This article was submitted by Lucy da Silva, Psychedelic Support Therapist and CEO Silva Wellness, as part of Psychedelic Health’s op-ed program. To submit article ideas, please email news@psychedelichealth.co.uk

I once was addicted to alcohol and drugs, which I was lucky enough to overcome through the 12-step programme. This journey was steeped in peer support and a real sense of community. Over the past five or so years, I have also had my fair share of psychedelic healing experiences, most of them in group settings.

Entering this sphere, I was fortunate to come from a place of internal containment and grounding, since my healing journey had begun long before my first psychedelic experience in a ceremonial setting. As a qualified and experienced psychotherapist, I was well versed in self-care, the analytical lens of Jungian interpretation and, most importantly, trauma knowledge and containment.

What these seeds of experience began to sow for me was an awareness of how clinical excitement can sometimes overshadow the slower work of building adequate systems that protect, hold and integrate – striking the delicate balance between respect for indigenous traditions and the demands of medicine-inspired healing. As a therapist, my work often focuses on the healing that takes place after harm has occurred. But my own experiences in medicine ceremonies (some profound and safe, others not so much) led me to wonder: what would it mean to design safety from the ground up?

The psychedelic field has made extraordinary progress in just a few years. Regulatory frameworks are evolving, clinical trials are expanding, and public interest is growing faster than any of us could have predicted. There’s a palpable sense of momentum—of medicine, culture and consciousness beginning to reconnect. The renaissance is not on its way—it is here! 

Come meet the leaders shaping the future of psychedelic medicine. Join PSYCH Symposium: London 2025, December 4 at Conway Hall.

Yet much of this progress still takes place within the same paradigms that shaped twentieth-century psychiatry: models focused on efficacy and access, rather than on the deeper architecture of care. We talk about scaling treatments, but rarely about scaling safety—about designing systems that protect psychological integrity as much as they deliver clinical outcomes.

The conversation about psychedelic medicine often stops at the clinic door. But the next frontier of innovation isn’t pharmacological; it’s relational, community-driven and systemic. It’s about how we build environments that recognise trauma not as an exception, but as the context from which most people seek healing. This is especially relevant when utilising psychedelics for the treatment of substance use disorders.

Co-Design Workshops: Trauma-Informed Care and Community Integration in Psychedelic Therapy

When we had the opportunity to apply for a government-backed R&D grant, it offered the chance to formalise what I had personally seen and encountered in group settings—as well as what I had heard through anecdotal conversations with individuals I met along the way, including clients who needed help processing uncontained trauma after group experiences.

With the grant focusing on individuals suffering from substance use disorders, I was motivated to propose a trauma-informed model in a group setting supported by community integration initiatives. I also wanted to address the elephant in the room: expanding access. With ketamine treatment via IV costing around £10,000 in the UK, affordability remains a serious issue. My goal was to explore how we can scale treatment options safely. We need to ensure that the very systems we design to help people heal do not inadvertently replicate harm.

Rather than studying participants, we’ll be studying systems, and asking what those systems need to look like to prevent harm before it happens.

Our study (scheduled to kick off in November 2025), Co-Design Workshops: Trauma-Informed Care and Community Integration in Psychedelic Therapy, aims to explore how safety can be intentionally designed into emerging psychedelic care models before they become mainstream. It will run as follows:

1. Three stakeholder groups (clinicians, peer facilitators and mental health service designers) will participate in a series of co-design workshops.
2. Using journey mapping and system mapping, the sessions will explore how trauma-informed principles can guide safe, accessible models for group-based ketamine lozenge therapy (KLT).
3. The aim is to co-create conceptual frameworks that integrate ethical design, accessibility and community wisdom from the outset.

What we hope to learn is that safety is relational, shaped by culture and trust just as much as by clinical control. Trauma-informed practice, emotional readiness, education, and attention to set and setting before any medicine is ingested should form vital components of integration.

Promoting integration as preparation—as the precursor to treatment, as a modality in itself—mirrors what the 12-step programme does so well. Peer-led community, robust support and follow-up systems could become the scaffolding that extends care beyond the session, supporting longevity in healing.

This also ties into the concept of reducing hierarchy by amplifying lived expertise and modelling the inclusivity that psychedelic care must embody. It can help individuals lean towards treatment rather than resist it—a common challenge in both community-led and private addiction treatment programmes.

As the long-term aim of this project is to align proposed frameworks with voluntary sector and NHS infrastructure, we envisage that it could inform future service delivery and policy development. Most importantly, we hope to begin a wider discussion about how future frameworks can be wrapped in nurturing ethics and, above all, safety.

If we can integrate trauma-informed principles from the outset, the future of psychedelic therapy could look very different. We might see small, community-based groups supported by skilled facilitators who understand containment as much as chemistry. Integration models could become embedded within peer networks, where shared experience is part of the medicine itself.

Services could evolve through co-design rather than correction, shaped by lived wisdom as much as professional expertise. In this vision, innovation means not just expanding access, but building safety, inclusion and care by design.

Because the psychedelic renaissance will only ever be as safe as the systems that hold it and designing those systems is the real frontier.

As this project begins, we have a rare opportunity to slow down—to listen, collaborate and build the ethical foundations before psychedelic care becomes fully mainstream. Trauma-informed design reminds us that safety is not simply the absence of harm, but the presence of trust, transparency and relationship.

If we can weave those qualities into the structures that support psychedelic work, from the clinic to the community, we stand a chance of creating a field that heals without replicating old wounds.

This study is just the first step, but it marks an invitation to the wider field: to design consciously, collectively and with care at the centre.

Because the question is no longer whether psychedelics can heal, it’s whether we can design the systems that allow that healing to endure.

Image by andreas160578 from Pixabay

Therapist Jo Dice discusses some key points that you may want to know before taking psychedelics. 

Trust your instinct

Is your body telling you telling you: “something is not right here”?  Does it feel like the wrong time for you? Is the guide being inappropriately flirtatious towards you? 

Are you wondering whether it might be a bad idea heading into the jungle on your own? (N.B. it most definitely is!) Do you feel like you are being pressured into something you are not ready for? Does your guide seem to have little knowledge of what this medicine does to your body, or little interest in what medical conditions you may have? Or do you just feel uneasy in your gut with no logical explanation?

These are all signs that you may be putting yourself at risk.

When you work with psychedelics you are in an incredibly vulnerable state. You need to be with a guide you trust wholeheartedly.

Don’t put guides or shamans on a pedestal. Don’t put anyone on a pedestal. When you put someone on a pedestal you turn off your intuition. Your guides are not angels, gurus, saints or holy messengers with magic powers. They are just normal human beings who can hold a ceremony. They are subject to the same problems as the rest of us, including the darker aspects of the human experience such as the potential for greed, manipulation and exploitation.

There can be a temptation to give all your power away to the mystical and the transcendent. Our brains do a very good job of working stuff out and keep us safe. Do not devalue this aspect of yourself, be discerning.

Be on the lookout for spiritual bypassing

Spiritual bypassing is a term to describe the tendency within spiritual communities to rise above the difficulty of unresolved personal problems or emotions. Rather than using spiritual philosophy as a method of integrating human experience, it is used to transcend (or avoid) problems.

Spiritual bypassing is pervasive within the spiritual and psychedelic communities.

Ever heard comments such as “everything happens for a reason”, or “it is all as it is meant to be”? 

These are all bypassing statements. When these statements are used towards a person who has experienced abuse or trauma, you are essentially gaslighting that person, and stunting them in their healing process. Transcending your emotions may alleviate suffering, but it does not represent true healing. Like the addict who takes a drug to soothe their emotional pain, many people use spiritual bypassing as a numbing and avoidance strategy.

So, you may come across a guide who tells you to “let go of control” when you ask about what a substance will do to your body. This is more likely because they don’t know the answer to your question and don’t want to find out, than it is in relation to your healing. Maybe a guide informs you “there’s no such thing as a bad trip”, that is really for you to decide. Though often borne out of naivete and good intention, these are all potential ways for people to escape taking responsibility and manipulate you.

The difference between a poison and a medicine is largely related to dose

There can be a tendency within the psychedelic world to “go hard or go home”, with many guides administering enormous doses for fear that their customers will complain about not having an intense enough experience.

For some people, especially those new to this work, the dose is way too high and can lead to a terrifying and traumatising experience. Don’t be afraid to have conversations about the dose, and to test the water with a low dose first. Everyone reacts differently to these substances. If you have a terrifying experience, you will probably never want to take psychedelics again and may get PTSD or mental health problems as a result.

You can turn a psychedelic medicine into a psychedelic poison by taking too much in one sitting, you can also do this by having the accumulation of lots of sittings in too short a time frame. People who have an addictive process can get addicted to the peak psychedelic experience, jumping from one to the next without integrating and essentially “overdosing”. This can cause enormous damage to your mental health and relationships, like any addiction.

Taking psychedelics won’t always give you the answers

Sometimes working with psychedelics can make your life worse.

Psychedelics have been described by Stanislav Grof as “non-specific magnifiers of mental process”. So essentially, they will magnify a part of you that is already there. If you are already heading down a spiritual bypassing route (see above), this part of you can be magnified, leaving you open to abusive and predatory people. If you have strong narcissistic tendencies, your narcissism may be magnified causing damage to your relationships.

For some people, there is such a thing as a bad trip. Many people have been known to spiral into psychosis, PTSD and severe mental illness after working with psychedelics. There is some truth in the often-used statement that even a difficult experience can hold meaning when worked through well, but sometimes the scales tip and a person needs serious psychiatric care. Working safely, and conscientiously, with experienced, responsible practitioners and a robust preparation and integration process, will safeguard you from this.

Integrate

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: integration is everything!

People who take psychedelics often give no thought to the integration process. I view it like alchemy, you need the hydrogen of the psychedelic experience, plus the oxygen of the integration process to create the life force of water. If the psychedelic experience represents giving birth to the new you, then the integration process is the work of parenting.

Put simply, integration is the work you do over a long period of time to manifest deep and sustained change from your psychedelic experience. It is not a panacea, quick fix or a magic bullet that will fix all your problems overnight (this doesn’t exist by the way). Your learnings from the psychedelic experience will dissipate very quickly without integration.

Psychedelics are an agent of change; they don’t do the work for you. The psychedelic experience is one event in a much longer change process. For best results, you must be willing to engage in the process and dive deep.

A psychedelic integration therapist can support you through this process. As you need a guide for the psychedelic journey, you will also get the best outcome by having a guide for your integration process.

PLEASE NOTE: This blog is intended for information only and does not substitute medical advice. I do not advocate the illegal use of substances.

This article was first published on jodicetherapy.co.uk and is republished on Psychedelic Health with permission.

ADHD seems to be the diagnosis du jour nowadays. In our culture of constant information, fear and communication overload, it is no surprise. This is not how we as human beings are supposed to be living.

And so, the individual is pathologised because of the sickness in society. Not so long ago we were spending most of our days roaming around in fields, interacting with our tribes on a face-to-face basis, coming together regularly to share and be in connection. Things were relatively simple in terms of the amount of information and sensory input we had to digest. 

We did not feel responsible for the whole world’s problems, because we were unaware of them.

Circumstances change; the world is changing at an extremely fast pace. As human beings, our genetics are not able to keep up with this pace. We are evolving quicker than our genes can cope with, much quicker.

So, how does this relate to psychedelics?

Psychedelics have been known to connect people to the earth, to nature and to their core emotional self. When dumped in the middle of an ADHD, modern, hectic and digitalised lifestyle, I believe the risks of adverse incidents are devastating. Devastating for the individual and devastating for the world of psychedelic healing.

Society at large will almost certainly blame the psychedelics for any adverse events, without taking a glimpse at the lifestyle of the person involved.

Whatever is going on for you in the time before your psychedelic journey, will manifest in the experience. So, watch a horror film the night before, the likelihood is you will have a horrifying experience. Completely stressed out with work or toxic relationship dynamics; you will have a stressed out and toxic experience.

These experiences are massive – akin to getting married, having a baby or losing a parent; they can hold a similar level of significance in your life. 

When prepared for and integrated appropriately, they can have profound and transformative healing potential, like nothing you have ever experienced. When engaged with in a frivolous fashion, they can have dire consequences to yourself, and to the culture at large.

Psychedelics when used responsibly are very low risk; it is irresponsible use that is almost always the cause of problems.

Take some holiday time before your journey, switch off from the modern world and go nomadic for a while. Stop inputting, or at the very least take control over what you are allowing in. Ideally, no television, social media, reading, hyper-communication or other people’s ideas. 

I would advise this for a minimum of five days before your experience, and to start winding down two weeks before. If you can’t do this, just do your best. Instead, start outputting; your own ideas, creativity, journalling, art, music. Get out in nature, see what comes up and who you are when you are not engaging with other people’s ideas.

The work begins when you enter the preparation process, you begin to journey within yourself, connect with the medicine, and you start to feel. You can really solidify and honour your intentions during this time.

You do not necessarily need lots of psychedelic experiences, you may just need one experience done well. This, I believe, may be the safest and most conscientious way to engage in this work.

There may be a time that you wish to come back and have another experience, but step off of the “more, more, more, bigger, better, faster” treadmill of the Western and modern world, and do it when it feels right; when you have done everything you can to integrate your last experience and you are truly ready.

Try to preserve this nomadic and conscientious way of being, for as long as possible. Your brain is incredibly neuroplastic post-psychedelic experience, so it is a fantastic time to lay down the foundations of new healthy habits and to read things that inspire you, as your brain is adaptable to change.

Stay off social media and away from comparing your life to the superficial and fake glamour of others, or getting into arguments with people who don’t care for you.

Take control of your world, take control of your environment and take control of your people.

Develop a daily practice of meditation, breathwork or prayer. Find people who you can speak to who are interested and open-minded. People who understand this work. Go to therapy, this can transform your integration process. Find a therapist who understands the spiritual emergence and psychedelic process.

The integration process, when done well, never really ends. It is a continuous unfolding of the new you, and it can be a joy to engage in. You will feel discombobulated at times as you adjust to the person you are becoming and grieve for what you have lost. This is normal. It is very important to stay grounded, keep on with the mundane tasks of being an ordinary human being and not to get lost in the mystical and the transcendent.

And maybe, you will decide to live your life in a simpler fashion, maybe you will choose to disconnect from the ADHD world we inhabit and look after your mind and body instead; to treat yourself in the same way a good mother or father would treat an overstimulated infant.

This is the journey of self-care, growth and evolution, or perhaps devolution. Life is a journey, and you are the only guide who can truly give yourself the medicine that you need.

PLEASE NOTE: This blog is intended for information only and does not substitute medical advice. I do not advocate the illegal use of substances.

This article was first published on jodicetherapy.co.uk and is republished on Psychedelic Health with permission.