From Lab Bench to Maloka with Melissa Stangl

S1E3: Melissa Stangl on Soltara’s Shipibo-Guided Ayahuasca Model, Safety Screening, and Integration That Actually Sticks. In this timely conversation, host Jim Tate engages Melissa Stangl, Founding Partner & Chief Operating Officer (COO), Soltara Healing Center, about her unlikely pivot from biomedical engineering and cancer research into the operational “backbone” of plant medicine work. Melissa walks through Soltara’s decision to focus on ayahuasca in the Shipibo tradition, why Costa Rica became the home base, and how the retreat arc is designed - from intake, medical/therapy screening, and preparation to post-retreat integration support. Along the way, we unpack practical realities: medication contraindications (especially SSRIs + MAOI risk), why some guests report 'nothing happened,' (a failure to hit escape vel;ocity - of you will) individualized dosing, and why Soltara treats integration as a year-long continuum - not an afterthought.