Trust is the currency in the age of the Natural Medicine Health Act
By James Eshleman, Founder of Center of All Directions
We are now a little over 2 months since Governor Polis signed the Natural Medicine Health Act. That means this world is in its infancy and while the community still needs to figure out what this work will look like broadly, in the underground legacy market for guiding, one conversation stand out amongst them all: the conversation about trust. This discussion is applicable to those administering psilocybin, DMT (ayahuasca or other variations of DMT including 5MEO DMT) and Mescaline.
Working with a guide requires a pretty substantial amount of trust between them and the participant. It is an exchange that flows between the two. The participants need to know that their guide is not only trustable in their craft but also as an individual that can provide the kind of container and ceremonial services that are necessary for safety and efficacy. And the guide needs to know that their client is in a place to readily step into this work and respect the boundaries with their container of work. Its a deep and very essential conversation, it should be at the forefront of any conversation about psychedelic healing.
As a participant, it is important to look for a guide with these attributes:
1.) Integrity - the guide should be communicative about and respectful of your own personal process. This means they do what they say they will do and they honor your concerns at every step of the process. They move with you at your pace, never rushing you into a decision that you’re not ready for. They listen with the intent to understand and get to know you so that they can serve you to their greatest ability. They live their values and demonstrate embodiment of those values. They share openly about what this experience is and isn’t while honoring the mystical and spiritual nature of this work, discussing what it takes to have a meaningful experience in terms that you can understand, while being mindful not to embellish these experiences as surefire silver bullets in your healing. While the possibility of life-changing results certainly exists, it is never guaranteed. Be mindful to avoid healers that promise the world.
2.) They Live from Their Hearts - You can feel them and their deep yearning to guide you toward your own sovereignty. An effective guide doesn’t take up all of the air in the room, they make space for your heart to be known, for your truth to be expressed, and your wounds to be revealed with a reverence for the life that you have lived and all they ways its impacted you. That means they won’t dismiss or belittle your path in any way shape or form, they meet your where you’re at and use their skill and loving intent to illuminate the path you may choose to walk moving forward. They’ll hold your vulnerability with reverence and inspire trust in the process.
3.) They Understand the Need for Safety - Navigating the terms of safety takes a measure of skill, awareness, education, and gentleness. Each individual has their own specific safety needs while there are collective safety needs that we can all agree to, like that of sovereignty. Your personal space should always be respected AND your need for respect should always be honored. If this is ever off, it is important to trust yourself and your perception and walk away. Any guide that pushes the bounds of personal or group safety is a guide with impure intent and you can trust that that won’t end well, if not for you then for others that may engage with those guides. This includes emotional safety, psychological safety, physical safety including sexual boundaries, and any other forms of safety that you require as an individual. Lastly, they are communicative and open about the risks of this work.
4.) They Demonstrate Self Awareness - It is tantamount that guides acknowledge their own projections and have the capacity to understand how their presence can impact a space that they are operating within. A guide without demonstrated self awareness is like a family doctor in a surgical operation while under the influence, they’ll act with diminished capacity, integrity, and could make things much worse for you. A guide can demonstrate their self awareness in a number of ways:
They ask thoughtful questions
They avoid making assumptions about you or your life
They trust you to describe your experience without projecting their own lived experience onto you
They are well informed about their own personal process and how it impacts the process they’re leading you through
They have developed their offering with clarity, intention, depth, stewardship, and kindness towards all
They’re willing to own when their own experience does inadvertently show up in their container of practice
They’re not only willing to make repairs when something feels off for their clients, but they embrace the opportunity to learn and grow with loving compassion.
5.) They have strong boundaries with themselves and their clients - nothing should concern you more than a guide with poor boundaries in their work. Strong boundaries are the outcome of a guide who embodies all of the above qualities. They will be very clear with you about what is expected of themselves and of you too. Their container will have a high degree of impeccability, meaning they have a deep understanding of their work and also know how to facilitate that work within a container that prioritizes safety while exhibiting a high degree of competency within their work and its outcomes for their clients. If anything feels wishy washy, bring your concerns to their awareness and how they handle your concerns will teach you a lot about their integrity and willingness to honor boundaries.
This is a field guide for understanding trust a bit more and it isn’t exhaustive. Trust in a psychedelic space is a very large and essential conversation, but these points are a good place to start. If you have any questions about how to find a guide that’s right for you, feel free to reach out and schedule some time with me. Safety within this space is of utmost priority in this work, and as a guide myself, I find it is my responsibility to ensure members of the community find a guide that’s right for them, even and especially when that guide isn’t me.