Psilocybin Retreat Ethical Guidelines: Our Code of Conduct

Empowerment Through Awareness

Evolute Institue is committed to supporting participants throughout their psychedelic experience in the safest possible way, with respect for each person's individual process, safety, and autonomy. This page outlines what participants can expect from Evolute, and from the interpersonal space created together, so that everyone feels informed, empowered, and confident in their choice to engage in this experience.

Your Well-Being and Safety

Creating a safe space where participants feel seen and supported is Evolute's responsibility. Should a participant ever feel unsafe or unsupported during the program or retreat, they're encouraged to let facilitators know. No matter whether it's during a session or outside of it, their comfort and well-being are our primary concern. Participant feedback is welcomed, and participants are encouraged to feel confident expressing their needs and concerns. At the same time, participants are asked to respect the group space and the individual processes of others; by honoring each other's needs and boundaries, the whole group can go deeper.

For their safety, participants are asked to remain in the group space during the psychedelic experience itself. If someone needs fresh air or wants to step outside, a facilitator will accompany them - being alone in such a vulnerable state can carry real risk, and this guideline exists to protect the supportive environment the work needs.

Vulnerability and Challenging Experiences

During a psychedelic experience, participants enter a vulnerable state. Psychedelics can heighten emotion, awareness, and openness, which may leave a person more suggestible to outside influence. This can open the door to profound insight, but it also means being particularly sensitive to one's environment and the people around. Evolute Institute's facilitators take this responsibility seriously and are trained to hold this vulnerability with care and professionalism.

It's also worth naming honestly: even with thorough screening and preparation, any psychedelic experience is essentially an encounter with the unknown. Unexpected emotions, memories, or sensations can surface, including ones that are uncomfortable and challenging. This is a normal part of the process, but it helps to enter a psychedelic ceremony mentally and emotionally prepared for that possibility. Our facilitators are there to support participants through these potentially challenging experiences, with systems in place to respond if distress arises. Participants are asked to report any changes to their physical or mental health since their initial screening, including any new or altered medication.

Consent, Boundaries, and Your Right to Pause

Physical touch is offered as one way of supporting participants during breathwork and the psychedelic experience. Before the retreat, preferences around touch are discussed, and participants have the chance to give or withhold consent in advance. Even after consenting to supportive touch, a participant can change their mind at any moment. We want people to know they have the absolute right to withdraw consent in the moment, no questions asked. Whenever something doesn't feel right, speaking up is honored.

This same principle extends further: participants are free to pause, skip, or step back from any part of a session or the retreat without needing to justify the decision.

Transference and Counter-Transference

In any deep personal process, transference (projecting feelings onto facilitators) and counter-transference (facilitators being affected by a participant's emotions) can occur. This is a natural part of human relationships, especially in settings as vulnerable and intimate as a psychedelic retreat. Our facilitators are trained to recognize and hold these dynamics with care and professionalism, and participants are encouraged to raise any discomfort or confusion at any point during the retreat.

Confidentiality

What participants share with facilitators and with the group - in sessions, in circle, or in conversation - stays within that space. We like to say: "What happens at Evolute, stay at Evolute". Facilitators do not discuss participants' personal material outside the container the group has created together, and the same is asked of everyone in the group. The one exception is where there is concern about someone's immediate safety. In that situation, facilitators may need to act on what they've learned in order to keep people safe.

Our Approach: Non-Judgmental, Non-Directive, and Free of Dogma

The aim is to create a space of mutual respect where everyone feels accepted, without judgment or any attempt to impose personal beliefs. Facilitators also work non-directively: they don't seek to steer or control the direction of a participant's experience. We explicitly do not see ourselves as shamans "channeling" information on the particpant's behalf or telling them what to do. The role of our facilitator is to hold space. We specialize in creating a safe container within which a participant's own process can unfold. The reason for this non-directive, supportive approach lies in our fundamental, underlying assumption for this work: we belive participants already hold the wisdom to navigate their own journey and to move towards truth and wholeness. Our facilitators accompany participants, but they don't lead them toward a particular outcome.

In the same spirit, no specific spiritual or religious framework is promoted. Psychedelic experiences often surface spiritual, existential, or mystical material, and whatever meaning a participant finds in their own journey is respected without a doctrine imposed on top of it. Some preparation and integration practices draw on modern science, Buddhist, Yogic, and Taoist traditions, named transparently, offered without dogma, and accessible regardless of personal belief. These streams of ideas and traditions draw only on preparation and integration, not on the psychedelic experience itself.

It's also worth being clear about who facilitators are: they don't identify as shamans or therapists. Some have a background in therapeutic work, e.g. medical doctors, psychologists, somatic practitioners, but during the retreat they are not acting in a formal therapeutic capacity. They serve as experienced guides, trained to help create the right conditions for a participant's own exploration - not to diagnose or treat, but to support participants with presence and care as they navigate their own inner landscape.

Professional Boundaries and Relationship Policy

Maintaining a professional and supportive relationship with every participant is our standing commitment. Feelings of connection or attachment can arise naturally during and after a psychedelic journey, given how vulnerable the experience is, and facilitators are aware of the power imbalance that can exist between facilitator and participant. To protect that relationship and a participant's process, clear boundaries are held: romantic or intimate relationships with participants are strictly prohibited for facilitators, during and after the retreat. Other relationships too - friendships, professional engagements outside the EvoSHIFT context, private communication outside official channels - are paused for a minimum of three months following the retreat, to give space for integration and reflection. Facilitators are always glad to talk through any questions about these boundaries.

Reporting a Concern

If something happens during a retreat that doesn't sit right - a boundary that wasn't respected, behavior that felt off, anything at all - Evolute wants to hear about it, and wants participants to feel safe raising it. A concern can be raised directly with Evolute at any point, and nothing about raising a concern is held against the person raising it.

There is also an external route: our core facilitators, Patrick Liebl and Naomi Stubbé, are individually members of the Guild of Guides Professional Association Netherlands, an independent professional association for guides working with psychedelics, and a concern can be reported to its Accountability Committee, which reviews concerns and mediates between participants and facilitators. Reports go to guildofguides.org/report-concerning-conduct. This sits alongside Evolute's own alignment with the North Star Ethics Pledge, covered below.

Empowerment Through Communication

This Code of Conduct is meant to empower participants. Evolute wants participants to feel fully informed and supported as they prepare for this deep, beautiful, and oftentimes challenging experience. Any questions or concerns, before or during the retreat, are always welcome. Evolute is here to answer them, clarify any doubts, and make sure participants feel safe and prepared. We are deeply grateful for people entrusting us with this responsibility, and we look forward to supporting each participant on this journey.

The North Star Ethics Pledge

Evolute's own Code of Conduct is not written in isolation. Evolute aligns with the North Star Ethics Pledge, a set of principles published by North Star Psychedelic Ethics, a nonprofit ethical trade association for the psychedelics field, developed with input from around one hundred stakeholders and addressing concerns including misuse of power and spiritual bypassing by facilitators. This alignment is stated in the EvoSHIFT Provider Self-Disclosure (Domain 3).

For the full evidence-graded standard Evolute's safety hub is built against, see the Psilocybin Retreat Evaluation Framework (PREF).

References

• Guild of Guides. Report Concerning Conduct. https://www.guildofguides.org/report-concerning-conduct - independent complaint and mediation route; Evolute's core facilitators, Patrick Liebl and Naomi Stubbé, are individual members.
• North Star Psychedelic Ethics. Ethics Pledge. https://northstar.guide/ethicspledge/ - the external ethics framework referenced in "The North Star Ethics Pledge," above.