Increasing the Safety of Ayahuasca Sessions

How can a person’s situation get worse after taking ayahuasca? We will review the five main dangers for participants, including overwhelming effects or misinterpreting the experience (such as "ayahuasca told me..."). We will examine best practices and risk reduction for each case.

What are the dangers facing facilitators offering ayahuasca sessions? We will cover legal and ethical questions, intercultural misunderstandings, and more.
We will review the main risks for facilitators and analyze better ethical and safety practices to prevent and manage these situations.

We will review seven documents covering the entire ayahuasca ceremony process for both guides and participants. This includes health questionnaire, participant release form, pre-interview guide, emergency protocols,  and guides for the management of sharing circles and integration processes.

This module will cover psychology lessons related to ayahuasca work including vulnerable patients, addictions, grief, narcissism, and trauma. We will examine specific ethical aspects of working with altered states of consciousness, spiritual bypass, dual relationship dynamics, and the crucial role of supervision.

We will also discuss cultural aspects that impact ayahuasca practices.

José Carlos Bouso is a psychologist, pharmacologist, and ICEERS' Scientific Director. He will offer scientific insight such as drug interactions, how to deal with emergencies, bioethics, and the culture of trauma.

Marc Aixalà, founder of the ICEERS Support Center, has extensive experience dealing with crises related to altered states of consciousness. He will share the main lessons he has gathered after attending hundreds of cases at the ICEERS Support Center over the last 10 years.

Students will complete a final assignment which is a self-diagnosis based on what they have learned in the course. They will pinpoint possible areas of improvement, the advantages and impacts of these changes, and define the next steps.

Not at all. This is a course for people who are already experienced in facilitating ayahuasca sessions (either as guides, assistants, or organizers) and are looking to reduce risks and strengthen the safety and ethics of the work.

This course is not for you if you don't already organize ayahuasca sessions and want to learn how to do it. We don’t recommend attempting to learn something like this through an online course. It would be like trying to learn surgery on the internet. You may learn a lot of theory, but in practice, you would be unable to perform.

A large part of the course is applicable to anyone facilitating experiences with altered states of consciousness (preparation, integration, ethics, etc).

However, a key part of the program revolves around aspects that are very specific to ayahuasca, such as drug interactions, group sessions, and the relationship to cultures of origin. The course won’t delve into the nuanced situation of other medicines (such as mushrooms, San Pedro, or the Sonoran Desert Toad).

That being said, if you can't find a course specific to the plants or substances you work with, our program will offer some useful tools to increase the safety of your work.

Yes, it can certainly be useful to you. Safety not only depends on the people who facilitate these experiences, but also on the entire team. A large part of reducing the risks of working with plants does not happen during the session, but rather before and after (screening, integration, etc).

Non-Amazonian contexts present particular challenges and needs that are often not present in traditional scenarios. This course will look at ways to increase safety and avoid the main risks that occur when traditional ayahuasca sessions take place outside of the Amazon.

We define a non-Indigenous or non-traditional context as ayahuasca sessions that take place outside of traditional communities and are conducted under different conditions, whether in the Amazon or elsewhere.

For example, when Indigenous healers share ayahuasca in their communities, it is a traditional context. When the same healers go outside of their country and offer a ceremony in a city (even if the ceremony is traditional), the context is no longer the same.

This course focuses on increasing safety in non-Indigenous or non-traditional contexts.

You can register now! Regular applications for the course are open until April 12th.

Application for scholarships close April 2nd

Course begins May 6th and ends Nov 14th.

First live call will be May 9th, from 19:00 to 20:30h CEST. There will be a recording if you cannot attend.

This course will take place every year on similar dates. To be notified of future editions of the course you can leave your email here.

The course lasts approximately six months. It starts on May 8th and ends on November 15th, 2023.

The course is designed to adapt to your schedule. Every monday there are new video lessons (about 1h) released that you can watch at your own pace. 

The biweekly live dialogues take place every other Thursday from 19:00h to 20:30h Central European time. If you can't attend them there will be a recording uploaded to platform the day after.

So, mo matter your schedule you can always access the contents.

See the complete agenda of the course.

To complete the course you will need to:

• Watch all the videos, approximately one hour per week (4 hours per month).
• Participate in the dialogues (1.5 hours every two weeks / 3 hours per month)

The course will require between seven and nine hours of work per month, a little less than two hours per week on average.

Here you can see the complete agenda of the course.

Of course, this is the second lesson in full

How we learn: https://vimeo.com/812163632/ec9f574133

And here are some sections from the intro to the course class

About Iceers: https://vimeo.com/809193344/583b49639b 

About Jero: https://vimeo.com/809197462/d43ec5c08b

Teachers: https://vimeo.com/809197666/18f19872bb 

What we will and we will not learn: https://vimeo.com/809197711/19b0d11321

How the course works: https://vimeo.com/809191292/ac979712b8

All live dialogues will be recorded and uploaded to platform the day after, so that those who have to miss them for some reason can still access the content

In order to make the course accessible to students from different countries, we have set the price on a scale adapted to the country where they reside.

A countries - €135

A countries include:

Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and others.

Full list of A countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Islamic Republic of Persian Gulf, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Micronesia, Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestinian Territory, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, United Republic of Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Tokelau, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia

B countries - €195

B countries include Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, South Africa, and others

The full list of B countries:
Albania, American Samoa,  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Georgia, Grenada, Guyana, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Namibia, Niue, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Serbia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Suriname, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uruguay.

C countries - €495 (to be made in two payments of €247.50)

C countries include EU-area countries, USA, Canada, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and others.

Full list of C countries:
Aland Islands, Andorra, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Guam, Guernsey, Holy See (Vatican City State), Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Korea, Republic of South Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands, Wallis and Futuna.

Additionally, there is a limited number of scholarships for people who can demonstrate financial need, risk of social exclusion, or who belong to marginalized or underrepresented groups. Until April 2nd, you can request scholarships during the regular application process.

In the case of larger organizations, we think it is  useful for as many staff members as necessary to attend the course.

We offer discounts to groups from the same organization from 4 people onwards.

To apply for group discount, write an email to ayasafety (at) iceers (.) org

ICEERS will refund 80% of the course fee (minus transaction costs) only if the cancellation is made before May 6th, the date the course starts. After that, only 50% of the amount (minus transaction costs) will be refunded.

In case of non-payment of the second installment, one month after the beginning of the course (June 6th, 2024) the student's account will be deleted, and they will lose all payments made up to that point.

Participants will receive a certificate of attendance at the end of the course.
To do this, each student must:

• Watch all videos.
• Attend all of the live dialogues (or watch the recordings which will be uploaded to the platform the day after).
• Write a final paper. This will entail making a self-diagnosis of your practice based on what you learned in the course and specifying areas of strength and improvement. It will also highlight the necessary steps, cost, and impact on your practice.

The certificate will be valid for 5 years. After completing the course, students will continue to have access to the video classes and resources, for 5 years, so that they can consult them when needed. Note: Recordings of live dialogues will only be available until the next course begins.

See the complete agenda of the course.

To contact us, please use the contact form, or write to ayasafety (at) iceers.org.