Culture Cultivators

Kat Van Hammen

Kat VanHammen holds a master’s degree in Expressive Arts Therapy and brings a lifetime of experience as an artist, gardener, and certified teacher of both yoga and qigong. For the past several years, she has studied Healing Collective Trauma with Thomas Hübl, deepening her commitment to work that integrates personal and societal transformation.

With over 40 years of experience designing and facilitating workshops, retreats, and interactive public events, Kat creates powerful spaces for people of all backgrounds to reconnect with creativity, community, and the natural world. Her work lives at the intersection of art and ceremony, supporting both individual and collective healing.

Kat is dedicated to helping others reclaim their indigenous connection to the Earth and all living beings. Drawing from a rich synthesis of BodyMind practices, she skillfully guides groups and individuals in cultivating presence, resilience, and meaningful tools for wellbeing.

Kama Tai Mitchell

Kama Tai Mitchell is a mama, auntie, yogi, certified birth and death doula, dancer of the African Diaspora, and cultural healing arts innovator. She has a core belief that living an authentic and embodied life is the root of all healing. She practices and facilitates racial healing circles/wisdom keeping/embodied culture bearing and is a newer student of traditional West African Ifa, griot musicology, and ancestral lineage healing; she now incorporates these learnings into her yogic lifestyle. She identifies as a mixed race, queer, radical, abolitionist, and a grand lover of life in all its natural splendor.

Kama is the founder of Rootead Enrichment Center in Kalamazoo, MI. A center focused on reducing epigenetic stress/trauma, de-stigmatizing mental health, and disrupting intergenerational poverty and disease  through generative offerings and collaborations, while intentionally centering the lived experience of BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ folx.

Alessandra Santos Pye

Alessandra Santos Pye, or Ally Pye (she/her/hers) is a psychedelic assisted therapist, educator, psychotherapist, facilitator, consultant, and artist. 

Her clinical approach and facilitation offerings center relational dynamics rooted in anti-oppression, ceremony, restorative justice, trauma informed care, and the expressive arts. 

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, original territory of the Tupi Guarani, her identity is multifaceted by Indigenous, West African, and European culture and ancestry. 

She has earned several post-graduate certificates in psychedelic studies,  including Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Certificates from the Center for Psychedelic Studies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Sciences and the Naropa Center for Psychedelic Studies. Alessandra has served leading psychedelic institutions as facilitator and lead educator in the past several years. 

*Curando* is the current iteration of Alessandra’s therapeutic work, offering full spectrum Psychedelic Assisted Therapy designed to support and inspire the unfolding of both personal and collective narratives, in pursuit of a just and sustainable future. Curando also provides consulting and education for clinicians, facilitators, community leaders/organizations seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the rapidly emerging field of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy (PAT).

Alessandra is also the Founder, Creative Director and Lead Facilitator of*The Chrysalis Institute*which empowers emerging artists and changemakers by creating nurturing gathering spaces, facilitating meaningful dialogue, and offering generative practices that catalyze personal and collective liberation.

With support and assistance from Louise Green, Leslie Meehan and Jan (Trang) Moore