Margaret Kirschner, CADC

Asheville-based Margaret Kirschner mentors people through psilocybin preparation and integration, addiction recovery and spiritual emergence. She runs A Mindful Emergence with her partner, Eddie LeShure, and works one to one, online or in person.

Approach

Her sessions combine slow therapeutic movement, somatic mindfulness meditation and breathing practices, and she is trained in Internal Family Systems. She trained as a yoga teacher at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts and, in 2013, completed 500 hours of trauma-sensitive yoga therapy training under Kristine Kaoverii Weber of Subtle Yoga. She also holds the CADC credential as an alcohol and drug counsellor, and lists 24 years of yoga teaching, ten years of addiction counselling and 15 years as a birth doula. For a psilocybin session she and Eddie sit together as a female and male pair, and both stay involved from the first consultation to the end of integration. A two-hour breathwork session comes first.

Who it is for

She works with people strengthening their recovery from addiction, preparing for or integrating a psychedelic experience, or going through a spiritual emergence or emergency. She does not take clients with severe substance misuse, those needing addiction treatment, or anyone showing symptoms of psychosis.

Practical details

A free discovery call of about 30 minutes comes first. Sessions cost $110 each, with lower rates for packages of four or six bought in advance; the psilocybin programme is priced after the consultation. Integration is private or in a group.

Care and safety

Clients complete an intake form on medical and mental health history, goals and intentions, and sign an agreement. The couple say they will not supply psilocybin or refer anyone to illegal sources. They are members of The Divine Assembly, a church that treats psilocybin as a sacrament, and their site notes that psychedelics are largely illegal and frames its guidance as harm reduction.