Who we are
This is about trust. So let's start here.
Who holds the space decides what becomes possible. Get to know us before you decide.
Why we do this
We wanted to create a place that did not yet exist.
In recent years, research into psychedelic-assisted self-exploration has exploded. Studies, books, conferences. The movement is here. But if you look at what's on offer in Europe, you'll mostly find two extremes: too clinical and sterile on one side, too spiritually naïve and uncontrolled on the other.
We believe there's another way. Safe and deep. Structured and personal. With full understanding, no language barrier in the way.
Lucid-Dream was born from the wish to create a place where German-speaking adults could do this work with dignity and without esoteric clichés, in a small group, with professional guidance, in the original stillness of the Portuguese mountains. Some parts of us only open when we feel fully understood. That's exactly where we want to reach you.
Founder & Lead Guide
Jens
Heilpraktiker für Psychotherapie · Breathwork Facilitator
For a long time, I searched outside myself for what could only be found within.
I grew up quite normally. A family that gave me stability. Nothing dramatic enough to write a story about, and yet there was always something in me that wanted more. It always had to be a little more, a little different.
In my mid-twenties, I found the woman I still live with today, more than thirty years later. A wonderful, powerful person who has accompanied my path from the beginning and has often held things together for me. Family started early, children came, we built a house. And yet my focus kept shifting further and further outward: to the job, the house, the role you're expected to fill.
At some point I thought my job was to be successful. Success came. The money came. But honestly, happiness fell by the wayside, and at times, so did my family. I noticed it and did what I always did: threw myself into the next extreme. Exercise, originally meant for losing weight, became the next excess. I changed on the outside, fit an ideal, got recognition.
Did that make me happy? No. I had just slid from one extreme into the next.
The real turning point came quietly, through someone who had known me for a long time: my family doctor. He showed me that illnesses have causes that often lie deeper. That physical symptoms are frequently just the effect of something that begins much further within.
That single realisation opened a door through which I have been walking ever since. Buddhism. Shadow work. Systemic work. Meditation. To give all of this a solid foundation, I trained as a Heilpraktiker für Psychotherapie.
Through various experiences with plant-based substances, it became clear to me what depth is possible here, and I decided to get properly trained, so I could safely guide other people through such experiences. The framework I initially had to work within always felt too narrow to me. So I developed my own concept: a retreat where space, time and guidance come together the way I believe they should. Breathwork was a fixed part of it from the start, and because I wanted to go deeper here too, I completed my training as a Breathwork Facilitator.
How I came to Portugal
Sometimes you only understand afterward why you did something.
I had never done yoga in my life, and I had never been to Portugal, and yet, following pure intuition, I booked a yoga retreat in the Portuguese mountains. Just because of an ad in a magazine. For someone who had planned and controlled everything his whole life, this was something entirely new.
"Already in the first days, I had a feeling I had never known before: this is where you belong."
That feeling has stayed with me to this day. I've returned many times since, and it grew more intense each time. The place of that first yoga retreat is today the place of my own retreats.
It has something mysterious about it. You keep discovering new details and can connect fully with nature. The houses and tents are spread across the grounds, and for me, every walk between them has something meditative about it. Although the place is wide and open, it conveys a sense of shelter. It sits on a mountainside and reaches down into a valley where a small river flows. The morning walk through light mist has something mystical about it, when the first rays of sun find their way through and light up the valley with the retreat in it.
I've brought all these experiences, all these steps of learning, together. Not as theory, but as something you can experience. What I pass on today isn't a concept from a textbook. It's the path I walked myself. From searching outside to arriving within.
And if there's one thing I've understood, it's this: you don't have to figure everything out alone. Sometimes what you need is a safe space and someone who knows the way.
Participant voices
What it feels like, in their own words.
"I never felt I had to perform. An important moment was when someone simply sat beside me, without immediately wanting to explain anything. I felt taken seriously and not judged."
Anna, 42
"I take my own needs more seriously. I say no more clearly, without having to explain myself every time."
Sabine, 57
Qualifications
What my work is built on.
Responsible guidance needs a foundation. Here are the professional qualifications my work is built on.
Heilpraktiker für Psychotherapie
Certified Psychedelic Facilitator
Certified Breathwork Facilitator
Lucid dreaming from personal experience
I'm happy to answer further questions in the initial consultation.
How I guide
Three principles that hold.
The craft behind this work is broad and detailed. But at its core, it comes down to three attitudes.
01
Presence over program
There's a clear framework, but no rigid curriculum. What you need often only becomes clear as things unfold, and my job is to stay open and present for that, rather than run through a pre-set sequence.
02
Person over method
Methods are tools. You are not the problem being "treated" with them. I meet you as a person, not as a case. What you bring shapes what we do together.
03
Dignity over miracles
I don't promise enlightenment, healing, or transformation. I promise a safe space, honest guidance and my full attention. You shape the rest yourself, with whatever shows itself.
The team
A small circle of experienced guides.
Whoever holds the space with me shares a similar background: solid psychological knowledge, their own experience with psychedelic-assisted work, and years of practice guiding people through deep processes.
On this shared foundation, each person brings their own focus, music, soundwork, creative expression or nature-based practice. This creates a coherent constellation for every retreat, so you always have several people around you with real depth to draw on.
In the pre-consultation, you'll find out which guide will be part of your chosen retreat.
Our promise
What you can expect from us.
Clear words about what we offer, and about what we don't promise.
What we promise
- + Attentive, present guidance, with full understanding, no language barrier
- + A safe, carefully prepared setting
- + Honesty, even when the answer is "not now"
- + Full discretion toward outsiders
- + A responsible suitability check in the pre-consultation
- + Real integration, not disappearing after the retreat
What we do not promise
- − Healing from illness
- − Guaranteed effects or outcomes
- − Spiritual enlightenment
- − A concrete "life transformation"
- − Ending your therapy or medication
- − A substitute for medical or psychotherapeutic treatment
Get to know us.
Before you decide on a retreat, talk to me. 30 minutes by phone or video. You tell me where you're at. I listen and tell you honestly whether it's a fit.