27th Mount Haemus Lecture ~ Participant Experiences of Learning from Tree Teachers in the ACER Integration Community

Introduction

This essay explores the origins, ethos, and evolving impact of the ACER Integration Community, a nature-based, community-led model for psychedelic integration rooted in the archetypal teachings of twelve Trees Teachers. Born from personal heartbreak and cultural disillusionment, ACER offers a circular, relational, and soul-centred approach to re-connecting that honours grief, welcomes vulnerability, and draws wisdom from the forest. Through a blend of personal narrative, participant reflections, and ecological metaphors, the essay explores the proliferation of numbing techniques offered by mainstream culture, and considers how community integration practices can support us to feel deeply and stand for our values. Each of the Tree Teachers serves as a guide through phases of ‘psychological photosynthesis’, helping participants compost pain, grow resilience, and remember their place within a wider web of life. Central to the essay are participant narratives drawn from our in-house monthly podcast – ‘The Treecast’. These firsthand accounts breathe life into each Tree Teacher archetype, and illuminate profound experiences of change that can emerge from committed, long-term integration practice. At its heart, this is a story of returning: to the body, to the Earth, and to community. ACER is not a solution to the polycrisis, but it is a response. It invites us to feel, to witness, and to live in rhythm with what is real. In a time of collapse, we dare to trust in regeneration through the steady unfurling of collective roots.

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Spiral triskelion (formed from mathematical Archimedean spirals), occasionally used as a Christian Trinitarian symbol

About The Author

Dr. Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist, named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Psychedelics and among the Top 16 Women Shaping the Future of Psychedelics. Dr. Watts developed the ACE model of psychedelic-assisted therapy (Accept, Connect, Embody) and has led clinical teams guiding participants through this process. Her qualitative research led to the creation of the Watts Connectedness Scale (WCS), a psychometric tool measuring connectedness to self, others, and the wider world. Her current focus is on community-building to contribute to our collective work of restitching a fabric of care strong enough to support the introduction of psychedelics into western culture at this time of systemic collapse and reimagining. She is the founder of ACER (Accept, Connect, Embody, Restore) Integration acerintegration.com, a global mycelial network of people seeking to regenerate their inner and outer worlds via a 12 month process guided by the wisdom of Nature. Her websites are acerintegration.com and drrosalindwatts.com.

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Learn more about Druidry and how to join the order

The practice of Druidry used to be confined to those who could learn from a Druid in person. But now you can take an experience-based course wherever you live, and when you enrol on this course, you join the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids, and begin an adventure that thousands of people all over the world have taken. It works with the ideas and practices of Druidry in a thoroughly practical, yet also deeply spiritual way.

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