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Public Benefit Corporation

Are your clients asking about psychedelics? We're here to help you be ready.

Beckley Retreats exists to complement your work - not compete with it. We've built a free Therapist Resource Hub so you can have everything you need to guide your clients before, during, and after a psilocybin retreat. We also offer mental health professionals a $2,000 discount to attend a retreat for themselves.

Access your $2,000 Discount

Research Partnerships

Built on 25 years of institutional science

Our programs are shaped by peer-reviewed research and ongoing collaboration with the world's leading institutions in
psychedelic science and mental health.

Beckley Foundation

Published Research

Harvard University

Affiliate Research

Yale University

Affiliate Research

Imperial College London

Published Research

Johns Hopkins

Research Partner

How We Work Together

We Don't Replace Therapy. We Reinforce It.

Many therapists worry that psychedelic retreats will sideline their work or disrupt their relationship with clients. We understand that concern, and we've designed our entire approach to address it.

Beckley Retreats is not therapy. We don't provide diagnoses, treatment plans, or ongoing clinical care. What we offer is a structured, science-informed psilocybin experience that can open new doors for your clients. Doors that you are best positioned to help them walk through.

Our question to every therapist is simple: How can we integrate with your work?

Before the Retreat

Preparation

We encourage your clients to explore specific themes with you in preparation. We'll give you a guide on exactly what to cover.

During the Retreat

The Experience

Our facilitation team holds space for the experience. We are not replacing you. We are creating conditions for breakthroughs that deepen your work together.

After the Retreat

Integration

Integration is where your expertise matters most. Retreat insights often need months, sometimes years, to fully land. You are the constant through that process.

When Therapy Hits a Plateau

Retreats Can Unlock What Talk Therapy Alone Cannot

Every therapist has worked with clients who are stuck. Doing the work, showing up week after week, but hitting the same walls. Psilocybin retreats can shake loose what years of cognitive processing haven't reached.

This happens because the retreat experience is deeply embodied. Clients report accessing emotions, sensations, and memories in a way that bypasses intellectual defense mechanisms entirely. For therapists trained primarily in talk-based modalities, this context is important: your clients may return with a fundamentally different relationship to their body, their grief, their patterns. Even if they can't fully articulate it yet.

The fruits take time. Some clients "get it" immediately. Others only integrate the experience fully two or more years later. As their therapist, your role in holding that long arc is irreplaceable.

Brain connectivity on placebo (left) vs. psilocybin (right). Beckley/Imperial College London.

88%

Say this was the most meaningful experience of their lifetime

76%

Report improved behaviors and personal practices

A few days after returning home I find myself back with my therapist again. I decide to read him an extract from my retreat journal and am transported back to my experience of my first trip again. When I finish I notice him wiping tears from his eyes. We're barely halfway through the session and, rather than feeling trapped behind a protective layer of ice, all I feel is warm.

Ben Ockrent, Therapist, MBACP, Therapy Today Article

Preparation & Integration Guides

What to Explore With Your Client, Before and After

Practical guidance to help you support your client through each phase of the retreat experience.

Before the Retreat

Preparation Topics

Explore in sessions 2 to 4 weeks before arrival

Help your client arrive with intention and awareness. We recommend exploring:

Intentions and expectations. What are they hoping to experience? What are they afraid of?
Current therapeutic themes. What patterns, relationships, or memories are most alive right now?
Emotional readiness. How do they typically respond to intense emotional experiences? What coping strategies do they rely on?
Relationship to control. Psilocybin often requires surrendering control. How does your client relate to that?
Somatic awareness. The experience is highly physical. Clients who aren't used to noticing body sensations benefit from even basic somatic grounding before they arrive.

After the Retreat

Supporting Integration

Ongoing: weeks, months, and beyond

The retreat is the beginning, not the end. In the weeks and months that follow, your client may:

Revisit old memories or emotions. With new clarity and sometimes surprising intensity.
Feel temporary openness or vulnerability. A heightened sensitivity that can be both beautiful and destabilizing.
Struggle to translate felt experiences into words. The experience may resist verbal articulation.
Experience shifts in values and priorities. Relationships, career, and life goals may come into question.
Feel frustrated that insights haven't "stuck" yet. Reassure them: integration is a process, not a single conversation.

A Note for Non-Somatic Practitioners

This Is Not a Cognitive Experience

If your primary modality is talk-based (CBT, psychodynamic, or similar) there's an important contextual shift to understand: psilocybin retreats are profoundly embodied. Your clients may describe sensations, visual imagery, and emotional waves that don't map neatly onto verbal processing.

This doesn't diminish your role. It expands it. Understanding the somatic dimension helps you meet your client where they are post-retreat, rather than inadvertently intellectualizing an experience that was fundamentally felt.

Building literacy without retraining

You don't need to become a somatic therapist to support clients through this. We've compiled these resources specifically for practitioners who want to understand the embodied dimension of psilocybin experiences. So you can hold space for what your clients bring back, even when it lives in the body more than in words.

Experience a retreat for yourself

We believe the most responsible way to engage with client conversations about psychedelics is through direct, informed experience. Through philanthropic contributions to our public benefit mission, we provide an exclusive $2,000 discount for licensed therapists to experience a Beckley Retreat.

Our science-informed program, shaped by more than 25 years of research from the Beckley Foundation, includes intentional preparation, an immersive retreat in Jamaica or the Netherlands, and supported integration.

Understand the full arc of the psychedelic retreat experience
Observe how safety protocols, screening, and facilitator support are applied in practice
Develop a grounded reference point for informed conversations with clients

Fill out our interest form for a $2,000 discount to attend a retreat of your choice.

Practicum Program for Experiential learning

For clinicians seeking deeper insight into psychedelic facilitation, our Practicum Program offers structured, hands-on learning opportunities alongside our facilitation team.

Team Assistant

Observe & Assist

Experience the full preparation-immersion-integration program from a facilitator's perspective. Observe ceremonies, co-facilitate integration circles, and receive mentoring from our diverse facilitation team.

Direct Experiential

Participate Firsthand

Enroll as a participant in the full Beckley Retreat program. Experience the complete journey: preparation, immersion, and integration, to inform your personal and professional development.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can someone on your team talk to me about my clients?

If a participant says “I can only come if my therapist speaks to someone," the therapist can speak to us about concerns and the program, but not about the retreat content/what happened with that specific participant.

What is the Beckley Retreats Process?

The program starts with an application. After completion, the potential guest will schedule a suitability screening to ensure they are safely fit for our program. The retreat itself is structured as: 4 weeks of digital preparation, 4-5 days of on site immersion, and 4-6 weeks of digital integration.

Will my client's retreat experience undermine the therapy work we've been doing?

No. Retreats often deepen and accelerate therapeutic work. Clients frequently return with renewed commitment to their process and new material to explore. The retreat doesn't replace what you've built - it builds on it.

My client is on medication. Is the retreat safe for them?

Screening is a critical part of our process. We conduct thorough suitability screening before any participant is accepted. Certain medications (particularly SSRIs and lithium) may be contraindicated. We encourage your client to begin the application process early so our screening team can evaluate their specific situation.

I'm not trained in psychedelic therapy. Can I still help my client?

Absolutely. You don't need psychedelic-specific training to be an excellent integration therapist. Your existing therapeutic relationship and clinical skills are the foundation. Our guides and resources will help you understand the specific dynamics of psilocybin experiences.

What if my client has a difficult experience?

Challenging experiences during a retreat are not uncommon and are held by our experienced facilitation team on-site. Post-retreat, if your client is processing difficult material, your therapeutic relationship is the safest container for that work. As a part of the Beckley Process, we offer 4 weeks post-retreat virtual integration as well.

How is Beckley different from other psychedelic retreat providers?

Beckley Retreats is a U.S.-based Public Benefit Corporation shaped by more than 25 years of research from the Beckley Foundation, and current research partnerships with Harvard and Yale. Our program is science-informed, includes rigorous screening, and is designed with safety as a priority. We operate legally in Jamaica and the Netherlands.

Is this a therapy or medical program?

No. Beckley is an integrative health program focused on personal, professional, and spiritual development. We don't diagnose or treat any conditions. What we offer is a structured, science-backed program that teaches lifelong skills and tools for lasting change. Facilitators with clinical backgrounds do not serve in a formal medical capacity on our programs.

What actually happens during the psilocybin sessions?

You're in a private, comfortable setting with a 1:3 facilitator-to-guest ratio - someone trained is always within reach. You have your own space, eyeshades, live music. There's no performance, no group pressure. Your facilitators have done this work themselves and know the terrain from the inside. You're never alone in it.

In Their Words

What others in your field are saying

"As a public health doctor with decades of global experience, I was deeply impressed by Beckley’s immersive, hands-on approach and their multidisciplinary team who mentored with warmth and wisdom. Their rare blend of deep wisdom, ethical integrity, and heartfelt connection laid an unforgettable foundation for my path as I deepened my path as a facilitator."

Carlos Navarro

PhD, MD

"Being immersed in Beckley’s retreat environment offered a rare blend of humility, attentiveness, and authentic human connection. It was a meaningful step in my development, guided by a team whose quiet strength and deep care left a lasting imprint."

Linda Vazin

Holistic, Somatic Coach

“The Beckley Retreats practicum was the perfect culmination of my psychedelic practitioner training - rooted in science, tradition, and profound wisdom. What stayed with me most was the team’s extraordinary presence, which radiated trust, safety, and deep humanity.””

2024 Practicum Participant

“This retreat was so profound and I am so grateful for the care and the intention with which the facilitators supported us. We showed up as strangers, but we felt as family members.”

Candace Oglesby-Adepoju

Therapist & Integration Specialist

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