FAQs

• Collaborative leadership 
• Women-led
• Queer-led
• Group-work format
• Emphasis on systems awareness/systems change 
• Cultural sensitivity / identity awareness 
• Experiential learning
• Apprenticeship model
• Emphasis on Psilocybin mushrooms
• Backed by an Ethics Infrastructure
• Means-based tuition model
• Indigenous practice informed, non-clinical framework
• Not-for-profit organization

• Offering safe, ethical, comprehensive training to those who want to be psychedelic guides
• Playing a part in supporting a shift in collective consciousness via the wise and respectful use of psychedelics

• Less emphasis on individual healing, more emphasis on systemic forces that impact the individual
• Less emphasis on the clinical, illness-based perspective, more emphasis on Indigenous frameworks and belief on the individual as already whole
• A focus on community health and healing and a collective social/cultural lens
• A focus on group-format psychedelic sessions
• A prerequisite “Groundwork” program that explores identity, alignment and capacity for guidework
• An Apprenticeship-based, experiential learning model
• Ethics Infrastructure supports students throughout the program and after 
• An inclusive means-based tuition model, those who have more, pay more, those who have less, pay less
• It’s not meant to be quick. The program is designed to be slower, comprehensive and personally transformative

Both! Gather Well is a hybrid model, offering students from all over an opportunity to engage in our programs, with group work experientails in location-based cohorts.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy, or PAT, is a widely used term to describe psychedelics used in a therapeutic framework. It is an approach to healing that combines traditional therapeutic modalities with the use of psychedelic substances. Psychedelics alter our brain chemistry in such a way that  they help reveal, amplify, or deconstruct unconscious perceptions, patterns, and behaviors and reveal one’s inherent goodness or essential self, ultimately providing  a sense of belonging and wholeness.  

At Gather Well we prefer the term “psychedelic healing modalities” or “psychedelic care” (rather than Psychedelic- assisted therapy) as it is more inclusive of practices with psychedelics that do not ascribe to a psychotherapeutic framework or psychologized lens of self, other and the collective. Here at Gather Well we synthesize trauma informed counseling frameworks and ceremonial practices, approaching these practices with reverence and a goal toward healing, balance, and wholeness. For further explanation read HERE. 

Gather Well Psychedelics provides education for those seeing to be psychedelic guides/practitioners. For more details about training go to our program page HERE

Those who are seeking to know themselves better and explore what it means to be a guide. One need not be intent on being a guide to benefit from enrolling in the Groundwork Program. Groundwork is a shorter prerequisite program for the lengthier Psychedelic Guide Apprenticeship Program.

Those who have completed the Groundwork Program. (Completing Groundwork does not guarantee acceptance into the Apprenticeship Program). 

There are no specific professional license requirements to join our programs. 

See our PROGRAMS page for more info

Our Groundwork program does not result in a certification. The Psychedelic Guide Apprenticeship Program will have a comprehensive process to evaluate your learning progress throughout the program, and indicate where you may benefit from further support of skill development. At the completion of the program apprentices can engage further evaluation to become a Certified Gather Well Guide. 

Our aim is for our trained guides to meet all requirements to integrate smoothly into the developing  field. For example our Psychedelic Guide Apprenticeship Program has been designed to satisfy the curriculum requirements laid out by the state of Oregon.  

The final module of Apprenticeship includes the option to complete the specific training necessary to apply for psychedelic practitioner licensure in the state of Colorado, via Gather Well’s partnership with InnerTrek’s Accelerated Pathway training.

We will align our practices as closely as possible with future established certification boards or professional associations standards.

At this time psilocybin containing mushrooms. We anticipate including MDMA in time.

Psychedelic-assisted therapies are currently legal in the United States with the use of Ketamine by prescription. MDMA, Psilocybin, and other substances may be approved by the FDA to treat or manage various diagnoses in the coming years. Our training does not provide any substances or engage in any illegal activity. GWP provides preparation, integration and session guidance within a harm reduction lens to those that have decided to ingest substances.  All activities related to psychedelic substances are conducted in jurisdictions where it is legal, within partnerships with institutions following those jurisdictions’ policies.

While no one can guarantee absolute safety with any modality of healing, psychedelic therapies, when used skillfully, are relatively safe. This, of course, depends on the self-awareness, training, and skill of the practitioner and a thorough mental and physical health assessment of the client. 

Safety in these practices is paramount to what we teach at Gather Well. We emphasize screening and enhanced informed-consent practices. We have also developed a comprehensive Ethics Infrastructure that offers support, mentorship and accountability throughout one’s journey as a practitioner.

• By considering who has influence over the organization’s direction, infrastructure and decisions. 

• Through class, race, gender, cultural and socio-economic diversity among staff, program facilitators and students as much as we are able. 

• By embedding anti-racist and anti-discriminatory learning and policies at both the organizational and educational levels and celebrating diversity and liberatory practices. 

• Program tuition will be based in an income responsive tuition model to allow tuition to be proportional to one’s means. This will help to address inclusivity in relation to socioeconomic position. Some of our programming will offer affinity groups for periods of time for intentional growth work on identity.

Gather Well uses a shared leadership model. We feel this aligns with our values of decentralized leadership and growing our unique gifts in a supportive environment.

HERE is a link to see more about our Ethics Infrastructure and our Code of Ethics

There is a blog post HERE that goes into how Groundwork came to be, including a personal reflection from one of the co-founders

By visiting the site HERE

Gather Well has an ongoing collection of long-form writing/blog posts that help illuminate who we are. You can visit them HERE

Yes. Gather Well is a registered 501c3. HERE is a link to more on our ownership model.

Your support matters! You can make tax deductible donations HERE. Your donations provide education for those seeking to be psychedelic practitioners, having ripple effects on the health and vitality of collective consciousness.

HERE is a link to our procedure for reporting a concern.