About Linda
Linda Nicholls (she/her/they/them) is an elder, serving as a guide in transformational circle work for more than thirty-five years in North America and internationally. She has worked intimately with people of all ages and several cultures leading energetically engaging and relational programs that focus on body, breath and energy training; conscious breathwork; psychedelic and other peak experience integration; shadow exploration; communication skills; sexuality; grieving; defining boundaries; conscious alternatives to depression; reviewing and renewing relationships; guiding teens and youth into their adulthood, and more.
Linda is an unabashed student of life who enjoys exploring the vast variety of the wild and wonderful ways of being human. She wholeheartedly believes that the therapeutic use of psychedelics is a precious resource for individuals and humanity to undergo the deep cultural therapy so urgently needed.
Her initial interest in psychedelics was stimulated by the devastating loss of her beloved son Jeff who died of a drug overdose when he was thirty-one. She wondered what was so compelling and then fatally addictive about going into non-ordinary states of consciousness. What longing was so excruciatingly deep that he suffered and then died in his quest? Linda’s sense is that Jeff, as well as myriads of others, was seeking to fulfill a profound spiritual longing that ordinary consciousness could not satisfy. She regrets that at the time of his death, almost 25 years ago, she didn’t know about the legitimate, phenomenally successful use of psychedelic substances for healing addiction and many of the psychological, emotional and spiritual traumas that we humans suffer with. Linda believes that Jeff could be alive today if he had been able to access the safe, responsible, skillful use of consciousness-illuminating medicines that have been known and used for centuries. Finally, through the current renaissance of psychedelics, their wisdom is again becoming valued and available to us in North America.
Linda carries a deep reverence for psychedelics as sacred teachers and healers. She is dedicated to supporting people as they connect with their inner healer, their inner wisdom and their inner strength to be liberated from limitations and expand their exquisite capacities. Every individual tending to their personal healing is making a therapeutic contribution to humanity as we collectively transform from being ego-centric into the necessary new eco-centric paradigm of unity consciousness.
Credit: Jan Novotny
“Linda is not a passive passenger of life. She’s a voyageur, an adventurer, one of a kind, distinctive, singular; she forges her own path.
She’s charismatic, classy in a down-to-earth way. She’s accessible and inclusive, sensitive, caring, humorous, able to work smoothly with people of different cultures and persuasions.”
— Jock McKeen, Haven Co-Founder
Credit: Jan Novotny
My Teachers
I have been inspired by several of the amazing teachers I have experienced throughout the years. One of the ways they stood out for me was that I felt better about myself when in their presence. Through them, I have been motivated to offer others the opportunity to learn things that make sense about being human, living daily life, relating with others in ways that enliven and enrich compassion, connection, meaning and fulfillment.
Over the years, I’ve facilitated hundreds of programs, including Come Alive at the Haven, often in partnership with founders, Ben and Jock.
Throughout my thirty-plus year integral association with The Haven, I was highly privileged to have met and worked with many of the “masters” who have taught at The Haven, among them Virginia Satir, Bunny Duhl, James Bugental, Carl Whitaker, Irving and Miriam Polster, Joann Peterson and Maria Gomori.
Me and Maria Gomori in Vancouver
Credit: Jan Novotny
My Affiliates
The Haven
The Sentinel
