Dana R. went through a psychedelic practitioner training program led by Zappy Zapolin, Lois, and Shawn that taught pharmacology, legality, and clinical use of psychedelic medicines. She learned to set client intentions, conduct integration, and discuss dosing and therapeutic applications. The weekly speakers, recorded sessions, and mentorship community transformed her from directionless into a confident guide.
Chapters
What I really liked about this program was that it provided an avenue for people who are interested in using psychedelics to help them either grow or heal or find another method of treatment in a way that they could get directed to what medicine they need, where they might need to go to get it, and have the support before and after. And that's because my experience I spent years just trying all these different things with no direction and no guidance. And I just know that that's not the best way for people to work with psychedelics. And this program puts it all together so that we as guides can help people who were like me, interested in trying, but had no idea where to go. We are now being trained to understand the different medicines to help answer any questions that come up about the use of psychedelics and also which one might be appropriate for them to consider and investigate and then referrals on where they might want to go. What I love about the course, it provides the structure and all of the clinical information that we need on each different types of medicine that people might be willing to work with. But what really makes a difference is our speaker programs, the speakers who come to our courses. Every week there's a different speaker telling us that either about a different medicine, a different modality, the legality, all these different topics so that we as guides We'll always be ready and prepared for whatever's coming the way of our clients. And I think that's one of the things that is really valuable to— it's not just a take the coursework and then apply it. This is take the coursework, listen to what people are saying, deep dive, and we have resources available. If we have further questions, we can contact those speakers. And then the other thing that's great is this community and learning from each other and their experiences. And we just have open conversations and dialogue so that we're all learning together. The team is amazing. Zappy has the vision and is always on the calls and just motivating everyone. He's sharing his work and he's keeping us engaged as if, you know, as if he's one of us. And so it's not like he's just the head. He's involved, he's hands-on, comes to retreats, facilitates, and it's done a great job. So as, and as a leader, he's just so inspirational because he's an advocate for psychedelics. And it gives us a model to follow what can be done. And then Lois, program director, provides a structure that is so needed in a program like this. Not only is the, the curriculum developed, the workbooks developed, the follow-up, and everything is concise and organized so you don't have to look where everything is. And it's just the structure is amazing. And then if people are doing the executive practitioner with Shawn, he's phenomenal in both the training that's provided to us online, but really when he helps us apply it so that we can make a business and build a practice with what learned so that we can put it all together and serve other people. I was hoping— I didn't know what I was hoping I'd find. You know, I knew I wanted to understand more about the entire psychedelics use, but I didn't realize how much more I would be learning instead of just the how they work and what they do, but also the opportunity to understand the experiences so that we could tell our clients what to expect and what not to expect. Then also, I'm learning how to set the intention and how to help our clients set the intention so that they will have a journey that's planned for them, and also the, the importance of integration. As I mentioned, my past, there was no integration, and so anything that I got was gone. And our goal is to make each journey or experience meaningful and lasting, and to do that, it takes the preparation and intention, which I wasn't even aware was needed when I started the course. You know, it's, it's amazing is I have really embodied now what I've been learning. And so as people come to me and ask me questions about psychedelics, I feel confident in being able to discuss the different medications, how it's used, should someone be microdosing, should someone look for a different experience. And I just have a sense of confidence in establishing also my own expertise. And so I feel so much more confident in myself in doing this than I did when I started. When I started, I'm just like, "I don't want to do this. I don't know what I'm gonna do." Like, by now I feel very confident that I can help support other people. I think that the, the two things are the most delightful surprises is the quality and number of speakers that we have, and that if you miss them, they're all accessible. So if you missed that session that night, you can go back and it's all accessible because they're all recorded. And also you can them. If you had a question about this one topic, you can go back to it. So it's not like a one thing. And that's been just great having this resource. And like I said, the community is, is a huge surprise that it's turned into such a wonderful community where we're all helping each other. We're all in this together. We don't feel as if each other's competition. We're going to raise everyone higher.
