Chacruna’s new course offers an ethical, justice-informed approach to psychedelic facilitation
Enrolling now: Chacruna Institute for Plant Medicines, a leader in psychedelic training, is thrilled to announce a new course offering launching this fall: Foundations of Plant Medicine Facilitation, Integration and Ethics. The course begins September 30, 2024, and runs through December 16, 2024. Enrollment is open now and spots are limited.
Geared toward anyone interested in psychedelic facilitation, from spiritual practitioners to psychotherapists and clinicians, sessions will explore topics including the role and responsibilities of facilitators, trauma and psychedelic healing, harm reduction and psychedelic facilitation, psychedelic care and ethics, the role of ritual and music in psychedelic facilitation, and fundamental psychology for psychedelic facilitators.
Plant medicines can enable profound healing and spiritual growth. They often exist in two or more worlds – rooted in traditional ceremonial contexts while also emerging as cutting-edge treatments in clinical and therapeutic settings. As interest in psychedelic plant medicines grows in mainstream culture, critical ethical questions are also surfacing. How can practitioners and facilitators navigate the rich landscape of psychedelic experience with respect and reverence? What does it mean to ethically blend traditional spiritual practices with contemporary therapeutic approaches? What is the role of community in experiencing and integrating sacred plants?
This course will dive into these and other questions. Taught by leading psychedelic plant experts and scholars, each meeting will navigate central issues and questions about psychedelic facilitation, providing students with a robust set of tools to bring into their psychedelic healing practices. Bookended by opening and closing sessions led by Chacruna Executive Director and founder Dr. Bia Labate and Lígia Duque Platero, Chacruna’s education program assistant, classes center moral sensitivity, community accountability, and risk reduction. “Foundations of Plant Medicine is not only a course but a journey that will explore the intersections between therapy, facilitation, spirituality, and care through contemporary lenses,” Labate says.
The course “goes beyond the limitations of academia, focusing on real-life challenges that affect the psychedelic community and providing tools for navigating them.”
Dr. Henrique Antunes
Dr. Henrique Antunes, Researcher of the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning and coordinator of Chacruna’s Ayahuasca Community Committee, shares that the course “goes beyond the limitations of academia, focusing on real-life challenges that affect the psychedelic community and providing tools for navigating them.” His class will address how healing practices with psychedelics “cannot be reduced to chemical substances that act in the body and mind, but often encompass shared experiences, modes of perception, and forms of spirituality that are community-based.”
Other faculty include Dr. Clancy Cavnar, co-founder of Chacruna and a research associate of the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP); Dr. Jamie Beachy, professional chaplain, spiritual care educator, and ethics consultant with experience in palliative care, hospice, and trauma care; Adam Aronovich, medical anthropologist and COO of Hidden Hand Media; Bruno Ramos Gomes, a Brazilian psychologist specializing in the integration of ayahuasca and ibogaine into patients’ therapeutic processes; and Dr. Jordan Sloshower, psychiatrist, researcher, and educator, as well as the cofounder of Yale’s Psychedelic Science Group.
“Chacruna is a leader in building bridges between traditional communities, psychotherapy and research.”
Dr. Jamie Beachy
“Chacruna is a leader in building bridges between traditional communities, psychotherapy and research,” says Beachy. “With faculty from Indigenous and global south contexts, as well as leading psychedelic therapists and researchers, this course provides a solid foundation for anyone interested in ethical and justice-informed plant medicine work.”
For a deeper dive, participants in this course may also register for the 80-hours Certificate in Ceremony, Ethics & Reciprocity, a justice-informed, risk reduction initiative promoting connection, support, ongoing ethics education, and safety for psychedelic plant medicine ceremonial leaders, facilitators, guides and participants in contexts outside of traditional indigenous communities of practice. Coursework, developed through the lens of experiential, decolonialized pedagogy, will be enhanced by individual mentorship with expert faculty from Chacruna and the Sacred Plant Alliance. “Foundations of Plant Medicine Facilitation, Integration and Ethics” will be an important introduction to central focus areas of the certification, which launches in March 2025. The certificate does not make participants religious leaders, shamans or facilitators, but does give tools for them to navigate their context of use.
“Foundations of Plant Medicine” meets on Mondays from September 30-December 16 from 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. PT. Check out the full description and register ($700; additional $320 for CE credits) here.
About Chacruna
The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines promotes reciprocity in the psychedelic community, and supports the protection of sacred plants and cultural traditions. Chacruna advances psychedelic justice through uplifting the voices of women, queer people, Indigenous peoples, people of color, and the Global South in the field of psychedelic science.
The Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization co-founded by Brazilian anthropologist Dr. Bia Labate and American psychologist Dr. Clancy Cavnar, based in Northern California and with strong ties to Brazil and Mexico. We promote reciprocity in the psychedelic community, and support the protection of sacred plants and cultural traditions. We advance psychedelic justice through curating critical conversations and uplifting the voices of women, queer people, Indigenous peoples, people of color, and the Global South in the field of psychedelic science.
Contact Information
Lorien Chavez
Chacruna Institute
[email protected]
415-390-6157
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