Once we connect, I’ll suggest some dates and times for our first online session. Then I’ll send you a Zoom link.

For preparation and integration coaching, I provide online sessions only, usually between 9am and 5pm Pacific time. 

The short answer is ‘maybe’ because my arrangement with referral sources is flexible and depends on your needs and preferences.

Preparation Sessions

Preparation sessions are client-centred and tailored to your individual needs. For newcomers to psychedelics, in the first session we’ll likely explore:

• Your reasons for wanting to undertake a psychedelic journey
• Any past psychedelic experiences
• Your specific intentions for the journey
• Any hopes and fears you may have. 

I’m also here to answer questions about things like dosing, effects, and the support you’ll be receiving on your journey day. We will likely explore and even practice skills to help you navigate your journey, and lay the foundation for post-journey integration.

If you’re already familiar with psychedelic medicine work, we’ll focus on your current needs – as examples, deepening your clarity, addressing vulnerabilities, revisiting or strengthening your journey navigation skills, or grounding your intentions. 

If after the first session you feel more preparation would be helpful, we can arrange for up to two more sessions before your journey.

Integration Sessions

Integration coaching sessions are also client-centred and tailored to your individual needs. That being said, our first integration session – ideally within the first week after your journey – will likely include:

• Exploring the parts of your journey that stood out the most to you
• Deepening your connection to these experiences through your body, emotions, thoughts, relationships, past experiences, and current situation
• Bridging journey insights into your daily life to support your healing and growth
• Developing realistic goals to help you implement positive changes.

In the second integration session, we’ll check in on your integration process – exploring what’s working and any challenges that have come up – to help you maintain your clarity and inner alignment.

Psychedelics can sometimes open us up in ways that require longer-term therapeutic support. If you feel it would be helpful to have further assistance after our coaching sessions conclude, I’ll work with trusted colleagues to source the names of therapists who are familiar with psychedelics. I’ll be here for future preparation and integration coaching if you decide to do another psychedelic journey.

Some psychedelic integration specialists are coaches while others are therapists. Aspects of these services can overlap depending on the provider’s background, training, and credentials. 

I view psychedelic integration coaching as a practical, time-limited approach that prioritizes clarifying intentions and goals, and taking concrete steps toward positive life changes. It offers specialized, short-term support in preparing for, processing, and integrating journey experiences so that the insights gained can be applied in everyday life. Unlike therapy, psychedelic coaching does not require a postgraduate degree or licensure. 

Psychedelic integration therapy, on the other hand, can involve longer-term therapeutic work. Depending on the psychedelic integration therapist’s approach, it can include deeper exploration of past experiences and how they shape present well-being, behaviour, and relationships. Psychedelic integration therapists may also provide support for mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Licensing and postgraduate degree requirements will vary by jurisdiction.

From a scientific standpoint, the terms “psychedelic therapy” or “psychedelic-assisted therapy” refer to the proposed use of psychedelic compounds – such as psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, ketamine, and 5-MeO-DMT – to treat mental health concerns. In a psychedelic therapy context, these substances are typically administered in one or more supported sessions. Other psychedelics including iboga, ayahuasca, and peyote – discovered and stewarded for generations by Indigenous peoples – are also being studied in a variety of contexts for their potential therapeutic benefits.

As for what psychedelic therapy does, research is ongoing. However, for people for whom it is indicated, there have been promising early results for alleviating depression, anxiety, end-of-life concerns, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Unlike formal psychedelic-assisted therapy, the psychedelic coaching I offer does not involve administering psychedelic substances. Instead, it focuses on preparation before the psychedelic journey and integration afterward.

Many feelings can arise during and after a psychedelic journey, and it’s difficult to predict what might come up. Different psychedelic compounds have different “experiential profiles.” But generally speaking, psychedelics act as amplifiers, intensifying emotions and bringing to the surface whatever in our nervous system needs release, healing, witnessing, nourishment, or integration.  

After a psychedelic journey, there may be a sense of afterglow or aftermath (or both). Some people feel energized while others feel drained. Feelings of love, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, relief, emotional strength, or euphoria may be present. Fear, grief, anger, shame, fragility, or heartbreak may also emerge. Some might feel peaceful, whole, and connected, while others feel unsettled, destabilized, or alone. All these experiences offer possibilities for making positive and meaningful shifts from a place of inner authenticity. During a well-supported journey, these experiences are met with skill by the journey guide(s), and can continue to be worked with afterwards, including in therapy or coaching.

Although psychedelics can be beneficial for people for whom they are indicated and when taken in the right settings, positive experiences and outcomes aren’t a given. Some potential downsides can include:

• Encountering extremely difficult or intense experiences
• Experiencing content that feels like too much to face
• Experiencing physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, nausea, pain, or headaches
• Feeling emotionally overwhelmed 
• Experiencing that one’s world or worldview has been shaken up
• Experiencing one’s trauma as becoming more entrenched.

Some of these potential downsides can be avoided or reduced when: 

• Journey guides 
  • Provide a safe environment
  • Have extensive training, experience, and skills
  • Conduct adequate screening and orientation
  • Discern appropriate dosage

• Journeyers 
  • Assess their personal readiness before undertaking a journey
  • Honestly disclose their health and mental health history to the journey guide
  • Maintain supportive practices (e.g., meditation, yoga, journaling)
  • Seek formal or informal support before and after ceremonies

Certain psychedelics – such as psilocybin mushrooms, huachuma, iboga, and ayahuasca – have been discovered, preserved, and used by Indigenous peoples for generations. These plants have served a range of purposes, including medicinal, spiritual, practical, artistic, and recreational. The Indigenous and Mestizo knowledge systems, practices, and cosmologies associated with plant medicines, while far too numerous and varied to describe here, hold a wealth of understanding with respect to mechanisms of action.

From a Western scientific perspective, there are ongoing efforts to understand how psychedelics affect the brain. But generally speaking, psychedelics are thought to disrupt the brain’s usual processing by reducing higher-level cognitive control and increasing the flow of raw sensory and emotional information from deeper brain regions. This more flexible and interconnected brain state leads to somatic (body-based), emotional, and introspective experiences.

Scientists also recognize that the effects of psychedelics result from more than just the compounds’ chemistry – the person’s mindset ("set") and the environment in which they take the psychedelic ("setting") play critical roles in shaping the experience.

The psychoactive compounds found in psychedelics are the main reason for legal restrictions. Laws vary by country and region, but their illegality is usually due to the perceived lack of medical use or potential for abuse. 

As psychedelics are considered controlled substances in most countries including my own (Canada), I do not conduct or promote psychedelic therapy. I do not encourage or condone the use of any illicit substances outside of legally sanctioned contexts, ethically responsible research studies, or cultural ceremonies. I do not provide illicit substances of any kind, nor do I provide recommendations or referrals to psychedelic services.

Rather, the psychedelic coaching I provide supports people before and after their guided psychedelic experience. I see this as supporting an ethical approach to psychedelics use, and a mature stance on drug policy, education, and safety.