There is an ongoing discussion in different forums about the problem of abuse in psychedelics circles and the need to train guides better. I could not agree more. We all need to make a solid commitment to safety, professionalism, and accountability in the field of psychedelics-assisted guiding and psychotherapy, insisting on the importance of comprehensive training for guides. It is my hope that the psychedelic community worldwide, both above and underground, takes notice and keeps this conversation going.
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Helping others to work with expanded states of consciousness is not an easy job. Of course, every profession has its occupational hazards; still, I am convinced that due to what it attempts to achieve, being a psychedelic guide is not for the faint-hearted.
Psychedelics can be defined as unspecific amplifiers or catalysts that make it possible to take a journey into one’s psyche and explore otherwise inaccessible deep recesses of the unconscious[1]. This means that they bring whatever is hidden deep in the unconscious to the surface. As any psychotherapist can tell you, this has an incredible healing potential AND conceivably is also a recipe for disaster.
It is common knowledge that the unconscious holds all kinds of repressed and disowned material. Among other things, it includes our darkest impulses, hidden wounds, and private fantasies (often of a sexual or aggressive nature). If that was not enough, we must add archetypal and transgenerational forces dwelling in the collective unconscious.
The psychedelic guide job’s description includes the willingness and ability to work with these wild subterraneous currents, operating both in the clients and the guide, to facilitate healing and growth. A good guide must be able to engage not only at the mental-emotional level but also focus on the body, energetic, archetypal, and spiritual ones. To do this, they must become skilled in Western psychotherapy interventions as well as those emanating from the spiritual and shamanic traditions of the world. Quite an undertaking!
With such a high bar to meet, mistakes are bound to happen. In Mexico, an old proverb says: “In the soap maker’s house, everybody either falls or slips,” meaning that one should not be quick to judge others because, sooner or later, we too will make a blunder. In a way, guiding happens at the soap maker’s house[2]. But how can we reduce the risk of making such mistakes? The answer is quite simple: training, training, training. Or, more specifically, learning, doing our inner work, and staying humble (and getting plenty of supervision too!)
Being fully aware of the pitfalls of guiding, any guide training should begin by discussing ethics. Then, continue talking about it throughout, and end by reminding trainees again about the value of ethical behavior and their responsibilities towards clients. When I teach, I spend time talking about the transference (including the erotic one) and countertransference, working with shadow material (the client’s and the guide’s), teaching about working with physical touch, respecting boundaries, working with childhood and attachment wounding, appreciating the power-differential in the guiding relationship, etc. I put particular emphasis on reminding students how and why the stakes are even higher when clients are in expanded states of consciousness.
However, talking about ethics is never enough. I help students to understand why these ethical principles and healthy boundaries are needed. Experience has shown that ethical principles rarely work when presented as a list of “thou shall not.” They only function when guides internalize and commit to upholding these principles.
As it is often pointed out, psychedelics are going through a “renaissance.” Among the many aspiring practitioners who want to become guides, a few always want to do it for personal (often unconscious) reasons. There is often a guru or messiah syndrome somewhere to be found or old hidden childhood wounds crying for attention. I see my job as an opportunity to teach them that being a guide requires a profound humbleness, an endless openness to learning, and an unwavering commitment to serve others. As expressed initially, being a psychedelic guide or a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist is not for the faint-hearted. It demands standards of care, ethics, and practice well above those in most related professions. The stakes are higher, and the potential for damage (and healing) is formidable. Let us all reiterate our pledge to continue working to become guides entirely devoted to such standards. Let’s do it together.