Psychedelic-assisted Coaching, VI – Protocols ($)

In this series, I distinguished therapy from coaching. This division reflects a dichotomy in how therapy is defined and how psychedelics are approached. Dividing people into a disabled class that needs help and an enabled class that needs encouragement is limited and unrealistic.

In the fifth installment, I suggest a more connected interaction between a facilitator and client. Here I propose a protocol for a psychedelic journey that expands on this idea…

The old protocol for taking psychedelics, which remains largely the only protocol, could be summarized by saying, “Get comfortable and have a nice time.” Given that we’re talking about a fundamentally mind expanding experience, this is incredibly lacking in direction or engagement.

The reason we have such lame indications for conducting a psychedelic experience is that we have little basis for mind expanding experiences‌. Most people who head off on an adventure of any kind do nothing more than pack a lunch. It’s because we have no experience in managing altered states of mind that we neither offer nor accept guidance in the psychedelic realm.