Practitioners with backgrounds in medicine, psychotherapy and psychology, a research team of our own, and twenty-five years of Beckley Foundation science behind the program.
Private, takes about two minutes. Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before being invited.
★★★★★5.0
145 Google reviews
1,200+
Past guests
As featured in
The Sunday Times and Oprah Daily
As featured in
Who holds the room
The people who lead our retreats
Our teams include practitioners with backgrounds as psychotherapists, psychologists and physicians. On retreat they are not acting in their licensed capacity, because Beckley does not provide medical treatment, but that training is in the room with you. There is at least one facilitator for every four guests during sessions, usually one for every three.
Dingle Spence
Team Lead. Retired Jamaican physician in oncology and palliative medicine.
Kosu Boudreau
Lead Facilitator. Registered trauma psychotherapist and integration specialist.
Ben Sheinwald
Lead Facilitator. Biodynamic body psychotherapist, leading group work since 2014.
Neil Markey
Co-Founder, CEO. Former US Army Special Operations Captain; McKinsey; Harvard T.H. Chan.
Fede Menapace
Chief Growth Officer. Former COO of MAPS. Stanford MBA; former McKinsey consultant; go-to-market leader at Segment.
Anja Saloranta
Chief Operating Officer. Harvard Business School MBA. Former COO of Ballentine Partners and Head of Commercial Operations at Ginkgo Bioworks.
Dr. AZA Allsop
Head of Research. MD, Harvard Medical School; PhD in Neuroscience, MIT. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine.
Karestan Koenen
Research Advisor. Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The science
Brain connectivity research with Imperial College London
Brain imaging research by the Beckley Foundation and Imperial College London mapped how patterns of functional connectivity in the brain change compared with placebo. The visualisation shows relationships between brain activity signals, not new physical connections. It helps explain the mechanism. It did not test Beckley Retreats or establish lasting outcomes from a retreat program.
Beckley Retreats grew out of the Beckley Foundation, established in 1998 by our co-founder Amanda Feilding. The program is shaped by peer-reviewed research and ongoing collaboration with researchers from Imperial College London, Johns Hopkins, Yale and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Left: placebo. Right: with the compound studied. Beckley Foundation and Imperial College London, Petri et al., 2014, Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Dr. AZA Allsop
Head of Research. MD, Harvard Medical School; PhD in Neuroscience, MIT. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine.
Karestan Koenen
Research Advisor. Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Standards
What the team is responsible for, in the order you meet it
Individual academic appointments and advisory relationships. The standards below hold on every date, in both countries.
Screening
A suitability call with every applicant
Every applicant has a suitability call with our team before being invited. The application was written with physician, psychiatrist and psychotherapist input. SSRIs and SNRIs may mean it is not the right fit, or not yet; apply anyway and tell us.
Ratio
One facilitator for every three or four guests
Every session is the whole group and the full team in one room. Operations and venue staff are on site 24/7 through the week.
Amount
Set by the team, within a predefined range
Every guest receives a custom amount within a predefined range, around what you would see in a clinical trial in the US, though this is not medical treatment.
Care
Nurse on site in Jamaica, emergency services minutes away in the Netherlands
A doctor on call in Jamaica. A safety plan covering physical, emotional and psychological safety, reviewed regularly and shared with every venue partner.
Legality
Two countries, and only two
Jamaica and the Netherlands are the only two countries where this work is fully legal. It is federally illegal in the United States, which is why our programs run abroad. Our programs are built around the intentional, guided use of plants, legal in Jamaica and the Netherlands.
What guests report
The standards show up in the numbers
1,200+guests since 2021
91Net Promoter Score
98%would recommend the program to family and friends
5.0from 145 Google reviews
In their words
Our guests are making real change
Four guests on what the program was like, in their own words.
“Every leader in America should go through this program.”
Jim MacPheeFormer COO, Walt Disney World. Two-time Beckley guest.
“I am walking away from this retreat with new found love in my heart. And I am humbled. Feeling cleansed and restored.”
Toni KoFounder, NYX Cosmetics (sold to L'Oreal).
“My experience of the retreat was just fantastic. The four week preparation before the retreat really helped people understand how powerful the work is, and also trained people on a set of practices to best navigate the experience.”
Ashish KothariFounder and CEO, Happiness Squad. Former McKinsey Partner.
“I did a lot of research around wellbeing programs and found Beckley Retreats. I manifested for two years that I wanted a life-changing experience like this. Now here I am, I've done it and it has been amazing.”
A public benefit corporation, with a mandate to widen access
We believe this work asks for a different approach. As a US public benefit corporation we have a mandate to increase accessibility, and a financial aid program for guests with need. Ask about it on your suitability call.
$300K+in financial aid awarded
67scholarship recipients
“Beckley Retreats was a wonderful experience. It helped me to become more intentional and go very deep to explore my emotions, needs, and personal goals for the year and life to come. The environment was beautiful, the entire crew very knowledgeable, and overall extremely well-organized.”
Leon MishkisCOO of NewtonX
Independent accounts
Writers who came as guests
Two journalists and a psychotherapist went as guests and wrote about it. A sceptical outsider describing the week says more than we can.
Oprah Daily · June 2026
A journalist went to Good Hope as a guest
A nine-minute first-person account of the five-night Jamaica program: the doubts going in, both sessions, the day after, and what the writer took home.
On stress, control and a week in the Netherlands. Subscription required.
Therapy Today · May 2026
A psychotherapist on attending the Jamaica program
Ben Ockrent on what changed when he returned to his own therapist afterwards. Therapy Today, May 2026, pages 48 to 51.
Our commitments
A public benefit corporation, in writing
Beckley Retreats is a US public benefit corporation. Our Ethics and Community Impact plan is a living document: our regenerative business model, our commitments on diversity and access including the financial aid program, our approach to safety and care, and our actions on reciprocity with the communities and traditions this work comes from. We welcome questions on any of it.
A healthier, more beautiful world is possible.
It starts one person at a time, with rest, good food, clear air and a structured program held by people who have done this work for decades.
If this is the standard you were looking for
Apply once, in about seven minutes. If the program is a fit, our team will guide you through everything that comes next, and you choose your retreat after approval.
