Gather Well trains and supports psychedelic practitioners to provide trauma‑informed, culturally relevant care with high ethical standards. Their mission is to contribute to a shift in collective consciousness by supporting individual and group healing. My internship focused on research for a potential pilot program called Wounds of Wealth. This program would invite participants with financial privilege to explore the personal, relational, and collective impacts of wealth. The hypothesis is that there are few supportive spaces where people can openly examine their relationship to wealth and its origins within family lineages. Through a cohort‑based program, participants would work through emotional complexity, perhaps shifting their relationship to wealth while engaging in safe, legal, carefully facilitated psychedelic circles. Program tuition would fund healing and training for people from systemically disadvantaged backgrounds, improving accessibility to this work and contributing to cultural change. I helped Gather Well consider the desirability, feasibility, and viability of this concept. I led key team members through a process to identify core assumptions and map potential partners. I also spoke with people running or participating in similar programs to draft a potential offering. The timing of my internship coincided with the creation of the responsive learning laboratory, a video library that helps trainees practice ethical decision‑making in simulated psychedelic sessions, and I participated in filming videos for the learning lab.

This project sat at the intersection of my interests and skills, including ethics, reparations, design thinking, and early‑stage market research. I am a dual‑degree student pursuing an MDiv in Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement and an MSW in Clinical Social Work, along with clinical pastoral training in chaplaincy. I have big questions about how individual healing and collective liberation overlap and how these can be practiced in our current social context. The research involved honest conversations about money—a vulnerable topic that raises questions about values, lineage, worth, and belonging. Through my mindfulness training, I stayed present to what surfaced. Before graduate school, I supported early‑stage startups through design thinking and community engagement. Skills in mapping ecosystems and identifying gaps were valuable here. Participating in filming videos for the learning library added another dimension, exploring issues of safety, trust, culture, and identity. This work complemented my social work training.

Gather Well’s work is deeply relational and requires a high degree of trust, which is usually built over time. Discussing financial privilege remains relatively taboo, so finding the right people and conducting conversations within a short internship was challenging. It was easier to talk with people within Gather Well’s network or my own circles and with those running similar programs. Reaching potential participants required more networking; I relied on warm introductions. Without pre‑existing relationships, this research would not have been possible in the given timeframe. Another challenge was messaging the Wounds of Wealth concept. During outreach some questioned why we would focus on unpacking financial privilege instead of directly supporting marginalized populations. This feedback, along with conversations with those engaged in reparations work, helped me articulate the systemic perspective: transforming wealth relationships among those with privilege can be part of structural change, even if the path is indirect. Identifying participants willing to devote time, energy, and resources to this internal work will remain a challenge.

This internship taught me many lessons I will carry forward. It provided space to practice holding conviction while remaining open to feedback. I feel fortunate to have met people dedicated to undoing systemic injustices. I learned more about engaging with sensitive topics, like psychedelics in healing, by observing the Gather Well team handle conversations gracefully. The outreach process reaffirmed the power of networks and personal relationships; without warm introductions this research would have been impossible. Working with Gather Well staff was a highlight. I had previously facilitated with some team members, but this internship allowed closer collaboration. They model an organizational culture aligned with their mission and values. As I imagine the type of work and culture I want to contribute to, this experience serves as a possibility model.