Psychedelic Safety First: Upholding Ethics, Inclusivity, and Participant Care in Psychedelic Spaces

Nov
4:00pm
Psychedelic Safety First: Upholding Ethics, Inclusivity, and Participant Care in Psychedelic Spaces

By PsyAware
As we witness the  structures and systems we live within begin to reveal their fault lines and power imbalances, so too are we seeing a great unveiling reflected in the psychedelic therapy space. With increasing attention for its potential to revolutionize health care, questions and concerns regarding ethics, safety and responsible practices become more pressing than ever before. "Psychedelic Safety First" brings together leading voices in the field to discuss these crucial issues, offering insights into the present and future of psychedelic therapy, both in regulated clinical settings and the expanding world of underground practices.

This event marks the official launch of PsyAware, a non-profit organisation dedicated to creating safer and more informed pathways for people  exploring psychedelic experiences. Through its Community Care Hub and Education Hub, PsyAware will provide much-needed aftercare, harm reduction education, and community resources for participants, facilitators, and the broader psychedelic community.

Join us for a thought-provoking day of presentations and discussions aimed at raising awareness about the ethical and safety challenges in psychedelic therapy, while also raising funds to support PsyAware’s mission. Together, we can help build a future where psychedelic therapy is accessible, safer, and rooted in decolonial praxis, justice and community care.

With your help, we can officially launch PsyAware and build the much-needed Support and Education Hubs that will shape and inform the future of safer and responsible psychedelic use.

Our event will be hosted on Crowdcast, and all attendees are required to register on the platform to access the session. The event will be recorded, so even if you’re a few minutes late, you can start watching from the beginning without waiting. Once registered, you’ll have unlimited access to the recording and can revisit it at any time. We look forward to sharing this experience with you!

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?
A warm welcome and a grounding ritual to connect as a community and set our shared intention for the day - with Mercedes Grant
An introduction to PsyAware - why it was founded, the needs it seeks to address, and its vision for the future -  by Anya Oleksiuk
Panel discussion “Beyond the Hype: Balancing Safety, Inclusivity and Accountability in Psychedelic Research” -  with Michelle Baker Jones, Tehseen Noorani, Danielle Herrera, Leonie Schneider and Hattie Wells
Panel discussion “Navigating the Underground: Safety and Ethics in Unregulated Psychedelic Therapy” with Daan Keiman, Akua Ofosuehene, Mikaela Dela Myco, Emily Sinclair and Jasmine Virdi
Plenty of  time for Q&As and community discussion
A closing ritual, a moment to reflect on the insights, connections, and intentions we’ve shared today
ABOUT PSYAWARE
PsyAware is a UK-based, not-for-profit organisation providing essential education and support systems in the psychedelic space. Our goal is to empower individuals and communities to enhance our collective wellbeing through better understanding and responsible, safer psychedelic practices.

Visit our website, and join our mailing list where we are building a more aware, connected, and caring psychedelic culture.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

PANEL 1: "Beyond the Hype: Balancing Safety, Inclusivity and Accountability in Psychedelic Research" with Michelle Baker Jones, Tehseen Noorani, Danielle Herrera, Leonie Schneider and Hattie Wells

Psychedelic therapy is at a crossroads. While the promise of these therapies continues to capture public attention, the journey from underground use to mainstream clinical acceptance has exposed significant gaps in safety, ethics, and participant care. As more trials are conducted to explore the therapeutic potential of substances like psilocybin, MDMA, and 5-MeO-DMT, the rush to meet increasing demand is putting immense pressure on researchers and sponsors to deliver quick results. But at what cost?
This panel will explore the ethical challenges and safety concerns within the fast-evolving world of psychedelic therapy. With participants often desperate for relief from mental health struggles, and sponsors pushing for rapid recruitment and study completion, the focus on patient well-being can be compromised. Many trials, despite promising outcomes, minimise or entirely disregard the importance of therapeutic support, including the vital spiritual, somatic, and communal healing modalities that are integral to these experiences.

We will tackle key issues such as:
The future of psychedelic therapy: Is it still on track to become mainstream, or are we risking safety and ethics for speed?
Participant safety: How can we ensure ethical recruitment and comprehensive care in a climate of pressure to fast-track studies?
The lack of proper therapeutic support during and after trials, as seen in cases like the 5-MeO-DMT study for postpartum depression
The exclusion of spiritual and community-based healing practices in clinical trials and what this means for holistic care
Informed consent: Are participants truly aware of the risks and the level of support they will receive?
Instances of abuse within the clinical space, including misconduct by well-known psychedelic researchers, and the need for greater accountability
Embodied justice and decolonization: Addressing power imbalances in psychedelic therapy and creating more inclusive, culturally aware approaches
The responsibility of clinical institutions to provide aftercare, and how they can partner with grassroots organisations to offer long-term support and community building
With psychedelics being hailed as a breakthrough in mental health treatment, there is a real danger of losing sight of the ethical responsibilities that should guide this work. For many, access to these therapies may be years away, and when it comes, the high cost and lack of aftercare may leave many underserved. This discussion will focus on how we can ensure safety and uphold justice in both clinical trials and broader therapeutic applications.

Join us as we explore how to create a more ethical, inclusive, and supportive model for psychedelic therapy, both in clinical settings and beyond.

PANEL 2: "Navigating the Underground: Safety and Ethics in Unregulated Psychedelic Healing Spaces" with Daan Keiman, Akua Ofosuehene, Mikaela Dela Myco, Emily Sinclair and Jasmine Virdi

As media outlets increasingly tout the potential of psychedelics to revolutionise mental health, many are left desperate for access to these promising treatments. However, with psilocybin therapy still in the early stages of legalisation across the US, UK, and Europe, and MDMA remaining under strict regulation following the FDA’s recent decision to withhold approval, the lack of accessible, affordable legal options has driven many to seek healing in unregulated, underground settings.

While the research is promising, the reality is that clinical trials only allow limited participants, and widespread legal access to these therapies may still be years away. Even then, the high cost of such treatments will pose significant barriers for those who may need it most.

In the meantime, unregulated retreats and underground therapy spaces are proliferating, often without the oversight or ethical standards needed to ensure participant safety.

We will explore the risks and responsibilities involved in this rapidly growing underground world, tackling issues including:
The ongoing status of psilocybin legalisation efforts in the US, UK, and Europe, and the limitations of current clinical trials
The explosion of retreat culture and the lure of unregulated therapy for those unable to access legal options
The rise of spiritual bypassing, narcissistic abuse, and even cult-like dynamics in some unregulated retreat spaces
Red flags and green flags: How to discern safe and ethical facilitators from those offering problematic or harmful practices
The critical importance of aftercare: The role of clinical institutions in supporting grassroots organisations to provide integration and long term after-care
How support networks and organisations can protect and assist individuals affected by unethical practices, harm and abuse
With the psychedelic field evolving faster than the regulatory frameworks that govern it, this conversation is essential for anyone interested in psychedelic retreats and underground therapy.

Whether you are a participant, facilitator, therapist, or researcher, this event will provide key insights into navigating the complexities of safety and ethics in underground retreats and therapies.

Join us as we chart a path toward creating safer, transparent, and responsible spaces for healing and consciousness exploration.

Questions? Email [email protected], and allow up to 48h for a reply. 

SPEAKERS

Michelle Baker Jones

Michelle is an integrative psychotherapeutic counsellor based in London, where she has a private practice. Currently Michelle has an honorary contract with Kings College Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience working on Psychedelic clinical trials with substances such as 5 MeO DMT and Methylone.

Michelle has been a member of Imperial College’s Psychedelic Research Group since 2015. She was a lead guide on Imperial College’s randomised controlled trial (Psilodep 2) comparing psilocybin to escitalopram in the treatment of depression. Michelle has recently been working as a lead therapist for Small Pharma’s clinical trials with DMT-assisted therapy for depression. This was originally a collaboration between Small Pharma and Imperial College London. She has contributed to the development of a therapist training programme for the DMT trials, having co-produced a psychedelic therapy framework for working with DMT. She also co-designed the Beckley Academy Foundations to Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy training course. Michelle is also an advisor for PsyAware and PsyCare UK.

Michelle also offers individual psychedelic integration for people who are struggling to process psychedelic experiences. She co-facilitates the psychedelic integration specialist interest group for The Institute of Psychedelic Therapy, drawing on her experience of facilitating integration groups over the past five years.

Dr Tehseen Noorani

Dr Tehseen Noorani is deeply engaged in exploring the phenomenological, epistemic, and therapeutic nature of two sets of extreme experiences: those induced by psychedelics and those that arise spontaneously, often pathologized as 'psychotic.' His research seeks to provide insights into how these experiences are understood through first-person inquiry, traditional knowledge systems, and contemporary scientific perspectives. This work is timely, as psychedelic experiences are rapidly becoming medicalized across the Global North, while psychotic experiences are being reclaimed and celebrated through movements like Mad Pride, neurodiversity advocacy, and the emerging field of Mad Studies.

With training and teaching experience across anthropology, psychology, sociology, socio-legal studies, epidemiology, and science and technology studies, Dr Noorani has collaborated with anthropologists, human geographers, sociologists, psychopharmacologists, mental health service users, Mad Pride organizations, indigenous communities, and healthcare professionals. These diverse engagements inform his interests in the epistemological, ethical, and methodological challenges inherent in cross-disciplinary and participatory research.

At the University of Auckland, Dr Noorani leads the "Community Strategising about Psychedelic Therapy in Aotearoa" (CSaPTA) project, an 18-month philanthropically funded initiative launching in February 2024. He also convenes the international, multi-disciplinary working group "Reimagining Psychedelic Trials."

Danielle Herrera

Danielle M. Herrera, LMFT has a long history working with “addictions,” recovery, and harm reduction in community mental health and private practice. Her love of people who use drugs inspired her to train in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy early in the field's infancy. In her practice now, she works with "drugs -- full spectrum" -- from chaotic use to healing use. She currently runs her small group private practice, Tender Hearts Healing Arts, where she sees clients in Oakland (Ohlone land) and virtually in California, providing treatment in the form of psychedelic psychotherapy, psychedelic integration, harm reduction psychotherapy, and couples/family therapy. She is a course facilitator with Beckley Academy, a supervisor and clinical consultant for Alchemy Community Therapy, California Institute of Integral Studies, Center for Mindful Psychotherapy, and now serves on the Board of Directors for DanceSafe National. 

She facilitates training for practitioners in the foundations of relationally-centered psychedelic assisted therapies from a decolonized lens. Her framework is Jungian, emotion-focused, somatic, and spiritual, centering Indigenous epistemologies, ritual, and ceremony. Danielle focuses on careful attunement to systemic oppressions that impact the individual within a complicated ecosystem while helping clients with meaning-making. She has always been drawn to the “outsiders” and loves working with people experiencing spiritual emergence or emergency, exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness or mystical experiences, Queer & Trans BIPOC, people who use drugs, and others outside of the mainstream.

Daan Keiman

Daan Keiman holds an MA in Spiritual Care from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a co-founder of the Communitas Collective Foundation, a psychedelic think-and-practice tank that explores, refines, and disseminates ethical approaches, community-based models, and best practices to psychedelic care. He has more than 15 years of experience supporting people preparing for, moving through, and integrating psychedelic journeys.

In addition to his private practice, Daan has worked as a lead facilitator and Director of Product and Program Development at the Synthesis Institute, where he also served as Director of Ethics and Advocacy. He teaches in a range of international psychedelic practitioner training programs and has shared his work at Psychedelic Science ‘23, ICPR, Breaking Convention, Chacruna, Harvard Divinity School, and various podcasts. Daan is also a co-founder of the Guild of Guides Netherlands, which seeks to professionalise psychedelic sitting services.

Daan maintains a private practice as a Buddhist and Psychedelic Chaplain, drawing from his Buddhist practices and psychedelic research to create compassionate, transformative spaces.

Akua Ofosuhene

Akua Ofosuhene is a psychedelic guide, integration coach, and advocate for therapeutic plant medicine, with expertise in Psilocybin and Ayahuasca. Her journey began eight years ago after her teenage son was groomed into a drug-dealing ring, an experience that brought depression, high blood pressure, and a cancer scare. With conventional systems falling short, Akua turned to psychedelic medicine, African spirituality, and alternative healing, transforming her life and successfully guiding her son toward healing.

Akua now supports parents affected by grooming, gang influence, and coercive control, assisting them in their own healing journeys and in setting intentions and integrating their psychedelic experiences. As founder of African Spiritual Practices events and co-founder of Hub and Culture Cooperative Popup Shops, she blends her expertise with community-building initiatives. She also leads retreats in Ghana, Portugal, and the Canary Islands, offering compassionate, one-to-one guidance.

Akua is a respected speaker and has shared her knowledge at Oxford University, UCL, Drug Science, and Breaking Convention, the UK’s largest psychedelic conference. Known for her advocacy and unique approach, she brings together psychedelic practices, African spirituality, and healing modalities to foster deep, transformative growth for her clients. In addition, Akua is an accomplished dressmaker, blending artistry with her holistic approach to well-being.

Mikaela dela Myco

Mikaela de la Myco comes from a blended ancestry. Her ancestors come from southern Italy, the Caribbean and Mexico and she uplifts their perspectives in the space of entheogens. In her everyday life, she serves as a mother, an educator, a folk herbalist, a community organizer and an entheogen facilitator in occupied Kumeyaay & Luiseno territory, also known as San Diego, CA. She cares for all people with ancestral healing ways and holds a special focus on serving small-businesses, cooperatives, non-monogamous people, psychedelic families, femmes, and people seeking full-spectrum herbal womb care.

Mikaela has collaborated as an educator and activist with hundreds of companies and organizations within the sacred earth medicine space and is well-known as a maternal caretaker in the community.

​Her platforms, Mama de la Myco and mushWOMB generate educational content. She founded the Tapped Out Coalition (responding to traumatic events by seeking justice for unpaid bipoc healers and workers). Mikaela de la Myco stands for rematriating entheogens by advocating for ethics and womb-to-tomb psychedelic literacy.

Emily Sinclair

Emily is an anthropologist of ayahuasca shamanism. Her PhD research, focusing on developing gender dynamics and cosmology, was based in Iquitos, Peru, where she lived and worked as a centre facilitator, apprentice and anthropologist between 2014 and 2022. She is a member of Chacruna Institute's Ayahuasca Community Committee and led their initiative to combat sexual abuse in ayahuasca contexts, co-creating their 'Guidelines for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse aimed at safeguarding participants in ayahausca settings. As a single mother of three year old daughter Aeva, she is also now working in the field of 'Psychedelic Parenthood' and is interested in making our communities open to and safe for 'psychedelic parents' and their children.

Leonie Schneider

Leonie Schneider co-founded the Psychedelic Participant Advocacy Network (PsyPAN) after accessing psychedelic assisted psychotherapy in clinical trials. Participating in the Psilocybin for Depression clinical trial at Imperial College (2019) and Small Pharma’s DMT for Depression trial (2022) provided Leonie with a new path to improved mental health and enabled focused professional action. She had not found long-term relief with antidepressant medication or from conventional talking therapies prior to that.Leonie has since spoken publicly to raise awareness of the possibilities and pitfalls of psychedelic medicine and the importance of integration, including for Women in Psychedelics (Drug Science), BBC Science Focus, Scientific American and the upcoming documentary The Psychedelic Renaissance. She actively represents patient interests on Drug Science’s industry-wide Medical Psychedelics Working Group, supports the delivery of world-class psychedelic retreats in the Netherlands with Alalaho and is a circle facilitator on the ACER Integration programme.

Leonie offers a holistic overview of the clinical trial experience from a participant perspective and across different psychedelics. She aims to expand access to these treatments by advocating for the safe, intentional and integrated use of psychedelics which led to her founding PsyPAN with Ian Roullier in 2021. PsyPAN aims to pool participants’ lived experiences and, through consultancy and accreditation, help organisations create more effective treatment models, maximise positive outcomes and create a sector-wide model of best practice with participant wellbeing at its heart.

Hattie Wells - Moderator

Hattie Wells is a psychedelic guide, ethnobotanist and drug policy reform advocate with over twenty years of experience researching and working with psychedelics. Her experience with clinical research includes LSD, ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT Phase I trials and she is currently working on Beckley Psytech's 5-MeO-DMT Phase II trials, both as a therapy guide and global advisor. She started working with 5-MeO-DMT in the early 2000s, carrying out independent research with the compound. At this time, she was also facilitating ibogaine treatments for addiction interruption, and has continued to support research into ibogaine’s therapeutic potential, most recently working on the Demerx Phase I ibogaine trial in London.

Over the last decade, she has worked with non-profit organisations such as the Beckley Foundation, Transform Drug Policy Foundation and ICEERS, in an effort to support psychedelic science initiatives, challenge the needless criminalisation of people who use certain drugs, and chart an equitable path forward that minimises the risks and maximises the benefits of psychedelic drug use.

Hattie is also an executive director of Breaking Convention, Europe’s largest conference on psychedelic consciousness, and an integral part of the PsyAware team, focusing on the creation of the Support Hub and curating PsyAware events.

Jasmine Virdi - Moderator

Jasmine Virdi (she/her) is a writer, educator, poet, activist, and harm reduction practitioner based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her writing centers on psychedelics, spirituality, and deep ecology and has been featured in DoubleBlind Magazine, Open Democracy, Psychedelics Today, Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, Psychedelic Press, Synthesis Institute and Lucid News. Jasmine has an MSc in Transpersonal Psychology and offers private coaching and mentorship to clients. She is an advocate for decolonizing healing practices, and integrates earth-based wisdom, trauma-informed, and somatic approaches into her work.

Since 2018, she has collaborated with the independent publisher Synergetic Press, where her passions for ethnobotany, consciousness, and regeneration converge. Additionally, she volunteers for Fireside Project’s psychedelic peer-support line, aligned with their mission to provide compassionate, accessible, and culturally responsive support to all. Often breaking away into the wilderness, Jasmine can be found wherever there are birds singing. You can follow her work and find out about her offerings here.

Jasmine is an integral part of the PsyAware team, focusing on the creation of the Support Hub and curating PsyAware events.

Mercedes Grant - Facilitator

Mercedes is a queer femme witch, writer, activist, community organizer, trauma-focused and justice oriented yoga teacher, psychonaut and trauma-focused somatic breathwork certification apprentice, currently practicing on the island of the T’oq qaymexw in the traditional territory of the Klahoose, Tla'Amin, and Homalco First Nations, on Turtle Island, with ancestral rootsin Ireland, Scotland and England.
She holds over 500 hours of certified yogic education, with a focus on trauma recovery through a disability justice lens, having created and facilitated educational and therapeutic workshops and training programs focused on substance use and trauma recovery within a modern, harm reduction framework. She is currently completing a 2 year, 1000 hour trauma-focused somatic breathwork certification with Breathwork for Recovery.

She is educated in journalism, creative writing and documentary filmmaking, and has produced, directed and written several films. She likes to write about the intersections of death, drugs, grief, science, healing, power, politics, solidarity, magick and Collapse, and currently has bylines in The Daily Beast and Doubleblind magazine, among others.

Mercedes has contributed to the psychedelic and plant medicine space since 2015, providing strategic communications, crisis management, event production and film production support to organisations including Therapsil, The Psychedelic Chronicles documentary film project, the Spirit Plant Medicine Conference, and the 2018 and 2020 Psychedelic Psychotherapy Forum. She is currently working with Psyaware, a not-for-profit organisation providing essential education and support systems in the psychedelic space.

Anya Oleksiuk - Host

Anya Oleksiuk is a documentary filmmaker, event organiser, and educator. She co-founded PsyAware in May 2024, shaping organisational strategy and support systems with a strong emphasis on ethics and community involvement.

From June 2018 to June 2024, she served as co-director of the Psychedelic Society UK, spearheading psychedelic education, harm reduction initiatives, and overseeing strategic planning, administration, and finances. As a safeguarding officer, she played a crucial role in handling reports and establishing safe practice guidelines. Anya has frequently hosted renowned figures like Gabor Maté, Dave Nichols, Amanda Feilding, Camille Barton, Dr Rosalind Watts or Leonard Pickard, curated talks on psychedelic research, therapy, drug policy, and ethics, and organised numerous large-scale events such as the Ayahuasca Symposium (2018) and Psilocybin Symposium (2021) and Drug Policy Symposium (2022). From 2019 to 2022, she curated the educational programme for Anthropos Festival, and she also serves as a consultant for the Polish Psychedelic Society and an advisor to Global Psychedelic Society.

In her filmmaking, Anya explores themes of psychedelics, mental health, drug advocacy, social justice, and regenerative living. She has collaborated with organisations such as ACER Integration, Beckley Foundation, Small Pharma, King's College Psychedelic Trial Team, The Hemp Trading Company and BDS Movement. Her latest project, The Psychedelic Chronicles, captures the resurgence of the psychedelic movement in the West, highlighting the intersection of indigenous practices, the mental health crisis, and Western capitalism.
hosted by
PsyAware