How to Feel | The Buena Vida
The Buena Vida
Join the Journey
Month-Long Guided Microdosing Journey

Release what is stuck. Regulate your system. Feel like yourself again.

How to Feel is a 4-week live microdosing program for people who are tired of coping, tired of talking in circles, and ready for structured emotional healing with real support.

Reserve My Space See What’s Included
4 live sessions
Somatic emotional processing
Guided microdosing protocol
2 months of support
Amanda Schendel at The Buena Vida
Starts
February 17, 2026

Tuesdays at 7 PM Central. Replay available each week.

Grief
Fear
Anger
Shame
Joy
Love
Why People Join

You are not broken. You are defended.

Most people were never taught how to process grief, fear, anger, or shame. They learned how to override, suppress, and survive. Eventually that becomes numbness, burnout, anxiety, and emotional disconnection.

01

You feel emotionally flat

You function. You manage. You perform. But underneath it, something feels cut off.

02

Talking has only gotten you so far

You understand your patterns intellectually, but your body still reacts like the pain is current.

03

You want real support

Not another self-led course. Not another vague circle. A guided process that actually moves something.

What This Is

This is not just about microdosing.

Microdosing is the tool. The real work is emotional processing, nervous system regulation, and learning how to safely feel what has been trapped inside.

Guided microdosing

A structured, supported protocol that helps open emotional access without overwhelming your system.

Somatic healing

Breathwork, body-based release, and nervous system practices that help emotion move instead of staying lodged in the body.

Live integration

You are witnessed, guided, and supported in real time so the experience becomes change instead of a temporary state.

What You Get

A clear, contained path through the emotional material you’ve been carrying.

Meditative somatic practice at The Buena Vida

Inside the journey

  • 4 live 90-minute group sessions with Amanda
  • Weekly emotional themes and guided somatic practices
  • Microdosing protocol with support and preparation
  • Journal prompts and between-session integration
  • Private group container for connection and reflection
  • Two full months of support, prep, and post-course integration

What changes

  • Less numbness and more emotional range
  • More space between trigger and reaction
  • Greater nervous system regulation and safety in the body
  • Clearer access to grief, anger, fear, and self-compassion
  • A repeatable process for emotional healing you can return to
Weekly Themes

Each week opens a different emotional doorway.

Week 1: Grief

We begin with what has not been mourned. The heartbreak, the loss, the letting go, the part of you that never got witnessed.

Week 2: Anger & Boundaries

Suppressed anger often becomes fatigue, collapse, and depression. This week helps you reclaim healthy force and embodied boundaries.

Week 3: Fear & Anxiety

We work with the patterns that keep your nervous system braced, scanning, and overfiring. Safety gets rebuilt from the body out.

Week 4: Shame & Self-Compassion

We meet the parts carrying guilt, worthlessness, or self-rejection. This is where softness and self-trust start to return.

Integration: Joy & Expansion

As the heavier layers begin to move, we make room for vitality, pleasure, connection, and the return of emotional aliveness.

Integration: Love & Belonging

You leave with deeper connection to yourself, others, and the life underneath the protective strategies you’ve relied on.

Amanda Schendel portrait
Meet Your Guide

Led by someone who has actually held people through this.

Amanda has guided more than 1,500 people through psilocybin-based healing work and blends sacred ceremony, somatic practice, and grounded emotional support.

1,500+ safely guided through psilocybin work
7+ years holding transformational healing spaces
Featured in NYT, The Cut, Condé Nast Traveler, Thrillist

This is not theory. This is lived, practiced, high-touch work led by someone who knows how to guide people through the emotional deep end without turning it into chaos.

Group retreat participants at The Buena Vida
Over 1,500 people guided through this work in safe, held containers.
Why It Works

A safer way to work with what your body has been storing.

Microdosing is not an escape. Done properly, it creates enough softening for new awareness, emotional access, and nervous system change without flattening your daily life.

Brain

  • Supports neuroplasticity and new patterns
  • Reduces rumination and obsessive loops
  • Improves clarity, focus, and flexibility

Body

  • Helps regulate the nervous system
  • Reduces tension and chronic stress load
  • Increases access to calm and groundedness

Emotion

  • Supports processing without overwhelm
  • Creates more space before reaction
  • Brings buried emotion up in workable doses

The Group Experience

$888
  • Four live 90-minute group sessions
  • Guided microdosing and emotional themes
  • Somatic practices and journal prompts
  • Private group support container
  • Two months of guided transformation
Join the Group
Most Personal

The Deep Dive

$1111
  • Everything in the Group Experience
  • Private 2-hour one-on-one session with Amanda
  • Personalized guidance for your specific emotional patterns
  • Deeper support for tailored healing goals
Choose Deep Dive
What is this course exactly?

A 4-week live group program combining guided microdosing, somatic emotional processing, live teaching, and integration support.

I’ve never worked with mushrooms before. Is that okay?

Yes. This is designed to be guided and supported. The structure is part of what makes it safer than trying to figure it out alone.

Can I join without microdosing?

That depends on the specific structure you choose to offer, but the emotional and somatic work itself is valuable even beyond the medicine component.

What if I can’t make every session?

Replays are available each week, though attending live is strongly recommended because the container matters.

Who is this not for?

This is not for people looking for a casual experiment, a passive course, or a shortcut. It is gentle, but it requires honesty and participation.

Ready When You Are

You do not have to keep carrying it alone.

You do not have to stay stuck in your head. You can feel again. You can come back to yourself.

Reserve My Space Book a Call

Educational and spiritual content only. Review legal, regulatory, and church-compliance language before publishing, especially around medicine fulfillment, claims, and safety statements.

© The Buena Vida

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Meet Your Guide

Amanda Schendel is a psychedelic guide and somatic facilitator who has helped over 1,500 people heal through psilocybin, emotional release, and nervous system work.

She founded The Buena Vida retreats & Sanctuary church and has been featured in The New York Times, The Cut Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Thrillist and more.

Her work blends sacred ceremony, scientific grounding, and deep compassion.

Amanda Schendel

What We Cover Each Week

We move gently through six emotional themes with tools designed to support nervous system healing and deep integration. One hour before class, we will all take our Micro Dose at home and begin to open our hearts to...

Grief

We begin with what has not been mourned. Together we create space for the heartbreak, the loss, the letting go, and the pieces of you that were never witnessed. Grief is not weakness. It is the first step toward wholeness.

Anger & Boundaries

Anger is not the enemy. Suppressed anger can become depression or fatigue. This week is about reclaiming your right to take up space and creating healthy, embodied boundaries.

Joy & Expansion

Once the heavier emotions begin to move, we make room for joy. Not performative happiness, but true, embodied expansion. You begin to feel your aliveness return.

magic mushroom healing

Fear and Anxiety


We explore the fears that drive your nervous system into overdrive. Through breathwork, somatic release, and nervous system support, we help the body remember safety and ground into the present.

Shame & Self Compassion

We meet the parts of you that carry shame, guilt, or unworthiness. This is where deep self-compassion begins. It is not about fixing yourself. It is about learning to love what has always felt unlovable.

Love & Belonging

We close with connection. To your heart. To others. To something greater. This week is about integration, softness, and building a sense of rooted belonging you can take with you.

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Why Choose Microdosing?

Microdosing psilocybin is not about escaping reality It is about becoming more present in it This gentle, low-dose practice supports your brain, body, and emotional system without overwhelming you. It is subtle, safe, and deeply effective when done with intention and support. Live Sessions: TUESDAYS 7pm CENTRAL: October 21, 28, November 4th, 11th

Brain Benefits

  • Promotes neuroplasticity, helping your brain form new, healthy patterns

  • Reduces rumination and obsessive thinking

  • Improves focus, mental clarity, and creative thinking

Body Benefits

  • Helps regulate your nervous system

  • Reduces physical tension and stress

  • Increases your ability to feel calm, safe, and grounded

 

Emotional Benefits

  • Supports emotional processing without re-traumatization

  • Creates space between reaction and response

  • Gently brings buried emotions to the surface for healing and release

This is not a shortcut
It is a tool for deeper self-awareness, long-term change, and emotional freedom
And when paired with somatic work and guidance, it becomes one of the most powerful healing paths available

Why work with Amanda?

Real-World Experience, Not Just Theory

  • 1,500+ people safely guided through psilocybin journeys

  • Trained with Indigenous elders in Ecuador, Colombia, and Mexico

  • Thousands of hours holding emotional healing spaces

 

A Unique Blend of Wisdom and Skill

  • Combines sacred tradition with therapeutic structure

  • Deep training in somatic healing and trauma-informed care

  • This is where grief and emotion finally find voice

 

You’ll Be Held

  • Safe space for your nervous system to unwind
  • No rushing. No pressure. Just presence
  • Guided by someone who has walked this path too
  • Space to feel what’s been buried without having to explain it all first

A NOTE FROM AMANDA…

I created this course for people who are holding so much inside and have no safe place to let it move. For those who feel numb, overwhelmed, or quietly struggling and know something needs to shift. Not just in the mind, but deep in the body and the heart.

This exact process has changed my life. It helped me get out of the spinning loops in my head and back into my body where the real healing happens. It allowed me to finally access and release old, buried emotional patterns that were running the show without me even realizing it. Grief I never gave time to. Rage I thought I was not allowed to feel. Shame I had been carrying for years. When I finally gave them space, my nervous system began to settle. I found peace where I used to feel tight, and softness where I used to brace.

This is also the safest way to explore microdosing. With guidance. With structure. With someone holding space for the parts of you that are afraid or unsure. Please do not go at it alone. There is nothing heroic about doing this work in isolation. It is more powerful, more sustainable, and more transformative when you are supported.

amanda schendel

Course Dates

Live Sessions: TUESDAYS, 7pm CENTRAL: February 17, 24 & March 10th & 17th

This course is small and intimate to ensure everyone is seen, supported, and guided.
TIME COMMITMENT: 4 Tuesdays
REPLAY AVAILABLE EACH WEEK and rewatch until 2027

Two Ways to Join the Journey

I’m Ready to Feel Again
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Read Testimonials from Past Guests

Cbenson Martinez
Christine Johnson Teacher

Words cannot convey the depth and beauty of my transformational journey led by Amanda! Amanda is deeply wise and powerful yet vulnerable. I felt safe to also be vulnerable and still stand in my own power. The ceremonies were sacred and ancient and carefully designed. I highly recommend this to anyone

Lauren Eastwood
Lauren Eastwood IT Expert

The Buena Vida retreat I attended was hands down the best experience I have invested and participated in throughout my entire life. I made lifelong friends there, worked through so many emotional hurdles and learned so much about myself and others all while feeling incredibly safe and well cared for. I would

Christine Johnson
Carlos Martinez Piolet

I attended the 7 day retreat in Nov 2024. I chose to attend because I have struggled with Depression and Anxiety from a young age, and have tried many different treatments with little success. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to walk a new path with Buena Vida. This was a new experience for me, and I felt completely safe and supported.

Contact us - The Buena Vida
Carmen Alexander Business Manager

If you're reading reviews you're already considering a psilocybin retreat. If you are truly ready to heal, if you are looking for meaning and understanding about your life and existence, if you are truly ready to take a leap, choose this one. The mushrooms are indeed the magic, but the leader and facilitators at Buena Vida create an environment ...

About us - The Buena Vida
Katherine Wright Designation

Amanda and the team create a wonderful environment for those who are brave, curious and willing to look at things in a new and exciting way with the help of the amazing exercises, breath work and yes, psychedelic mushroom tea. It could NOT have been better.

Namaste
Katja von Tiesenhausen Designation

Review TextThe ceremonies were the safest ceremonies I’ve ever attended, which definitely helped the anxiety I had before each one. I felt truly cared for and supported by the staff, who were always readily available and extremely helpful. Through her words, song, drumming, and amazing presence, Amanda leads each ceremony with humor, power, wisdom, compassion, and connection to a Higher Consciousness within all of us, and is an amazing Shamanic healer.

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Still Have Questions?

❓ What is this course exactly?

How to Feel is a six-week live group experience that combines microdosing, somatic therapy, emotional processing, and weekly support. It is designed to help you reconnect with your emotional body and move through what has been held for years. Everything is structured and guided so you never feel lost or alone.

❓ I have never worked with mushrooms before. Is that okay?

Yes!  Many people in the program are brand new to this work. You do not need any previous experience with psychedelics. We walk you through everything and hold a safe space for you to explore this with care and guidance. Amanda is an expert with psilocybin medicine and knows exactly how to guide its use and prepare you for the work.

❓ What is included in the price/course?

  • Six live guided therapeutic sessions with Amanda Schendel

  • Full six-week microdosing protocol sent to you

  • Somatic practices, breathwork and emotional themes each week

  • Journal prompts and nervous system tools for during the week

  • A private group for ongoing support

  • Option to upgrade for a one-on-one session with Amanda

  • Recorded sessions for you to utilize until 2026!
❓ What’s in the microdosing kit?

We source our mushroom medicine from a trusted provider who has been a personal friend of Amanda’s for over ten years. This ensures the medicine is clean, responsibly grown, and energetically sound. The kit is mailed directly to your home in a discreet, unmarked package with no external labels. Your perfect dose will be discussed with Amanda.

We will go over everything you need to know about how to work with the medicine safely and intentionally, including the legal considerations, during our Group Prep Call.

 
 
❓ Is this safe? Can I work or drive?

Yes. The microdosing protocol we provide is gentle and non-psychedelic or “sub-perceptual”. You will remain clear-headed and functional throughout. You will be supported every step of the way and can always adjust the dose or pace based on how your body feels. After our Saturday sessions, you will be able to live you life just as you would any other day, with a note that this is deep emotional work and integration, journaling and alone time in enouraged.

❓ Can I join without microdosing?

Yes. While the course is built around a microdosing protocol, you are welcome to participate without taking the medicine. You will still receive the full benefit of the live sessions, somatic practices, emotional themes, and integration support. This is your journey, and you are always in choice.

❓ How many people will be in the group?

❓ How many people will be in the group?

This is a small, intimate container with a maximum of fifteen people. We keep the group intentionally limited so that everyone feels seen, supported, and safe to share. You will not get lost in a crowd.

❓ What if I cannot make every session?

The sessions happen live on Saturdays at 11 AM Central. If you miss one, we provide a recap and integration support so you stay connected. The real work continues during the week in your body, your emotions, and your day-to-day experience. REPLAYS will be available until the end of the year, so you can go back whenever you feel stuck in an emotion in the future.

❓ What is the difference between the group experience and the Deep Dive?

The group experience includes all live sessions, the microdosing protocol, and weekly tools.


The Deep Dive includes all of that plus a private 90-minute one-on-one session with Amanda for deeper emotional release, guidance, and support. This is best for those who want individual attention in addition to the group container.

❓ Who is this not for?

This is not a fit for someone in active crisis or untreated mental illness without outside support. It is also not designed for people looking to bypass emotion through performance or productivity.

This course is for people ready to feel, with compassion and curiosity, and move toward something real.

❓ What can I hope to gain from this experience?

Most people come to this work feeling stuck, disconnected, overwhelmed, or emotionally blocked. Through the course, you may gain greater clarity, emotional release, nervous system regulation, and a deeper connection to yourself. You will learn how to feel what has been buried without getting lost in it, and begin to move through your experience with more ease, awareness, and softness. This is not about fixing you. It is about returning to what has always been there.

This work is gentle, but it is not passive. You have to choose it

You do not have to keep holding it all alone
You do not have to stay stuck in your head
You can feel again
You can come back to yourself

Whether you are ready to dive in or still have questions, this is your invitation to take the next step

SIGN UP NOW
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