S3 | E4 Ashley Carmen

I'm joined from Austin by Ashley Carmen, a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of the Psychedelic Guide Network (PGN), where she trains practitioners in the ethics and interior work of guiding others through non-ordinary states. Ethics isn't the sexy part of psychedelic medicine, but Ashley makes the case that it's where the real transformation happens, for guides as much as for the people they serve.

Ashley traces her path on two tracks: a childhood without much honor or respect, a connection she made during an ayahuasca experience, and a clinical career where hundreds of hours of required consultation showed her what was missing in the psychedelic space. Her own road to the medicine ran from mushrooms on a pizza in sixth grade, to witnessing substance-induced psychosis in inpatient rehab, to finally answering the call with intention in Tahoe, then training with MAPS and the School of Consciousness Medicine.

From there we get into Kylea Taylor's InnerEthics model, which asks practitioners to look at the motivation and intention behind everything they say and do in the journey room, and then we get very practical about how to find a safe guide. I share some of my own experiences as a guide, including times my projections crept into someone else's journey.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why inner ethics beats a rulebook, and how it becomes shadow work for practitioners
• The practitioner as the container, and what a "clean container" really means
• How medicines amplify attraction, projection, and a guide's need to feel useful
• The questions to ask a facilitator, and why operating in isolation is a red flag
• Why a guide who won't tell you what you're taking is violating your sovereignty
• Co-facilitation, group ceremony ratios, and who should avoid solo journeys
• Integration, aftercare, and why three prep and three integration sessions is the minimum
• Why the FDA is only one umbrella over psychedelic work, and the case for standards for coaches

You can find Ashley, and PGN's free monthly live events, at psychedelicguidenetwork.com.