Cultivating Responsible Psychedelic Practice Through Community and Care
At Karuna Communitas, our work is guided by a simple but profound intention: to make transformative, healing experiences more accessible, while holding safety, ethics, and community care at the centre of everything we do.
As part of this commitment, the directors of Karuna Communitas have recently begun participating in a Gathering Groups community of practice. Gathering Groups is a structured twelve-week programme designed to support psychedelic well-being through education, preparation, and integration, and it includes a carefully facilitated legal two-night medicine retreat in the Netherlands. This training represents an important step in deepening our understanding of how to responsibly and compassionately work with psychedelic experiences within a legal and ethical framework.
Why Gathering Groups?
Psychedelic experiences can be meaningful and beneficial, but they are not a standalone solution. Research and lived experience consistently highlight the importance of preparation, safe container setting, and integration for lasting positive outcomes. Gathering Groups places these principles at the heart of its approach.
The programme we are currently undertaking focuses on:
Education around psychedelic effects, risks, and best practices
Psychological and emotional preparation prior to ceremony
Group-based relational support and shared reflection
Structured integration practices following the experience
By participating as a community of practice, facilitators train not only in guiding experiences, but also in holding group process, ethical boundaries, and long-term wellbeing.
Building Capacity Before Offering Programmes
At Karuna Communitas, we believe it is essential to walk the path ourselves before offering it to others. This training is not about rushing to deliver services, but about building capacity, integrity, and embodied understanding first.
Upon completing the Gathering Groups programme, our intention is to:
Continue refining our skills through supervised practice
Share learned frameworks and principles with our wider community
Develop future training opportunities rooted in cooperation and reciprocity
Only once we are confident that we can offer support responsibly, legally, and accessibly will we move toward facilitating broader programmes.
A Long-Term Vision for Access and Equity
Looking ahead, our aspiration is to help create affordable and legally compliant psilocybin programmes for those who could benefit but are often excluded due to cost, stigma, or lack of access. We recognise the complex legal landscape and remain committed to operating transparently and within the law at every stage.
This journey is about more than psychedelic experiences themselves. It is about cultivating community, restoring connection, and reducing mental, emotional, and physical suffering through careful, compassionate practice.
We are grateful to be learning alongside the Gathering Groups community and look forward to sharing more as our training progresses.