Heart & Brain Healcamp with Truffle Medicine – 7-day retreat
7-day retreat for healing trauma and emotional wounds
For those who feel that old wounds call for a deeper approach, with attention to the body, the nervous system, and emotional integration.
A deepening path of healing
Some wounds cannot be resolved through insight alone. Trauma settles in the body, the nervous system, and in recurring patterns of thinking, feeling, and responding. This 7-day Heart & Brain Healcamp with truffle medicine is intended for those who feel it is time to meet their old wounds in a deeper, more embodied way.
This retreat does not offer quick fixes or promises of “transformation.” What it does offer is a carefully held container in which healing can emerge through slowing down, safety, and attunement. Trauma is approached here as a wound rather than a disorder, calling for attention, compassion, and integration.
Two guided truffle ceremonies
During this week, you will take part in two guided truffle ceremonies, embedded within a trauma-sensitive and professional framework. The truffle medicine is used as a supportive instrument within the Heart & Brain healing process, not as a solution in itself.
The ceremonies are carefully prepared and thoroughly integrated. They can help soften stuck emotional patterns, make deeper layers of experience accessible, and support the restoration of connection—always in close relation to guidance, regulation, and aftercare.
An integrated approach to trauma healing
The Heart & Brain Healcamp is grounded in modern psychology and neuroscientific insights, and deepened through body-oriented work, meditation, energy work, healing practices, and shamanic wisdom. We work, among other things, with the medicine wheel and the four directions, which offer guidance in processes of letting go, reorientation, and reconnection.
During this week, we work with:
- regulating the nervous system
- breaking the cycles of thought and feeling that sustain trauma
- safely meeting and integrating emotions
- restoring self-regulation and inner coherence
- group processes as a supportive and healing field
Everything we do is in service of restoring the connection between heart and brain, body and awareness.
Working with truffle medicine, carefully and legally
In this retreat, work is done with psilocybin-containing truffles, which are legal in the Netherlands. The use of truffle medicine takes place within clear ethical and therapeutic frameworks, with careful attention to safety, dosage, setting, and integration.
Guidance is provided in collaboration with Julia Javkin, psychiatrist, trauma specialist, and an experienced multidisciplinary team. This collaboration ensures both psychological depth and medical diligence. The work is informed by current scientific research and many years of clinical experience in trauma-related care.
What this 7-day Healcamp offers you
The 7-day Heart & Brain Healcamp is not a quick fix and makes no promise of cure. What this week does offer is time, space, and a supportive container to truly arrive within yourself. The length of the retreat allows not only for opening, but also for stabilisation, deepening, and integration.
By the end of the week, many participants experience that their nervous system has settled more deeply and that there is greater capacity to feel emotions without becoming overwhelmed. The cycle of thinking and feeling that sustains trauma often loosens its grip, creating more clarity, choice, and inner spaciousness. Old patterns become visible—not to be forced into change, but to no longer be unconsciously driven by them.
The two truffle ceremonies, carefully embedded in preparation and integration, often open a deeper sense of perspective, softening, and connection. Not as isolated peak experiences, but as part of a continuous process in which insights can land in the body and find meaning in everyday life.
Many participants leave this week feeling more connected to their body and inner compass, with an increased sense of self-compassion and a meaningful shift in their relationship with themselves. Not because everything has been “resolved,” but because the wound no longer needs to be avoided, and trust has grown in one’s own capacity for regulation and healing.
For many, this 7-day retreat marks a turning point: a moment when healing is no longer something sought outside oneself, but something that can once again be experienced from within.
Who is the Healcamp for
This Heart & Brain Healcamp is intended for those who live with the effects of trauma, loss, or prolonged stress, and who notice that talking and understanding alone are no longer sufficient. For those who long for healing, relief, and greater inner calm, and who are willing to take responsibility for their own process within a carefully guided setting.
You do not need to achieve anything or force change. What is important is an openness to self-inquiry and a willingness to take your process seriously.
The setting: De Maanhoeve, Drenthe
The retreat takes place at De Maanhoeve, a small-scale and peaceful retreat centre set in the heart of the Drenthe countryside. The surroundings support stillness, safety, and slowing down. Comfortable rooms, nourishing vegetarian meals, and the natural environment all contribute essentially to the healing process.
Professional guidance
The Heart & Brain Healcamp is guided by Anouk Bindels, psychologist and systemic psychotherapist, developer of the Heart & Brain healing process and author of Wisdom of Trauma, in collaboration with Julia Javkin, psychiatrist and trauma specialist. Together, they provide a professional, trauma-sensitive, and ethically grounded framework.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The day begins with meditation and body-oriented practices and ends in the early evening. In the morning, there is space for explanation, reflection, and integration. In the afternoon, we work with emotional and body-based practices and, on one day, the truffle ceremony. Throughout the retreat, there is space for individual support.
An eye mask, a blanket or shawl, a cushion, warm socks or slippers, and comfortable clothing. After registration, you will receive a comprehensive and carefully prepared document to support you in preparing for the retreat.
All meals are vegetarian/vegan. If you have specific dietary requirements, you can contact us in advance.
Feel free to get in touch via info@anoukbindels.nl or +31 6 51811198.
Both Heart & Brain Healing Camps are rooted in the same foundation: the Heart & Brain healing process — a trauma-sensitive approach in which the restoration of self-regulation, emotional integration, and inner coherence is central. At the same time, the 4.5-day and 7-day retreats differ substantially in intensity, pace, and depth.
The 4.5-day Heart & Brain Healing Camp with Truffle Medicine offers a carefully paced introduction to this work. This retreat is suitable if you feel it is time to approach old wounds, while doing so within a shorter and more contained timeframe. With one guided truffle ceremony and a strong emphasis on preparation and integration, this option creates space for softening, insight, and an initial shift in how you experience yourself and your emotions.
Many participants experience greater calm in the nervous system, increased clarity, and renewed contact with their body and inner compass after the retreat. This option is particularly fitting if you have already engaged in therapy or guidance, or if you wish to take a first deeper step without overburdening yourself.
The 7-day Heart & Brain Healing Camp with Truffle Medicine is a more intensive and deepening trajectory. This week offers more time to carefully open, feel into, and integrate layers of trauma. With two guided truffle ceremonies and a longer group dynamic, there is greater space for depth, repetition, and anchoring. This option is suitable if you feel ready for a more intensive process, if themes have been repeating for a longer time, or if you notice that previous forms of guidance did not provide sufficient space to truly settle. The additional days make it possible not only to open, but also to stabilise and integrate within the same supportive container.
Both retreats are not quick fixes and do not promise healing. They are intended as a turning point: a moment in which the relationship with yourself begins to change, and in which the wound can be approached in a safe and supported way. The difference is not one of better or worse, but of timing, capacity, and the need for depth.
If you are unsure which option suits you best, it is always possible to discuss this in advance. Together, we will explore which setting is most supportive for your process at this moment.
This 7-day retreat generally begins on Sunday evening or Monday morning.