Preparation Guide
How to Prepare for a Psilocybin Session in Oregon
What to do in the weeks before, and how to meet the experience when it comes.
Preparation is the work you do in the weeks before a psilocybin session: building trust with your facilitator, getting clear on what you are hoping for, and practicing a few simple things you can lean on if the session gets big. Oregon requires at least one preparation session before you can take part. Most people benefit from more than one.
This is the guide Ayeterra clients receive before their session. We are publishing it in full because the questions it answers come up long before anyone books anything, and because knowing what preparation actually involves is part of deciding whether this is right for you.
Why preparation matters
Psilocybin does not do the work by itself. What you bring into the room, and the setting you are in, shape the experience as much as the mushrooms do. Researchers call this set and setting, and it is one of the most consistent findings in psychedelic research (Hartogsohn, 2016).
Preparation is part of the work, not a formality before it. The weeks beforehand are a chance to slow down and pay closer attention to yourself, your relationships, what you take in, and the daily habits that shape how you feel. The time and care you give this stretch tend to shape how much the experience can offer you.
Oregon’s rules require every client to take part in at least one preparation session with a licensed facilitator before an administration session (Oregon Health Authority). That required session covers intake, informed consent, safety, and your transportation plan. Ayeterra’s facilitators usually do more than the single required session, because clearing a paperwork requirement is not the same thing as being ready.
In preparation, you and your facilitator work toward a few things together:
- Building a safe, supportive relationship with your facilitator.
- Clarifying your intentions and what you are hoping for, without forcing a particular result.
- Understanding the common psychological and physical effects of psilocybin.
- Reflecting on the life events and patterns that matter to you.
- Practicing grounding and calming techniques you can lean on.
- Practicing noticing what is happening in your body and emotions without getting pulled into reacting to it.
Your facilitator is your point of contact through all of this. Questions or worries before your session are welcome at any time.
Start with two practices
You do not need to do all of the practices below. Two carry most of the weight: journaling and breath work. Start with those two, keep them small, and let them become a rhythm. Together they take about ten minutes a day. There is no minimum and no single right way to do them.
Journaling
Each day, write to a few simple prompts.
- Your intention for going through this process.
- How you are feeling.
- Five things you are grateful for.
- Five things you are proud of yourself for that day.
There is no time limit and no minimum. Setting a five minute timer helps: just keep the pencil moving until it goes off.
Breath practice
Two techniques, both short.
- Mindful breaths, throughout the day. One simple, deep inhale, then a full exhale. It helps to pair each one with a single thing you are grateful for, or with a hand placed on your heart.
- The physiological sigh, once a day. A fast way to bring stress and anxiety down. It works in two or three cycles. The steps are below.
The physiological sigh
- Inhale through your nose until your lungs are almost full.
- Still breathing in, take a second short inhale to top them off.
- Exhale slowly and completely through your mouth.
- Repeat two or three times.
This one has been studied directly. A Stanford trial published in Cell Reports Medicine in 2023 had participants practice five minutes a day for a month and compared cyclic sighing against box breathing, cyclic hyperventilation, and mindfulness meditation. Cyclic sighing produced the largest improvement in positive mood and the largest drop in resting breathing rate (Balban et al., 2023).
Practices to add as they fit
Body scan
Lying in bed, take slow breaths in and out and move your attention from your toes up through your body. In each area, relax it with the exhale. With the inhale, notice without judgment what you feel there and what thoughts are present. This is about relaxing and getting more in touch with the body. It can let the body feel heavy and sink into the bed.
Nature walks
Get outside and pay attention to the smaller details. See what you notice, and enjoy the walk. Three times a week is a good goal, but keep it flexible.
Tools for acute anxiety
Keep a notebook by your nightstand or with you during the day. In a moment of anxiety or self-criticism, write quickly how you feel and get it out of your head. The notebook holds it, so you do not have to. Pair this with positive, out loud self-talk to counter the negative thought: the mouth speaks it, the ears hear it, the mind thinks it, and then we start to believe it. It is okay if these do not work right away, or if you are slow to reach for them. Use them when you can, and they get easier.
Your preparation timeline
Most people start preparing two to four weeks before their session. The two daily practices run through the whole stretch. What changes as the date gets closer is how much you ease off everything else: substances, stress, screens, heavy food.
- Read through this guide.
- Start the two core practices: journaling each day, and breath work each day. Let them settle into a routine before you add anything else.
- Schedule downtime before and after your session, so you have room for both preparation and the days that follow.
- Tell people you trust (friends, family, a therapist or counselor) about your upcoming session, and make a plan to talk it over with them afterward.
- Ease back on alcohol, cannabis, and other recreational substances. Some interact with the experience, and arriving clear tends to make a session deeper.
- Ease off distractions and compulsive habits: endless scrolling, video games, anything that pulls at you and does not serve you.
- Make space for calm: walks, time in nature, exercise, music that settles you, anything that brings you peace of mind.
- A clean, settled home to come back to helps. Handle the small tasks now so your space feels comfortable on the other side.
- Tell your facilitator about anything you take regularly, including prescriptions and supplements, as early as you can. Some medications need to be discussed with the clinician who prescribes them, and that takes time to sort out. That conversation belongs between your facilitator and your prescriber, not on a webpage.
- Keep up the daily journaling and breath work. Lean on the physiological sigh when stress rises.
- Keep noticing what you are feeling. Practice being an observer of your emotions instead of getting pulled into reacting to them, and write about how that lands in your mind and body.
- Notice what comes up. If resistance or fear about the session surfaces, write about it.
- Where you can, step around avoidable stress and conflict, at home and at work. Stress is part of life. This is simply a week to give yourself a little more room.
- Keep easing off alcohol, cannabis, and recreational substances.
- Avoid alcohol, cannabis, and other recreational substances.
- Ease off heavy or highly processed meals. Lighter food tends to sit better.
- Step back from social media, the news, and TV.
- Build a gentle bubble of calm around yourself, and let yourself slow all the way down.
- Settle on a small mantra that works for you. There is a list further down this page, or use your own words. Having one ready gives you something to reach for if the session gets difficult.
- If you are traveling for your session, plan to arrive at least a full day ahead, and more if you can, to settle into the area where you are staying. Take walks, eat well, and keep that quiet space around you.
- Bring your legal ID, your journal, and snacks you enjoy. Snacks need to be sealed. Your facilitator will have some on hand as well.
- Eat lightly, and expect to stop eating a few hours before the session starts. Your facilitator will tell you exactly what to do, since the details vary by service center.
- Keep drinking water. This is not a dry fast.
- A little coffee is fine if that is your normal morning. Familiar tends to be better than different.
- Wear comfortable clothes. Bringing an extra set can be reassuring, though you most likely will not need it.
- You will not be driving yourself home. Oregon requires every client to complete a transportation plan before consuming psilocybin and to follow it afterward (Oregon Health Authority). Your facilitator works this out with you in advance.
- What happens after the session is its own process. See the integration guide for the days, weeks, and months that follow.
Questions before your session?
Everything starts with a conversation. The consultation is free, confidential, and there is no commitment: a chance to ask questions and see whether this is a fit.
Schedule a consultationOr call 503-713-5644 · Adults 21+What a psilocybin experience is actually like
No two sessions are the same. One might be highly visual, another quiet and introspective, another emotional or physically intense. Most sessions move through several of these. You cannot predict which one you will get, which is why preparation focuses on how you meet the experience rather than on what will happen in it.
Visual
One of the most commonly described experiences. Visions can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, and subtle or strong. They may include seeing beings, patterns, fields of color, or warping space. Some people have no visual experience at all.
Dialogue
Sometimes the experience feels like a conversation, with a wise being, your higher self, a stern teacher, or a loving parent. You might be taught something new about your life, shown an area to work on, or given a message of affirmation. Through this kind of dialogue, some people are shown different ways of looking at and approaching situations they are facing.
Emotional
Sometimes emotions move in waves, grief or elation that brings tears. Some people feel afraid or anxious, and find new strength by facing the fear. Others feel several emotions at once, like grief and gratitude, or fear and happiness, or notice where an emotion is held in the body. Emotions are welcome in this work, and facilitators expect them.
Physical, energetic, and release
There can be releases of stuck energy, physical tension, stress, or pain. Sometimes there is a vibration or buzzing in the body that may feel pleasant or unpleasant, or a sense of energy moving through and unblocking stuck places. Releasing energy, sometimes called purging, can take the form of laughing, crying, shaking, vocalizing, vomiting, or needing to use the bathroom. It is common, your facilitator expects it, and it is not a sign that something has gone wrong.
Transcendent or cosmic
Sometimes people feel a deep, dreamy state of calm. This can be experienced as a kind of void, which can feel frightening, and it can also be deeply restful, similar to meditative states. At times a transcendent experience can carry a person into what feel like multidimensional or cosmic realms, a sense of leaving body and time behind. This may or may not happen for you, and it is worth holding lightly rather than chasing a big mystical experience.
Common types of awareness
Sensory awareness
The senses generally change during a session. You may feel a heightened appreciation for sound, shifts in hearing, or greater sensitivity in the body. This is often strongest in the first hour after the mushrooms are taken, though it can continue for several hours. It is a good time to let yourself move with the music and settle into a fuller awareness of your sensing body.
Psychological, recollective, and analytical
This is a more personal phase, often with heightened emotion. Grief, regret, fear, anger, and repressed feelings may surface. Traumas and childhood memories may come up. You may recognize unhealthy patterns you fall into, and become aware of changes you want to make in your life.
Relational awareness
This brings a sense of connection to the natural world or the wider universe. You may feel yourself as part of an ancestral line, or interwoven with the planet as a living system, often alongside gratitude and awe. This kind of experience can widen your capacity for empathy, and open room for forgiveness, of others and of yourself.
Transpersonal awareness and ego death
At higher doses, some people experience a dissolution of the self, a sense that there is no separation between self and universe. This is what people usually mean by ego death. It can arrive as a death experience, and witnessing yourself die can feel frightening because it can feel real. It helps to remember that this is part of the process. Afterward there is often a sense of relief and a renewed gratitude for life, and a fresh appreciation for living and moving forward with less fear.
Meeting the experience: non-striving
Try not to expect a particular kind of experience based on other people’s accounts. One person has a challenging session and another a gentle one. One purges and another does not. Some have visions, others have emotions. It can be mild for some and very strong for others.
Meet the work with curiosity and non-striving. That means letting go of trying to force, or shield yourself from, any particular experience: paying attention, leaning gently into discomfort, finding resources inside yourself, and asking for help when you need it. Non-striving is being open, trusting the process, and accepting whatever the present moment brings. It is often called letting go.
Letting go looks like not being concerned with whether the experience is strong or subtle, being an observer, experiencing without judgment or analysis, and allowing the edges of ordinary reality to blur. You may even need to let go of your intentions during the session itself. Try not to resist what is happening, and remember to breathe through it.
To journal on
- When have you had an experience of letting go in your life?
- What is it like to simply observe and sense what is happening inside you, rather than judging or evaluating it?
- What is your relationship to control? What is it like to let go of control of your experience?
Your inner healing intelligence
Difficult emotional processes can be easier to work with when they are understood as part of your inner healing intelligence. The idea rests on a simple premise: that the body and mind tend to move toward their own repair when given a safe, supportive environment and a little encouragement. It is a widely used framing in psychedelic facilitation, and it is one of the reasons facilitators stay quiet and let your process lead rather than directing it (Haden, Ball, & Woods, 2019).
Getting in touch with that capacity is partly a matter of trusting that your strength comes from somewhere deeper than mental chatter and negative self-talk.
In the middle of a difficult moment, the survival instinct can kick in and trigger a fight-or-flight response, with its cascade of stress chemistry. Peter Levine, who developed Somatic Experiencing, observed that animals who escape a predator will shake or tremble to discharge that energy, and then return to rest and resume normal activity. He built a therapeutic approach around that observation. In a session, within a safe and supportive setting, some people connect with something similar and let stuck energy move and release.
Supportive mantras
When you meet a challenging moment, a difficult emotion, or confusing material, it is natural to resist and try to pull away. But avoidance can get in the way of the process. Often the hard moments are exactly what needs to be felt for something to move. A mantra can give you something to hold onto, a way to open, accept, and move through. Pick one that fits you in the last few days before your session, so it is ready when you need it.
Preparing the mind
Many challenges in a session show up first in self-talk. Working on your inner dialogue ahead of time can help a great deal when you find yourself starting to struggle. Consider journaling on these:
Consider journaling on these
- How do you talk to yourself? Are you self-critical? Notice your thinking when challenges arise in daily life. Are there recurring narratives? Can you see them as a storyline you created, one that could have many different endings?
- What strategies could help you notice negative self-talk if the experience becomes challenging?
- What are the ways you show yourself love? Can you offer yourself kindness and unconditional acceptance?
- Which people or animals help you feel unconditional love? Can you bring an image of them into your session as a grounding anchor?
- Which meditation or calming techniques work for you?
- What has helped you handle stressful situations in the past?
- Are there any mantras or supportive phrases that resonate with you?
- Everyone needs help sometimes. Do you tend to avoid asking? Can you commit to asking your facilitator for support if the experience becomes hard?
What healing means here
Sit with these statements and journal on what healing looks like to you, and how they relate to your intentions.
- Healing takes time.
- Healing can be hard, and sometimes painful.
- Healing takes courage.
- Healing is individual, and it is also communal.
- Healing is not linear.
- Healing is restoring faith in yourself and your place in the world.
- Healing is acknowledging our pain and struggles, not minimizing them.
- Healing is telling our story and finding our authentic voice.
- Healing is taking an honest look at who we are, and at the quality of our lives and relationships.
There is a lot here, and you do not need to hold all of it. Your facilitator knows these tools and will help you use them. There is no wrong way to do this. If the preparation work feels like a lot, that is okay. Do the best you can.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a diagnosis or a prescription to access psilocybin services in Oregon?
No. Oregon Health Authority states that a prescription or medical referral is not required to access psilocybin services. You do need to be 21 or older, and you will complete a client information form that helps determine eligibility.
Do I have to live in Oregon?
No. Oregon Health Authority states that clients do not need to live in Oregon to access psilocybin services. Services are only legal within Oregon, so you would travel here for your session. If you are coming from out of state, plan to arrive at least a full day ahead.
How many preparation sessions are required?
Oregon requires at least one preparation session with a licensed facilitator before an administration session. That session covers intake, informed consent, safety, and your transportation plan. Ayeterra’s facilitators usually do more than the required minimum, and the number depends on what you need.
How far in advance should I start preparing?
Two to four weeks is a good window for the daily practices. The required preparation session with your facilitator is scheduled before that, and the free consultation comes earlier still.
Can I eat before my session?
Most people eat lightly and stop eating a few hours before the session begins. Keep drinking water. Your facilitator will give you the specifics, since details vary by service center.
What should I bring?
Your legal ID, a journal, and sealed snacks you enjoy. Comfortable clothes, and an extra set if that would reassure you. Your facilitator will confirm anything else your service center needs.
What if I take medication?
Tell your facilitator early, before anything is scheduled, and include prescriptions and supplements. Some medications need to be discussed with the clinician who prescribes them, and that takes time to sort out. This is a conversation between you, your facilitator, and your prescriber, not something to settle from a webpage.
Do I have to stop drinking alcohol or using cannabis?
Ease back starting two to four weeks out, and stop in the last three days before your session. Some substances interact with the experience, and arriving clear tends to make a session deeper.
Can I drive myself home afterward?
No. Oregon requires every client to complete an individualized transportation plan before consuming psilocybin and to follow that plan afterward. Your facilitator works this out with you in advance.
What if the session gets difficult?
Difficult stretches are common and are not a sign that something has gone wrong. This is what the preparation practices are for: the breath work, a mantra you have already chosen, and the option to ask your facilitator for support. Your facilitator stays with you for the whole session.
Sources and further reading
Balban, M. Y., Neri, E., Kogon, M. M., Weed, L., Nouriani, B., Jo, B., Holl, G., Zeitzer, J. M., Spiegel, D., & Huberman, A. D. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 100895.
Ching, T., Grazioplene, R., Pittenger, C., & Kelmendi, B. (2023). Yale Program for Psychedelic Science manual for psilocybin combined with non-directive support in the treatment of OCD (1st ed.). Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine.
Haden, M., Ball, M., & Woods, B. (2019). Manual for psychedelic guides.
Hartogsohn, I. (2016). Set and setting, psychedelics and the placebo response: An extra-pharmacological perspective on psychopharmacology. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1259–1267.
Kaufman, R., & McCamy, M. (2001). The psychedelic medicine integration workbook. IDP Press.
McQueen, A., & Center for Medicinal Mindfulness. (n.d.). Psychedelic integration guidebook.
Oregon Health Authority. (n.d.). Access psilocybin services. Oregon Psilocybin Services.
Pollan, M. (2018). How to change your mind: What the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence. Penguin Press.
Ayeterra provides legal psilocybin facilitation in Oregon through facilitators licensed by the State of Oregon, under Oregon’s regulated psilocybin program. These services are not medical care, psychotherapy, or a substitute for diagnosis or treatment by a licensed medical or mental health professional, and anything we share is general education, not medical advice. Psilocybin is not right for everyone: participation is limited to adults 21 and over and involves screening. We do not promise specific outcomes, and experiences vary. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988. Psilocybin services are not a substitute for crisis care or treatment.