Black-led Projects for Psychedelic Healing

Apr 20

I got to attend Chacruna’s Parables & Pathways, A Conversation Between Black Women in Psychedelics yesterday and wanted to share some links if you missed it.

Conversations like these teach me that we need all types of practitioners to support all types of people healing. Widespread medical racism makes it unlikely that Black people will trust white doctors with their mental & spiritual health. Black attendees were encouraged to wait for a Black-led opportunity to sit with psychedelics instead of risking it.

Why is this important? Most organizations will try to look diverse, regardless of who is actually running the show. (Just ask your Black friends with corporate jobs how often they’re asked to be photographed vs. how often the board of directors asks their opinion.) I learned while leading Women Grow that having Black women work entry-level positions for white owners was reinforcing the White Supremacy that we were trying to disrupt. Women Grow is now majority-owned by Black women.

Black-Led Psychedelic Projects

Robin Divine’s Black People Trip - Robin creates content and community for Black women using psychedelics. Support her by joining her Patreon or Venmo @DivineRobin.
Hanifa Nayo Washington’s One Village Healing - Hanifa is someone you want to follow because everything she’s doing is amazing. She recently co-founded the first Psychedelic Peer Support line, called The Fireside Project.
Courtney Watson’s Doorway Therapeutics - Specializing in healing for Queer BIPOC+ people in Oakland. Give to her therapy fund to provide services to Black activists with Black therapists.
Oakland Hyphae - Oakland Hyphae is a socially responsible, Black-owned grassroots business, who's goal is to educate and provide dependable, high quality resources and information for plant medicine cultivators and enthusiasts. I’ll be appearing at their event this weekend in Denver.

As a white woman–I’ve caused harm projecting that I can help everyone–when the truth is I can only help myself and inspire people to do the same. I often fall into a savior complex that believes I know how to help people better than they know how to help themselves. If you’re like me, consider giving resources to projects with no attachments and getting out of their way.