Fireside's Vision: Expanding Support Beyond Harm Reduction In Psychedelics

Fireside Project (FP) partnered with clinicians and researchers in the psychedelics field to develop a follow-up survey of its psychedelic peer-supported helpline.

Results indicate the positive impact that just “having someone to talk to” has on people experiencing a difficult or bad trip.

The nonprofit's peer support line was originally born out of Joshua White’s view of the psychedelics field. Scanning it through, he found several issues:

• People need support throughout their experiences and their integration toward reducing risks “so they can fulfill the healing or potential of transformation of psychedelics.”

• Also, it's expensive and the U.S. mental health system is, as White puts it, “a disaster by many accounts.”

• There will be an increasing need for psychedelic support professionals in the coming years, but current training programs usually don’t include experiential chapters because of psychedelics’ legal status.

• The field is currently white-dominated, and “it’s no secret why that is, with 50 years into the War on Drugs that has targeted people of color and from other marginalized communities,” White says.

A support line could potentially be “engineered” to, with a flip of a switch, provide access to support during and after a psychedelic experience. Simultaneously, it can introduce changes in the training and services provision landscape.

Fireside’s Model

FP’s staff are non-clinicians — typically therapists, nurses, or aspiring professionals in the field — as well as people who love providing psychedelic support. 

"It turns out that the foundational skill of so many professions in the psychedelic field is listening and being a compassionate, nonjudgmental supporter," he told Benzinga. "It’s being a loving rock.”

As the skills developed at the support line might directly apply to other professions within the psychedelic field, White believes FP could create a sort of “engine” toward experiential training.

“If we prioritize hiring people from the very communities that have been excluded from the psychedelic field, we could bend its direction over time to make it one more equitable and inclusive,” he added.

Creating ‘An Avenue Of Care’

There are benefits of communicating with “a trusted, warm, compassionate presence," Dr. Mollie Pleet explained.

Instead of going to the emergency room and saying, "Hey I’m freaked out" and getting a medication that just brings the nervous system down, a peer-support person can help "create completion on whatever was opened during the psychedelic experience."

Pleet views FP’s services as moving toward creating “an avenue of care,” with support specialists helping those in their power to and suggesting further therapeutic modalities or medical care for those who need it.

“It’s not like calling Fireside will always alleviate stress and prevent someone from needing additional services. The call could actually be the moment where the support specialist suggests longer-term psychological care, or even a call to 911 if it came to it,” she says. “That also might be the push people might need to actually make that call.” 

Essentially, it’s the bridging between a crisis situation and a time when people can access more long-standing, sustainable therapeutic services.

Not every state has clinicians offering a psychedelic prep or integration. For those folks, Pleet imagines FP becoming “more of a regular contact” and integration support.

“That’s not necessarily what it’s designed for at this point, but it seems like it can absolutely operate that way,” she said.

Fireside Project operates the Psychedelic Peer Support Line providing free, confidential support by mobile app, phone and text message to people in the midst of psychedelic experiences or processing past ones. Access the line by phone and text at 62-FIRESIDE (623-473-7433) or through its mobile app.

Photo: Benzinga edit with photo Arcady, Negro Elkha and lrunups on Shutterstock.