Dennis, born in the Netherlands, was a musician from a young age—joining his first international  tour with an orchestra at the age of twelve, and going on to study at the Royal School of Music in The Hague at eighteen. His passion for travel and the healing arts ran alongside his study of music and his successful career as classical musician, before the call to a monumentally different path eventually became too loud for him to ignore. 

His time in South America set him on a life altering track, eventually leading him to the tribe he now calls family, the Yawanawá. 

Dennis’ work with the medicine has taken many forms; student, founder of a healing centre, conscious community leader. He has held sacred ceremonies around the world for over a decade, and his path has led him to this current place of deep listening. He sees that we are in a time of great change, change happening at an unprecedented rate, and he understands the natural urge to swift action in the face of it. So often, though, it is in that quick response to seemingly urgent matters that things are missed, voices are not heard (or considered) and decisions with long-lasting consequences are made without full understanding of what their repercussions may be. It is this, in part, which has led Dennis to slow down his work with the medicine and to shift into a practice of only holding ceremonies when the timing is very clearly right, for all involved. 

This slower, intimate and respectful way of being in sacred space, be that in private ceremonies, small groups, or 1:1 work, feels more in alignment with, as Charles Eisenstein would say, the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. 

For a detailed account of exactly how Dennis was called from the classical music world and into the world of sacred plant medicine and healing, his memoir, Walking with the Serpent is available on Substack—with chapters released periodically.