🫠 Ask a Guide Anything

PRESENTED BY ALTHEA 🤝

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter with zero commandments. In fact, we won’t ask you to believe anything… except maybe that mushrooms are neat. 😏

Look, we’re not here to bash anyone's faith.

But for every person who found comfort in their religious upbringing, there's another who spent years unlearning the message that they're fundamentally broken. Rigid belief systems and cults high-demand groups can leave pretty gnarly psychological scars.

So we asked our network of psychedelic practitioners: How do you work with clients healing from religious trauma or high-demand groups?

They explain their approaches below.

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Rebuild self-trust

When people exit high-control environments, they often lose the value system that once shaped their every decision. That can be extremely confusing. So Cathy Harris always begins by helping her clients unpack what happened: “Once clients understand the mechanics of coercion, things begin to make sense: why they stayed, why leaving was so complex, and why the aftermath feels so overwhelming.”

Then, the work becomes about reconnecting to their inner wisdom. Scott Dean explains: “Religious trauma doesn't just create fear of authority. It creates a profound distrust of self.” Katie Simons adds that “people have been taught they are 'bad' and that they must give their power away to an outer authority for salvation.” The healing process then must point them “towards their own personal authority, sovereignty, and empowerment.”

Clara Mackinlay focuses on “gently untangling the trio that keeps people trapped: fear, shame, and black-and-white thinking. Much of the work is helping them reconnect with intuition, autonomy, and their bodies after years of being taught to distrust themselves.”

Work gently with your body

Religious trauma isn’t neatly contained in the mind. It lives in the nervous system, too. For that reason, Avery Collura warns that these issues-in-our-tissues (in this case, “hypervigilance, shame, the sense that being 'wrong' is dangerous”) may pop right up to the surface. “Psychedelics can reopen those wounds quickly.”

That's why preparation is everything. Scott says that “before any psychedelic work, we spend time establishing nervous system safety, mapping triggers, and understanding how past conditioning might surface in an altered state.” Deeply held beliefs and judgements have a tendency to “show up as herculean protectors during ceremony.”

Oxana Kirsanova works with the body: “Somatic tools support nervous-system repair, reducing hypervigilance and fear. Integration work centers on reclaiming autonomy, reconnecting with intuition, and forming a self-chosen spiritual or secular worldview. The process is slow, compassionate, and guided by the client's pace.”

Your beliefs are your choice

This part is important. Guides are not here to offer a new doctrine or dogma. As Wallace Murray puts it, “Healing religious trauma doesn't require abandoning spirituality; it's about disentangling coercion from connection. My job isn't to convert anyone to or from anything. It’s to support them in reclaiming their own dignity, agency, and relationship to what feels sacred for them.”

Mary Decker holds the same boundary: “My role is to listen, validate, and walk beside them, not to replace one belief system with another, so they can remember who they were before the conditioning.”

And Cheri Coley sums it up: “A guide's role is to provide the client respect, agency, and safety to make meaning of their experiences without interjections of the guide's own spiritual, religious, or world views. Help the client reclaim their own inner terrain at their pace, in their words, through their truth.”

Our take

Psychedelics put you in a highly suggestible state.

This is true both during the acute experience and afterward. (That’s that neuroplasticity we’re always going on about.)

And while most facilitators have good intentions, not everyone does. History has shown what happens when charismatic leaders combine psychedelics with persuasion.

If you're healing from one high-control situation, the last thing you need is to stumble into another. So as you navigate this space, look out for red flags. If a guide positions themselves as a guru, demands unwavering loyalty, isolates you from others, or pressures you to make big decisions while you're still integrating…

Run the other way. Trust us. (No, wait. Trust yourself.)

Thanks to Mike H. from Lehi, UT for submitting this week’s question. 🫠

Got a question for our guides?

Reply to this email to shoot your shot. If it’s a juicy one, we may select it for a future issue.

Seeking more personalized guidance?

Our directory of vetted psychedelic professionals is a great place to start your search. Find a facilitator on Maria’s List.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

That’s all for today, Cyclists! Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.