Tending the Spiritual In Psychedelic Care for Clinical Settings

SEPTEMBER 19-21

The Tending the Spiritual workshop for clinical settings provided attendees with a broad overview of approaches to spiritually responsive care tailored to clinical psychedelic settings. Learn more about this pilot program and the CSWR's psychedelic chaplaincy efforts in the Harvard Gazette.

Organized and hosted by Jeffrey Breau and Paul Gillis-Smith and the Center for the Study of World Religions, these workshops are a collaborative effort with Roman Palitsky, MDiv, PhD and Caroline Peacock, LCSW, DMin, both of whom are affiliated with Emory University. Roman and Caroline will lead the workshop along with guest lecturers.

Note: this workshop is application-based, and applications have now closed.

Workshop Information

Find information below on the schedule, lecturers, and modules for this "Tending the Spiritual" workshop. Direct any questions to psychedelics@hds.harvard.edu

Caroline Peacock (lead facilitator): Rev. Caroline Peacock, DMin, LCSW, MDiv, is the director of spiritual health for Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Dr. Peacock is a certified educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, an ordained Episcopal priest, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a certified teacher in Cognitively Based Compassion Training™. She has been with Emory Healthcare since 2013, where she received her training as a spiritual health educator. Prior to training in spiritual health, she worked as a clinical social worker in New York City. She has a passion for offering compassionate, respectful, inclusive and effective patient and family-centered care.

Roman Palitsky (lead facilitator): Roman Palitsky, MDiv, Ph.D. is Director of Research Projects for Emory Spiritual Health and Assistant Professor for Emory University School of Medicine. His research program investigates the pathways through which culture and health interact by examining the biological, psychological, and social processes that constitute these pathways. His areas of interest include biopsychosocial determinants in cardiovascular health, chronic pain, and grief. In collaboration with Emory Spiritual Health, his research addresses cultural and existential topics in healthcare such as religion, spirituality, and the way people find meaning in suffering, as they relate to health and illness. His work has also focused on the role of religious and existential worldviews in mindfulness-based interventions, as well as implementation and cultural responsiveness of these interventions.

Bob (Robert) Jesse (guest lecturer): Bob Jesse has long been a guiding force behind the contemporary re-emergence of psychedelics. In the mid-90s, he convened an expert group, the Council on Spiritual Practices, which was instrumental in forming the psilocybin research team at Johns Hopkins. Jesse co-authored that team's first paper, "Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance" (2006). He has led the drafting of foundational documents: a Code of Ethics for Spiritual Guides (1995), an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court (2005) in a successful religious liberty case, and a Statement on Open Science (2017) signed by numerous leaders in psychedelics. He has served on several boards of directors in the field. Previously, Jesse trained at Hopkins in engineering, consulted for AT&T Bell Labs, and worked at Oracle Corp. as a VP of business development. At Bell Labs and at Oracle, his advocacy initiatives led to marked advances for lesbian and gay employees and their families. Now, he continues to collaborate with individuals and groups working in psychedelics.

Sarah Crabtree (guest lecturer): Sarah A. Crabtree, Ph.D., LMFT (she/her) is the Assistant Director of Research, a licensed couple/marriage and family therapist, and a training seminar leader at the Albert & Jessie Danielsen Institute of Boston University. Her clinical and scholarly interests lie in and at the intersections of psychotherapy assessment, process, and outcome; religious, spiritual, existential, and theological concerns and experiences; the development of authentic virtue and holistic human flourishing; romantic relationships; and the effects of trauma and systemic injustice. Dr. Crabtree has taught couple and family therapy courses in graduate level training programs at Boston University (Boston, MA) and Bethel University (St. Paul, MN). She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Psychotherapy Research, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the New England Association for Family and Systemic Therapy.

Stephen Lewis (guest lecturer): Steve Lewis (he/him) is a Chaplain at UC San Diego Health. In addition to offering spiritual and emotional support for patients and families across the life cycle, he actively participates in research studies in critical care and palliative care contexts. He holds an MA in Professional Counseling, a Doctor of Ministry, is board certified through the Association of Professional Chaplains, and is an ordained minister in a mainline Christian denomination. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Maryland, Baltimore with a research focus on spiritual assessment in psychedelic assisted therapy. He completed certified training in MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD through MAPS/Lykos in 2021. He is a co-convener of the Transforming Chaplaincy Psychedelic Care Network, a gathering of over 300 educators, researchers, and spiritual care professionals. Steve is the lead author of a journal article currently under review identifying and describing core competencies for Chaplains in psychedelic assisted therapy and has presented on spiritual care and psychedelics at several national chaplaincy and palliative care conferences. Steve lives in Encinitas, California with his spouse and dog, and enjoys ocean activities, spiritual practices, coffee, and soccer.

Susana Bustos (guest lecturer): Susana Bustos, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and music therapist trained in Chile; certified Holotropic Breathwork practitioner, and carrier of an Ashaninkan curandera lineage. Susana’s work explores the healing potential of expanded states of consciousness, the art of integration, and the emerging intersection between entheogenic shamanic traditions and Western psychotherapy. She directed the Spiritual Emergency Network in the US (2016-2020), and between 2022-2025 she was part of the core team that implemented the Psychedelic Facilitation Training at the Berkeley Center for the Study of Psychedelics, leading the Ancestral Entheogenic Traditions curriculum. She currently co-directs the Escuela de Psicovegetalismo; teaches and mentors students for the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and for international training programs in Spain, Colombia, and Chile; and serves as a subject matter expert for the Board of Psychedelic Medicines and Therapies. Susana holds a private practice in Berkeley, CA.

Tara Deonauth (guest lecturer): Tara Deonauth, MDiv, BCC is a board certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains whose work centers on providing interfaith spiritual care to vulnerable populations, including individuals experiencing homelessness, patients with psychiatric illnesses, and those at the end of life. She currently serves as a chaplain for people experiencing homelessness on and near Boston Common with the MANNA (Many Angels Needed Now and Always) Community. She also supervises Harvard Divinity School master's students training in psychedelic chaplaincy, where she earned her Master of Divinity. Previously, she served as Spiritual Care Manager at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital for three years, where she expanded the department's reach through student and volunteer programming and co-developed Harvard’s first clinical psychedelic chaplaincy training program in collaboration with the hospital’s ketamine clinic. She is currently adapting that model for use in other clinical settings. An article co-authored with Jeffrey Breau and Paul Gillis-Smith detailing the protocol is slated for publication in the Anthropology of Consciousness in fall 2025. Tara is on track to complete a Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research through the California Institute of Integral Studies in September and she is a member of Transforming Chaplaincy's Psychedelic Care Network.

Module 1: Overview of Spiritual, Existential, Religious, and Theological (SERT) domains in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy (PAT), and approaches to engaging SERT domains from chaplaincy and spiritually integrated psychotherapy (Roman Palitsky and Sarah Crabtree)

In this workshop, participants will learn the definitions of SERT terms and gain understanding of how they may be present within psychedelic experience. Participants will learn how chaplains, psychotherapists, and other disciplines may approach SERT concerns within PAT settings. Participants will learn about the diversity of SERT themes that may be present for persons utilizing psychedelics.

Module 2: Overview of Spiritual Health Practitioner (SHP) Competencies in PAT (Steve Lewis and Caroline Peacock)

In this workshop, participants will learn about the competencies that spiritual health practitioners/chaplains may offer in PAT contexts. Participants will be introduced to a variety of competencies, including: holding space, understanding non-ordinary states of consciousness, understanding/responding to spiritual material, complementing biomedical perspectives, awareness of power dynamics, interdisciplinary collaboration, and generalizable therapeutic skills. Participants will learn from case examples of these skills/approaches being implemented.

Module 3: Spirituality integrated psychotherapy approaches (Sarah Crabtree)

Module 4: Expanded states of consciousness and psychedelic care (Susana Bustos)

In this workshop, participants will learn about the characteristics of NOSC and expanded states of consciousness, as well as about different ways in which these may be experienced under psychedelics. Participants will reflect on how set and setting, including cultural factors and social identifiers, may influence a person’s experience and the care offered. Through self-reflection, small group work, and case examples, participants will be presented with, identify, and enact skills supportive of persons in expanded states.

Module 5: Complementing biomedical perspectives with other models of caring and knowing (Bob Jesse)

In this workshop, participants will receive an overview of contemporary reckonings with psychedelics in university and clinical experimentation from the mid-20th century to the present, and the call to include a spiritual lens in this work, even when it’s biomedically focused.

Workshop 6: Spiritual Health competencies in action (Caroline Peacock and Tara Deonauth)

In this workshop, participants will explore various case examples of application of spiritual health competencies in spiritual care. Topics will include awareness of power dynamics, working with the interdisciplinary team, and tending to spiritual/religious material. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in interactive learning to explore these skills.

Workshop 7: Clinical applications (ketamine assisted therapy, clinical trials, palliative care) (Tara Deonauth, Steve Lewis, and Caroline Peacock)

In this workshop, participants will learn about different ways chaplains are currently engaged in psychedelic facilitation, including in clinical trials, ketamine clinics, and palliative care contexts. Participants will gain awareness of practical ways chaplains may work in these contexts, as well as gain guidance for advocating for spiritually integrated approaches.

September Workshop

Tending the Spiritual In Psychedelic Care for Clinical Settings

Workshop Information

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