The Trip Sitter's Guide: How to Support Someone Safely

What a sitter is for

A trip sitter is a sober person who stays with someone during a psychedelic experience to keep them physically safe and steady. The job is presence, not direction. The Zendo Project, a peer-support group that has looked after people having difficult experiences at Burning Man for fourteen years, sums up its approach in four principles: safe space, sitting not guiding, through not down, and difficult is not necessarily bad. (Zendo Project, current page; Zendo Project, current page) "Through, not down" means accompanying someone through an experience without trying to halt or bypass it. (Zendo Project, current page)

Clinical research uses a similar role under a different name. In psilocybin studies the people in the room are called monitors, and published safety guidelines recommend at least two of them so the volunteer is never alone if one has to step out. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008) The same guidelines say clinical sensitivity, such as empathy and respect, probably matters more than formal degrees. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008)

Why bother at all? In a survey of 1,993 people describing their worst mushroom trip, risk of physical harm rose with dose and with the absence of physical comfort and social support. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016) Supervision is one of the few factors a group of friends can actually control.

This guide is the sitter's view. What the person tripping can do for themselves, and the warning signs in detail, are in challenging experiences.

Consent and boundaries, agreed in advance

Every boundary has to be settled while everyone is sober. Someone in an altered state cannot meaningfully renegotiate.

• Touch. Agree exactly what is acceptable: a hand to hold, a hand on the shoulder, nothing at all. No touch that was not agreed beforehand, and none of a sexual nature, ever. A community guide from Chacruna warns that sessions alone with a healer have been a common context for sexual abuse, and that sexual contact between healer and participant during or straight after a ceremony is not acceptable. (Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines, 2018) The same standard applies to friends.
• Hand-holding, if wanted. In the Hopkins research model, monitors demonstrate holding hands during preparation so it feels normal on the day, and describe a reassuring hand as a powerful form of grounding. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008)
• Talking. Does the person want conversation, or silence unless they ask?
• Leaving the room or the house. Agree that if they try to leave, you will steer them back. Research guidance describes meeting a disoriented attempt to leave with compassionate but firm direction to return. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008)
• When you will call for help, and that they agree you may do so without asking at the time.

Agree too that the sitter takes nothing. A sitter who is also altered is not a sitter.

What to prepare

The preparation article covers the person's own planning. For the sitter, the checklist is shorter and more practical.

• Know what was taken and how much, and when. You will need this if anything goes wrong.
• Know their medicines and health history. Lithium, antidepressants and heart conditions change the risk; run their list through the interaction checker and the screening checklist beforehand. In an analysis of online reports, 47% of 62 reports of lithium with a classic psychedelic involved seizures. (Pharmacopsychiatry, 2021)
• Make the room safe. Research guidance says to remove sharp-cornered furniture and glass lamps and to be sure nobody could leave by a window, because panic has in rare cases ended in falls from windows. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008)
• Water, blankets, a bucket, a charged phone, the address written down and the nearest hospital known.
• Keep the room private. In research, the monitors are the only people who interact with the volunteer during the effects, barring an emergency, and anyone else expected to have contact should have met the volunteer at least once beforehand. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008)
• Build trust before the day. The same guidelines treat rapport between monitors and volunteer, established before the session, as a core safeguard. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008) A sitter who is a near stranger is a weaker safeguard than one the person already trusts.

During the session: what to watch for

Most of the time you are simply nearby. Watch rather than chat. Signs that need your attention:

• rising panic, repeated attempts to get up and leave, or confusion about where they are
• vomiting while lying on their back, or drowsiness you cannot rouse them from
• overheating, rigid or jerking muscles, very fast pulse, or severe agitation
• talk of harming themselves or someone else

When things get hard, the steps are simple and the hardest part is staying calm yourself. Speak softly, remind them they took a substance and that it will wear off, and offer slow breathing together. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page; Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008) Move them somewhere quieter and dimmer if the room is loud or bright. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page) Then wait. Zendo's training asks sitters to check "Why am I talking?" and to consider whether silence would support the person more. (Zendo Project, current page)

What not to do

• Do not guide, interpret or analyse. Research teams discourage attempts to analyse material during the session, and encourage people to collect experiences to discuss afterwards. (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2008)
• Do not argue with what they perceive. "It isn't real" rarely helps. "That sounds hard. I'm here" usually does.
• Do not leave them alone, even briefly. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page)
• Do not offer more of anything. Alcohol raises the chance of a bad trip and cannabis can make it stronger, longer or less controllable. (DRUGSinfo (Drugs Infolijn), Trimbos-instituut)
• Do not restrain someone except to stop immediate danger, and call for help if it comes to that.
• Do not put them in a cold bath or give coffee to rouse them. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page)

Sitting at a retreat or ceremony

If you are travelling with a friend to a retreat, or are asked to help as a volunteer, the sitter's questions become questions about the organisation. Who stays sober, and how many of them are there for how many participants? The Dutch Trimbos Institute notes that nobody checks ceremony guidance, including intake, aftercare or the number of sober people present. (DRUGSinfo (Drugs Infolijn), Trimbos-instituut)

The consequences of thin cover can be serious. New Zealand's Health and Disability Commissioner examined a death after ibogaine in which a clinic left an assistant solely responsible for monitoring the patient; the assistant was also found in breach for failing to monitor adequately. (New Zealand Health and Disability Commissioner, 2015) The Safety page lists questions worth asking any retreat, such as the facilitator-to-participant ratio and the protocol for a psychiatric crisis.

When to call for help

Call emergency services straight away if the person is unconscious or will not wake, has difficulty breathing or blue lips, or has a seizure. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page) If they are unconscious but breathing, put them in the recovery position while you wait. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page) Muscle rigidity or jerking, high fever and extreme or swinging vital signs are warning signs of serotonin toxicity. (Psychopharmacology (Berl), 2022) Call too if they are a danger to themselves or others and calm support is not working.

Tell the crew what was taken, how much, when, about any alcohol and their medical conditions, and hand over anything left. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page) In the US, the Poison Help line is 1-800-222-1222. (America's Poison Centers, current page) For a frightening but not dangerous trip, the Fireside Project peer line on 62-FIRESIDE (623-473-7433) can talk to the sitter as well as the person tripping; it is not a substitute for 911. (Fireside Project, current page)

Even licensed services make these calls. In Oregon's regulated programme, facilitators or service centres reported contacting emergency services 13 times in 2025, across 5,935 clients. (Oregon Health Authority, 2026)

Legal exposure for the sitter

The main legal risk for a sitter comes from the drug, not the sitting. Psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, MDMA and ibogaine are Schedule I in the United States. (Legal Information Institute (Cornell) reproducing the U.S. Code, current; eCFR (Office of the Federal Register), current) Federal law defines distributing as delivering a controlled substance, and delivery as any actual or attempted transfer. (Legal Information Institute (Cornell), current) So a sitter who buys, holds or hands over the drug can be treated as a distributor, a Schedule I offence carrying up to 20 years on a first offence. (Legal Information Institute (Cornell), current) Oregon's programme is the exception in that state: psilocybin there may only be used at a licensed service centre under a licensed facilitator. (Oregon State Legislature, current edition) It remains federally illegal. (Legal Information Institute (Cornell) reproducing the U.S. Code, current text)

Therapists face their own version. A paper on psychedelic harm reduction argues that therapists can work with clients before and after their own psychedelic use as a way to practise within legal and ethical limits. (Harm Reduction Journal, 2021) Check the law where you are with Is it legal? and the legal overview.

Afterwards

Stay until the effects have clearly worn off, offer food and water, and do not let them drive. Check in the next day. If they are still distressed days later, the challenging experiences article lists where to get help, and integration practices covers the weeks after. Look after yourself too. FRANK notes that feeling shaky or anxious for a few hours after helping someone in an emergency is normal, and that talking about it helps. (FRANK (UK Government drugs advice service), current page)