Psychedelic Facilitator and Psychedelic Coach: Different but Synergistic Forms of Alchemy

This piece is an invitation.

It's an invitation and see the role of psychedelic facilitator as complementary and distinct from, though occasionally overlapping with, the role of psychedelic coach.

To me, psychedelic coaching and psychedelic facilitating are different but synergistic forms of alchemy.

Yet these two roles—facilitator and coach—are often combined and conflated. What that typically means is that the facilitator is the one who provides all of the journeyer’s preparation and integration.

When that conflation happens, it typically results in journeyers receiving less support than what’s often needed during critical parts of the psychedelic experience—specifically deep preparation and long-term integration.

This conflation is a symptom of a broader illness in the field—there’s far too much focus on the medicine experience and not enough on the preparation and integration.

The Role of the Facilitator

By “facilitator” in this context, I mean the person or people who are physically with the journeyer while the medicine is in their body. This can include everyone from underground guides, to therapists, to Oregon- or Colorado-certified facilitators, to retreat spaceholders, and others.

To state the obvious, facilitating is an art. To me, it is one of the highest forms of art. It consumes vast amounts of energy, and can easily lead to depletion and burnout if the facilitator doesn’t take extraordinary care of themselves. Often, given the duration of psychedelic experiences, especially in a retreat or ceremonial context, facilitating can be a multi-day experience.

Because facilitators’ energy is often (quite rightly) consumed by facilitating, preparation and integration often get less attention. Preparation tends to consist of an introductory call or two—a sort of get-to-know-you vibe check, where the basics of the journey are discussed, best practices are communicated, some psycho-education is provided, and questions may be asked and answered. If integration happens, the burden is often on the client to reach out to the facilitator in the coming days or weeks if issues arise or they just want t talk.

To be blunt, that’s not nearly enough.

Preparing for a psychedelic journey and integrating afterwards can take months if not years.

The Role of the Coach

How might the psychedelic coach fit in?

(By the way, my choice of the term “psychedelic coach” instead of “integration coach” is deliberate. I prefer the former because the latter, at least semantically, omits the critical role of preparation.)

To me, the coach’s role is to dive deep with the client before the journey on the myriad psychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects of what’s to come.

Why is the client embarking on this journey, and why now? What obstacles—internal and external—may they encounter and how might those be navigated? What does the world look like if they fulfill their intention? What might they need let go of, or call, to bring that vision to fruition?

These are but a small slice of the questions and issues that may be explored.

When the client returns from the medicine experience, the coach is there waiting for them. The coach’s role is to meet the client where they are. This can include unpacking the insights from the journey, exploring any symbols and metaphors that presented themselves, and so much more.

The coach’s role evolves over time, and coaching sessions often become less about what happened during the journey and more about what it’s like to live in the world as this newer, more authentic version of themselves.

I’ve been meeting with some of my coaching clients weekly for over six months. Sometimes we’ll go for weeks without discussing the journey itself.

But the journey imbues every moment.

Sometimes the journey has revealed a new north star for the client, a new orientation for how they want to live their life and move through the world. The coach’s ability to support clients with that process is made all the more potent by the coach’s presence in the client’s life throughout the process.

Given the enormity of the reasons why many people undertake psychedelic journeys—to grieve the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship, to cope with a terminal diagnosis or the end of a career chapter, to explore myriad forms of trauma, or simply to better understand the nature of the universe and their place within it—long-term support is critical.

Psychedelic insights are great, but the real work, the homework, if you will, begins after the journey ends.

The Relationship between Facilitators and Coaches

So then, for facilitators who tend to focus on facilitating, what is the ideal connection or relationship between a facilitator and a coach?

To me, it starts with trust. In a perfect world, the facilitator have deep confidence in the other, know how the other works, and have a sense of where one’s role ends and the other begins.

Often, journeyers don’t have a coach before their journey. In those situations, the facilitator should strongly recommend to the journeyer that they hire a coach or speak to another care professional—e.g., therapist, chaplain, peer supporter.

A good analogy is surgery. When one gets out of surgery, the patient looks to the surgeon and/or care team for clear, thorough recommendations on all that is needed after the procedure for the client to fully heal. That could include medication, physical therapy, and the like.

Something similar should happen with facilitators, and ideally could include coaches and others with whom the facilitator has deep trust.

What do you think about this distinction between coaches and facilitators? What is the ideal dance between the two?