Psychedelic coaches
Floris and Lotte both have unique backgrounds as psychedelic coaches. Discover here with whom you match best.
Also, learn more about what psychedelics coaching entails and whether it is right for you.
What are the benefits of psychedelics, the risks, and how do you combine psychedelics with coaching?
FLO = Floris & Lotte
Lotte Merijn
COACH
Lotte is a coach with 9+ years of work experience in mental health care. She is an acceptance and commitment therapist (ACT) and yin yoga teacher. Lotte has a coaching practice where she guides women with ACT and yoga. Lotte helps people deal with life’s obstacles in a resilient way so they can focus on what gives meaning.
In the sessions at FLO coaching, Lotte creates a soft, calm and open atmosphere. You feel safe and supported, allowing you to surrender to the experience fully.
From a young age, Lotte has been curious about the human psyche, about our inner world. And she is still curious. To her own inner world and to the inner world of the people she meets. Lotte has been familiar with psychedelics for over five years. She combines the transformative power of ACT with psychedelics. If appropriate, Lotte also uses yin yoga, mindfulness and rituals in the sessions.
At Lotte, you can find the best solution for:
- Personal growth and meaning
- Conscious and balanced life
- Connect with yourself and your body
- Perfectionism, insecurity and self-image
- Breaking patterns (habits, feelings, thoughts)
Floris Wolswijk
COACH
Floris has a background in psychology and entrepreneurship. After studying psychology at Erasmus University, he started his own business. There he gained eight years of experience in managing an e-commerce company. Floris has been driven for years by getting the most out of life.
In the sessions at FLO coaching, Floris is an anchor to conventional reality. You can mirror your ideas with him without judgment in a safe environment.
Floris has been personally familiar with psychedelics for seven years. In addition to having gained a lot from these experiences himself, he is also the man behind a para-academic website (Blossom) that closely monitors scientific developments.
The new doors that psychedelics open are a constant inspiration to him. The question of how these insights can be converted into long-term positive impact is one of his greatest passions.
At Floris, you can find the best solution for:
- Entrepreneurship
- Self-development
- Inspiration
Max
SITTER
Max is our faithful four-legged friend, a seven-year-old Frisian Stabyhoun.
As a wonderful cuddly dog, he can be present at the session. He has gained experience in guiding sessions since he was a puppy.
testimonials
An exciting way to get to know yourself better and focus on what you want to do better in life. It was great to see that the insights I got during the session were all answers I already knew.
Only now, I could merge different types of solutions into one solution. It enabled me to make a plan to work on myself!
– Sander
I found the journey with FLO Coaching expansive, insightful and highly significant. Their research-backed approach to psychedelic coaching exceeded my expectations in every way – from their professionalism to the comfort and personal connection.
I would recommend them to anyone who wishes to look deeper into themselves in a safe environment.
– Izak
Contact us for an introduction
About psychedelics & coaching
Psychedelics and coaching go well together because they both work towards making you more flexible.
Just as you can do stretches to make your body more flexible, coaching and psychedelics can support you in making your mind flexible.
EFFECTS OF PSYCHEDELICs
Psychological effects of truffles
Truffles contain psilocybin, the prodrug of psilocin (4-hydroxy-dimethyltryptamine), the primary hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms and truffles, and a classic psychedelic (“mind-manifesting”) molecule. Truffles have been used in rituals and ceremonies for centuries and, more recently, in psychotherapy. It can stimulate profound existential experiences, which can leave a lasting psychological impression.
In your body, psilocybin is quickly converted to psilocin, which has mind-altering effects similar in some ways to those of LSD, mescaline, and DMT. In general, the effects include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, a distorted sense of time, and spiritual experiences, and there may be side effects such as nausea and panic attacks.
The toxicity of psilocybin is so low that you would have to eat about 1.7 kg of dried (or 17 kg of fresh) mushrooms to possibly die. It also doesn’t make you dependent, there’s no such mechanism (unlike alcohol), and the experience is so intense that many people schedule a year between sessions. In research settings, no long-term negative effects have been reported with the use of psilocybin (after more than 2000 sessions conducted since the year 2000).
Truffles contain psilocybin
Your body processes psilocybin into the active substance psilocin
Truffles are relatively harmless to the body
The underlying science
New connections are made in your brain.
Parts of the brain that don’t usually talk to each other start to communicate more, and parts of the brain that generally speak to each other communicate less. The part that worries, plans ahead, and talks (the Default Mode Network, DMN) becomes calmer. Connections are made between different parts of the brain.
Psychedelics work to relax the precision of previous beliefs (priors, top-down). This relaxation gives bottom-up information more space. This then allows for possible revision and downgrading of previous convictions.
Imagine living in a city where you suddenly stop talking to your neighbours and start talking to people on the other side of town you don’t usually talk to. That can lead to new ways of looking at yourself, thinking about the world differently, and gaining insights. When the DMN settles down, other areas connect.
Your brain is a pattern recognition machine. The session enables you to make new connections and think creatively about your goals. Putting your brain in a different state makes you more open to new ways of viewing the world.
Your brain makes new connections
Central control is temporarily released
New connections can lead to new insights
Psychedelics for mental health
The use of psychedelics has many more benefits outside of self-development.
Many mental health issues are related to rigid patterns (OCD, depression, trauma) that must be broken. Much research is currently being done, and we are optimistic that the use of psilocybin in clinical/therapeutic settings is only a few years away.
The furthest in this medicalization is research with MDMA (an ‘entactogen’, not a classic psychedelic) for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Here is research in the final phase of research in which it is shown in a large group of people that 67% have significantly fewer PTSD symptoms after intensive guidance. If all goes well, this form of therapy will be approved by the FDA (in America) in 2024, after which approval in Europe (EMA) may follow in 2026.
Other research with psychedelics is underway for virtually all psychiatric conditions. For example, research with psilocybin is in the penultimate phase for treating long-term depression (‘treatment-resistant depression’). Major academic groups conduct research (e.g. Johns Hopkins University) as well as large companies (e.g. Janssen & Janssen).
In addition to coaching, psychedelics also seem to work for mental health
MDMA, in combination with therapy, may be approved as early as 2024
Well-known universities and companies are currently doing a lot of research
COACHING WITH PSYCHEDELICS
ACT coaching framework
Lotte works according to the ACT method, which is a contemporary scientifically based behavioural therapy. ACT stands for acceptance and commitment therapy. With ACT, you learn to deal with thoughts, feelings and challenging situations (acceptance) resiliently. This leaves you with more space and energy for the things that matter to you (commitment).
With the ACT method, you learn to be present in the moment and experience life in its fullness as it presents itself. At the same time, you focus on what gives meaning. ACT is an experiential form of coaching. That means we will practice, experience and discover a lot in the sessions. You will also always receive personal in-depth exercises and reference work to take home.
Be resilient with thoughts
Commitment to the important things
Experiential form of coaching
Difference between coaching & guidance/facilitation
Coaching (sessions without psychedelics) and guidance (also called facilitation; with psychedelics) are two different activities. Your coach (or facilitator) will play a different role for both. In the coaching sessions, there is an active conversation, one in which your coach helps you to gain new insights. We will also provide you with some information during the coaching sessions to optimally prepare you for the psychedelic experience.
In contrast to the coaching, there is virtually no active conversation during the guidance while you are under the influence of psychedelics. In most cases, the facilitator will provide a safe, quiet environment in which you can discover for yourself. But in this other state of being, we will not coach you or otherwise influence you precisely because during this state, you have less opportunity to judge what we say for correctness. Of course, your facilitator will be ready to ground you or, for example, to write things down.
During the guidance (and also the coaching sessions), we will not impose our own vision of the world on you. You are welcome whether you are an atheist or pantheist, Catholic or Jewish. As good facilitators, in our eyes, we make sure that you feel the space and freedom to be an authentic self.
Coaching takes place in the sessions without psychedelics
Guidance during the psychedelics session is not directive
You get space to discover the world from your perspective
