What Does "Safety" Actually Mean at a Plant Medicine Retreat?
If you're new to plant medicine work, "safety" is probably one of the first things on your mind… and it should be. It's one of the most important questions to ask before choosing where and who you work with.
At Boulder Canyon Retreat Center, tucked into the mountains outside Boulder, Colorado, we don't treat safety as a mere concept or a line item on a waiver. We treat it as a lived, felt experience… something you sense in your body, not just something we promise on paper.
Who's Holding the Space
Our founder, Shane Young, is a nature-based healer, somatic psychotherapist, and ceremonial guide with over two decades in the healing arts. He's facilitated thousands of plant medicine ceremonies, and his approach draws from an unbroken Sri Vidya Tantra lineage alongside years of formal training in trauma-informed and somatic modalities, including Hakomi, Internal Family Systems, and Psychedelic Somatic Interactional Psychotherapy. In plain terms: this isn't improvised. The container you'll be held in has been built over decades of study, mentorship, and direct experience.
Real Safety Isn't Built From Rules Alone
From the very beginning of working with us, we focus on clear boundaries, ethical agreements, and relational transparency. These aren't restrictions — they're supports. Especially when working with vulnerable parts of ourselves, including the inner child, safety comes from having adults in the room who have the capacity to stay regulated and present.
But true safety doesn't come from trying to control every variable, or from relying on rules alone. Safety is something built from the inside out. It grows through presence, discernment, and relationship — the capacity to listen inwardly, and to notice when something feels aligned versus when something needs to be questioned.
It also asks for humility: the willingness to know that sometimes we're right, and sometimes we're still learning. Both are part of being human — and part of what we hold space for in you.
Growth Requires Friction… & How It's Held Matters
This work isn't about avoiding challenge. Growth requires friction. What matters is how that challenge is held.
You're invited to honor your own boundaries, and to respect the boundaries of others. You're invited to stretch — and you're also invited to pause. Both are part of building resilience and trust over time, whether you're joining a group retreat or doing 1:1 work.
Why We Don't Promise a "Safe Space"
Rather than promising a "safe space", which doesn't truly exist in the real world… we commit to something more honest: a brave space. One rooted in care, clarity, and shared responsibility. A space where we do our best, take accountability when we miss the mark, and keep showing up together.
There's a poem that captures the spirit of the container we create for every guest, "An Invitation to a Brave Space" by Micky ScottBey Jones.
“Together we will create brave space Because there is no such thing as a “safe space”
We exist in the real world We all carry scars and we have all caused wounds.
In this space We seek to turn down the volume of the outside world.
We amplify voices that fight to be heard elsewhere, We call each other to more truth and love
We have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow.
We have the responsibility to examine what we think we know.
We will not be perfect.
It will not always be what we wish it to be
But It will be our brave space together,
And We will work on it side by side.”
-by Micky Scottbey Jones
Our Commitment to You
Whether this is your first time considering plant medicine work or you've walked this path before, our commitment is to tend this container with integrity, presence, and care… and to walk alongside you as we build trust together. Not perfectly, but sincerely, and in community.
