ACER
Acceptance
Connection
Embodiment
Restore
Allow me to introduce Dr. Rosalind "‘Ros’ Watts, founder & developer of the ACER Community for training Integration Specialists in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy.
Having completed the first year of ACER training, I am considered an “elder” and 2025 will be the third year of being a part of the ACER Community. My plans are to alert people to the value of the ACER training and since it is a “peer to peer” build, anyone can apply.
Let’s talk about psychedelics and self-care. One of my favorite topics. How I got started…
Having spent the better part of my career (27 years) providing best practices EMDR to help people recover from PTSD, I was eager to join the psychedelic renaissance to see what it could provide to facilitate faster healing. For my 69th birthday I flew abroad to experience a “heroic” dose of psilocybin truffles with a guide in Amsterdam. Now, at 72 years old, I opted to experiment personally & professionally with microdosing with same psychedelic mushrooms for the past years since Amsterdam. My self-care is through the roof and I am happy to report my clients have seen equal measures of progress. I’m retired now and rarely dose and I’m super happy to spread the word that I’d like to see anybody who is curious to be able to access plant medicine and to find resources through this site to begin to learn about harm reduction and integration support for yourself.
The ACER Program promotes cultivating a deeper relationship with nature + community building or “US” consciousness + studying the Tree of Life Celtic traditions + Breathwork & lots of sharing when time allows.
Allow me to introduce you to my favorite collaborator, Integration Specialist April Rains of Guided Tripping which is a group practice of seasoned trip guides located in Amsterdam.
April’s story
From an early age, psychedelics and my own inquisitive nature sculpted the person I am today. People find my warm, open, grounded personality and my sense of humor safe and nurturing. My background of naturally rising into the role of den mother to friends experimenting with substances (especially after my own bad trip which made psychedelic research and safety a calling in life) and the years I’ve spent participating in and facilitating Authentic Relating have coalesced into my practice. As a trip guide, empathy is most important to me. People love the sense that I’m really there with them, wherever they are. They are comforted by my presence and my way of reframing what is happening.
I use the modalities of authentic relating, Shadow Work, Embodiment, Internal Family Systems, trauma-informed voice dialogue, inverse dream interpretation and visualization, and guidance from the study of astrophysics and biology. Along with guiding sessions, I’m an integration specialist and offer ongoing integration coaching as well as micro-dose coaching. Personally, I engage in therapeutic psychedelic practice, research and analytical thinking, dance, circling, and the happy knowledge that we ain’t got it all figured out.
The SELF (as defined in IFS)
“One of the assumptions of Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Therapy is that everyone has a “Self”. In essence, the Self is who
we truly are, with all our Parts separate. The Self is characterized
by what IFS calls the 8C’s: compassion, curiosity, clarity,
creativity, calm, confidence, courage, and connectedness.
As opposed to many other models, IFS holds that everyone has
access to these qualities at their core, and they don’t need to be
created or built by the therapy. The IFS process assists in
excavating these qualities inherent in the Self so they can shine
through and lead the individual’s internal system. The Self
also knows how to heal and be there for all Parts of ourselves.”
Allow me to introduce you to Dr. Tori Olds. She will introduce you to Internal Family Systems (IFS). She’s one of my & April’s favorite educators. IFS is an important player with learning how to integrate change and maintaining benefit from plant medicine (or life lessons in general).