Integrating spiritual and psychedelic care
Moana Meadow is the Program Staff Director of the Psychedelic Facilitation Certificate Program at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. Ordained as an interfaith minister in 2010, Moana has served as a birth doula, hospice chaplain, spiritual director, writer, and teacher, working at the edge of life, death, earth, and prayer. As an educator, she incorporates traditional spiritual practices and contemporary ethical concerns.
Learning opportunities
Meadow has been designing and implementing psychedelic education and training for health care providers since 2019. With experience in both health care and ceremonial settings, Rev. Meadow creates custom learning opportunities for groups and educational programs on the topics of spirituality, chaplaincy, end-of-life and psychedelic care. She supported the design of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics Facilitation Certificate Program curriculum for three years, and oversaw its implementation for four years. The program has since moved to the Berkeley School of Education, where it will begin to offer undergraduate education opportunities as well as Continuing Education for its 110 alumni.
Watch the 2023 PBS ViewFinder which featured the Certificate Program in its overview of the growing psychedelic field, “Psychedelics and Healing.”
As a psychedelic chaplain, Moana has guest-taught in psychedelic facilitation programs like InnerTrek, as well as undergraduate courses at UC Berkeley.
To book a consultation, request a service, or plan an educational event, reach out to moana.meadow@gmail.com.
Background
Moana Meadow is a psychedelic educator and curriculum consultant focused on spiritual care and ethics in expanded states of consciousness. Born and raised in rural Hawaii, she completed her Bachelor of Science at MIT, her Master of Arts at Boston University, and her Master of Divinity at the Pacific School of Religion.
Meadow completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education, and has worked as a hospice chaplain and spiritual director for over fifteen years. She was ordained as an interfaith minister at the Chaplaincy Institute, where she served as guest faculty and academic advisor until 2018. She was a founder and Executive Director of a non-profit church in Sonoma County from 2020-2022.
Meadow has studied with Indigenous elders in the United States and Mexico, and has supported travelers to Mexico and Peru in their desire to learn more about Indigenous medicine practices. Meadow also participated in the early development of the Sacred Plant Alliance, and has served on their Advisory Board since 2025.
Training
- Bachelor of Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Master of Arts
Boston University - Master of Divinity
Pacific School of Religion - Interfaith Ordination
Chaplaincy Institute - Spiritual Director Certificate
Chaplaincy Institute - Comprehensive Training
Hakomi Institute of California - Center for Indigenous Lifeways Program
Ancestral Voice
Orientation
In service to ourselves, our families, and our communities, we must integrate the grit and shadow of our lives—loss, grief, fear, and shame—along with all the beauty, joy, and peace that comes our way. Learning to recognize the gifts we bring, as well as the challenges we face, is a first step in that integration. Psychedelic education supports the pursuit of that integration for those curious about psychedelic care, those seeking to provide psychedelic care, and those seeking to join communities of psychedelic care providers.
As a psychedelic chaplain, Moana has guest-taught in psychedelic facilitation programs like InnerTrek and has supported philanthropic grant funding reviews for other organizations as a Subject Matter Expert.
Presentations
In 2023, KJZZ Phoenix featured an interview with Program Staff Director Moana Meadow on The Show. Listen to their discussion: “Legalized psychedelic therapy will require safe, culturally sensitive spaces.”
In February of 2024, Meadow presented on the Psychedelic Spirituality and Medicine panel at the Harvard Divinity School, Center for the Study of World Religions “Psychedelic Intersections” Conference with Dr. Sharday Moserinjohn, Victoria Litman, and Dr. Franklin King. The panel covered topics including adverse psychedelic experiences, legal and ethical considerations related to spiritual experiences in psychedelic care, requirements for psychedelic education, and specific implications for psychedelics in psychiatry. Watch the full panel recording here: Psychedelic Spirituality and Medicine panel – Psychedelic Intersections 2024 or read Meadow’s published paper, “Relationality in Psychedelic Facilitation Training Programs” in the Conference Anthology published in December 2024.
In December of 2024, Meadow presented at the DoSER (Dialogues on Science, Ethics and Religion) Dialogues event, “Perspectives on Psychedelics: Past, Present and Future,” hosted by AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) with Ariel Clark and Jamila Hokanson. This panel covered topics as wide-ranging as the spiritual features of psychedelic experience, the formation of psychedelic churches, the psychedelic legal landscape, challenges to diversity in psychedelic research and access to psychedelic care, Indigenous perspectives on sacred medicines, and impacts of the increase in psychedelic use on Indigenous communities. View the recording here.
Publications
- “Relationality in Psychedelic Facilitation Training Programs” in the Harvard Divinity School Psychedelic Intersections Conference Anthology published in December 2024
- Professor Trujillo’s Vision for the Future of Psychedelic Education Produces First-Ever Graduates
- August 2015: The Medicine of Faith
- March 2015: Why I Don’t Write: A Minister’s Confession
Media
- 4-minute interview clip from 2023 PBS ViewFinder which featured the Certificate Program in its overview of the growing psychedelic field, “Psychedelics and Healing”
- Full 27-minute interview from 2023 PBS ViewFinder which featured the Certificate Program in its overview of the growing psychedelic field, “Psychedelics and Healing”
- 9-minute radio interview with Meadow from 2023, KJZZ Phoenix on The Show: “Legalized psychedelic therapy will require safe, culturally sensitive spaces.”
- Legalized psychedelic therapy will require safe, culturally sensitive spaces
- Article: Psychedelic chaplains: In clinical trials, a new form of spiritual guide emerges, by Kathryn Post, Religion News Service
- Free talk from the Graduate Theological Union’s Psychedelics and Religion Speaker Series: Attunement to Diverse Traditions in the Training of Psychedelic Guides, an interview with Moana Meadow by Jewish Studies Professor Sam Shonkoff (Note: must create your own free login to access.)