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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:
Connect with Julie Vogel
Kambo Coyote — Austin, Texas
Website: https://kambocoyote.com
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @kambocoyote
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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:
Connect with Emily and Loving Kambo
Website: lovingkambo.net
Instagram: @loving_kambo
Facebook: Loving Kambo
Email: [email protected]
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.
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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:
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
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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
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
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What happens when a lifelong search to understand the mind, body, spirit, and human experience eventually leads you somewhere you never expected?
In this episode, Jason sits down with Elizabeth Dalton, a San Diego–based practitioner whose path has taken her through massage therapy, nutrition, Ayurveda, yoga, Kambo, Bufo, somatic work, and now into a new chapter as a Tribal Detox Kambo instructor.
Elizabeth’s journey began long before medicine work. Growing up in a large, deeply religious LDS family, she struggled from a young age with depression and a persistent desire to understand why being human could feel so difficult. Her original interest was psychology, but life took her in another direction—first into massage therapy, then bodywork, nutrition, holistic health, Ayurveda, and eventually the deeper connection between the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of healing.
Her introduction to psychedelic and indigenous medicines was anything but gentle.
Elizabeth shares openly about her first Bufo experience, complete ego dissolution, difficult integration afterward, and how the experience fundamentally challenged what she had been taught about God, death, and the afterlife. She also recounts an intense weekend involving Kambo and ayahuasca that ultimately helped shape the way she believes medicine should—and should not—be facilitated.
Those experiences became an important lesson: a powerful experience isn't automatically a therapeutic one.
The conversation dives deeply into the old-school approach to Kambo—the large amounts of water, high numbers of points, and the belief that a successful session required a purge. Elizabeth explains how watching clients endure unnecessarily intense sessions caused her to begin questioning what she had been taught.
Rather than asking, “How intense can we make this?” she began asking a different question:
How can we work with Kambo while listening to the individual person and their nervous system?
That question eventually led Elizabeth toward what she describes as somatic Kambo—using the medicine alongside body awareness, emotional processing, and a much more individualized approach.
Jason and Elizabeth also get into the serious responsibility that comes with facilitating medicine: water consumption, electrolyte balance and hyponatremia, preparation, informed consent, practitioner boundaries, integration, and why facilitators have to resist the temptation to believe that more suffering equals more healing.
The conversation also gets deeply personal as Elizabeth discusses leaving the religion she grew up in, redefining her relationship with God and spirituality, navigating a difficult marriage, and learning to trust what actually resonated with her rather than forcing herself into a belief system because it was familiar.
Eventually, all of the seemingly unrelated pieces of her life began coming back together.
The young woman who once wanted to study psychology found herself working with the mind through somatics, the body through Ayurveda and bodywork, and the spiritual dimension through Kambo and Bufo. After years of searching, questioning, learning, and changing direction, Elizabeth describes her next step into teaching as strangely full circle.
In This Episode
This is a conversation about medicine, but even more than that, it's about curiosity, questioning what you've been taught, learning through experience, and allowing your path to evolve as you do.
Connect with Elizabeth Dalton
Elizabeth Dalton — Surya Wellness
📍 San Diego, California
Instagram: @_suryawellness
Website: www.suryawellnesssd.com
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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:
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:
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In this deeply personal episode, Jason shares the full story behind the version most people have only heard in passing.
From childhood trauma and years of psychological suffering to discovering plant and amphibian medicines, this conversation explores the path that eventually led to the creation of Tribal Detox. It also highlights an important truth that often gets overlooked: medicine can open the door, but it doesn't do the work for you.
Jason and Kelly discuss:
This episode is our most personal conversation yet. It's a story about trauma, healing, responsibility, and the long road of becoming someone capable of helping others.
Healing isn't a destination. It's an ongoing practice.
Learn More
Tribal Detox Kambo Practitioner Training
https://www.tribaldetox.com/schools
Questions or feedback?
Email: [email protected]
Subscribe so you don't miss future conversations as we explore plant medicines, integration, spirituality, science, psychology, and everything that happens beyond the ceremony.
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What happens when you've tried everything... and nothing works?
In this powerful episode, we sit down with medicine woman and facilitator Sterling Zayas to explore one of the most remarkable healing journeys we've heard.
From severe childhood health complications and multiple blood transfusions to a full hysterectomy in her early twenties, years of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, and psychiatric medications, Sterling reached a point where she and her family had exhausted every conventional option.
Then something unexpected happened.
Plant medicine entered her life.
What followed wasn't simply symptom relief. It was a complete transformation of how she understood herself, healing, spirituality, and her purpose in this world.
Sterling shares her deeply personal experiences with psilocybin, MDMA, Kambo, and Bufo, along with the lessons each medicine revealed and how they ultimately led her to become a facilitator herself.
This is a conversation about courage, surrender, faith, and discovering that healing often begins where certainty ends.
In this episode we discuss:
This episode is a reminder that healing isn't reserved for a lucky few.
Sometimes the greatest transformation begins the moment we decide we're no longer willing to stay where we are.
Mentioned in this episode
Connect with Sterling Zayas
🌐 Website: https://www.theheavenlypriestess.com
📱 Instagram: @theheavenlypriestess
If Sterling's story resonated with you and you'd like to learn more about her work, you can connect with her through her website or Instagram.
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What happens when the very system that's supposed to help you no longer has the answers?
In this powerful conversation, we sit down with Jesse, a certified bionutritionist and longtime addiction recovery advocate, to explore her deeply personal journey through opioid addiction, postpartum depression, antidepressant dependency, grief, and ultimately finding healing through Kambo.
Jesse shares how years of struggling with mental health and addiction led her to discover a completely different approach to healing. One centered not only on psychology, but on biology, nutrition, brain chemistry, and personal responsibility.
We also explore the often overlooked connection between amino acids, neurotransmitters, peptides, and mental health, and why she believes true healing requires far more than simply treating symptoms.
This is a conversation about hope, resilience, and discovering that healing is possible, even after years of believing you were broken.
In this episode we discuss:
This episode reminds us that healing isn't about finding a magic cure.
It's about giving the body, mind, and spirit the tools they need to remember how to heal themselves.
Mentioned in this episode
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Can your darkest chapter become the very thing that leads you to your life's purpose?
In Part 2 of Kelly's story, we pick up after her recovery from opioid addiction through Ibogaine and follow the path that eventually led to Tribal Detox, Kambo, Bufo, and the work she does today.
This conversation explores what happens after healing begins. Recovery isn't the end of the journey. It's often where the real journey starts.
Kelly shares what it was like rebuilding her life, rediscovering herself, falling in love, helping build Tribal Detox from the ground up, and eventually finding her calling as a Bufo facilitator.
We also dive into how years of serving hundreds of people challenged many of the assumptions surrounding Bufo and ultimately led us to develop a more therapeutic, integration-focused approach to working with the medicine.
In this episode we discuss:
This episode is about trusting your path, even when it looks nothing like the one you originally planned.
Sometimes the greatest transformations don't happen because life goes according to plan.
They happen because life completely falls apart and gives you the opportunity to rebuild it with greater purpose.
Mentioned in this episode
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From the publisher's feed
Beyond the Ceremony is a podcast about what happens before, during, and long after the ceremony ends.
Hosted by Jason and Kelly Fellows of Tribal Detox, each episode…
You'll hear discussions on consciousness, trauma, integration, plant and amphibian medicines, nervous system health, ancient traditions, modern research, and what it means to live a more authentic life.
Whether you're completely new to this world or have spent years walking the path, Beyond the Ceremony offers thoughtful conversations grounded in curiosity, humility, and real-world experience.
New episodes released regularly.