Reconsidering Psychedelic Therapy and Facilitator Training
Integrating a Western Model with Indigenous Wisdom
This past week, I spent some time in Oaxaca, Mexico learning from and meeting a few curanderos and maestras from two separate tribes. These teachers have spent their whole lives providing transformative and sacred medicine work and, as children, were taught about the special powers of nature and carefully shown how to use those powers to aid the members of their community. These teachers have spent the majority of their lives interacting with and learning about the medicinal properties of plants, some psychedelic in nature, and continue to pass down their wisdom to others who will carry on their legacy.
While a life dedicated to psychedelic medicine work may not work for everyone who wishes to take part in this work, it is important to appreciate that we might want to consider developing a model for psychedelic therapy and facilitator training that calls for more supervision and practice, more accountability, and more knowledge about how psychedelic medicine work has looked in the past and present in other cultures; not to emulate or to appropriate these models but rather to recognize the wisdom that holds these practices with reverence and requires a long learning process for providers and space holders.
How Has Psychedelic Work Looked Historically?
During my visit to Oaxaca, I met with a traditional healer who, among other types of healing work, also facilitates psychedelic medicine work and has been doing it in some capacity their whole life. In their culture, it is common for the role of a medicine holder to be passed down from generation to generation. Older medicine holders teach their children and grandchildren how to interact with the medicines by first teaching them to build a relationship with the plants through identification and foraging and eventually trying the medicines themselves under the watchful eye and guiding hand of their experienced family members.
In other communities in the Amazon basin, a Curandaro, a native healer specializing in traditional medicine, may seek out a child from the village to take under their wing as an apprentice or student that will someday replace them.
In these cultures, the medicine holders have a calling to do this work either through direct lineage or psychic experience. This is part of their life journey and they devote themselves to the teachings and facilitation of these healing medicines. They spend years and years learning, practicing, and interacting with the medicines thus continuously building on their knowledge to ensure purposeful and effective treatment as well as build respect and a reciprocal relationship between themselves and the plant medicines they are utilizing.
How Does Psychedelic Work Look Today?
In many Latin American cultures, psychedelic work is a sacred and slow process passed down from generation to generation. In the west, psychedelic work looks very different. Psychedelic facilitators are being trained in a way that does not necessarily honor the sacredness of the medicines they will be using. Some of the programs that are offered to teach psychedelic facilitation to last only a week or weekend and are often fast-paced and only include one or two experiential opportunities to sit with the substance and be in direct relation with them.
I find myself feeling cautious about giving someone the green light to do psychedelic work after simply spending a weekend or week-long clinical training consisting of some quick presentations on what the medicine is and how to facilitate it all while providing minimal opportunity to experience the medicine. Even more curious are the programs that occur entirely online providing no opportunity to interact with the medicine at all.
There are several programs that offer certificates for psychedelic facilitation using this crash course type model which raises the question of whether or not we are truly preparing facilitators and therapists for the depth of the work to use these powerful tools appropriately and effectively. To me, it feels like this sends the wrong message and creates a culture of misunderstanding about what this work is really about.
How Do We Marry Traditional and Modern Psychedelic Work?
In order to successfully merge these two models of work, we have to consider the current model and acknowledge that we may not be dedicating enough time for trainers to become familiar with the history and effects of the psychedelic medicines we will be facilitating to our clients.
Ideally, what we need to do as therapists and teachers is combine the western cultural template in terms of how we view education, learning, and skill building with an indigenous medicine model. We want to look at the wisdom of cultures that we still have access to that have been doing medicine work for a long time.
So, how do we do this?
Well, one way to consider would be to approach the model in a way that mirrors what anyone would have to go through to obtain any sort of professional degree or credential. A series of presentations, classes, and practice, all under the supervision of an expert over a long period of time. Consider what it entails to become EMDR or AASECT sex therapy certified. These trainings extend well beyond a single weekend. These trainings take time and involve many levels of training completed in addition to practice overseen by a supervisor who determines if an individual is ready to move on. From there, the individual continues to work with their supervisor and a community of specially trained individuals to continue to pursue knowledge about the process and receive ongoing training and continuing education.
This model is already being considered and utilized in trainings across the Front Range area. One of those trinings is an in-person workshop is for counselors, therapists, or any helping professional who wants to develop a firmer knowledge base on psychedelics and psychedelic-assisted therapy using ketamine as the tool. Follow this link for more information and to register.
So this poses the question - why should psychedelic facilitator training be any different?
By reconsidering the approach we are currently taking with these training sessions, we can create a model that provides multiple opportunities for training and ongoing learning that spans a significantly longer time period. Along with this, we need to consider the cultures that pioneered this work and pay homage to a system that has held strong for centuries.
We should not be allowing practitioners to think that they are capable of being effective psychedelic therapists or providers with a single psychedelic facilitation training under their belt. We need to set a standard for what is an appropriate amount of training and provide multiple opportunities for practitioners to give this medicinal practice the attention and dedication it deserves.
Final Thoughts
When we consider using a more structured and rigorous model, it ensures that the practitioner has spent time learning about these medicines and is able to administer them safely and knowledgeably. We need to provide practitioners ample time and space to experience the medicines and open up their minds before we can trust them to do the same with someone else. Clients deserve therapists who are committed to the process and who are more understanding about the fact that psychedelic medicine work is an ongoing process and cannot happen instantly.
To learn more about psychedelic medicine work sign up for the Reflective Healing newsletter or request a free consultation for more information on psychedelic therapy in Fort Collins. For training and events related to psychedelic medicine work, visit our events page.