The Synthesis Institute | Presents

The Psychedelic Practitioner A Series on the Science, Wisdom, and Practice of Psychedelic Care August 20, 2026 | Death as the Teacher

What End-of-Life Psychedelic Care Teaches Every Practitioner WATCH THE RECORDING

Death as the Teacher:

What End-of-Life Psychedelic Care

Teaches Every Practitioner

 

This conversation explored what end-of-life psychedelic care reveals about what it means to become a death-informed psychedelic practitioner.

WATCH THE RECORDING

Timestamps:

00:00:07 – Opening

00:04:00 – Meet the Speakers

08:14 — What Is End-of-Life Psychedelic Care?

14:09 — Death as a Community Experience

17:27 — Meaning-Making, Spirituality & Death-Informed Practice

20:30 — What Psychedelic Death Workers Are Learning

25:17 — Why Every Psychedelic Practitioner Should Be Death-Informed

27:43 — Psychedelic Journeys as Rehearsals for Letting Go

31:32 — Facing Our Own Relationship with Death

38:58 — How Proximity to Death Changes Psychedelic Care

44:44 — Developing Your Own Relationship with Death

51:27 — Q&A: When Is Psychedelic Care Appropriate?

54:04 — Q&A: Psychedelics & Medical Aid in Dying

57:22 — Q&A: Transformative Experiences & Accepting Death

1:00:06 — Q&A: Entering the Field of End-of-Life Care

1:02:18 — Q&A: What We Wish We Had Known

1:05:04 — Closing Reflections & Resources 

 

What can end-of-life psychedelic care teach practitioners across different stages and contexts of psychedelic practice?

This session explored what it means to become a death-informed psychedelic practitioner, and what becomes possible when practitioners intentionally cultivate a conscious relationship with their own mortality.

Psychedelic experiences bring individuals into direct encounters with mortality, impermanence, grief, uncertainty, mystery, and surrender.

 

These existential territories are familiar to anyone who accompanies people through non-ordinary states of consciousness. Because of these shared territories, the field of end-of-life psychedelic care holds vital relevance for the broader psychedelic community.

 

And yet, a psychedelic practitioner's own relationship to death and mortality remains largely unexamined as a foundational competency in psychedelic training. How does it shape their capacity to meet existential questions, support meaning-making when a person's world has been upended, and remain present as experience opens into uncharted territory?

 

In this conversation, we explored what end-of-life psychedelic care reveals about the inner work of the psychedelic practitioner, and how cultivating a conscious relationship with mortality can expand a practitioner's capacity to accompany others through threshold states.

 

Whether you are an established practitioner, an emerging facilitator, or someone considering practitioner training, this conversation offers an opportunity to explore what it means to become a death-informed psychedelic practitioner — and what the research and practice of end-of-life psychedelic care can offer practitioners across every stage and context of psychedelic facilitation.

 

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Please note: this event is designed to offer insights from research, clinical experience, and practice. It does not constitute clinical guidelines or professional advice.

WATCH THE RECORDING

 

During this complimentary 75-minute conversation, we explored:

  • The landscape of end-of-life psychedelic care — current research across cancer, neurodegenerative conditions, and other serious illnesses, and what this field has learned about accompanying people through threshold experiences.

  • What it means to become a death-informed psychedelic practitioner — and how a practitioner's relationship with mortality may shape their capacity to accompany others through non-ordinary states of consciousness.

  • Core perspectives from end-of-life psychedelic care that may inform psychedelic practice across a wide range of clinical and non-clinical settings.

  • Why cultivating a conscious relationship with mortality matters for practitioner development, and reflections on how this exploration can become part of an ongoing professional path.

 

Who This is For

  • Emerging and Aspiring Practitioners — including those exploring psychedelic practitioner training — who are curious about the existential and relational dimensions of psychedelic practice.
  • Established Practitioners, Therapists, and Facilitators seeking to integrate death-informed perspectives into their clinical or community-based work.
  • Psychedelic Educators and Researchers interested in how mortality awareness can inform practitioner development, curriculum design, and standards of care.

 

WATCH THE RECORDING

Our Guest Speakers

Christine Caldwell is the Founder and Executive Director of End of Life Psychedelic Care (EOLPC), a nonprofit advancing safe, ethical, and spiritually grounded psychedelic care for people facing serious or life-limiting illness. Through professional education, community dialogue, research initiatives including the Psychedelic Deathworker Project, and innovative programs such as the Home-Based Ketamine and Spiritual Care Pilot, EOLPC supports clinicians, doulas, chaplains, and guides working at the intersection of psychedelics and end-of-life care.

Christine completed Psychedelics Today's Vital Therapies and Integration Program and Dr. Rosalind Watts' ACER Integration Program. Earlier in her career, she owned and operated a 250-client home health agency, where witnessing the gaps in care for those aging and dying shaped her commitment to advancing compassionate, meaningful, and dignified end-of-life support.

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Laura L. Barry ("LB") is a licensed Colorado psychedelic facilitator, author, mentor, and spiritual guide whose work bridges hospice care, consciousness studies, and psychedelic care.

After an early career in business and marketing, she followed a calling toward healing and transformation. Her training includes the Synthesis Institute, Reiki and energy work, Gestalt therapy studies, and a Master's degree in Metaphysics. With more than two decades of hospice experience, she brings a deeply compassionate and integrative perspective to her work. Laura is the founder of Sacred Willow Circle, a quarterly women's gathering, and serves as a mentor in the EOLPC education cohort. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Wisdom Studies with a concentration in Interdisciplinary Psychedelic Care, exploring the intersections of spirituality, consciousness, and healing. She is passionate about helping others cultivate presence, purpose, and meaningful transformation.

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HOST

Chara Caruthers

Chara Caruthers is Program Director and lead educator at the Synthesis Institute, where she has guided hundreds of practitioners through the Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training. Her work sits at the intersection of ethics, research, and the relational dimensions of psychedelic facilitation.