Preparing
Preparation Guide
Of course, the drug dose does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as a chemical key – it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures. The nature of the experience depends almost entirely on set and setting.
– “The Psychedelic Experience” Leary, Metzner & Alpert
The Importance of Preparation
Preparation is the first step in your transformational journey. It helps you maximize the benefits, minimize risks, and open fully to the experience with clarity and intention.
Through guided self-reflection, introspection, and early contemplation, preparation lays the groundwork for meaningful healing. It deepens your connection to your “why”—so when the journey begins, you’re already walking the path inward.
Preparing for Transformation
Preparation is not just about getting ready—it is part of the transformation itself. It helps you orient toward change, growth, and the level of healing you’re ready to receive. While the plant medicine is a powerful catalyst, it is not a magic solution—your participation, presence, and willingness to engage are essential.
This phase supports you in clarifying the nature and direction of your work, and your role in it. Through reflection, intention-setting, and subtle shifts in your inner world, you begin to align with the changes you’re seeking in your outer world.
And while no amount of preparation can fully predict what your journey will reveal, taking this process seriously helps you meet the experience with trust, courage, and confidence. Once inside the journey, the real work begins—and you won’t be alone. Your guides will be there to support you, but ultimately, it is your path to walk.
Preparation lays the groundwork for what’s to come—so you can meet it fully, and make the most of what it offers.
The Journey Begins Before You Arrive
The moment you say yes to this medicine, your process begins. Even before the ceremony itself, you may notice subtle shifts—unfamiliar emotions, old memories, new bodily sensations, or a stirring in your external life. This is not unusual. As your inner world begins to reorganize, change is already underway.
Transformation often brings discomfort. Without awareness, it’s easy to misread these shifts as something going wrong. But with mindful preparation, you learn to stay present with your experience—to observe your patterns, release what no longer serves, and stay connected to your truth as the journey unfolds.
You’ll meet with your guide twice before the retreat to refine your intentions, ask questions, and create a personalized integration plan. These conversations are a vital part of preparing your mind, body, and spirit for the depth of work ahead.
What to Expect During the Journey
Psychedelic medicine affects each person differently, and the experience can unfold in powerful and unexpected ways. As the medicine enters your system, sensations may build gradually before reaching a peak that can feel intense, expansive, and deeply immersive.
Some people report visions, expanded awareness, enhanced sensory perception, emotional release, physical sensations, or feelings of euphoria or discomfort. Others may experience nausea, increased heart rate or blood pressure, out-of-body sensations, or moments of profound insight. These states are part of how psychedelics temporarily suspend the usual ways we think, feel, and see—offering access to deeper truths that may not always feel easy or comfortable.
The journey often lasts between 4–6 hours, and once it begins, the only way through is forward. This can feel like a challenge, but it’s also the heart of the work—and you will not be alone. You’ll be continuously supported by experienced guides who hold the space with deep presence, care, and skill.
Making the Journey Your Own
At Sweetgrass Wellness, we follow the Johns Hopkins and Yale protocols for therapeutic psychedelic use, offering private, individual sessions rather than group ceremonies. This approach creates a distraction-free space where you can go as deeply as needed—without self-consciousness or external pressure.
To make the space your own, we encourage you to bring personal items of comfort or meaning. Photos, keepsakes, favorite blankets, or even a beloved stuffed animal—anything that helps ground you or reconnects you to your intention—is welcome.
During your journey, you’ll wear an eye mask and headphones, allowing you to turn fully inward. A carefully curated music playlist—designed to support trance states and altered consciousness—will accompany you, helping the medicine guide your experience from within.
Your guide will be present throughout. They are experienced as both psychonaut and facilitator, deeply familiar with the terrain you’re entering and ready to support you with skill and care.
Your role? To trust the medicine, let go, and stay open to whatever arises. This is your time—and your healing.
Trusting the Process: Framework for Thinking About Your interaction with the Medicine
When you step into a plant medicine journey in a therapeutic setting, you are saying yes to an altered state of consciousness and to deeper access to your inner world. But on the way there, it’s common for the ego to resist—to doubt, control, or attempt to override the unfolding experience. This is part of the process.
Think of the medicine as an archeologist of the psyche, gently excavating what’s been buried. Memories, sensations, emotions, and symbols may surface—pieces of a larger story still waiting to be understood. Your job is not to interpret them in the moment, but simply to witness them with curiosity and compassion.
If the archeologist uncovers a dark cave, they don’t run—they shine a light and ask,
“What is the purpose of this?”
You are invited to do the same. Even when something feels unfamiliar or frightening, trust that it has arisen for a reason—and that it holds a key to your healing.
Trust the medicine. Let go. Be open.
That is your task—and you will be supported every step of the way.