What Is the Pouyan Method? The Complete Guide to a Protocol That Cannot Be Summarized in One Sentence
People want a one-line answer. There isn’t one, and the absence of one is the point — the method is a sequence, and a sequence performed out of order is a different thing entirely.
Written by Johnny Tabaie, Founder & Director of Operations · Medically reviewed by Dr. Jose A. Jimenez, MD, Medical Director
Published · Last medically reviewed
The Honest Answer to “What Is It?”
The Pouyan Method is the sequenced, one-to-one, medication-free protocol developed by Johnny Tabaie and in continuous use at this facility since it opened in 2011. It combines medical clearance, an in-house, medically supervised taper, intravenous and adjunct therapies, and — last in the order, never first — supervised plant-medicine ceremony.
Every clinic in this field has a proprietary-sounding name for what it does. Most of the time the name is a wrapper around the same twenty-eight-day group programme. The reason we are pedantic about the word sequence is that the ordering is the intellectual property here, not any individual ingredient. Every component listed on this page is available somewhere else. What is not available somewhere else is the insistence that they happen in this order, on this timeline, for one person at a time.
The Five Rules That Define It
- Four to twelve weeks, never five to seven days. There has never been a short-stay version of this protocol and there will not be one.
- Three to five clients at a time, every session one-on-one. The 10,000 sq ft facility holds a maximum of three to five clients on the Gold Package, and a single client on the Platinum Package. No groups, no cohorts, no shared schedule, no twelve-step curriculum, no talk therapy as the spine of the programme — every ceremony and every therapy is delivered one-on-one, in private rooms with private bathrooms.
- Medication-free as the destination. Nobody is moved sideways onto a substitute prescription and discharged.
- Tapers happen here. In-house, medically supervised, adjusted clinically — not outsourced to a detox unit and not attempted by the guest at home.
- Ceremony is last. Plant medicine sits at the end of the sequence, after clearance and stabilisation, and ibogaine is last even within that.
Phase One and Two: Clearance, Then Stabilisation
Nothing happens on arrival day except assessment. Bloodwork, EKG, cardiac evaluation, and a complete accounting of every substance and prescription in the system. Dr. Jose A. Jimenez, MD, our Medical Director, reviews the cardiology workup, stress test, EKG, imaging, bloodwork and analysis, and clearance is his clinical decision. He is a visiting oversight and reviewing physician rather than in-house staff; day-to-day care is delivered by the in-house clinical team, with nursing cover running 24 hours a day across a morning shift, an evening shift and two to three night shifts, with at least four nurses on duty across a 24-hour period.
Stabilisation follows and frequently takes longer than people expect. Sleep architecture, nutrition, hydration and electrolytes are addressed first, because a depleted nervous system responds badly to everything that comes after. Where a guest arrives on benzodiazepines, opioids or psychiatric medication, the supervised taper happens in this phase and sets its own pace.
It is entirely normal for these two phases to occupy more of a stay than the ceremonial component does. Guests who came for the ceremony find this frustrating in week two and understand it by week six.
Phase Three: The Brain Repair IV Protocol
The Brain Repair IV protocol is the intravenous component Johnny Tabaie developed for this programme — an amino acid, nutrient and cofactor formulation administered under medical supervision across the stay, alongside NAD+ infusions.
Here is the part most clinics leave out. There is no randomised controlled trial of this formulation. It has not been evaluated by the FDA. The rationale is nutritional and biochemical repair after long-term dependency, and the evidence for it is the facility’s clinical experience rather than published trial data. We describe it as a supportive component because that is what it is, and anyone presenting an IV formulation as a proven treatment for addiction is telling you something they cannot back up.
The full formulation, the order it is given in, and the honest limits of the evidence are set out in the Brain Repair IV Drip Protocol explainer.
The Adjunct Therapies, With Their Limits Stated
Hyperbaric oxygen. HBOT has a defined list of indications approved by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, and addiction is not on it.8 Separately, a prospective trial reported increases in telomere length and reductions in senescent cell populations in isolated blood cells following an HBOT course.9 That is a real finding in a small, specific study. It is not a claim that hyperbaric oxygen treats dependency, and we will not let it be read as one.
NAD+ infusion. Used here as part of the IV programme. The published human evidence base for NAD+ in addiction is thin, and we say so rather than dressing it up.
Red light, movement, nutrition, sleep work, beachfront hours. Supportive, daily, and not presented as treatments in their own right.
Phase Four: Ceremony, and the Evidence Behind It
Plant medicine comes last. What follows is the published research behind the compounds involved, stated with its limitations attached, because the citations are the only thing separating this from a brochure.
Ibogaine. A twelve-month follow-up observational study reported outcomes in opioid dependence.2 Observational, not randomised. A separate study of magnesium–ibogaine therapy in veterans with traumatic brain injury reported improvements across several measures and is preliminary by its authors’ own framing.3
Ayahuasca. A randomised placebo-controlled trial reported rapid antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression.4 A single trial, in a specific population.
Psilocybin. A randomised clinical trial reported effects on major depressive disorder.5 Again: depression, not addiction.
5-MeO-DMT. A Phase 1/2 trial of a vaporised formulation in treatment-resistant depression has been published,6 and naturalistic-setting research has reported associated improvements in depression and anxiety.7 Early-phase and naturalistic work respectively.
None of these studies evaluated the Pouyan Method. They evaluated individual compounds, mostly for depression, mostly in small cohorts. We cite them because they are the honest basis for using these compounds at all — not because they validate this protocol.
Why the Order Cannot Be Rearranged
A ceremony given to someone still in benzodiazepine withdrawal is not the same event as a ceremony given to someone stabilised, nourished, sleeping and medically cleared. Same compound, same dose, different physiology and a different risk profile.
This is why we decline enquiries that want to compress the programme, and why the answer to “can I just come for the ibogaine” is no. The sequence is not a package we assembled for pricing reasons. Remove the front half and what remains is the model that produces the incidents this industry is known for.
Why It Carries a Family Name
The method is named after the founder’s family rather than given a clinical acronym, and that was a deliberate choice about accountability. The person whose name is on it was prescribed psychiatric medication at thirteen, went through seventeen treatment programmes, and lost his brother to suicide inside a licensed facility. That history is on his page, and the professional record is on his profile.
He is not a physician and does not claim to be. He designs and runs the protocol; the medicine is supervised by someone who went to medical school. That division is stated on every page of this site for the same reason the name is on the method.
What the Pouyan Method Is Not
It is not a cure. It has not been evaluated by the FDA. Holistic Sanctuary does not diagnose, treat or cure disease. We do not publish a success rate, because we have not run a study that would let us calculate one honestly, and a number without a study behind it is a marketing figure.
It is not a five-day programme, it is not group-based, it is not appropriate for everyone, and a meaningful share of enquiries end with us declining. Individual results vary, and some people do not respond.
What has changed since 2007 is the surrounding research climate: Eli Lilly agreed in July 2026 to acquire AtaiBeckley for up to $3.8 billion, centred on a synthetic 5-MeO-DMT nasal spray in late-stage trials.1 That indicates the direction of institutional research has moved toward these compounds. It does not validate this protocol, and we keep the two claims separate on purpose. The full evidence review is The Two-Decade Head Start.
Related pages: benzodiazepine recovery, ibogaine treatment, luxury alcohol rehab, about Holistic Sanctuary.
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References
- Eli Lilly to acquire AtaiBeckley for up to $3.8 billion — Psychedelic Alpha, July 2026. https://psychedelicalpha.com/news/breaking-worlds-largest-pharmaceutical-company-eli-lilly-acquires-5-meo-dmt-developer-ataibeckley-for-up-to-3-8-billion/
- Noller GE, Frampton CM, Yazar-Klosinski B. Ibogaine treatment outcomes for opioid dependence from a twelve-month follow-up observational study. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2018. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28402682/
- Cherian KN, Keynan JN, et al. Magnesium–ibogaine therapy in veterans with traumatic brain injuries. Nature Medicine. 2024.
- Palhano-Fontes F, et al. Rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Psychological Medicine. 2019. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29903051/
- Davis AK, Barrett FS, et al. Effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy on major depressive disorder: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020/2021. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2020/11/psychedelic-treatment-with-psilocybin-relieves-major-depression-study-shows
- Reckweg JT, et al. A Phase 1/2 trial to assess safety and efficacy of a vaporized 5-MeO-DMT formulation (GH001) in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36051197/
- Davis AK, So S, Lancelotta R, Barsuglia JP, Griffiths RR. 5-MeO-DMT used in a naturalistic group setting is associated with unintended improvements in depression and anxiety. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2019. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30822826/
- Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society — approved indications for hyperbaric oxygen therapy, including clostridial myonecrosis, necrotizing soft-tissue infections, and delayed radiation injury. https://www.uhms.org/resources/hbo-indications.html
- Hachmo Y, Hadanny A, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases telomere length and decreases immunosenescence in isolated blood cells: a prospective trial. Aging (Albany NY). 2020. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33206062/
Medical disclaimer: This article describes published research findings and the facility’s reported operational history. It does not constitute medical advice, and nothing herein has been evaluated by the FDA. Holistic Sanctuary does not diagnose, treat, or cure disease. Individual results vary. All ceremonies and medical procedures are conducted under licensed medical supervision in Mexico.
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