within the force. In that role, she supervised colleagues, combining her practical experience with psychological knowledge. In 2022, Reineke made the choice to retire after her long career in the police force as a independent psychologist to continue. Since then, she has been running her own practice offering the aforementioned alternative therapies. At Triptherapie, Reineke now works as psychedelic therapist and tripsitter, working mainly in South Holland (and part of Zeeland). She supervises both individual sessions (at people's homes or at the Psychedelic Loft in Schiedam) and occasional group ceremonies. Her police experience means she remains very calm under pressure and values safety.

5. Additional qualifications: Reineke brings a rich mix of mainstream and alternative skills along. She can use an EMDR course as easily as a breathing session or meditation practice, depending on the need. She is explicitly trauma-sensitive in all her work - her approach always focuses on safety and preventing re-traumatisation. She has also learned to guide people in deep change processes with compassion: her style is loving “being there” while the client regains his or her own light (power). Reineke also has international life experience (she grew up in Zambia, England, Hong Kong), which gives her an open mind to different cultures and perspectives. This can be useful with clients from diverse backgrounds. Finally, she has extensive own experience with psychedelics: besides ayahuasca and truffles, she has also done a “voyahuasca” and undergone several truffle and magic mushroom sessions. These experiences, combined with the year-long training she attended, mean that Reineke knows very well How to safely facilitate a psychedelic trip. Her motto is that a person's self-healing ability is central - she uses all her techniques to tap into that ability in the client.

Gijs Tecklenburg

1. Full name: Gijs Tecklenburg.

2. Education and training: Gijs is a highly experienced Mental health care worker and trainer with a long track record. He has completed a range of training within the mainstream mental health sector. Formally, he trained as a SPV (social psychiatric nurse) or similar therapist (given his position as a mental health practitioner), supplemented by numerous courses. For example, Gijs has completed the Mindfulness trainer training followed and is certified in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) directly with founding fathers Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli. He also has training “Mindfulness & Psychotherapy” attended Ronald D. Siegel. In addition, Gijs was trained in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), he has the Compassion training MBCL completed and he is a Interpersonal Mindfulness trainer. Furthermore, he holds specialisations in cardiac coherence training, EMDR, walking coaching, breathwork And is he a certified Open Focus trainer (trained by Dr Les Fehmi) and Neurofeedback trainer (Zengar and Othmer method). In addition, to work specifically with psychedelics, Gijs has multiple training courses for trip counsellor/psychedelic therapist followed. His eagerness to learn has led to a unique combination of psychotherapeutic, neuroscientific and spiritual training background.

3. Specialisations: Gijs specialises in a integration of spirituality and therapy. In his view, psychological problems should not only be cognitively understood, but also lived through and with self-compassion be approached. He therefore brings into his guidance elements of mindfulness, meditation, compassion training, breathing techniques, yoga and Internal Family Systems (IFS) together into one whole. His own long meditation experience (he has been meditating since he was 19) has given him a deep understanding of anxiety, gloom and inner suffering, and how these can be mitigated through contemplative means. This makes him ideally suited to clients with anxiety symptoms, depressive feelings, chronic stress or existential questions. In addition, Gijs has extensive experience with crisis intervention from his time in the mental health sector, which also allows him to recognise and adequately handle severe psychological distress. His specialism is actually “down-to-earth spirituality” in therapy: connecting down-to-earth therapeutic techniques with deep consciousness growth to help clients achieve lasting change.

4. Work experience: Gijs has more than 30 years of experience as a therapist and trainer. His foundation was laid in the outpatient mental healthcare, where he worked for many years as a practitioner, including within crisis services and therapy departments. In parallel, he engaged in meditation training. In 2006, Gijs introduced mindfulness training within the mental health institution where he worked, to integrate his passion for meditation into clinical work. Around 2008, he made the switch to fully running his own practice (OpenFocus), where he has since hundreds of training courses has provided training in mindfulness, compassion, ACT, etc. In the process, he has also attended intensive retreats and studies with his spiritual teacher Mooji, which has permanently deepened his approach. These days, Gijs divides his time between his practice (for coaching/therapy with and without psychedelics) and Triptherapie. At Triptherapie, he is active as psychedelic therapist/tripsitter, particularly in the North Brabant region (around Den Bosch). There, he guides individual truffle, LSD, psiloflora and MDMA sessions. He also offers his own practice space on a country estate as a venue for overnight sessions. His long professional history and spiritual training make him a very calm, experienced and intuitive presence is during sessions.

5. Additional qualifications: Gijs is a pioneer in combining neurofeedback and psychedelics - he is currently investigating how neurofeedback during or around trips can improve outcomes. He has also had both recreational and purposeful psychedelic experiences himself: in his youth, he experimented with LSD and magic mushrooms, and later explored very high doses under supervision to understand the therapeutic possibilities. He attended several specialised courses to safely apply psychedelic therapy in his work. As mindfulness guru (trained by the top in that field), he has mastered techniques to mentally prepare clients for the “journey” and to support with breathing or meditation during difficult trip moments. In addition, Gijs has a open, non-judgmental attitude and highlights he self-acceptance as core: “Be kind, loving and forgiving to yourself. Otherwise, you will continue to stumble over who you are.”. This philosophy, coupled with the powerful experiences of consciousness he facilitates through psychedelics, helps clients achieve great breakthroughs without forcing the process. Gijs's approach is thus gentle but deeply transformative.

Yes, you can get a legal psilocybin session do with a professional therapist. Work is carried out with magic truffles, the only legal source of psilocybin in the Netherlands. These sessions are always individually tailored and fully guided, with extensive preparation and integration afterwards.

You can choose from a wide team of therapists and counsellors, each with their own specialisations and regions:
For example:

1. Marcel van der Putten (founder, active throughout NL): expert in depression, anxiety and self-esteem; combines neurochemistry and lifestyle with deep psychedelic experience. Supervised over 2200 sessions.

2. Ronald Hochstenbach (Eindhoven region): psychosocial therapist specialising in PTSD and trauma, with training in IFS, Voice Dialogue and compassion training. Experiential expert herself.

3. Sascha de Waal (psychologist, Central NL region): clinical psychologist with EMDR, CBT and broad mental health experience. Employs psilocybin for depression, addiction, grief and self-image issues.

4. Reineke Brandt (South Holland region): psychologist with extensive knowledge of trauma, breathwork, yoga, EMDR and mindfulness. Worked in the police force for 22 years. Also supervises sessions in the Psychedelic Loft.

5. Gijs Tecklenburg (Brabant region): mindfulness and psychotherapy expert with 30+ years of experience. Specialises in ACT, IFS and neurofeedback. Offers sessions at a nature site with overnight stay.

6. Janneke van de Geijn (Rotterdam region): lifestyle coach and empathic facilitator with basic medical knowledge. Ideal for those seeking a lot of support or caring during the session.

The right therapist for you will be determined according to your intake, in which your goals, background and preferences are discussed. You can do a session at home or at one of the locations such as the atmospheric Psychedelic Loft in Schiedam, wherever group ceremonies take place.

Want help choosing a suitable facilitator or calculate what a session at your location will cost? Then you can use the price calculation tool.