Who Is This For?

As discussed in the introduction, microdosing is not specifically a “cure” or straightforward fix for any particular condition or problem, although some specifics are emerging through more rigourous research. What we do know, is that various psychedelics have effects on the brain and body that can open up avenues to resolving a variety of different issues. Some known properties of psychedelics include:

• Neurogenesis – neural cell birth and growth
• Increased ability to create new neural pathways (established communication routes from neuron to neuron)
• Increased connection between brain regions, decreased connection within brain regions
• Increased brain entropy

Macrodosing is privilege, Microdosing is accessibility

Macrodosing psychedelics produces these effects to a much greater degree than microdosing, whence the enormous movement to legalize and study these substances, and the documented ways they have changed lives. However, for many reasons, macrodosing psychedelics is not for everyone. Access to safe, guided macrodosing experiences is a privilege, you need either the money to seek out reputable retreats possibly in a foreign country, or you need the luck to have someone in your own network who can be this guide for you. Macrodosing alone can be difficult or risky, especially for those who are more vulnerable, and for the unseasoned psychonaut, can actually create more of a sense of aloneness and struggle for meaning, when not surrounded by others who share the kind of insights psychedelics gift us. Macrodosing can produce profound realisations and epiphanies which can be very freeing for those with the resources to make the changes they need to fit their new mindset, but for those without resources, living with these unlived realisations can be even more damning. For those who are underprivileged especially, life is already full of unrealised dreams and visions of what life could be if it were not for the systemic, financial, and health related barriers that stand in their way.

This opens the door for microdosing to play a role in bringing the benefits of psychedelics to those without the privilege or desire to engage in full psychedelic experiences. Microdosing has been described as taking “sub perceptual” doses of psychedelics, but some are now moving away from this phrasing. Rather, it is a “sub-entheogenic” dose that characterises the microdose. A perfect microdose is one which does not induce a “psychedelic state” of visuals and journeying, but which does produce some “feeling”. Though this varies from person to person, some effects do seem ubiquitous, such as:

• Feelings of warmth
• A sense of connectedness
• An impulse to engage to take action
• An overall sense of wellbeing, a feeling that things are okay

My Ideal Client

My focus, specifically, is to help people incorporate microdosing in a practical, realistic way to gradually raise themselves out of the tangles of everyday miseries. For many people, their problems are the compounded effects of marginalization, financial deficits, social isolation, bureaucratic barriers, unemployment or unhealthy employment, disability, lack of social supports, inaccessible healthcare and many more. We cannot keep lauding “productivity”, “hard work” and the latest health hacks as the pathway out of systemic underprivilege, nor can we fix systemic issues through individualised therapies, but what we can do in the here and now is help people to alleviate some of the powerlessness and hopelessness that’s burying people, and give them a better chance of dismantling the very real barriers they face.

I welcome in my practice, in particular, those who face systemic barriers who want to work with someone who shares those experiences, and who may not feel that the glamourised, luxury brand aesthetics that the wellness and psychedelic industries have adopted are something they can relate to, including: LGBTQ+; BIPOC; disabled and neurodivergent; women, especially those who feel fundamentally marginalised; those with specific spiritual needs or who have suffered cult abuse; those who cannot afford the typical prices of psychedelic services; those who have had difficulties navigating unfit-for-purpose mental health systems; and others who feel these descriptions relatable to them.