Probe your own intentions, for the floor of the abyss is littered with wounded healers

The will to power exists even in the most open hearts: “Every ethical misstep has a healing impulse,” says therapist ethics expert Kylea Taylor.

73.9% of therapeutic professionals entered the field due to their personal history. The ‘wounded healer concept was flagged by Carl Jung, who wrote "A good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor's examining himself... it is his own hurt that gives a measure of his power to heal.”

A psychedelic guide must wrangle with their reasons for being in the space. Achievement, hoping the voyager enjoys a significant experience, is a forgivable impulse; influence too if we’re being as honest like both the medicine, and the guide’s role, demand.

“Mistakes are an opportunity for improvement and change”

But the guide isn’t drilling the patient like a sports coach. Complementing the voyager’s experience is akin to dancing with them, says Taylor in the deft analogy she uses in her book The Ethics of Caring.

“We do best in the dance when we are not ahead of ourselves,” she explains of letting the process and the client lead this technicolour two-step, “we are able to know what we need to know in the moment.” One must be instinctively aware of one’s dance partner, the music and the dance floor. “A foot in the client’s world and the other in our role of providing safety,” illustrates Taylor, “The container is the ballroom; others are dancing there too… it’s set and setting, preparation, relationship, and relational dynamics – and the psychedelic space itself.”

The effortless presence of mind honed in meditation is considered the number one skill required for psychedelic therapists, claims Taylor’s presentation, and she is consulting for two different written codes of ethics currently in development. Taylor calls this ‘bi-modal’ consciousness. To me it seems quite demanding; out of reach of many perhaps. “Unawareness leads to missteps and sore toes,” says Taylor, “but mistakes are an opportunity for improvement and change.”