SE RT
SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM
We are a community care initiative based in the Sacred Valley, Perú, offering practical and compassionate accompaniment, orientation, and referral to participants, practitioners, and others navigating unethical, confusing, and challenging spiritual and psychedelic-related experiences, locally and internationally.
On the ground and online.
SERT bridges the gap between destabilizing experiences and the community within which they happen.
Sacred Valley, Perú.
Context: the Sacred Valley.
SERT is a community care initiative based in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Perú, one of the world's busiest crossroads for plant medicine and spiritual tourism.
As the Valley continues to grow in diversity, activity, and complexity, we’re seeing both its potential and its pressure points. Alongside meaningful contributions, there has been a rise in extractive, unregulated initiatives, often with little regard for environmental impact, ethical responsibility, or the wellbeing of local communities.
In the absence of clear institutional oversight, coordinated response systems, or even a shared willingness to address these challenges, responsibility falls to those of us who are here.
This is where we step in.
Bridging the gap.
The Sacred Valley is home to a growing number of “expats” and other migrants from around the world. We recognize the impact of our presence, and the need to actively take part in shaping a more accountable, respectful, and supportive ecosystem.
We have repeatedly witnessed or directly supported people navigating difficult and destabilizing spiritual and psychedelic experiences in the Valley. This support began informally, out of concern and compassion. In the absence of a structured response, situations were often met with inconsistent care and no follow-up.
A shared frustration around this unsustainable reality eventually transformed into creating SERT.
As access to plant medicine experiences continues to expand, so does the need for coordinated, community-based ways of responding when experiences get difficult, for participants, facilitators, and the wider community.
These situations do not occur in isolation. They accumulate and ripple through retreat centers, practitioner networks, families, neighbors, and local social fabric, affecting safety, wellbeing, and relationships with the cultural and social context in which these experiences take place.
The global expansion of psychedelic tourism is giving rise to spiritual hubs, where people not only visit, but also choose to make a home. As these emerging communities take shape, it becomes a matter of sustainable social infrastructure: the shared spaces, relationships, and resources that allow locals and visitors to navigate complexity with greater care and accountability.
SERT is a response to this need.
What do we mean by "spiritual emergency"?
The concept was articulated by Stanislav and Christina Grof (1989), calling for discernment between classical psychiatric diagnoses and spiritual awakenings.
By spiritual emergencies they refer to: "crises of spiritual opening, during which the individual’s ordinary sense of identity, values, and worldview are challenged and transformed"(Grof & Grof, 1989), and which usually require both professional support and appropriate spiritual guidance.
Our take:
At SERT, we draw on the work of the Grofs and expand their framework to include our own observations.
The Sacred Valley continuously receives visitors on personal healing and spiritual quests, making the region a busy (unregulated) spiritual hub in itself.
In this light, emergencies here can often be understood, to varying degrees, as spiritual in nature.
Who and how we help.
We step in when spiritual or psychedelic experiences move beyond what can be safely held. We work alongside individual helpers and existing teams to stabilize, assess, and guide next steps.
Individuals
If you are undergoing an overwhelming or destabilizing experience, we provide a coordinated response team to support you through:
-
grounding and first integration steps;
-
help with immediate practical needs;
-
ongoing communication, mediation, and translation;
-
coordination with your emergency contact and support network;
-
connection with local and international services or authorities;
-
community-aware harm reduction and containment.
We help create the conditions for a safer next step.
Practitioners & Retreat Centers
We extend your capacity, we do not replace your role. When a situation becomes difficult to manage within your existing team or resources, we provide:
-
additional hands-on support during challenging moments;
-
grounded, non-escalatory presence;
-
coordination and resource management;
-
an outside perspective when situations become complex.
Our role is to support your team, the individual in your care and the wider situation, helping create a path forward without taking over your role.
Communities & Networks
We seek to contribute to the development of safer, more responsible community ecosystems. Our work and goals include:
-
facilitating peer care circles for practitioners;
-
delivering ethics, safety and harm-reduction trainings;
-
developing accessible, digital resources;
-
offering local and international consultation and collaborative support;
-
developing and sharing community-integrated approaches to psychedelic care.
Meet the team.
Bárbara Espina
Founder, Exec. Director & Responder
Bárbara is a psychedelic integration specialist working at the intersection of plant medicine practices, community care, and arts-based education and prevention, with a decade of experience spanning nonprofit, institutional, and community settings, as well as ceremonial retreats, across several countries.
She holds a degree in psychology and an MA in Applied Theatre in Community and Educational Contexts (Leverhulme Trust Award 2018), and has trained in Shadow Work™, Somatic Plant Medicine Integration, the Human Energy-Consciousness System, and integration and safety programmes through ICEERS. Her work is informed by ongoing relationships with international initiatives focused on education, harm-reduction, and ethical and responsible practices.
Her projects Once Upon A Ceremony (2024) and Wisdom of the Holders (2026) combine theatre-making and storytelling as vehicles for critical thinking. Participants, practitioners and those generally curious are invited to reflect in action about ethics, safety, and accountability in plant medicine practices.
Lynn Bee
Responder
Lynn is a certified psychedelic integration coach and former EMT with wildland firefighting operations. Her background in emergency response and harm reduction gives her a practical, grounded presence in crisis and non-ordinary states.
Based in the Sacred Valley, Lynn runs WholeSoul, a psychedelic integration and transformational coaching practice. She has worked as a facilitator at various ayahuasca centers, provided medical support and harm reduction at community events, and runs an educational initiative teaching first aid, CPR, and de-escalation across the Sacred Valley.
In addition to her coaching certification with Being True To You, Lynn holds a 200-hour yoga teaching certification with further yogic study at Bihar School of Yoga Ashram. She is currently an honors psychology student at Oregon State University's eCampus, with a focus on trauma-informed care.
Heather Paulson, NMD (ret.)
Responder & Organizational Advisor
Heather is a naturopathic physician with training spanning conventional medicine, functional medicine, herbal therapy, homeopathy, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. She holds additional certifications in Somatic Plant Medicine Integration, Ayahuasca Safety and Integration through ICEERS, and trauma-informed care, and is currently deepening her studies in Andean traditional healing through Escuela Medicina Andina.
She also mentors health practitioners in building sustainable, mission-aligned practices through the Health Business Growth Collective, bringing the same integrative lens to branding and organizational development that she brings to healing work.
She has spent years living and working in the Sacred Valley, first drawn by the medicine and staying for the community that grew around Hampuy House, her retreat space. As a responder with SERT, Heather brings both clinical grounding and ceremonial experience to the moments when someone needs steady, informed presence most.
Fernanda Baraybar
International Relations
Fernanda is a psychic strategist and writer, dedicated to the expansion of consciousness. She works as a consultant for Synergetic Press, supporting organizations committed to transformation. With an MSc in Spirituality, Consciousness, and Transpersonal Psychology from the Alef Trust, her research explores spiritual abuse and personalized healing. She's co-founder of Haramara Sal Sanctuary (2023), a local, community-rooted initiative supporting and advocating for survivors of spiritual abuse.
Deepening her spiritual path, she studies with the Q’ero communities of Perú and the Incan Medicine School, honoring the lineage of her ancestors.
Amanda Rodrigo, RN
External Clinical Advisor
Amanda serves as a clinical advisor for the Spiritual Emergency Response Team (SERT), bringing over 15 years of experience as a Trauma-Informed Registered Psychiatric Nurse specializing in Behavioral Health and Chemical Dependency. She has pursued extensive training in integrative healing modalities, including Kambo (Matses), Psychedelic Therapy (American Holistic Nurses Association), Microdosing (San Francisco Psychedelic Society), Breathwork, Trauma-Release Bodywork, and Reiki energy healing.
Now based in the Sacred Valley, Amanda owns and operates Casa Holística, a holistic wellness center where science meets spirit. She offers a heart-centered, clinically grounded approach to risk mitigation and holistic care, believing each person is their own most powerful catalyst for healing and that spiritual emergencies are profound opportunities for growth.
What guides us.
Mission
To provide compassionate, specialised support and coordinated response to spiritual emergencies and other complex situations arising in psychedelic and spiritual contexts, while supporting practitioners and communities to build their capacity to respond safely and responsibly.
Vision
To develop as a sustainable, community-integrated model of psychedelic support in the Sacred Valley, that can inform similar initiatives in other high-impact regions globally.
To cultivate reciprocal relationships and cooperation with other local and international plant medicine practitioners and communities, and aligned services worldwide, supporting shared learning, knowledge exchange, and collective maturation of the field.
To contribute to the global conversation around the present and future of psychedelic practices, and their evolving relationship with communities, cultures, and society at large.
Values
Agency
We respect each person’s worldview and autonomy, supporting their capacity to navigate challenge and find their own meaning.
Consent
We engage through clear agreement and do not impose intervention. Where needed, we work in coordination with a defined point of responsibility to ensure continuity of care.
Reliability
We offer steady, non-abandoning care, especially when things are intense, chaotic or unclear. We stay connected to the human within the crisis.
Attunement
Each situation is unique. We listen closely and adapt to the natural rhythm, needs, and unfolding of the situation, without assuming we already know. Every case informs and evolves our practice.
Community Integrity
We work within community, not around it. The wellbeing and safety of the wider ecosystem are integral to our decisions, even when this requires difficult boundaries.
Get involved.
Connect Collaborate Support Refer
We are always looking for aligned individuals to join our team and support our mission. Tell us how you think your energy an expertise could contribute to making a meaningful impact with us.
