Center for the Study of World Religions brings psychedelic chaplaincy to the forefront through workshops and training landscape analysis

Psychedelic chaplaincy is emerging as a needed form of spiritually responsive care for people having psychedelic experiences in both clinical and community settings. Harvard Divinity School through the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) highlights a gap in spiritual support around treatments such as ketamine, where only about half of patients were connected to chaplaincy interns before or after treatment. CSWR developed a multi-year plan after observing internships at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, then commissioned a US landscape analysis based on interviews with representatives from 13 psychedelic facilitation training programs. The analysis informed intensive workshops in September and December that gathered therapists, chaplains, and other professionals to discuss spiritually attuned training, spiritual care in psychedelic churches and groups, navigation of law and practice, and handling spiritual or theological differences that can arise from psychedelic experiences.