❋ PSILOCYBIN RETREAT FOR GAY & QUEER MEN | NETHERLANDS & PORTUGAL
You don’t need to explain yourself here.
Small-group, legal psilocybin retreats for gay and queer men, in the Netherlands or Portugal. Held with care by a queer and queer-allied team. You're already known here.
Built around what most healing spaces miss
❋ About the Retreat Programme
MAGUEY runs small-group psilocybin retreat programmes for gay and queer men in the Netherlands and Portugal, where psilocybin (in specific forms) is fully legal or decriminalised. The journey spans weeks, not just a weekend, specifically curated for personal healing, spiritual growth, and self-discovery. Along with the ceremonial experience, you’ll receive personalised support before the retreat to ensure thorough preparation and guidance, and integration coaching afterward to help you incorporate your newfound wisdom into everyday life.
A lot of queer men carry things that mainstream therapeutic and psychedelic spaces miss. As a queer man, Nigel, the founder of MAGUEY and its lead facilitator, felt called to build a space where that doesn't need to be explained or navigated. Instead, it's simply the ground everyone stands on.
❋ The Arc of the Work
Before, during, and after
What we offer isn’t a ceremony with some extras around it. We provide a full arc of support, where the preparation, psilocybin ceremony, and integration together shape your journey of personal growth and healing.
1. Preparation
Before You Arrive
A free discovery call to make sure this is the right choice for you, followed by a thorough preparation session to set intentions and prepare for the retreat. Personalized guidance provided throughout.
2. The Retreat
Three Days Near Amsterdam
A residential retreat held over a number of days and nights in the Netherlands or Portugal. Breathwork, movement, shared meals, and the connection that comes from a small, intentional group.
3. The Ceremony
The Setting
One psilocybin truffle ceremony, fully legal under Dutch and Portugese law. Experienced facilitators are with you throughout, ensuring your safety and helping you fully lean into the experience.
4. Integration
Continuing the Journey
Integration circles, written guidance and exercises, and a personal follow-up session with Nigel. Ongoing support continues remotely, where we help you bring what emerged back into your daily life now and going forward.
Group size: up to 8 · Language: English · Food: all meals included · Location: Netherlands or Portugal
❋ What Past Participants Have Said
Testimonials
“I returned home with a deep sense of being humbled by this existence and all that comes with it and a feeling of belonging, soft joy and wonder. Even though I was a bit anxious about a group retreat at first this experience felt as a valuable profound gift and I enjoyed all the various stages of the retreat.”
— Christian, Amsterdam“From my initial enquiry through to the post-retreat support, I felt like I was in safe hands with Nigel. His wisdom, humour and compassion were greatly appreciated throughout the process. A unique and valuable experience.”
— Owen, London“I attended a psilocybin truffle ceremony at MAGUEY Retreat, and it was handled with professionalism and genuine care from start to finish. The team created a safe, calm, and supportive environment, which made the entire process feel comfortable and well-organised.”
— Raj, London
Threads that emerge, retreat after retreat
❋ What Tends to Shine
By joining a retreat programme, you become a part of a community. Recently, we wrote to past participants and asked what had drawn them to join us and what kept echoing long after they'd gone home. Every retreat is its own journey, but a few threads came through, again and again.
Safety & feeling at rest
Many of us grow up reading the room before relaxing into it, often scanning for risk. When the baseline fear of homophobia or misunderstanding is removed, something different becomes possible. It creates a space where the nervous system can begin, perhaps for the first time, to actually rest.
No more filtering
Participants spoke about the relief of not having to edit themselves. No second-guessing how something will land or holding back parts of their story. The retreat welcomes the surprisingly profound experience of being just as you are.
Discovery & celebration
For some, these retreats are about celebration: our queerness being honoured, not just accepted. For others, it’s about discovery: meeting parts of ourselves not yet fully known. And for some, the simplest thing: queerness becoming, for a few days, an unspoken part of the fabric of who we are.
Shared experience
We share a quiet exhaustion that comes from the never-ending coming-out, and the constant wondering whether we’ll be understood. In queer spaces, much of that dissolves, and in its place, a deeper openness unfolds. This shared ground allows for a kind of healing that feels more immediate and real.
Community
Again and again, participants speak about the connection built by the retreat. Not performative or transactional but something real. A sense of finding others like themselves, in a space not centred around nightlife or identity as performance, but grounded in real presence, honesty, and shared humanity.
Upcoming retreat programmes
❋ Our Calendar
12-14 June, 2026 | Netherlands
Our summer programme includes a 3-day, 2-night retreat near Amsterdam. The retreat is just one part of your journey of self-discovery, with months of both preparation before and integration after. Book a call below to discuss programme details in full.
TBC October, 2026 | Netherlands/Portugal
Dates for our autumn retreat programme will be confirmed shortly. The best way to stay updated on this retreat is to book a call with Nigel to discuss your goals and intentions ahead of time.
Want something more private? Learn more about our individual retreats here.
The person holding the space
❋ About Nigel · Founder & Lead Facilitator
As the founder and lead facilitator at MAGUEY, Nigel is an experienced, trauma-informed psychedelic guide and integration coach, supporting people to reconnect with their inner truth and navigate life’s deeper currents. Nigel believe that personal healing not only nourishes the individual, but ripples outward to support collective wellbeing and transformation.
He trains and works within the Guild of Guides, a community of practitioners committed to ethical facilitation, ongoing development, and accountability in psychedelic work. Additionally, he is a guide with the psychedelic collective Nectara and also supports other plant medicine retreat centres in the Netherlands and around the world with facilitation and integration services.
Each participant speaks with Nigel directly throughout, from the first call to the last integration session.
Hear Nigel in conversation
Nigel joined the Gay Men Going Deeper podcast to speak about creating platonic spaces for queer healing and authentic male connection and what that means in the context of psychedelic retreat work.
FAQs
❋ Things People Usually Ask
-
In the Netherlands, psilocybin in the form of truffles are legal. In Portugal, we work withing the scope of decriminalisation.
-
At MAGUEY, safety is our top priority. While psychedelic retreats can offer profound benefits for many, they may not be suitable for everyone. To ensure that this work is aligned with each participant’s needs, all individuals undergo a health screening prior to the retreat.
Our lead facilitator is a trauma-informed psychedelic practitioner and member and the current chair of the Guild of Guides Netherlands, the professional association for facilitators of legal psychedelic experiences in the Netherlands. He is a signatory to its Code of Conduct and is accountable to its accountability framework. This ensures that our psilocybin retreats are conducted with the highest ethical standards and with your wellbeing in mind at all stages of the journey.
-
This is not psychedelic therapy or psychedelic psychotherapy.
What we offer is psychedelic-assisted self-discovery—a path that supports people in their journey from functioning to flourishing. We do not work with individuals diagnosed with complex mental health issues, and we do not diagnose, treat, or offer clinical support.
-
The retreat is exclusively for gay and queer men, with a maximum of eight people. Everyone on the facilitation team is queer or queer-allied. You won't need to code-switch or explain your life.
-
A trauma-informed psychedelic practitioner is someone who supports individuals through psychedelic experiences with a deep awareness of how trauma impacts the nervous system, behavior, and healing processes. Drawing on trauma-informed principles, they create a safe, respectful, and empowering environment that recognizes the complexities of trauma and prioritizes the client's emotional and psychological wellbeing throughout the entire journey — from preparation through integration.
Trauma-informed psychedelic practitioners understand that healing is non-linear, and that deep transformation arises not just from the psychedelic itself, but from how safely the client is held before, during, and after the journey.
Start with a conversation.
The first step is a free 30-minute call with Nigel. No obligation or cost, just a chance to talk about where you are and whether this is right for you.
Stay Connected
Every so often we write about what's been emerging in our work, what past participants share about our retreat programmes, and opportunities to join upcoming programmes. Leave your email below to hear more from us.