Inclusivity & Positionality Statement

As the facilitator of this program I acknowledge my privilege as a cis-gendered male, with higher education and access to basic vital resources. It is from this position that I am able to provide this service to you. I also acknowledge my intersectionality as a mixed raced person of Caribbean descent, who was born and raised in the United States, currently practicing a form of spiritual tradition indigenous to the Amazon. In acknowledging my own positionality, I wish to create a safe space for persons of all racial, cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds to meaningfully connect, experience healing, and open themselves to the deep and unique processes facilitated through plant medicines.

This group is open to male-identified individuals. In modern western culture, there are few spaces for men to experience emotional connection and vulnerability with each other. Therefore, men in our culture often lack relationships with depth and meaning. This group in part seeks to address this. I believe that certain layers of our experience can unfold more fully in a male-identified container that is held with the intention of healing.

The spread of ceremonial plant medicine practices here in the US, as well as the history of the development of the field of psychotherapy, have both been fraught with misogyny and violent abuse of power by male authority figures. I commit to not being a part of this trend by creating relationships of trust and accountability in both my personal and professional life, and inviting feedback anytime my behavior has unintentionally caused harm to someone in my life.