The art of Psychedelic Care
We take the practitioner's perspective, revealing the diverse ways of managing care in psychedelic sessions.
30 Trailblazing Practitioners, who have conducted over 25,000 sessions, share the skillful ways they use psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, ayahuasca, ketamine, 5-MeO-DMT, 2-cb, mescaline, and holotropic practices. They offer insight gained from decades of session experience.
Learn how they screen and prepare clients, curate and conduct sessions and assist meaning making and healing.
You will access over 50 hours of recorded presentations that are available for download or streaming, along with written materials and essential checklists.
Our presenters offer you a unique perspective from the forefront of psychedelic practice.
This is a FREE resource.
Join us for an inquiry into the transformative power of psychedelic sessions.
The Guiding Presence Program features 30+ presenters who are able to deconstruct the essential elements of a psychedelic session.
The program material can be streamed in either a video or audio format so that you can learn at your own pace.
Beginning in 2024 we offer this program at no cost to new participants. We are grateful for all our previous subscribers whose paid participation made this free offering possible. Please help us to share this program with anyone that you think will benefit from its content.
FREE
For those interested in psychedelics, whether for professional purposes or personal exploration, The Guiding Presence offers you a master class.
Our presenters candidly discuss their methods of holding space for empathogens (MDMA, 2-cb) and for visionary psychoactives (ayahuasca, LSD, mushrooms, ketamine). They share their insights about dosages, combining different psychoactives, creating a safe session container, and employing healing interventions. They explain approaches to preparation and integration, the skillful use of music, how to engage ethical challenges, and share practical insights gained from decades curating sessions.
Some of the presenters describe the skills required to be a non-interventive psychedelic "sitter". Others share the methods of the psychedelic "guide”. The program introduces you to the psychedelic lineages that shape current psychotherapeutic and underground practices.
This offering seeks to provide you a comprehensive vision of what is possible in this space. Our presenters will help you discover the best standards of care for both yourself and your clients.
Join us for a deep dive into the transformative world of psychedelic exploration with The Guiding Presence.
At the same time that millions of people are using psychedelic molecules, the War on Drugs has restricted access and constrained research. Few studies, often with less than 20 participants, receive approval. A recent MAPS phase 2 FDA trial was one of the largest psychedelic studies. With just 112 participants- it sought to demonstrate MDMA's safety and efficacy for treatment resistant psychological conditions. It is an open secret that tens of millions of individuals have been using MDMA since the 1980’s. These citizen scientists have extensively documented MDMA’s beneficial effects, dose profiles, and have shared best practices for therapeutic and recreational use.
We introduce you to presenters with an extraordinary depth of knowledge about psychedelic use. R. Coleman has conducted over 3,000 psychedelic sessions. Jim Fadiman has collected more than 23,000 microdosing reports at microdose.me. Sylvia Thyssen at Erowid.org has helped curate over 25,000 experience reports that contribute to our collective knowledge about psychedelic molecules dose ranges, subjective effects, duration, drug interactions, and more. Our presenters share the kind of understanding that can only be acquired after many decades of practice.
The current psychedelic renaissance stands on the shoulders of many anonymous practitioners. This unattributed practical wisdom has been adopted by institutions like MAPS and Compass Pathways, and is taught in certification programs.
James Fadiman, Bob Jesse, Diane Darling, Adele Getty, and Michael Ziegler recognized the need for senior underground practitioners to come together, leading to the formation of the "Guild of Guides." At annual in-person gatherings, these seasoned psychedelic sitters and guides shared experiences, best practices, and engaged in discussions on ethical, legal, medical, and cybersecurity concerns.
This program brings you the insights of many elder Guild practitioners, whose quiet contributions are overshadowed by the influx of newly certified and self-proclaimed psychedelic "experts" seeking to brand and monetize the psychedelic commons.
Please download OUR ESSENTIAL open source manual:
A free manual for Sitters and Voyagers called “Meeting the Divine Within”.
The Guiding Presence, established in 2018, was the first program to focus on the practitioner’s perspective in psychedelic sessions. Over 1,200 global participants have supported the program and the cost to disseminate the manual "Meeting the Divine Within" on social media. This manual was created as a concise do-it-yourself guide offering best practices for individuals who want to maximize the beneficial outcome of their psychedelic use. It has been downloaded over 35,000 times.
If you want to further explore the role of the guide and sitter in psychedelic sessions then The Guiding Presence offers you the insights of senior practitioners.
Please access the Program Overview TAB for a detailed description of what is covered in the program. Learn about our PRESENTERS here or listen to some of their video trailers below.
View our trailers below.
Diana Medina
How to Get Out of the Way
Kylea Taylor and Selene Vega
The Ethics of Care
Stan Grof
New Tools for Psychiatry
Tom Pinkson
Being a Clear Channel
Sylvia Polivoy
Facilitating Ayahuasca Retreats
Sylvia Thyssen
Our Complex Relationship with Psychoactives
“I have been leading psychedelic sessions for over 20 years. TGP is a unique opportunity to hear from master practitioners who share their experience preparing clients, conducting sessions, and doing integration work. I wish I had access to this resource long ago.” ~ Richard
“I am loving this so much and getting a lot out of it. It was exactly what I was looking for. What breadth of information. The presenters share their work fully and are always keeping us (people who one day would like to do this work) in mind. I feel so many doors and avenues of inquiry are opening for me as a result of this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” ~ Veronica (England)
“I wanted to share my deepest gratitude and appreciation for ‘The Guiding Presence.’ It offers a quality of clarity, mindfulness, responsibility, humbleness and loving compassion that inspires me as a person and in my therapeutic work. This nurtures my hope that someday this will be part of the common health system. This quality is truly hard to find…even in this growing field.” ~Katja (Berlin)
“I appreciate the way the program presents the fundamentals of guiding. The diversity of approaches is refreshing. I have already adopted much of what I have learned into my own practice.” ~ Jacob
“I can’t thank you enough for The Guiding Presence course. What a service you are doing!!! All this incredible wisdom and experience, hitherto spread all over the internet, so generously shared. I love the deep yet practical questions and the whole informal setting. The elders of the tribe share their wisdom and knowledge as if we are all sitting together on the sofa. It’s a privilege. All in all, an absolute treasure.” ~Vardit (The Netherlands)
The Guiding Presence
The Guiding Presence online Program features presentations by leading experts on the mastery of a psychedelic session.
The program material can be streamed in either a video or audio format.
Learn at your own pace.
FREE!