Buddhist practice offers a powerful framework for understanding expanded states, and helps clinicians develop skills for cultivating the inner skills to navigate psychedelic work. Rooted in centuries of experiential inquiry into consciousness, Buddhist teachings provide language, practices, and ethical orientation to help clinicians skillfully support transformational and sometimes destabilizing client experiences.

The course includes study and practice of mindfulness, concentration, somatic, and inquiry meditation, alongside trauma-sensitive mindfulness, self-compassion, and the navigation of difficult or “dark night” experiences. These practices are not only personally supportive for clinicians, but clinically relevant in preparing clients, supporting preparation and integration, and working with challenging emotional or spiritual material.

Each session blends conceptual learning with direct experience. Participants will engage in contemplative exercises each week and are invited to maintain a personal practice throughout the course to support experiential learning and embodied insight. 

No prior experience with Buddhism or meditation is required—only a sincere interest in exploring how contemplative wisdom can support healing in psychedelic therapy.

A limited number of Diversity Fund scholarships are available, please complete this application, in addition to the course application.

Course Contents

Week 1: Taking Our Seat: Presence and Psychedelic Therapy

Explore foundational principles of therapeutic presence and intention-setting in psychedelic therapy, drawing from the Buddhist practice of 'taking the seat' as a gesture of grounded compassion and equanimity. Discuss the clinician’s role in creating a safe relational container.

Week 2: Mindfulness and Concentration as Preparation

Introduce mindfulness (sati) and focused attention (samatha) as preparatory tools for clients. Explore how these practices support emotional regulation and mental clarity, enhancing therapeutic outcomes in psychedelic work.

Week 3: Compassion and Somatic Practices in Healing

Study the cultivation of compassion (karuṇā) and loving-kindness (mettā) alongside somatic grounding practices. Learn how these can support clients in processing intense emotions and body-based trauma during psychedelic experiences.

Week 4: Self, No-Self, and Ego Dissolution

Examine the Buddhist teaching of anattā (non-self) and its relevance to ego dissolution in psychedelic therapy. Facilitate conversations on identity, impermanence, and psychological integration of expansive self-experiences.

Week 5: Suffering and Trauma in the Psychedelic Container 

Understand Buddhist ideas about the nature of suffering. Address developmental trauma and early attachment dynamics as they arise in psychedelic states. Introduce the concept of holding environments, paralleled in Buddhist inner safety practices.

Week 6: Dreams, Koans, and Expanded States of Consciousness

Explore expanded states including dreams, meditative states, visions, collective phenomena and Zen koans and their relevance to psychedelic healing. Experience collective dream work as facilitated by koan meditation.

Week 7: Dark Nights of the Soul

Discuss the 'Dark Night' experiences and challenges of spiritual emergence. Integrate Buddhist models of purification.

Week 8: Integration and Sangha

 Learn about the vital importance of integration, and of sangha, and the role of sangha (spiritual community) in long-term healing and belonging.