Meet The Team
Rana Rahimpour
Executive Director
Rana Rahimpour, named Emmaa, meaning “immensity of water,” by her Ecuadorian teacher, is the co-founder of Obsidiana, psychedelic therapist, journalist, former BBC reporter and presenter, and the creator and host of Obsicast and Obsidance.
Born and raised in Iran and later based in London, Rana has devoted her work to exploring the intersections of healing, consciousness, storytelling, spirituality, and human connection. After nearly fifteen years at the BBC, she stepped away from journalism in 2023 to deepen her path in therapeutic and integrative healing work, while continuing her engagement with storytelling and public dialogue.
Rooted in both Eastern and Western perspectives, her search for deeper understanding led her beyond conventional therapeutic models and into ancestral wisdom traditions, psychedelic-assisted healing, and embodied approaches to transformation. Her journey has taken her from training with the British Transpersonal Association (BTA) to learning with teachers and wisdom keepers in South America, including time in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the Shuar Nation.
Her work today explores not only individual healing, but the relationship between grief, collective trauma, belonging, and human connection. Drawing from psychotherapy, ritual, music, dialogue, Indigenous wisdom, and Persian mystical traditions, Rana creates spaces that invite people to move beyond separation and toward deeper encounters with themselves and one another.
Through Obsidiana, Obsicast, and Obsidance, she continues building bridges between worlds, between ancient and modern ways of knowing, and between personal transformation and collective healing.
Jennifer Ogole, OBE
Director of Vision and Strategy
Jennifer Ogole OBE is a visionary leader, social entrepreneur, and advocate for Indigenous wisdom, community transformation, and relational healing. Born in Uganda and deeply connected to her ancestral roots, Jennifer’s path has been profoundly shaped by the legacy of her great-grandmother, a healer whose influence continues to inspire her understanding of spirituality, interconnectedness, and service.
Her journey has brought together community leadership, cultural preservation, plant medicine, and social innovation, guided by a belief that healing and transformation begin through authentic relationships and a recognition of our shared humanity. Through experiences and teachings across Jamaica, South America, and beyond, Jennifer deepened her understanding of Indigenous knowledge systems and the wisdom traditions that honour our relationship with one another, with nature, and with life itself.
Jennifer is the founder of ViTAL, a global initiative creating pathways for cultural exchange and community development between Jamaica, South America, and the UK, grounded in values of unity, collaboration, and love. As Founder and CEO of BANG Edutainment, she has spent more than two decades creating transformative opportunities for young people, supporting thousands through programmes designed to nurture confidence, resilience, creativity, and human potential.
Awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to young people, Jennifer is also a Fellow of Social Enterprise UK and the Clore Social Leadership Programme. She has founded and helped shape several initiatives, including the Young Brent Foundation, Young Jamaica Foundation, Mind and Soul Space, and Obsidiana.
Aligned with the vision of Obsidiana, Jennifer believes that healing is both personal and collective, and that love, connection, and belonging are not simply ideals but essential foundations for a more compassionate and thriving world. Through her work, she continues to build bridges between communities, cultures, and ways of knowing, creating spaces where people can reconnect with themselves, with one another, and with what truly matters.
Mano Camon
Director of Indigenous Teachings & Cultural Programmes
Mano Camon, a healer in Mexican traditional medicine and initiated as Churuwia in the Shuar tradition of the Upper Amazon in Ecuador, is a co-founder of Obsidiana.
Of mixed European and Mexican descent, Mano brings together traditional healing with an understanding of the modern psyche, renowned for his expertise in shamanic healing and traditional song and music. With a profound understanding of plant medicine and ancestral traditions, Mano specializes in leading transformative healing ceremonies, sweatlodges, retreats and teachings. Through ‘anent’ medicine-singing and playing of original amazonian instruments, Mano guides an expanding inner journey, holding deep respect for the integrity of these sacred practices
He has worked and trained with indigenous elders and traditions of Ecuador, Peru, Jamaica and Mexico for over two decades, currently deepening his relationship with the Andes tradition. Blessed to share wisdom of these millenary lineages, he has been recognised as a traditional doctor by shaman elders Tata Juvenal and abuelo Ollin Yolotzin in Mexico and Hilario Chiriap of the Shuar Nation of Ecuador, as well as traditional medicine organizations COFEMITES and GAIPREM.
Mano is the founder of Ayamtai, a center dedicated to these diverse cultural and traditional medicine practices in Tepoztlán, Mexico, where he developed a healing modality complementing ayurvedic massage techniques with shamanic healing, cacao and plant-medicine.
A speaker of four languages, he has been passing on the teachings of his lineages in ceremonies and retreats, to his apprentices, and guiding groups to Mexico and to the Amazon, to take part in original dietas, rituals and ceremonies with his mentors.
Dr Ahoo Yara
Director of Psilocybin Studies and Ceremonies
Dr. Ahoo Yara (she/her), formerly known as Sadaf Lotfalian is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, psychedelic-assisted therapist, and scholar specializing in mindfulness and mental health. Her clinical training includes psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, third-wave therapies (DBT, ACT, mindfulness-based therapies), and somatic modalities such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. She is also a certified Qigong and pranayama practitioner and a student of Sufi mysticism and Jungian psychology.
Her peer-reviewed research has explored mindfulness-based yogic breathwork for addiction treatment. She has completed advanced training in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy through COMPASS Pathways and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she co-facilitated psilocybin sessions. Dr. Yara has taught on psychedelic therapies for trauma, depression, and anxiety at institutions including UCLA and Georgetown University. She is a Psychedelic Medicine Coalition grant awardee for Reclaiming Safe Psychedelic Spaces, addressing harm reduction and ethical facilitator training.
Currently, she serves as Director of Education at Niroumand Foundation and Board Member at Spudgene Company supporting psilocybin research. Her work integrates Indigenous wisdom, spirituality, and psychological science to cultivate compassionate spaces for healing and transformation.
Camilla dos Santos ND, ANP, AFMCP
Head of Holistic Health and Nutrition
Camilla dos Santos (DipIMT, ACSS, AFMCP, ANP, GNC) named Yanua, meaning "Star Woman", is a certified Naturopath and Functional Medicine practitioner whose work bridges contemporary science with ancient healing traditions. Licensed by the Portuguese Central Healthcare System (ACSS, SNS), she is a member of the Association of Naturopathic Practitioners (ANP) and the General Naturopathic Council (GNC), and also serves as an ambassador for the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM).
Born and raised in Southern Africa, surrounded by nature’s diversity and the richness of traditional healing practices, Camilla’s path has been shaped by a lifelong exploration of holistic medicine and the body’s innate capacity to heal. Early exposure to herbal remedies, homeopathy, and traditional medicine inspired her search for deeper ways of understanding health and wellbeing.
Her work draws from Functional Medicine, Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbalism, and ancestral healing approaches, creating a deeply integrative perspective that sees healing as more than symptom management. Influenced by teachers and wisdom keepers from different traditions, she combines evidence-based practice with a holistic understanding of the interconnectedness between body, mind, emotions, and spirit.
Henry Hayden MA
Head of Operations and Products
Henry, named Etsa, meaning “the Sun,” by his Ecuadorian teacher, holds a BSc in Anthropology and an MA in Medical Anthropology. Raised on the south coast of England near Brighton, his early life was shaped by stories of his parents’ travels around the world on a motorbike and their encounters with different cultures and ways of living, inspiring a lifelong curiosity about healing, spirituality, and human connection.
While studying Anthropology in London, Henry felt called toward shamanic traditions and plant medicine. In 2016, he travelled to Peru to learn with the Shipibo tradition and work with ayahuasca, an experience that profoundly transformed his path. He later focused his Master’s research on the therapeutic applications of ayahuasca and the process of becoming a healer within the Shipibo tradition.
Alongside his ceremonial work, Henry has spent many years supporting children and adults with learning disabilities, bringing a grounded and compassionate approach to care and relational healing. His journey has also included learning with teachers such as Mano, Dez, and Hilario, as well as time spent in Ecuador with the Shuar Nation.
Aligned with the vision of Obsidiana, Henry’s work bridges anthropology, ceremony, music, and ancestral wisdom, creating spaces that invite deeper connection, reflection, and authentic human encounter.
Derrick Ogole
Head of Digital Marketing & Strategy
Derrick is a digital strategist with a focus on storytelling, brand clarity, and intentional communication. As Head of Digital Strategy & Marketing at Obsidiana, he ensures the organisation’s message is clearly and consistently expressed across all digital channels—capturing both its purpose and presence. He supports mission-driven brands in shaping their narrative, building value-led digital ecosystems, and connecting authentically with their audiences.
In addition to his role at Obsidiana, Derrick also leads digital strategy and marketing at BANG—an organisation that works closely with young people to design and deliver impactful, youth-led initiatives.
He is also the creator of Stacks—an initiative that helps young people develop financial literacy, leadership, and entrepreneurship skills through youth-led activities.
Esther Boot
Ceremonial Musician & Space Holder
Esther’s journey into healing began through breathwork, yoga, massage, and body-based therapies, before life gradually led her onto the path of ceremony and music. What she never expected was to become a medicine musician. Once someone who felt she had few words, she discovered that life often reveals its deepest gifts when we learn to listen to the quiet whispers within.
For Esther, music became one of those gifts. Singing feels less like something she does and more like something that moves through her, an expression of something greater, carrying presence, strength, tenderness, and joy. Through her music, she creates spaces that invite connection, emotion, and remembrance.
Her path has been deeply inspired by ceremonial work and Indigenous traditions, particularly the teachings and music of the Yawanawá people of the Amazon. Time spent learning from their culture and songs deepened her love and reverence for the way prayer, music, and healing can become one.
Like many members of the Obsidiana family, Esther’s journey also led her to Ecuador, where experiences in nature and ceremony became part of her ongoing path of learning and transformation.
Based in the Netherlands, Esther joins Obsidiana ceremonies in the UK as both facilitator and medicine musician. She believes music itself is medicine, carrying messages of love, hope, strength, and connection, and through sharing it, she hopes to help people reconnect with themselves, with one another, and with the mystery that lives within us all.