This article recaps the Psychedelic Support webinar “The Psychedelic Safety Wheel: A 21st-Century Update to Set and Setting”, presented by transformational coach and psychedelic guide Gv Freeman. Drawing from decades of personal development work and harm-reduction experience, Gv offers a modern reframing of psychedelic safety that goes far beyond the classic idea of “set and setting.”
As psychedelic use expands across therapeutic, ceremonial, and personal contexts, the need for practical, approachable, and comprehensive harm-reduction tools has never been greater. The Psychedelic Safety Wheel introduces a 12-variable framework to help seekers, clinicians, and guides prepare, navigate, and integrate psychedelic experiences with greater clarity and care.
🎥 Watch the Webinar Replay: The Psychedelic Safety Wheel — A 21st-Century Update to Set & Setting
Why Set & Setting Needed an Upgrade
For more than 60 years, “set and setting” has shaped the way people think about psychedelic safety. And while the concept remains foundational, today’s landscape is far more complex than it was in the 1960s.
Psychedelics now show up in:
• clinical therapy
• religious or spiritual ceremonies
• underground guide work
• personal exploration
• festival or community environments
• microdosing and self-directed wellness practices
Through this evolution, Gv has consistently seen one thing: the old model isn’t enough to capture the full arc of a psychedelic journey.
“Set and setting is beautiful,” he explains in the webinar, “but it only covers part of the picture. We need a framework that helps people understand preparation, navigation, integration, and activation—not just the moment of the journey itself.”
Thus, the Psychedelic Safety Wheel was born: a practical, flexible model that helps people identify where they’re strong, where they’re vulnerable, and where they may need more support.
The 3 Psychedelic Containers
Before introducing the Wheel, Gv outlines three broad contexts in which psychedelic experiences take place:
- Clinical — therapy, research studies, licensed centers
- Ceremonial — Indigenous, spiritual, or communal ritual settings
- Recreational / Personal — festivals, DIY journeys, self-guided work, microdosing
Each container comes with its own strengths and risks, but Gv emphasizes that no container eliminates risk entirely, and no single approach works for everyone.
“There’s no one way to psychedelic,” he says. “There’s only your way—informed, intentional, and grounded in self-knowledge.”
Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Harm Reduction
One of the most useful distinctions in Gv’s teaching is the difference between two forms of harm reduction:
Top-Down Harm Reduction
The structural, external protections—policies, trained facilitators, screening tools, crisis protocols, licensing, medical oversight.
Bottom-Up Harm Reduction
Internal protections—the awareness, capacity, preparation, self-care, and integration practices of the individual.
Most people focus on top-down safety. But as Gv reminds us, bottom-up safety is equally essential:
“You can be in the most beautiful ceremonial space with the most trustworthy facilitator—and still have a difficult or destabilizing experience if your internal system isn’t ready.”
The Psychedelic Safety Wheel integrates both.
Further Reading: Community, Care, and the Art of Holding Space
Explore more on how peer support, spiritual grounding, and ethical container-building shape safe psychedelic practice.
- Sitting in Sanctuary: Psychedelic Peer Support — A look at compassionate, community-led approaches to holding space in non-ordinary states.
- Harm Reduction & Integration Therapy (HRIT) — Practical frameworks for safety, grounding, and post-experience care.
- Building Community Around Integration: A Guide for Community-Led Peer Integration — How circles, collectives, and community rituals deepen integration.
- The Sacred Container: Psychedelic Chaplaincy and the Art of Spiritual Integration — A spiritually-informed lens on support, presence, and meaning-making.
- What Makes a Good Psychedelic Therapist? Questions to Ask When Looking for One — Guidance for identifying trustworthy, ethical, and skilled facilitators.
The Psychedelic Safety Wheel: A 12-Spoke Model for Safer Journeys
The Safety Wheel covers twelve interrelated variables that together shape the “total safety picture” of a psychedelic experience.
00. The Safety Wheel (Outer Frame)
The Wheel itself is the holistic model—a dynamic system rather than a checklist. It helps people see all the influences acting on a journey, not just one or two.
01. Benefits
What are you hoping psychedelics will help you shift, heal, or understand? Gv encourages seekers to be honest with themselves here—unrealistic expectations can create unnecessary pressure.
02. Risks
Psychological, physical, legal, relational, or financial risks. Risks differ dramatically depending on personal history, medical conditions, medications, trauma background, or context.
03. Preparation
This includes emotional readiness, physical health, intention-setting, support systems, nutrition, embodiment, and logistics. For many people, preparation is where the real work happens.
04. Substance
Different medicines have different safety considerations. Source, purity, dose, and interactions matter—especially in unregulated settings.
05. Facilitation
Who is supporting you? What is their training? Do you know their ethical framework, safety policies, communication style, and boundaries?
06. Intention
Why are you doing this? Intention shapes the container, the mindset, and the meaning you make afterward.
07. Dosing
Perhaps the most concrete safety variable. Gv covers volumetric dosing, weight-based dosing, and cautious titration—especially for newer or more sensitive seekers.
08. Setting
The environment influences the nervous system, emotional processing, perceived safety, and the likelihood of distraction or dysregulation.
09. Mindset
Your beliefs, emotional state, expectations, personal narrative, stress levels, fears, and hopes all shape the experience.
10. Experience
The journey itself—what arises, how you navigate it, what insights emerge, how you respond to difficulty or intensity.
11. Integration
The meaning-making phase. Gv stresses that integration is where transformation becomes sustainable. Without it, the experience can lose its impact—or become destabilizing.
12. Activation
A unique addition to Gv’s model: integration leads to activation—how the experience changes your life, choices, habits, relationships, and identity over time.
Together, these twelve variables help seekers identify what Gv calls “blind spots”—areas where additional care is needed.
“Set and setting is beautiful, but it only covers part of the picture.”
— Gv Freeman
Synthesizing the Wheel: A Whole-System View of Safety
Unlike linear frameworks, the Safety Wheel is intentionally circular in design. Each variable is connected, and strengthening one area can support others. For example:
• Good preparation reduces risk.
• Clear intention improves mindset.
• Safe dosing shapes the experience.
• Thoughtful integration supports activation.
Gv also introduces the Psychedelic Safety Score, a brief assessment to help individuals identify where they’re strong and where additional support may be needed. He emphasizes that the tool isn’t meant to be diagnostic—it’s meant to empower people to make safer, more informed choices.
Practical Wisdom for Seekers, Guides & Clinicians
Throughout the webinar, Gv grounds his teaching in stories from real-life work—guiding, coaching, and supporting individuals through psychedelic healing. He highlights the:
• Importance of self-trust and intuitive knowing
• Need for honest assessment—not fear, not bravado
• Benefit of pacing and titration
• Difference between curiosity and readiness
• Value of long-term integration support
• Role of body intelligence in navigating intensity
As he puts it:
“You can’t outsource your safety.”
Whether someone is sitting with a therapist, a ceremonial leader, or alone in nature, safety depends on a combination of self-awareness, support, and preparation.
Follow your Curiosity
Sign up to receive our free psychedelic courses, 45 page eBook, and special offers delivered to your inbox.Does the Wheel Need to Be Balanced?
A thoughtful question emerged during Q&A:
Does every spoke of the Wheel need equal attention?
Gv’s answer: No—but none should be ignored.
Some people are naturally strong in preparation but weaker in dosing literacy. Others have strong support networks but lack clarity around their intentions. The Wheel helps illuminate what needs more care before stepping in.
In this way, the model encourages humility:
You don’t need to be perfect—you just need to be informed.
From Insight to Activation
In closing, Gv returns to the heart of the Wheel: transformation doesn’t come from the psychedelic alone. It comes from how we prepare, how we navigate, how we integrate, and how we activate the experience into daily life.
This is where the Safety Wheel shines—not only as a harm-reduction tool, but as a path of self-knowledge.
“Psychedelics can open the door,” Gv reflects, “but only you can walk through it.”
Watch the full replay: https://youtu.be/odB-tmva6jA
About Gv Freeman
Gv Freeman is an opti-mystic, transformational coach, and guide who blends spiritual wisdom with modern therapeutic insight. He supports clients in moving toward purpose, prosperity, happiness, and freedom through coaching and Sacred Medicine work. Gv is the author of Healing with Psychedelics: A Step-by-Step Handbook to Safe and Sustainable Transformation and the creator of the Psychedelic Safety Wheel.
Learn more at: psychedeliciq.com and gvfreeman.com
Find him on LinkedIn and Instagram
Read his writing on Substack at PsychedelicIQ
Resources from the Webinar
🌐 Connect with & Learn More from Gv Freeman
- Visit Gv’s websites: psychedeliciq.com + gvfreeman.com
- Follow Gv on LinkedIn + Instagram
- Read Gv’s writing on PsychedelicIQ on Substack
- Read his book Healing with Psychedelics
- Take the Free 10-Minute Psychedelic Safety Wheel Assessment
📚 Books & Links From the Webinar:
- American Group Psychotherapy Association
- Psilocybin Group Therapy Publication: Psilocybin-Assisted Group Therapy for Demoralized Older Long-Term AIDS Survivor Men: An Open-Label Safety and Feasibility Pilot Study
- Peter Gasser Publication: Using a MDMA- and LSD-Group Therapy Model in Clinical Practice in Switzerland and Highlighting the Treatment of Trauma-Related Disorders
- Irvin Yalom’s Book: The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy
- ClinicalTrials.gov Record: Group MDMA-therapy for Veterans With PTSD (Group-MVP)
🎓 Courses & Continuing Education at Psychedelic Support
- Free Harm Reduction Course: Riding the Wave
- Conscious Journey eLearning Course + Workbook (Print)
- Integration Intensive Retreat: 3-day experiential retreat in Big Sur, CA
- Explore Upcoming Webinars in our Monthly Speaker Series
- All CE/CME Courses from Psychedelic Support
- Earn CE for Webinar Events: Psychedelic Therapy Continuing Education Series
