Send us Fan Mail

What happens when chaos is all you’ve ever known—and survival starts looking like self-destruction?

In this episode of Tribal Detox: Beyond the Ceremony, Jason sits down with Catelyn Rebecca Spensberger-Taylor for an honest conversation about generational trauma, childhood neglect, abusive relationships, addiction, incarceration, and rebuilding a life.

Catelyn describes becoming a caregiver before she had the chance to be a child, using substances in early adolescence, and carrying those patterns into adulthood. She shares why she believes prison saved her life, how stability helped her begin recognizing her trauma, and what it took to start over after her release.

We also explore her experiences with yoga, massage, psilocybin, Kambo, and ayahuasca—including a frightening ceremony that challenged her sense of safety and reinforced the importance of listening to her body and speaking up.

Today, Catelyn teaches yoga, practices massage therapy, studies herbalism, and is pursuing Kambo practitioner training. Her story includes painful setbacks, difficult realizations, and the daily work of learning to trust herself.

In this conversation:

• Growing up with instability, addiction, and the responsibility of caring for younger siblings.
• Childhood trauma, hypervigilance, and repeating familiar relationship patterns.
• Alcohol dependence, substance use, and the consequences that led to incarceration.
• Why Catelyn describes prison as the first consistent stability she experienced.
• Rebuilding through work, education, movement, and community.
• The difference she experienced between recreational psychedelic use and intentional settings.
• Her personal experiences with psychiatric medications and discontinuation.
• Kambo, ayahuasca, grief, and a deeply challenging altered state.
• Boundaries, self-worth, and learning to feel safe in her body.
• Finding purpose in helping others.

Connect with Catelyn

Email: cattbecca@icloud.com
Instagram: @catetayyy
Facebook: cate Tay

Content advisory

This episode includes explicit language and detailed discussion of childhood abuse, domestic and sexual violence, suicide attempts, suicide loss, overdose, abortion, addiction, incarceration, and distressing psychedelic experiences. Please consider your wellbeing when choosing whether and when to listen.

Important health, medication, and substance-use disclaimer

This podcast shares personal experiences and opinions for educational and informational purposes. It does not provide medical, psychiatric, psychological, or legal advice. Personal accounts and spiritual interpretations are not clinical evidence, established explanations, or guarantees of safety or results.

Tribal Detox, this podcast, and its hosts do not condone or encourage the illegal possession, purchase, distribution, or use of controlled substances. Discussing a substance or experience does not endorse its use or the practices described.

We do not recommend stopping psychiatric medications cold turkey, rapidly tapering them, or changing treatment to participate in a ceremony. Abrupt discontinuation can cause withdrawal and worsening mental health; benzodiazepine withdrawal can cause life-threatening seizures. Any medication change requires an individualized plan with your prescribing clinician. A facilitator’s advice, an online search, or a medication’s half-life alone cannot establish a safe taper or clearance for substance use.

“Natural” does not mean safe. Herbs and supplements—including St. John’s wort and 5-HTP—can interact with medications and other substances. The combinations and timelines described in this episode should not be copied. Kambo and psychedelics are not established substitutes for psychiatric treatment or medically supervised withdrawal care.

Each listener is responsible for their own research, investigation, and decisions, including checking applicable laws, evaluating evidence, verifying provider qualifications, and discussing individual risks with qualified healthcare professionals. Independent research does not replace medical assessment. Do not delay or disregard professional care because of anything heard here.

Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.

Send us Fan Mail

Chris Diamond grew up in New York with a bookie for a father and an early education in keeping his mouth shut. At 16, an organized crime raid on his family’s home helped set off a spiral of anger, violence, drug dealing, and eventually state and federal incarceration.

In Episode 13 of Tribal Detox Podcast — Beyond the Ceremony, Chris joins Jason Fellows for a raw conversation about leaving that life behind, confronting addiction, and learning to become someone his family could count on.

Chris shares his move from New York to Arizona, his introduction to Bufo, and his experiences with ayahuasca and Kambo. He reflects on how those experiences challenged his identity, brought him face to face with his own behavior, and helped him find a sense of gratitude he hadn’t known before.

We also talk about the work that happens after ceremony: taking responsibility, repairing relationships, raising children, and putting what you’ve learned into practice when everyday life tests you.

In this episode:

• Growing up around illegal gambling, secrecy, and survival.
• A family home raid, displaced anger, and his first felony at 16.
• Life inside state prison and federal detention.
• Finding meditation through a cellmate he called “Felonious Monk.”
• Addiction, withdrawal, and the challenges that continued afterward.
• Leaving New York and starting over in Arizona.
• His first Bufo experience and why he warns against his early approach.
• Accountability, fatherhood, and rebuilding his relationship.
• Training with Tribal Detox and beginning to serve Kambo.
• What he would tell a young person heading down the same road.

Connect with Chris Diamond:
Email: RibbitRx@gmail.com

Content note: Explicit language and discussions of violence, incarceration, addiction, and withdrawal. Chris shares personal experiences, not medical advice or instructions for using these substances.

Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.

Send us Fan Mail

What happens when the life you imagined isn’t the life you get?

In this episode of Tribal Detox Podcast — Beyond the Ceremony, Jason sits down with close friend, Kambo practitioner, and Tribal Detox instructor Julie Vogel, founder of Kambo Coyote in Austin, Texas.

Recorded at the Grunt Style Integration event in Missouri, this conversation follows Julie’s unconventional path through teaching, backpacking, wilderness survival, infertility, and eventually amphibian medicine.

Julie opens up about the physical and emotional toll of three unsuccessful rounds of IVF, grieving the possibility of motherhood, and finding herself asking what to do with her life next. Choosing to say yes to new experiences led her to a powerful first Bufo ceremony and, later, Kambo.

She also shares the uncomfortable lesson that pushed her to seek proper practitioner training: loving a medicine doesn’t mean you know how to work with it safely.

With plenty of humor and the ease of a longtime friendship, Jason and Julie explore community, control, service, and finding purpose when your original plans fall apart.

In this episode:

• Growing up bullied and becoming an advocate for the underdog.
• Backpacking through Southeast Asia and volunteering in Thailand after the tsunami.
• Waldorf teaching, Naropa University, and finding different ways to learn.
• Wilderness survival training and learning to slow down in nature.
• Infertility, unsuccessful IVF, and grieving an imagined future.
• Julie’s first Bufo experience and her changing relationship with death and control.
• Discovering Kambo and recognizing the need for formal training.
• Building Kambo Coyote and creating the Coyote’s Den.
• Becoming a Tribal Detox instructor and helping students find their own approach.
• Meeting skeptical clients with practical conversation and compassion.
• Offering possibilities without promising outcomes.

Connect with Julie Vogel

Kambo Coyote — Austin, Texas
Website: https://kambocoyote.com
Email: julie@kambocoyote.com
Instagram: @kambocoyote

Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Beyond the Ceremony, Jason sits down with Emily Johnson of Loving Kambo at the Grunt Style Foundation’s Integration Event outside Troy, Missouri.

Before discovering Kambo, Emily had spent most of her life navigating chronic illness, severe endometriosis, persistent pain, medical trauma, and repeated surgeries. She underwent 15 surgeries for endometriosis before turning 18 and eventually found herself taking 12 prescription medications each day.

After reaching the end of her rope with the conventional options being offered to her, Emily decided to try something completely outside her comfort zone. Her first Kambo session became the beginning of a much larger personal transformation.

Emily shares what it was like to feel the mental “static” begin to clear, how she worked with her healthcare providers and other tools to change her relationship with pain and medication, and how she eventually went from feeling physically broken to climbing mountains in Colorado.

Today, Emily and her husband, Michael, are trained Kambo practitioners serving their communities through their company, Loving Kambo. Emily is also stepping into education and speaking, sharing what she has learned with others who may feel as if they have exhausted every available option.

This conversation is not about claiming that one medicine can fix everyone. It is about personal agency, informed choices, and having the courage to explore a different path when the path you are on is no longer working.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Developing severe endometriosis as a child
• Undergoing 15 surgeries before the age of 18
• The medical trauma Emily experienced during multiple procedures
• Living with autoimmune illness and chronic pain
• Taking 12 prescription medications each day
• What led Emily to try Kambo for the first time
• The unexpected shift she noticed the following morning
• Becoming more comfortable with discomfort
• Finding new ways to work with pain and inflammation
• Going from limited physical capacity to climbing Colorado mountains
• Emily’s journey from client to Kambo practitioner
• Supporting veterans through the Grunt Style Integration Event
• Watching former participants return as practitioners
• Imposter syndrome and learning to trust your own experience
• The importance of informed consent and responsible medical support
• Exploring alternative options without presenting them as universal cures

Connect with Emily and Loving Kambo

Website: lovingkambo.net

Instagram: @loving_kambo

Facebook: Loving Kambo

Email: lovingkambotx@gmail.com

Loving Kambo currently serves Southeast Kansas, the Tulsa area and surrounding Oklahoma communities, and North Texas.

Important disclaimer

This episode shares Emily’s personal experience and is provided for educational purposes only. It should not be interpreted as medical advice or as a recommendation to stop taking prescription medication. Never discontinue or reduce medication without guidance from a qualified healthcare professional. Kambo carries significant risks and is not appropriate for everyone. Proper screening, informed consent, and qualified facilitation are essential.

Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.

Send us Fan Mail

Olga Yakymenko never planned on becoming a medicine practitioner.

Born and raised in Ukraine, Olga spent ten years working within the Ukrainian court system before eventually moving to Moscow, where she continued working in the legal field. From the outside, she had built a conventional life and career. Internally, though, she had the persistent feeling that she wasn't doing what she was supposed to be doing.

Then she went to India.

What was supposed to be a short trip turned into six months after Olga threw away her return ticket and called her boss to tell him he could fire her. India opened the door to meditation, spiritual practice, travel, and an entirely different way of seeing her life.

Eventually, that path led her to South America and ayahuasca.

Her first experience wasn't particularly profound. Years later, however, she sat again—this time prepared, intentional, and within the Shipibo tradition. That ceremony changed the direction of her life.

Olga describes an experience of ego death, rebirth, and a clear message that she was supposed to leave her old life behind, move to another country, and work in service to others.

So she did.

With little English, a tiny backpack, and no real plan, Olga came to the United States, eventually settling in Brooklyn and beginning the long transition from the legal world into healing work.

In this episode, we follow that journey and dive deep into Olga's relationship with ayahuasca, Kambo, Bufo, traditional Shipibo practices, Icaros, integration, and the importance of choosing experienced facilitators.

We also get into one of the more unusual modalities Olga practices: hirudotherapy, or medicinal leech therapy—a practice she first witnessed as a child in Ukraine and later incorporated into her own work.

Today, Olga works with ayahuasca, Kambo, massage, and leech therapy and is stepping into a new chapter as a Kambo instructor.

In This Episode

We talk about:

• Growing up in Ukraine and working in the court system
• Leaving Moscow for what became a six-month journey through India
• Meditation, Vipassana, Nepal, Varanasi, and the beginning of Olga's spiritual path
• Her first experience with ayahuasca in South America
• The Shipibo ceremony that completely changed her life
• Moving to America without speaking English
• Building a new life in Brooklyn
• Why ayahuasca became Olga's primary spiritual teacher
• The role of Icaros and master plants within Shipibo tradition
• Why the person facilitating a psychedelic experience matters
• Difficult ayahuasca experiences, surrender, preparation, and integration
• Olga's first experience with Kambo in New York
• Discovering Bufo after roughly 150 ayahuasca ceremonies
• Why she eventually chose to stop serving Bufo and focus more deeply on ayahuasca and Kambo
• The problem with stacking multiple powerful medicines into a single retreat
• Why more medicine doesn't necessarily mean more healing
• Medicinal leech therapy and its history in Olga's family
• Her decision to begin teaching Kambo
• Her desire to bring properly trained practitioners into Ukrainian communities affected by war
• Advice for people curious about plant and amphibian medicines
• What to look for when choosing an ayahuasca facilitator

Olga's story is ultimately about following a path before you can see where it's leading.

From a courtroom in Ukraine, to six months wandering India, to Shipibo ceremonies in the Amazon, to arriving in America with almost nothing and building an entirely different life—sometimes the next chapter doesn't begin with a plan.

Sometimes it begins by throwing away the ticket home.

Connect With Olga Yakymenko

Website: kambo-ny.com

Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.

Send us Fan Mail

Every once in a while, Jason will be stepping away from the traditional interview format to share stories from nearly a decade of working with Kambo—people he met, unusual cases he witnessed, and experiences that have stayed with him throughout his years of practice.

For the first Kambo Story Time, Jason shares the story of Solomon Page, a former NFL offensive lineman who played for the Dallas Cowboys.

After years of professional football and repeated concussions, Solomon's health began to deteriorate. He developed severe skin and autoimmune-type issues that eventually affected nearly every part of his daily life. His skin became so sensitive that normal clothing was difficult to tolerate. Sitting, sleeping, exercising, and many of the things he'd once taken for granted became increasingly difficult.

Eventually, after exhausting conventional medical options, Solomon says he was told there was nothing more his doctors could do and that he would have to learn to live with his condition.

He reached a point where he wasn't sure he wanted to.

His wife, Cynthia, wasn't willing to accept that answer.

Her search eventually led Solomon to a holistic practitioner in Dallas—and through her, to Jason and Kambo.

In this episode, Jason tells the story of their first session, why Solomon's breathing caused him to remove Kambo points during the treatment, the phone call he received a week later, and what unfolded over the following months.

It's also the story of what happened afterward: Solomon's eventual decision to train as a Kambo practitioner himself and the completely different direction his life took from there.

In This Episode

• How Jason began serving Kambo through a holistic medical practice in Dallas
• Meeting Solomon Page for the first time
• The physical toll years of professional football had taken on Solomon
• Repeated concussions and the health problems Solomon experienced afterward
• The moment Solomon says he had given up hope
• Why his wife continued searching for answers
• Solomon's first experience with Kambo
• Why Jason reduced the number of points during that first session
• The phone call Jason received about a week later
• Three consecutive Kambo sessions and the changes Jason witnessed afterward
• Solomon's decision to eventually become a Kambo practitioner himself
• Why extraordinary stories like Solomon's shouldn't be mistaken for a promise that Kambo will produce the same results for everyone

A Note About This Story

This episode describes one individual's experience with Kambo. It is not intended to suggest that Kambo cures psoriasis, concussion-related conditions, autoimmune disease, or any other medical condition. Individual experiences and outcomes vary, and personal stories should not be interpreted as medical evidence or medical advice.

Tribal Detox Podcast — Episode 9

Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.

Send us Fan Mail

What would you do if everything you'd spent your life building disappeared overnight?

In this episode of Beyond the Ceremony, Jason sits down with Kambo practitioner and retreat facilitator Atlana Groyto hear one of the most remarkable stories ever shared on the podcast.

After building a thriving aesthetics company in Kazakhstan, Atlana's life changed forever when a trusted business partner used political influence to take her company. Facing prison and fearing for her safety, she fled her country and sought political asylum in the United States with just $300 to her name.

Alone in a new country, unable to speak English, Atlana rebuilt her life from the ground up. But beneath the surface, she struggled with depression, addiction, and the realization that the success she had spent her life chasing wasn't bringing her happiness.

Everything changed when she was introduced to psychedelic medicine.

Atlana shares her deeply personal journey through mushrooms, ayahuasca, and Kambo, explaining how each medicine played a unique role in helping her heal trauma, overcome addiction, reconnect with herself, and ultimately discover a new definition of success rooted in purpose rather than possessions.

Today, Atlana serves others through Kambo, private healing retreats, psychedelic integration coaching, and wellness practices from her healing studio in Los Angeles and retreats in Joshua Tree.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Building a successful business in Kazakhstan before losing everything
• Escaping her country through political asylum
• Starting over in America with only $300 and no English
• Depression, addiction, and the dark side of Hollywood culture
• How mushrooms became the beginning of her healing journey
• Ayahuasca's role in helping her rediscover purpose
• Her experience with Kambo and why it became such an important part of her life
• Healing childhood trauma and redefining success
• Becoming a Kambo practitioner and psychedelic integration coach
• The emotional story of helping her own mother heal from decades of trauma and addiction
• How personalized healing retreats are changing people's lives

Atlana's story is a powerful reminder that sometimes losing everything becomes the very thing that allows us to find who we were always meant to become.

Connect with Atlana Groy

Instagram: @amphibianwoman

Website: https://www.amphibianwoman.com

Atlana offers:

• Private healing retreats
• Psychedelic integration coaching
• Kambo ceremonies
• Sound healing
• Yoga and wellness practices
• Personalized healing programs

Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.