Good Hope Estate & Plant Medicine Retreats
Nestled in Jamaica’s lush Trelawny Parish sits Good Hope Estate, a historic 2,000-acre former sugar plantation transformed into an emancipated workers’ village that now welcomes seekers from around the world for transformational plant medicine retreats.
While Beckley Retreats hosts several psilocybin retreats at Good Hope Estate throughout the year—one of two global locations alongside its forest sanctuary in the Netherlands—the Sanctuary for Black Women is an annual experience created exclusively for Black women. This year’s five-day retreat, though not intentionally timed, fell around Juneteenth, concluding on June 19 after five transformative days of healing, self-discovery, meaningful connection, and sisterhood rooted in nature.
Addressing Mental Health & Societal Pressures Faced by Black Women
The gathering came as Black women nationwide navigate workplace inequities, job losses, DEI rollbacks, caregiving responsibilities, and the weight of generational trauma. For many, those pressures exist alongside deeply personal struggles, including grief, the journey of motherhood, relationship challenges, family dynamics, friendship losses, and career aspirations.
At a time when so many are carrying heavier emotional, financial, and societal burdens, spaces like the Sanctuary for Black Women offer something often in short supply: room to heal. Those realities naturally surfaced throughout our retreat, as women shared stories of job loss, unequal pay, limited opportunities for advancement, and the all-too-familiar sting of workplace microaggressions. Couple the workplace traumas with deeply personal struggles, from grieving the loss of loved ones and navigating marriage, motherhood, and family dynamics to coping with betrayals that ended long-standing friendships and deep desires for career growth. While every woman’s story was unique, they all shared a common desire: a safe space to be seen, heard, and begin healing.
Leadership & Afro-Indigenous Ancestral Healing Traditions
Designed as an intentional space for Black women, the Sanctuary for Black Women addresses the unique mental health challenges and traumas they face while celebrating joy, self-determination, and the power to reclaim healing and liberation. Hanifa Nayo Washington, a Beckley Retreats lead facilitator with more than two decades of experience advocating for plant medicine and expanding access to its healing potential, created the program. Drawing from her Afro-Indigenous matriarchal lineage of healers, Washington blends plant medicine, music, and ancestral wisdom to guide transformative healing experiences. She designed the Sanctuary specifically for Black women, honoring their lived experiences and emotional, spiritual, and communal needs.
Expert Facilitators & Somatic Practitioners
Dr. Dingle Spence
Each facilitator is a Black woman bringing distinct credentials, experience, and ancestral wisdom to create a powerful, soul-stirring plant medicine experience. Dingle Spence is a Beckley lead facilitator and also heads Hope Institute Hospital in Kingston. A Jamaican physician trained in oncology and palliative medicine, Spence has also studied healing traditions including Traditional Chinese Medicine, Reiki, and Shamanic Energy Medicine. Her guided meditations, sacred ceremony openings and closings, and intention-setting integration activities extend the retreat’s impact beyond its five-day journey.
Mandi Bent
Then there’s Mandi Bent, a Jamaican-born registered holistic counselor and Tantra coach whose expertise in female sexual wellness, relationship healing, and emotional restoration adds another layer to the experience. From early morning qigong and therapeutic body-shaking exercises, playfully dubbed “happy boobies,” to her guidance as a certified meditation teacher and Reiki master, Bent brings a nurturing energy that meets each woman where she is in her healing journey.
Debbie-Ann Chambers
Jamaican-born counseling psychologist Debbie-Ann Chambers brings warmth and wisdom through poetry therapy, journaling, somatic practices, and dance. Grounded in liberation and decolonial psychologies, she guides women through grief and trauma while fostering deeper connections to their bodies and inner selves. Through reflective exercises and rhythmic drumming rooted in Afro-Indigenous traditions, Chambers creates space for healing, joy, and restoration.
Renique Harriot & Musical Support
Rounding out the team is Renique Harriot, a Jamaican Yin yoga teacher with nearly a decade of experience, years of personal work with psilocybin, and experience as a ceremony sitter. I affectionately called her “Renny Girl” throughout my stay, thanks to her calming, sisterly presence. From thoughtfully cleansing participants with sage to offering steady ceremony support, Harriot brought a sense of comfort to every gathering. Her gentle yoga sessions helped release postpartum tension I didn’t realize I was carrying, while her soulful rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” during the final ceremony felt like a tribute to our spirits and ancestors.
The only man present during ceremonies is Jeremy, a musician whose carefully curated soundscapes deepen each plant medicine journey through grounding, emotional support, and music. The retreat closes with an affirmation-setting bonfire, where vocalist and guitarist Elizabeth Goffe leads Jamaican folk songs honoring the island’s history and ancestral traditions. It’s a fitting close to five transformative days, leaving participants with a renewed connection to themselves, one another, and those who came before them.
Reclaiming Historic Land at Good Hope’s Great House
Upon arriving at Good Hope’s Great House, guests are welcomed by Dorothy with a cool rag, a refreshing drink, and a warm “Welcome Home.” Despite the property’s painful history, the land feels alive with ancestral pride, joy, and grief. Original furnishings, artwork, and wood floors preserve its layered past, while lush gardens, swaying palms, tropical blooms, singing birds, and playful toads create a peaceful backdrop that invites you to slow down and reconnect with nature’s rhythm.
Given its history, it’s understandable to question how healing can take place on former plantation land, particularly for Black women. Yet by the retreat’s end, the answer feels clearer: perhaps our ancestors transformed a place marked by pain into one capable of holding healing, joy, and connection. What was once a site of forced labor now features boutique villas, cottages, art studios, horse stables, locally sourced cuisine, and restorative experiences designed to nourish body and mind.
The Psilocybin Ceremony & Integration Process
The ceremony itself is deeply intimate, with cozy cots arranged in a circle beneath an outdoor tent surrounding an altar adorned with meaningful objects collected around the Great House. Eye masks encourage participants to turn inward, while the Jamaican countryside remains steps away for those drawn to nature. Between moments of introspection, we wandered the grounds, journaled, wrote letters, stretched out on swings, and took in the beauty around us.
I found myself connecting with the land in unexpected ways—even on walks to the bathroom, when the historic home’s artwork, wooden floors, and intricate details seemed to speak to me differently. While each woman experienced her own journey, watching my ceremony sisters surrender to theirs was just as moving. Some gazed quietly across the landscape, others wrote, explored nature, or opened up to facilitators who held their stories with compassion. It was a beautiful reminder that no two journeys look alike, yet each creates space for reflection, release, and connection.
The experience extends far beyond words. Each ceremony begins with an intentional call to the spiritual guides supporting us, followed by mushroom tea and a moment to set an intention or offer gratitude. Before her second journey, one retreat sister whispered to her cup, “Whatever happens, let’s just have fun”—a simple intention that stayed with me as I watched her burst into laughter throughout the ceremony.
After each ceremony, we had time to rest, eat, reflect, or sit in silence before next-day integration sessions helped us process our experiences. Beckley’s support begins two weeks before the retreat and continues for four weeks afterward through virtual sessions featuring facilitator-guided meditation, reflection, and connection, reinforcing its commitment to participants’ emotional, physical, and psychological well-being.
The Science & Therapeutic Benefits of Psilocybin
Despite its stigma, psilocybin is gaining attention for its potential therapeutic benefits. Clinical research suggests that psilocybin, the active compound in “magic mushrooms,” may help reduce symptoms of treatment-resistant depression, cancer-related anxiety, and certain substance use disorders when administered alongside psychological support. While research is still evolving, the findings point to its growing potential as a tool for mental and emotional healing. The growing availability of psilocybin retreats worldwide, at a range of price points, is helping make healing more accessible while reconnecting seekers with ancestral practices rooted in spiritual and holistic healing.
Holistic Healing & Community Integration
What draws many people to psychedelics and plant medicine is the desire to step outside the pressures of everyday life and reconnect with themselves. Yet the very tools that help us release—deep breathing, music, dancing, journaling, creativity, and time in nature—are often right in front of us, even if stress makes them difficult to access.
At the Sanctuary for Black Women, these simple practices are woven throughout the retreat’s integration sessions. The experience culminates in a “love tunnel,” where each woman walks through a circle of Black women whispering affirmations and words of encouragement in her ear. By the end, tears of joy flow as the room celebrates her healing. It’s a powerful reminder that while every journey is personal, none of us truly heals alone.
At a time when we could all use a little healing, why not find it on ancestral land in a proudly Black country, surrounded by women and a space created with you in mind?
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