Not Just Lip Service—Your Mushroom Guide Will Make All the Difference

You’ve heard me harp about it a zillion times, and just in case you folks in the nosebleeds didn’t hear it the first time, I’ll shout it one more time—your psilocybin guide will directly influence your session more than the mushrooms themselves. In fact, anecdotal roundups from dozens of clinical trials report the same thing—the deeper the trust between client and facilitator, the more profound and positive the experience tends to be. I say it like this not to minimize your courage and sacred intentions. It’s more of a public service announcement to make sure you’re comfortable with your facilitator before the preparation even starts.

Going Nowhere: A Case Study in Giving Up

Here’s a real world example. I was recently matched with a client via one of the service centers I work with. On paper, we seemed like a solid team—the client was looking for a man older than him who had experience navigating anxiety and is used to dealing with folks who are skeptical of plant medicine. Seemed like a classic sportsball slam dunk. 

However, once I reached out to schedule our screening call, we seemed to conceive of the experience in opposite terms. This client didn’t see the need for a screening call and wanted to schedule the session as soon as possible. Since this is a somewhat common objection—folks aren’t always informed about the importance of preparation—I reiterated the need for a screening call, hinted about my rigorous preparation process and reminded him of the thing I yelled about in the first paragraph here: trust between the client and facilitator is paramount and a solid screening call is generally where the psychedelic seeds of trust are planted. All that said, he stood his ground; we were at an impasse, and we needed to make a decision pronto. Because neither of us felt comfortable moving forward and both of us were already harboring frustration, I talked to the service center and asked them not to disqualify this candidate but to match him with another facilitator. 

And even though I will die on the hill of psychedelic preparation, this potential client wasn’t wrong to want a different kind of experience. There are thousands of reasons to prefer a different kind of psilocybin journey than the ones I tend to curate, including I kinda just want to show up and see what happens. And sometimes, our preferences are rooted in recent experience. After years of getting ignored and dismissed by the western medical system, some folks don’t have the stamina to fill out another form and sit through another preliminary conversation. And other facilitators aren’t wrong for putting less emphasis on preparation and allowing the journey to surface insight untethered to carefully crafted intentions. Sometimes, our intentions can blunt the spiritual impact of the journey and introduce a kind of script that is generally antithetical to transformation. 

The Critical Role of the Screening Call

Even though the example above didn’t even make it to the screening call step, let’s talk about what this is and why I think it’s essential. A psychedelic screening call is a conversation where you share why you’re compelled to psilocybin therapy and your past psychedelic experience. After an organic discussion, a facilitator will disclose their approach to all 3 stages of the therapy and give you an opportunity to ask about anything at all—from questions about soundtracks and ingestion to inquiries about the nature of intentions and integration. In the end, both the client and the facilitator will have decisions to make. Here’s what that looks like in my realm.

If I feel like I might not be the correct facilitator for you, I’ll encourage you to book a screening call with someone else. On your side of things, I’ll encourage you to sleep on it before we commit to moving forward. 

The Myriad Routes to Mushroom Journey Preparation

Once you decide—after thinking about the experience in the light of the call—to book a session, we begin the hard work of preparation. Because we had that initial conversation, my comprehensive intake form doesn't feel like an ambush. Indeed, you are expecting an all-encompassing and thorough prep session. Since you’re on board from the onset, your preparation will feel organic, necessary and most importantly, good.

That said, what if you actually weren’t comfortable with it but you decided to work with me anyway? Do you see how that micro decision starts to usurp this whole process? Rather than putting your whole self into our preparation, you’ll be subconsciously holding things back. As you go through the motions of prep, this can easily lead to shame and even fear. 

And when you show up to take mushrooms, your journey will be rockier because of it. Our container won’t be as strong. Dropping into the medicine will be more difficult too. If you had opted to work with a different facilitator whose process aligned more with your ethos, you’d be carrying less baggage into the ceremony, even if your preparation was less about your past and more about the upcoming experience.

A Psilocybin Therapy Session Doesn’t Always Look the Same

Speaking of that, here’s another reason to listen carefully during the screening call. Different facilitators have different aesthetic principles when guiding a journey. For example, I rely on the strength of our container and the rigor of our preparation to shepherd us through a journey. Once you’re dropped in, I try not to interfere at all. I use scents and music to amplify the experience and I’m actively supporting you—through breathing exercises, comforting touch, energy chanelling—during psychedelic turbulence, but for the most part, I’m sitting in the corner of the room, making sure you feel safe. 

You might not want that. You might prefer a facilitator who is more aligned with somatic principles or someone with a shamanic background who would play a more hands-on role in the proceedings. You might want someone who would readily let you listen to your own playlist or maybe you would feel more at home without scents, music or ritual at all.

While it’s difficult to imagine at the beginning of the process, all of these details are oh-so significant. If you walk into the psilocybin service center already wishing it resembled something else, that negative energy will sit in that room and take root. And yeah, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s certainly a distracting hurdle to work through in real time.

Book a Screening Call First. Decide Later

So, let us end where we began. Please don’t rush into psilocybin therapy. Even though you may be looking to relieve immediate suffering, it’s important to have a no-commitment screening call with your portenital facilitator. It will take 30 minutes, and it will optimize your psilocybin journey, whether it happens 2 weeks later or 2 years from now. 

While it’s impossible to create trust out of the thin air of a Zoom call, you can form impressions of a facilitator’s approach and personality. Since you’ll need to feel safe and supported during your trip, you’ll want to make a considered decision before dropping in mind-first into another dimension.

From my perspective, it’s simple. You’re gonna spend 6 hours tripping in a room with a blindfold on. It’s a weird, beautiful and challenging experience, one likely to have a profound impact on your future. Would you rather show up feeling uninspired and not aligned with your facilitator, and therefore, prone to an unpredictable drop-in and a more erratic journey? Or would you rather drop into this experience with no lingering frustrations and confident in the container you’ve built with someone you’ve learned to trust?