Silvia Polivoy

Silvia Polivoy is a clinical psychologist with a doctoral degree who has spent over twenty-seven years investigating modified states of consciousness and more than two decades in clinical practice. She obtained her master's degree in clinical psychology from Belgrano University of Buenos Aires in 1983 and maintained a private practice in Buenos Aires for over twenty years, evolving from psychoanalysis through transactional analysis to transpersonal psychology. In 1996, she was introduced to ayahuasca by the Shipibo shaman Don Guillermo Arevalo, an encounter that redirected the trajectory of her clinical work. She subsequently conducted field research with both Shipibo shamans in the Peruvian Amazon and Mazatec shamans in Mexico. In 2004, Polivoy co-founded the Spirit Vine Spiritual Center in the Atlantic forest of Bahia, Brazil, where she continues to lead monthly ayahuasca retreats integrated with clinical psychological frameworks. Her work represents a distinctive synthesis of formal clinical psychology training with indigenous ethnobotanical traditions, offering retreats that combine ceremonial practice with psychological preparation, guided experience, and post-ceremony integration sessions.