The Rigor Behind Our Industry Leading Certification Program
Psychedelic coaching is a profound honor and sacred responsibility. To uphold the trust our clients place in us, we want our coaches to be the most skilled, grounded, ethical, and accountable in the field.
That’s why we’ve created our Fireside Certification program. Designed by one of the world’s leading psychedelic practitioners— Dr. Jacob Ham—in collaboration with the team running the Psychedelic Support Line, our certification program is a 30-step, 300-hour process, which we describe in detail below.
Jacob has spent nearly 30 years combined training generations of aspiring practitioners as a Professor of Psychology and the Director for the Center for Complex Trauma at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Now he is sharing his gifts with Fireside Project.
Before we hire someone as a coach, they have to spend a year as an apprentice on our Psychedelic Support Line, supporting people during and after psychedelic experiences. Imagine if, before you hired someone as an employee, you had the opportunity to work with them, observe them, and see how they respond to feedback for a full year. That’s how it is when we evaluate whether to hire one of our apprentice’s as a coach.
Many of our applicants are already seasoned coaches, therapists, facilitators, and practitioners. But they want to coach with us in order to continue to hone their craft and learn in community with Jacob.
The foundation of our coaching program is an ongoing commitment to continue learning and growing. Coaches receive in-depth supervision every week with Jacob that’s based on a clinical model.
All of this stands in stark contrast to other coach training programs, which typically confer a certification and then release their coaches into the world to work as independent contractors without ongoing supervision, community, or accountability.
Our 30-step, 300-hour certification process has two parts: apprenticing on the Psychedelic Support Line and then being hired as an employee.
Our 30-Step Process
Apprenticeship on the Support Line
1. Written Application
Candidates fill out a detailed application where they share why they want to apprentice, their relevant experience, and the role that psychedelics have played in their healing process.
2. Application Review
All applications are independently reviewed and rated by at least two support-line supervisors. Each supervisor makes a recommendation on whether the applicant should be interviewed.
3. Internal Discussion
The supervisors who reviewed each applicant meet to discuss whether the applicant should be interviewed. Less than half of all applicants are interviewed.
4. In-Depth Interview
Two supervisors conduct an hour-long interview. They go deep with the applicant, exploring questions like which emotions are hardest for them and how they navigate situations when they feel triggered.
5. Post-Interview Review
The supervisors then rate each candidate based on enumerated criteria, then meet to discuss whether to offer the applicant to our training. The ultimate question they ask themselves is whether they’d want the applicant to hold space for them or the person they love most in the world.
6. Background Check
A comprehensive background check is conducted before the training.
7. Letter of Agreement
Applicants must sign a letter of agreement that sets forth in detail the nature of their one-year apprenticeship and their commitments to remain open to learning and growing.
8. Four-Day Live Training
Apprentices attend a four-day, live Zoom training that is a mix of presentations, demonstrations, dyads, triads, and small groups. Apprentices learn the basics of holding space, active listening, how to provide trauma-informed and culturally attuned care, how to handle the myriad types of calls to the support line, varieties of challenging psychedelic experiences and integration experiences, procedures regarding callers who may be in immediate danger and/or suicidal, as well as other policies and procedures.
9. Written Examination
Apprentices must then pass a written examination.
10. Skills Test
Apprentices have a one-on-one meeting with a supervisor where the apprentice and supervisor do a variety of role plays involving scenarios that may occur on the support line. Apprentices must attain a certain score in order to continue in the training process. Some apprentices do not pass, and their apprenticeship concludes.
11. Shift Observation
Apprentices must observe at least two full shifts. During this time, they witness how other apprentices take calls, learn Fireside Project’s software system, and get a feel for the Fireside community.
12. Conditional Approval to Support Callers
Apprentices are then assigned a four-hour shift, where they generally remain for a full year. During the conditional approval stage, apprentices may take calls but they must be observed at all times by a supervisor. After the supervisor observes enough calls to feel sufficiently confident in the apprentice’s skill level, the apprentice is approved to take calls on their own.
13. One Full Year on our Psychedelic Support Line
The apprentice then spends a full year on the support line, working the same four-hour shift every week. During that time, they handle a wide array of live calls, including people in the midst of psychedelic experiences, people integrating past psychedelic experiences, people supporting others having psychedelic experiences, and people working in the psychedelic field who need emotional support. Every shift is a mini-community that consists of three to five apprentices and a paid supervisor who is typically a clinician.
14. Receive Feedback from Supervisors on Shift
Supervisors regularly observe apprentices’ calls and provide detailed, personalized feedback based on enumerated criteria, as well as provide emotional support to the apprentice. Our cutting-edge software system allows us to track apprentices’ progress over time based on supervisor feedback and caller feedback in post-call survey responses.
15. One-on-One Meetings with Supervisors
Supervisors meet quarterly with their apprentices to discuss progress, growth edges, and ways that the apprentice’s experience can be improved.
16. Ongoing Education
Guest speakers are regularly invited to present to the whole Fireside community on a range of topics related to providing psychedelic support and the fulfillment of our mission.
17. Learning in Community
Apprentices have the opportunity to learn and grow in community by leveraging our Mighty Network to form small groups organized by identity, lived experience, or other characteristics.
Coaching as an Employee at Fireside Project
18. Written Application
All coaches are paid employees of Fireside Project. Apprentices who are interested in becoming a coach must first submit a written application that explores their reasons for wanting to become a coach and any prior coaching experience, among other topics.
19. Application Review
At least two staff members review each application, rate the applicant, and then decide whether to conduct an interview.
20. In-Depth Interview
At least two staff members interview each coaching candidate. The interview is one-hour long and includes questions and role plays. The candidate must also review an excerpt of a coaching conversation and analyze the coach’s performance.
21. Holistic Application Review by All Fireside Staff
Our staff sits down as a group and talks through every applicant—their skill level and reliability; their potential; how much they’ve learned and grown over their time on the support line; their awareness of their own internal world and their triggers; how well they receive feedback and provide it to their fellow apprentices; and their overall contribution to the Fireside community.
22. Background Check
A comprehensive background check is conducted of all applicants. This is in addition to the background check that was conduct when the candidate applied to be an apprentice on the support line.
23. Letter of Agreement
Applicants must sign a letter of agreement that sets forth the guidelines for being a coach. Applicants must agree to spend a full year as a coach, attend weekly supervision sessions, and commit to continuing to learn, grow, and develop their skills.
24. Live Training and Video Training
Coaches then undergo a rigorous training process designed by Jacob and Fireside staff that combines presentations, demonstrations, role plays, and small groups. But this training isn’t an end in itself. It’s a way of laying the foundations for the learning that will happen in the months and years to come during weekly supervision. We focus on creating a space where deep vulnerability and sharing are encouraged and feel safe.
25. Written Examinations
Coaches must then pass a written examination that covers topics such as the fundamentals of our coaching program, legal and ethical boundaries, the coach-client relationship.
26. Weekly Supervision from Jacob
This is part of the foundation of how our coaches learn and continue to improve their skills. Coaches must attend weekly supervision sessions run by our Director of Coaching Dr. Jacob Ham. These supervision sessions are modeled off of the clinical supervision that is provided to clinicians at Johns Hopkins and Mount Sinai. The sessions focus on identifying coaches’ growth edges, cultivating their awareness of transference and countertransference, and learning how to be more fully present with their clients.
27. Reviews at first 30, 60, and 90 Days of Employment
All coaches are reviewed after their first 30, 60, and 90 days of employment. This includes a written questionnaire and a 1-on-1 meeting with the Coaching Manager. Prior to that meeting, the Coaching Manager receives feedback about the coach from the Director of Coaching, Operations Team, Executive Director, and clients’ responses to post-session surveys.
28. One-on-One Meetings with Our Coaching Manager
Coaches meet with our Coaching Manager to discuss issues that may arise during coaching, including challenging situations, growth edges, as well as to receive emotional support and encouragement.
29. Comprehensive Review Every Six Months
All coaches undergo a rigorous review every six months on all aspects of their performance, including areas of strength and growth edges.
30. Ongoing Education
Every month, coaches attend presentations by members of staff or outside guests on a range of topics related to coaching.