I recently taught a workshop at the Arctic Visions psychedelic medicine conference on how to support a peer during a challenging psychedelic experience, and afterward, a lot of people approached me about how to vet for a professional guide since there are so many out there these days, and very little consensus about what skillsets are needed for different contexts. Keep in mind this is coming from a harm-reduction approach and is not intended to encourage the use of illegal substances, ok?
Now, I think we all know by now that a fancy degree or expensive certificate of training doesn’t mean you’re actually good at something.
Trust me when I say that, just like with choosing any professional like a midwife, surgeon, or acupuncturist or massage therapist, you want a guide to be good. For this context, I mean they have an excellent skill set AND the capacity to hold safe and sacred space for you.
I feel that if you’re going to embark on this journey and – let’s face it: invest significant time, money, and energy – your guide should be good, possessing the technical skills and capacity to hold sacred space for you.
What qualifies as “good” might be different for each of us, depending on our goals, but there are some basic skills and qualities that I think are important to ask about.
If you want to explore consciousness or you’re engaging in self-motivated growth, you have no medical or psychiatric comorbidities, and you do fairly well with altered states, you may simply want to ensure that your psychedelic sitter or facilitator is someone you trust who can handle any emergencies.
But what about if you’re looking to explore therapy or healing past traumas? When doing this type of work, clients are even more vulnerable.
I’ve described what I do as Soul Midwifery. During my time as a midwife, I caught over 1,000 babies in different parts of the world. I saw this role as holding space for my clients, as they did the deep, courageous work of birthing. I had unwavering faith in my client’s capacity for their journey, and I was there to support and educate them.
AND my clinical skill set and excellent training were there for emergencies – because sometimes shit goes sideways, and I was grateful for having the excellent training and ability to hlpe in those situations.
I think it can be helpful to also think about guides in this way – someone who can hold space for you to surrender to your own inner healing wisdom, with confidence in your capacity to handle whatever arises, AND has an excellent skill set to help manage challenging situations and possible emergencies (even though emergencies are relatively infrequent).
With all of this in mind, it’s difficult to know if someone (especially is they are a stranger) is the right facilitator or guide for you. Add to that those of you in a region where psychedelic medicine work is still illegal, and things can get even harder to explore and sift through.
Here are some tips to get you started, but there are a LOT more on the full podcast episode:
// Don’t just trust a great-looking website and possibly feigned client testimonials. If a potential guide can’t provide references from past clients, that’s sketchy.
Of course, because of the often increased desire for client privacy around this as well as the legal climate, references can be difficult. But if the facilitator is unwilling to connect you with ANY past clients or has no verified reviews? Hmmmm.
// Observe how they respond to your questions – and ask a shitton of questions. In fact, ask as many as you need to feel comfortable. If they’re annoyed by this, that’s a red flag. In fact, speaking from personal experience, I worry if potential clients don’t ask a ton of questions!
Feel free to also ask if they can meet in person or – at the very least – for a video chat. It’s important to get a feel for how you’d work together since any “funkiness” or distrust can feel even worse on the medicine. I offer free consults to make sure it’s a good match, and also preparation sessions before the journey day to allow us to get to know how to best work together before the medicine day. An ideal guide will do the same.
// I’ve had many clients acknowledge that the reason they feel comfortable working with me is because I’ve been transparent and shared how I am on the healing path for my own traumas, as well as the things I’ve learned from when I’ve fucked up and made mistakes in life.
It’s important that the guide you choose is continually doing their own inner work. Related to this, watch for the red flags for claims of quick-fix miracle cures. The inner path is lifelong.
// What about if they’ve never done psychedelics themselves? Keeping with the metaphor of midwifery, I knew several male obstetricians and midwives who were amazing at catching babies and holding safe spaces. In fact, I was told I was an great midwife for many years before I had my own baby.
True, someone who has never taken psychedelics won’t ever truly understand what it’s like, but I do think some people can learn how to hold safe and scared space nonetheless. I also think some potentially excellent guides also can’t use psychedelics for their own medical or psychiatric reasons, and that doesn’t mean they can’t be great healers in the space.
Having said all that, some women had a harder time trusting some things I said as a midwife when I hadn’t had a baby before – even if in hindsight they’d admit that my advice was valid. So that’s still something to consider.
The more important inquiry is to ask yourself what impact would that have on your capacity to trust.
// Now y’all know I feel strongly about integration. The research that shows benefits of journeys with entheogens all have integration as a part of the process. But as I said earlier, to help integrate the insights we had into our daily life and have sustained change (and not just 30 days of post-glow-warm fuzzies), post-journey support is essential.
At a minimum, they should recommend it to you if they don’t offer it themselves and have a trusted list of resources for you to find someone who can help you with that.
// On that note, if you have a medical condition or have trauma or other mental health conditions, it’s even more important to look for someone with more training.
I think that all guides should be trauma-informed and have training in that area, and ideally also have training in spiritual and mental health emergencies. There are even courses on mental health first aid (see the link in the resources for a free training through Johns Hopkins University).
I have people with medical conditions that come to me specifically because I’ve been an advanced practice nurse for over 20 years, worked in the ER and primary care, and they feel safer with that background and the detailed screening involved.
Or they know I am a trauma therapist with different skill sets around IFS and eco therapy, Jungian psychology, somatic approaches, and ART and brainspotting and they dig that.
Lots can come up in journeys, even when that wasn’t the intention for the trip, so it’s unethical to be willing to bring someone to ego-dissolution or a challenging experience without having the skillset to help stabilize and begin the healing process – or at a minimum have access to a professional community at the ready for their clients if they need it.
// Keep in mind that having tons of training doesn’t mean someone is guaranteed to be ethical. Be sure they have clear boundaries around the professional relationship and around therapeutic/supportive touch.
// Also consider their ethical approach to honoring the roots of their training and of the medicine path – their lineage, the communities they learned from, and if they honor sacred reciprocity for those communities (donating financially; not culturally appropriating, especially if their approach is more ceremonial).
// Just as I’ve mentioned how you are the best expert in your psyche and inner experience, ultimately you want to trust your intuition. Having said that, many people with trauma can lack discernment around this, and can enter unwittingly into unsafe situations. So if you have a history of challenges with discernment, you can also ask the opinion of someone you trust – and it can be even more important for you that you seek a guide who has verified client references or reviews and is held to an ethics standard.
There’s so much more in the full episode, so I hope this helps you explore and grow in a safer environment, allowing you to surrender to your own healing wisdom.
You will learn:
// Specific questions to ask when interviewing a potential guide
// Why it’s important for a guide to have both a technical skill set for the safety of the mind and body AND the capacity to hold sacred space
// What I – and others – believe a skilled guide offers, and why a fancy degree or training doesn’t mean someone is good…or ethical
// How a great guide has many parallels to a great midwife
// LOTS of great tips and questions to help you find the best psychedelic facilitator/guide/therapist for YOU
// Why these tips and questions might change depending on where you are in your journey… and where you want to go
Resources:
// FREE course on Mental Health First Aid through Johns Hopkins University
// Episode 161: Healing vs Curing
// Episode 73: How to Be Your Own Guru
// Episode 97: Psychedelics and Spiritual Practice
// Episode 153: Psychedelic Exceptionalism
// Gratitude to Michelle Janikian for her suggestions and research around this – check out her book Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion
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