About Summit Garden Wellness Center
SUMMIT GARDEN WELLNESS
Our Story
Summit Garden Team
James Mbela - Founder/Lead Facilitator
James Mbela is a gifted artist and musician who studied classical music at university in the conservatory style, with a minor in nutrition and psychology. He is deeply versed in yogic and Buddhist philosophy and has spent years implementing it in practical, lived ways rather than as abstract theory.
He holds a long-standing, well-established relationship with psychedelics, used responsibly in the contexts of personal development and healing. His work draws on mindfulness training and trauma-informed psychology, alongside therapeutic methods including CBT, EMDR, and somatic therapy. He is a trained holistic nutritionist and lifestyle coach, a holistic psychedelic integration coach, and a teacher of qigong and Taoist healing arts.
James completed a three-year apprenticeship as an iboga provider and was initiated into the Bwiti tradition. As a professional journey facilitator with over five years of experience, he has guided nearly a thousand people through their process with consistent healing results and deep reverence for these medicines. He has served as a volunteer firekeeper for indigenous elders, listening closely to their message and teachings.
He is the founder of La Luz de Vida Church in Costa Rica, and a donor and organizer of charitable giving to local indigenous communities and to communities in Gabon. He is also the founder of Summit Garden Wellness, a multimodality healing retreat built to combine many different forms of retreat work into one space, supported by carefully devised protocols and systems. The intention behind it is simple: to help people heal safely, to stay clear of the noise of the ego, and to remain humbly in service.
Lucie Luz - Care Giver/Yoga Facilitator
Lucie is the resident caretaker at Summit Garden Wellness and the steady, grounding presence at the heart of the retreat experience. With years of experience supporting retreats across many contexts, she has a gift for anticipating what people need, often before they know it themselves, and for holding space with warmth, patience, and genuine care.
A skilled massage therapist, Lucie works in Thai, Swedish, and deep tissue modalities, tailoring each session to where the body and nervous system are on any given day. Her bodywork is complemented by training in Ayurveda, which informs how she supports guests through rest, nourishment, and recovery during their time on the land.
Lucie is also a meditation and yoga teacher and a sound bath facilitator, guiding practices that help guests settle, open, and integrate. Whether leading a gentle morning movement session or holding the room through the deep stillness of a sound journey, she brings the same attentive, heartfelt quality to everything she does. Her own love and reverence for the medicine runs through all of it, making her not just a caretaker but a true companion on the path.
MEDICAL
SGW has an involved pre screening and medical exam plus recent EKG before hand. If you are elderly or would like round the clock medical staff onsite we can offer this.
We have never had any health complications, our protocols are very safe and reliable.
Staff
SGW team includes our highly trained facilitators, local doctors, chefs, musicians, cleaners, gardeners and drivers.
Advisors
The advisor board contains doctors, psychologists, neuro-scientists, tech entrepreneurs, elder shamans, and spiritual teachers.
FACILITATORS
Our facilitators are formally trained in their offerings and offer high level consistency and professionalism.
Trauma-informed certified facilitator.
INTEGRATION
We have a small vetted network of psychologists, and coaches who have worked with the medicine extensively and can be contacted directly for additional help before and/or after a retreat.