Apprenticeship

One-on-one journey guide training blending the ancient and the modern 

Someone asked me recently, how would I describe what being a journey guide in the path of psychedelics for healing actually is? And my answer was this: it is a path where nothing gets left behind for me as their guide or for them as they journey. It is an interface of reality and realms, where exploration through risk is held in a safe container and life’s strands are supported into a new sense of meaning, and all of this is experienced through a mostly agenda-less, non-pathologizing, attuned lens. It is no small feat and it serves all so deeply, be it those who sit and guide or those who receive and journey.

In a culture so constructed by conformity and choked by the insidious social mandate of “fitting in”, the journey guide’s role is to support with as safe a space as possible the remembering of oneself, one’s awakening  from the numbness and the castration, one’s recovery of the ability to hear the echoes of that which lives deep within the bones.

I have had folk arrive into the journey space unable to articulate exactly why they’re there. Many experience being stranded in a chaotic world, alone, isolated, and more distracted than ever, being tossed around by polarizing opinions all the while being completely disconnected from nature and its benevolence, as well as their own true nature and benevolence. Their stepping into the journey space seems to answer a yearning to make sense of, to make contact with themselves again. They are calling in something different, dare I say, even someone different for themselves.

Many in our world today sense that life is moving at a speed that is way, way, way out of control and that we as a species are in trouble. The non-conforming, non-pathologizing journey guide is called to step forward amidst this foreboding and offer a safe container to explore the edge between the realms, where one can dissolve the many narratives binding their soul and constricting their expression, where one can unfold and relax into what has become, for most us, a concept rather than an experience: our belonging.

Such is the power of the journey space and such is the commitment of the journey guide. Which ultimately and simply, and elegantly, is this: we are committed to the ongoing wellness of our souls for the service of humanity’s soul.

Have you heard the call?

If the path of the journey guide is calling to you, and you are ready to answer it, read on.

What does apprenticing with me look like?

  • You will sit and witness me in guiding clients through their journeys, from initial consultation through integration, and there will come a time when I’ll sit and witness you as you guide your clients.

  • I will teach you what I know of the modalities I lean on as a guide. See more about them.

  • To support you in developing your non-pathologizing, ethical journey guide, you will take trainings on embodied ethics and trauma on your own (unless you have a prior background in these).

  • You will allow me to witness your growth as a guide via written reflections of your personal journey experiences.

  • Upon completion of your apprenticeship, you will be expected to join a peer supervision group. See more about peer supervision.

  • While the above may sound like a lot, you and I will collaboratively create an ebb and flow to your apprenticeship that will allow for your own private practice to continue to thrive and for your own family life to be cared for, and of course will make room for holidays and such.

What is the financial commitment?

The total cost of this apprenticeship is $16,000, split into two non-refundable payments as outlined below:

  • $4,000 payable at the commencement of your apprenticeship, which initiates a 90-day trial period (with the option to opt out of the apprenticeship after 90 days)

  • $12,000 payable at the conclusion of the trial period

In the initial 90 days, you’ll experience:

  • Client’s virtual inquiry sessions (up to 3)

  • One client’s pre-journey session

  • One client’s journey

  • One client’s integration session

As an apprentice you’ll also receive:

  • Up to two journey debrief sessions 

  • One teaching

Why apprentice with me?

I believe apprenticing for this work is what is needed.  As a guide who has been in this field for almost 20 years now, I am often on the restorative end of damages caused to journey clients recovering from mishaps that the fast-and-furious types of accreditation tend to lead to. I am a devotee of an apprenticing approach, which allows a slow unfurling of all things YOU so that you can show up more fully for the folk who come to sit with you.

Likewise, the classroom, top-down approach to education seems woefully ill-suited to the task of preparing someone to hold space for another’s medicine journey. In my recent attempt to create a journey guide school, I soon realized that in fact the classroom setting simply was not conducive to the slow-moving attunement and intimacy that are asked of a guide. These are much more readily available, and therefore more easily teachable, when an apprentice or two come sit with me and witness for themselves what unfolds in the journey space.

Who might be a good fit for apprenticing with me?

I'll be frank with you, it takes someone with enough sense of their own wellness to commit to the healing experience of others. As journey guides, we are not required to have reached some redeemed level of wellness. However, the awareness of our wellness AND our shadow is essential. It takes exquisite awareness and strong commitment, I think, to listen so cleanly within our own active systems, so deeply within our own experiences, to then be willing and able to turn around and guide others into their version of wholeness.

Curious to know more?

The more detailed view to all of this will be something we go over together on our exploratory call. Click below to apply and set up a time for it.