Silvia Polivoy obtained her master's degree in clinical psychology from Belgrano University of Buenos Aires in 1983. After working for years in psychoanalysis, she became disappointed with that path and abandoned it. She then moved into transactional therapy, but eventually embraced assorted spiritual and transpersonal approaches, exploring teachings of the Santo Daime, meditation, group therapy, hypnosis, past-life regression, Jungian archetypes, Holotropic Breathwork, and Gurdieff's Fourth Way.

Polivoy has conducted field research on psilocybin-containing mushrooms with Mazatec shamans in Mexico. In 1995, in Peru, she discovered San Pedro and spent a year working with this cactus. In 1996, she was introduced to ayahuasca by the shaman Don Guillermo Arévalo. This experience directed her life's path toward promoting the healing effects of this plant brew, by sharing it with others. She founded and is the director of TheVine Center, a transdenominational and interfaith spiritual eco-center in Bahia, Brazil, where participants have the opportunity to take ayahuasca and Salvia divinorum, learn lucid dreaming techniques, and create art based on their visions and dreams. Past gatherings have featured the guest presenters Pablo Amaringo, Richard Glen Boire, Rick Doblin, Frank Echenhofer, Jon Hanna, Isabela Hartz, Martina Hoffmann, Andres Hu, David Icke, Jonathan Ott, Christine Page, Zoe Seven, and Robert Venosa. Polivoy is featured as a character in Zoe Seven's second book, Back From The Void.