What Is Psychedelic Chaplaincy?
Psychedelic chaplaincy is an emerging field of spiritual care that supports individuals as they navigate the profound, often life-altering experiences catalyzed by psychedelics.
“When chaplains bring the gift of empathic presence into care encounters, we are mediating something greater than ourselves while inviting the spiritual and religious beliefs and values of the patient or client to guide the healing process.”
— MAPS, “Tending the Sacred: The Emerging Role of Professional Chaplaincy in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies”
As psychedelics become more integrated into therapeutic and healing contexts, chaplains are stepping forward to offer compassionate presence, spiritual grounding, and ethical support—bridging the gap between clinical treatment and personal meaning-making.
Professionally trained chaplains hold deep experience in accompanying spiritual and existential intensity: grief, illness, transformation, and transition. In psychedelic contexts, chaplains offer nonjudgmental support before, during, and after a journey—including spiritual assessment, intention setting, ritual preparation, and integration.
Whether or not someone identifies with a particular tradition, chaplains create space for reflection, insight, and connection to inner wisdom and belonging.
Unlike clinical models that focus on symptoms or diagnoses, psychedelic chaplaincy speaks to the soul-level questions that often arise in non-ordinary states: Who am I? What matters most? What am I being asked to release—or to become? With humility and reverence, chaplains hold these questions without trying to answer them, allowing the experience itself to guide the healing.
Psychedelic chaplaincy affirms that not all healing can—or should—be measured. It honors mystery, sacred transformation, and the unfolding of the most authentic self
About Rochelle
Rochelle Bayless is an interfaith chaplain, artist, and builder of sacred spaces for social impact. Her work is devoted to accompanying others through profound transformation with compassion, reverence, and grounded presence. Informed by her lifelong exploration of color, vibe, and her own mind, Rochelle invites others into deeper states of being, belonging, and becoming.
Rochelle holds an MA in Spirituality from Hartford International University for Religion & Peace (formerly Hartford Seminary), where her work focused on feminist theology and interfaith peacebuilding. She is currently completing Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) as a hospital chaplain, working toward board certification through the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC).
Rochelle’s chaplaincy work focuses on sacred witnessing—the quiet art of tending unseen chapels of grief, professional burnout, life transitions, spiritual questioning, health concerns, and identity reclamation. Grounded in world religions, Buddhism, and contemplative practice, she helps people reconnect with their inner wisdom and the unfolding truth of their most authentic self.
Rochelle earned her BFA in Painting from Lyme Academy College of Fine Art, where she immersed herself in representational drawing, painting, sculpture, and studying color theory. Her creative practice is not separate from her chaplaincy work, but woven from the same thread—a reverence for sacred witnessing of the present moment.
You can view Rochelle’s artwork at rochellebayless.com.
Peace & Groove – Inspired by Steve McQueen’s exhibit at Dia Beacon and my fascination with how color shapes mood and perception. This work integrates every hex code of ROYGBIV—plus their exact mathematical midpoints—creating a seamless spectrum. A rainbow meditation inviting you to sit, breathe, and groove.