9 Perfect Strangers is a drama, and like all good dramas, it exaggerates for tension. Plant medicine and its facilitator, Masha, are cast as almost villainous, but this is fiction rather than a reflection of the full complexity of psychedelic work.
As someone who works therapeutically with altered states and integration, I watched the series with both enjoyment and unease. Plant medicine can be profoundly disruptive as well as deeply meaningful. Experiences may unsettle, disorganise, or destabilise people, and it is through careful preparation, ethical facilitation, and thoughtful integration that insight and transformation can emerge over time. Preparation is crucial, and working with a trained therapist ahead of an experience can support intention-setting, psychological readiness, nervous system capacity, and the very real option to decide not to go ahead if the timing or context isn’t right.
The series highlights what can happen when leadership lacks congruence, boundaries, or containment. This blog explores the lessons 9 Perfect Strangers offers about consent, set and setting, and integration, and why the container matters just as much as the experience itself.
Consent and Ethical Boundaries
In the first series, Masha, the retreat leader played by Nicole Kidman, spikes the drinks of her guests with psilocybin, a clear violation of consent. This echoes the dark history of psychedelic research in the United States, as discussed by Professor David Nutt in Psychedelics: The Revolutionary Drugs That Could Change Your Life – A Guide from the Expert.
In the 1960s, the CIA, the army, and other agencies tested LSD on soldiers and civilians, sometimes without consent, as a Cold War weapon. MK-ULTRA subjected participants to LSD without warning, often while restrained or blindfolded, causing severe mental harm and at least two deaths.
While Masha’s actions are far less extreme, they illustrate a similar ethical breach. She administers psychedelics under the guise of “optimising health,” having gathered intimate details on each guest to tailor doses and anticipate trauma.
Even powerful plant medicines are not effective without consent and ethical oversight. Consent is the foundation of any therapeutic or healing practice.
Set and Setting Matter
Masha’s approach ignores set and setting, two factors widely recognised as crucial in any psychedelic experience. Set refers to the participant’s mindset, intentions, past experiences, and physical and mental health. Setting refers to the physical environment, structure, and presence of supportive facilitators.
Preparation is a vital part of this. Working with a trained therapist ahead of an experience can help individuals clarify intentions, explore expectations, and build psychological and nervous system capacity, particularly for those with complex histories or vulnerability to destabilisation. It also allows people to make an informed choice, including deciding not to go ahead if the timing, mindset, or support isn’t right.
In the show, Masha not only fails to provide a safe container but also has a fixed agenda for each participant, shaping their experiences to fit her own narrative. She leaves her assistant to manage participants on his own, despite his inexperience, further destabilising the process.
Well-designed retreats anticipate needs, provide support throughout, and never impose a predetermined outcome.
Congruence and Leader Vulnerability
In the first series, Masha shows vulnerability, revealing her grief over the loss of her daughter. Vulnerability can model authenticity, but facilitators need congruence: an alignment between inner state, intentions, and behaviour, so personal material does not spill over onto participants.
Vulnerability without containment can destabilise rather than support participants.
Leaders who have not done enough personal work may attempt to heal themselves through their guests. This dynamic can lead to emotional harm and, in extreme cases, sexual abuse, particularly where authority, altered states, and idealisation are present. PsyAware highlight this as a major factor in people being left traumatised after plant medicine retreats: facilitators who have not sufficiently processed their own material can project onto participants rather than holding a safe container. The contrast between the first and second series illustrates this risk. In the first, Masha is human and relatable. In the second, she becomes colder, prioritising her love interest and exerting greater control.
Carl Rogers’ person-centred principles are particularly relevant here. He emphasised that ethical therapeutic relationships depend on congruence, empathy, unconditional positive regard, and respect for autonomy. A facilitator who imposes a fixed outcome or projects personal agendas onto participants violates these principles, creating a high-risk environment.
The Silver Bullet Myth
Masha presents plant medicine as a silver bullet, something that automatically heals or transforms. This disregards indigenous knowledge, which understands the medicine as a living, relational presence rather than a tool to be deployed.
Indigenous traditions emphasise preparation, ceremony, lineage, and community context. The focus is not on peak experience, but on relationship, responsibility, and meaning over time.
Many people assume psychedelic experiences naturally lead to growth. In reality, intense experiences can fade quickly, leaving participants confused, unsettled, or unsure how to relate to what they encountered.
Integration and Safe Support
Integration is crucial. It is not about interpreting experiences or creating tidy stories. It supports people in staying grounded and making sense of what has emerged over time.
In my work, I see how powerful experiences can linger in the body and nervous system long after the experience itself has ended, particularly when there has been little support for integration.
This work is often best held by therapists who understand plant medicines and altered states. They provide a safe space for reflection, slow things down when needed, and guide people in a grounded and responsible way.
Techniques such as brainspotting and breathwork are particularly effective. Brainspotting helps access and process deep emotional material safely. Breathwork supports nervous system regulation and embodied integration, helping reconnect mind and body.
Jung’s concepts of archetypes and shadow are also relevant here. Psychedelic experiences often surface unconscious material, and without skilled support, these insights can be destabilising rather than transformative. Structured integration allows meaning to emerge gradually.
Integration transforms experience into insight, supported by skilled facilitation and safe practices.
Ethical Facilitation and Safe Containers
Safe psychedelic work depends on congruence, preparation, and containment. A facilitator’s grounded presence, ethical boundaries, and attentiveness create the container in which participants can remain oriented and supported.
Leaving participants to navigate intense experiences alone, or directing them toward a fixed outcome, significantly increases the risk of harm.
Masha’s approach dramatizes what happens when these elements are absent. Healing is not found in the medicine, the ceremony, or charisma alone. True transformation comes from ethical leadership, boundaries, and careful support.
Supporting Exploration Safely
For those curious about plant medicine or altered states, there are ways to explore the questions and experiences these journeys raise within a safe and supported environment.
It’s important to acknowledge that plant medicines such as psilocybin are not legal in the UK, and this has implications for safety, preparation, and support. My focus in one-to-one sessions and group retreats is not on facilitating illegal use, but on exploring the intentions, reflections, and psychological or somatic experiences that may arise for people who are curious about altered states. Working with a trained therapist allows reflection, integration, and embodied preparation in a safe, legal context, helping participants understand themselves and their readiness before making any decisions about psychedelic experiences elsewhere.
In my work, participants explore their intentions, cultivate mind-body awareness, and consider the emotional and somatic aspects of their experiences. Through this work, I draw on somatic practices, understanding of the body’s responses, the Neuro-Experiential Model, and attention to spiritual dimensions to support participants as fully as possible.
Practices such as breathwork and brainspotting allow participants to safely process emotional and somatic material, release tension, and explore intense experiences in a grounded way. Guided movement, creative exercises, and structured discussion help strengthen their capacity for integration.
Even within a safe container, psychedelic experiences can be very destabilising. Good integration does not remove the intensity, but it provides the support, understanding, and tools to help participants process and make sense of what has emerged.
“Growth and insight emerge when preparation, container, and guidance come together.”
The emphasis is always on ethical exploration, personal responsibility, and creating a container where growth and curiosity can unfold safely, rather than seeking shortcuts to transformation.
Personal Reflections on 9 Perfect Strangers
On a personal note, I loved watching the first series of 9 Perfect Strangers. I felt sad, moved, and deeply engaged, and I also really enjoyed the humour. I watched it after attending a plant medicine retreat myself, which gave me an added perspective on the relational dynamics and the importance of preparation, container, and integration.
I was disappointed by the second series, which lost much of the nuance of the first, but the first season alone is well worth watching for anyone interested in the psychological and relational aspects of healing.
Reflecting on the series and my own experiences highlights a central truth: meaningful growth is not instantaneous, and even powerful experiences require care, guidance, and time to integrate.
“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.” – Carl Rogers
In the context of plant medicine, facilitation, and healing work, this reminds us that lasting insight and growth emerge over time, through preparation, support, and integration, rather than through isolated experiences or quick fixes.
