Personal Psychedelic Experience as a Training Qualification for Facilitators: A Thematic Analysis of Qualitative Interviews with Psilocybin Experts

Wilson-Poe et al. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 2024

Design: Qualitative interviews with 36 expert psilocybin facilitators (average 15.2 years of facilitation experience) about their recommendations for measuring the safety and impact of psilocybin services.

Key Findings:

• Personal psychedelic experience was viewed favorably. Facilitators spontaneously identified having a personal psychedelic experience as important for providing high quality supervision. One facilitator felt personal experience was not essential.

• Potential Benefits of Personal Experience. Facilitators felt having personal psychedelic experience increased their understanding of client experiences, better equipped them to recognize potential challenges and safely guide clients through difficult moments, and enhanced a facilitator’s credibility and trust.​

• Ethical Considerations: While personal experience was deemed beneficial, experts caution against requiring this, emphasizing the importance of professional training and ethical guidelines to ensure safe and effective facilitation.

The takeaway: While personal psychedelic experience may enrich a facilitator’s ability to support clients, it should be an optional complement to formal training and adherence to ethical standards of psilocybin-assisted therapy.