Pia has a journey full of courage and faith. She has endured rejection, betrayal, and challenge, from meditating and using psychedelics as a teenager to organizing retreats all over the world. She didn’t break she got stronger by choosing forgiveness, fairness, and a goal. Today, her transforming work helps other people find their own power, healing, and happiness.
Can you introduce yourself and share what first drew you to wellness and personal transformation?
I am passionately dedicated to the human phenomena of suffering and enlightenment their transcendence, attainment, and healing. To support this, I work with deep consciousness practices as well as psychedelic substances such as LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and other psychotropic healing agents as well as with the latest relevations about longevity.
With my company Reality Upgrade and a team of 40, we have been regularly hosting psychedelic retreats for the past five years, using a multi-therapeutic approach in the Netherlands, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
We also train individuals to become psychedelic coaches and are active as public speakers, raising awareness about the holistic healing potential of psychedelics. I studied business psychology and ran a retreat center (Chez Zen) in the south of France for seven years, which I founded in 2014.
Growing up, what experiences shaped your curiosity about psychology, spirituality, and human consciousness?
My professional orientation began when I was a little girl admiring the unconditional love my father, a prison psychologist, showed even to the worst criminals. I devoured his books with curiosity and dreamed of a better world one without whaling or bullfighting.
As a teenager, I discovered meditation, magic mushrooms, and thanks to my modeling job the world. I eventually studied business psychology and traveled through India to explore holistic healing methods.
A profound enlightenment experience at age 22, which lasted for about four months, sealed my desire to dedicate my life to raising awareness of the universal laws.
How did your early career in modeling and traveling influence your perspective on life and work?
At 14, I began experimenting with magic mushrooms; at 16, I started meditating, and in the same year, I launched my modeling career. When I held my first magazine cover in my hands, I realized that nothing inside me had truly changed. I understood: happiness is an inside job! This awareness helped me not to lose myself in the world of glamour, which I was part of for 17 years.
When you first opened Chez Zen, what vision did you have, and what surprised you most about running it?
My vision was to help reconnect the Western-conditioned human with the cosmic field. To support this, I used methods such as silence, tantra, theta healing, meditation, yoga, breathwork, Ayurveda, and encounters with awakened masters.
When I ran my retreat center in France at the age of 34 as a single mother and woman doing it all on her own, I faced a lot of envy and resistance.
Many men struggled to be led by a young woman, and the local French community in Gascony offered no support. On the contrary, I was treated like an intruder who needed to be driven away.
And this despite the fact that I was creating new jobs in a very rural region.
Even the british landowner, from whom I leased the property, tried multiple times to deceive me and push me out through manipulative tactics. I had invested significant funds into his land, which increased its value. Instead of respecting our legal agreement, he aimed to push me out and flip the property for a quick profit. However, he did not succeed.
These countless obstacles demanded deep resilience and spiritual maturity. The brilliant masterpiece A Course in Miracles helped me a lot during these dificult times.
I got to know myself deeply and discovered that I carry within me a natural ability to forgive.
It’s this quality that kept me from becoming bitter or distrustful toward others. Through it all, I discovered my strength and realized that one of my core values “ justice“ is something I pursue with unwavering conviction.
Everything I did, I did for my daughter and for the mission I believe I was born to fulfill. Giving up on something I still believe in is simply not an option for me.
Photographer – Ingo Bollhoefer
What inspired the shift from Chez Zen to Reality Upgrade Retreats, and how did the idea come about?
Covid ended this chapter. Living in Spain at that time, my soul spoke to me very clearly during a gentle massage, so I listened carefully and acted accordingly. I moved to Mexico to bring a deeper and more efficient dimension to my work through the use of psychedelics. Mexico offers a natural habitat for some remarkably powerful entheogens.
Reality Upgrade integrates multiple disciplines and therapies. How do you decide which experiences and practices to include?
First and foremost, as a retreat leader, one should personally try out all methods that might be considered, in order to directly experience their potential. Naturally, exchange with the respective experts is also very important.
The next step is observing clients during the application of these methods. Over time, this creates a solid foundation for determining the best treatment plan for each individual client.
Can you share a story of a guest transformation that deeply impacted you or confirmed your mission?
It’s almost impossible to highlight individual success stories because we witness them every day! But the ones that move me the most are cases where suicidal individuals rediscover their joy for life, or people are able to effortlessly let go of toxic relationships. It’s also deeply inspiring to see individuals break free from unhealthy career paths and find the courage to pursue their true calling.
How do you create an environment where your team feels empowered to bring their full selves to work?
Our highest priority is that each member of our team gets to embody their true essence. This is the only foundation upon which real, lasting impact and authentic success can grow. Our participants consistently reflect back to us that they feel like part of a big family one without hierarchy.
We see ourselves as a group of superheroes. Everyone is invited to bring their passion and superpowers to the table and, in doing so, fulfill themselves. We are committed to supporting our team and collaborators in their personal development.
In fact, many of them occasionally transition into the role of participant joining our retreats or trainings for free or at significantly reduced rates. To us, collaboration means growing together, through each other, and in service of one another. We laugh a lot during our retreats. Honestly, if you can’t see life through a slightly ironic lens, you probably won’t last long with us.
Have there been challenges in fostering authenticity and equality in your team, and how did you navigate them?
It can happen from time to time that team members drift into ego-driven behavior and need to step back from the field. However, we’ve welcomed several of them back after they faced their inner issues. We’ve also implemented a system where the role of retreat leader rotates among different therapists a measure that has proven to be very healthy and sustainable.
Outside your work, what routines, hobbies, or practices help you stay grounded and inspired?
Dancing – Painting – Nature – Bodywork – Clean eating and Wellness!
Who or what has influenced your approach to life, leadership, and wellness the most?
My cosmic encounters! A direct encounter with the principles that govern the universe. Also called the hermetic laws. I wasn’t inspired much by people. If I would need to name some public figures I would mention OSHO and Eckhart Tolle.
What is your vision for the future of wellness, psychedelics, and personal transformation?
I believe that virtual reality simulations and the use of coaching AIs will become widespread. Psychedelics will be broadly legalized for therapeutic use in the U.S., which will lead to a growing number of psychedelic retreat centers.
Longevity will become a standard topic even in wellness hotels. People will grow increasingly informed, and the line between hype and true value will become clearer. What remains will be what truly upgrades the human experience.
Artificial Intelligence will replace many traditional coaching roles and encourage its users to deepen their connection with themselves and with nature.
What advice would you give to women who want to pursue a bold, mission-driven path like yours?
I won’t be diplomatic in this answer – I’ll speak freely and directly:
We are still far from a place of true equality between men and women. In the business world, many men still fail to take women as seriously as they deserve as equals. Too often, men misuse their power when they feel rejected as men, and they struggle to separate the personal from the professional.
My advice to women is to reconcile with one another. Because if we don’t, we’ll end up standing entirely alone.
Yes, we may carry wounds inflicted by other women and the mother-daughter dynamic is not always easy but we must heal those wounds. We must stop projecting them onto the entire female gender and falling into mistrust.
Female friendships have been the most powerful and transformative relationships in my life.
To reconnect with our instincts and reclaim our primal power, I encourage every woman to explore uterus dearmoring. The womb stores emotional blocks that can limit our life force and affect our sexuality.
Release this energy and you will become unstoppable.
