Dr. Simon Ruffell is trained across three modalities: Western medicine (medical doctor specialising in psychiatry), research psychology (with a PhD in ayahuasca and mental health), and traditional plant medicine (student of curanderismo). He worked on a major trial at King’s College London investigating the effects of psilocybin on treatment-resistant depression, though since 2016 his work has been primarily dedicated to exploring the traditional psychedelic brew ayahuasca. He is CEO of Onaya Health and co-founded the not-for-profit Onaya Science, researching the effects of ayahuasca in naturalistic Amazonian settings in collaboration with universities, charities, and Indigenous-led think tanks worldwide. Simon’s work seeks to understand plants such as ayahuasca from both an Indigenous and a Western viewpoint, with the goal of generating a richer understanding of healing modalities. He is currently training under Keyo Sui Rono and Don Rono Lopez. onaya.io