It’s not enough to simply do good as psychedelic therapist. Better look good on the CCTV too

“The whole field of psychedelic therapy is at stake,” says Ethics of Caring author Kylea Taylor.

Taylor graduated in marriage and family counselling, started on addiction services in 1970s, and worked in the transpersonal sector since the mid-1980s. I should think she’s seen it all.

“We have to be impeccable, like supreme court justices – not just what we are doing but what it looks like we are doing.” An attitude bordering on the priestly seems to be required of the would-be 21st century shaman. 

Back at the ancient initiation, everybody in the village was in attendance and could keep vigil on one another: “Likewise in a holotropic breath work session where there are several sitters, and the issue of substance use is void,” says Taylor. The very modern trend for online ceremonies, with huddles, couples and individuals on a video call, offers a robust container of sorts, if a slightly dystopian one.

“The role requires impeccable preparation for the client’s work in an extraordinary state”

I pointed out during the Q&A session after a Vital webinar on harm prevention at dance festivals, etiquette between ravers developed organically and quickly in the heady early days of underground, intentional, ceremonial, group sacramental MDMA usage, during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

That seems like very long ago. In the psychedelic therapy rooms, a new code of behaviour must be established during an age when there are few universal codes; and this in itself has become so confusing that it’s tempting just to assume everyone is following ours. Plus get terribly upset when we find out they aren’t.

No wonder ‘trust’ has become the professional buzzword of choice. Fortune magazine just launched a newsletter dedicated entirely to the topic of trust earlier this summer, offered to subscribers every Sunday so the 1% can enjoy a hit of piety via smartphone. Companies where the staff trust leadership work quicker and make more money.

“Trauma comes up for healing when people feel safe and the time is right”

But reputation marketing firm Edelman’s latest Global Trust Barometer is titled ‘World in Trauma’ and declares ‘double digit trust inequality in 13 out of 14 countries’ meaning the mass population distrusts institutions significantly more than the ‘informed population’. The latter is not defined, but we all get the idea. This gap has reached record levels in the UK and France.

With even daytime UK TV fitness coach Joe Wicks threatening to “do ayahuasca” the mass population of a world in trauma are likely to turn up at your informed psychedelic clinic. And they probably won’t trust you, but they do want to, and it’s downright key that they do. Because “the extraordinary state makes clients feel even less safe,” reminds Taylor.

“Trauma comes up for healing when people feel safe and the time is right,” says Taylor, a highly qualified transpersonal psychologist, kundalini energy expert, and holotropic breath work coach.

“The role requires impeccable preparation for the client’s work in an extraordinary state,” adds Taylor, “If we’re aware of ourselves and behave in an impeccable way then we’re in the best place.”

Attention to both detail and the bigger picture, following through on all assurances including paperwork, accepting how challenging processes unfold and their use to the inner healer, are all tips from the psychedelic ethicist who helped sculpt the MAPS Code of Ethics and more.

“You don’t have to be perfect, because no-one is, but you should be compatible and do whatever comes to mind to protect the space. Wish the client truly well on their journey, through your actions as well as words.” Generating and expressing goodwill is apparently one of the three pillars of trust, alongside competency and reliability – and that goes back to Aristotle. If you need to pull out someone more on-brand, there’s always Huxley: “Good is a product of the ethical and spiritual artistry of individuals; it cannot be mass-produced.”