Innovation Interview – StepWise for Safer Psychedelic Journeys
The creator of StepWise opens up about designing gentle psychedelic experiences. The StepWise co-creator explains how Low-5 dosing empowers clients, reduces fear, and could change the therapy game.
Following our post, Is StepWise the Future of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy? SW (Pseudonym), the co-discoverer of StepWise, sat down with The Pattern Project to share more about StepWise and himself.
What comes across immediately is how, unlike so many 5-MeO-DMT facilitators, SW is remarkably laid-back. He is direct, pragmatic, and has a dry wit, which stands at odds with the reverence many healers bring to medicine work with 5-MeO-DMT.
“Yes, this medicine is powerful. But that doesn’t mean we need to wrap it in mysticism,” says SW. “People have the ability to engage with this safely—especially with low-dose vape pens. I trust people more than most facilitators do. I think if you give people the right tools and guidance, they can navigate their own process, both in a facilitated setting and solo.”
Here’s SW’s and the StepWise story:
From Magic to Medicine
You can trace SW’s journey into psychedelics back to magic. As a child, SW was captivated by the power of illusion and the mysteries of the unknown. At an early age, he delighted in learning to perform magic for friends and families. “I wasn’t just learning tricks—I was fascinated by the psychology behind them, the way perception could shift instantly,” says SW. “This sense of curiosity still informs my approach to psychedelics.”
Fast forward a couple of decades to the night that made SW experience a different kind of magic. “Though I was feeling down, I had a friend who insisted I come to a rave with him in San Francisco. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He’d say, ‘I got you a ticket, I’m picking you up at seven.’ And before I knew it, I was at the rave, experiencing MDMA for the first time,” SW recalls. “That experience was liberating—feeling something other than depression was life changing and ignited my interest in exploring altered states of consciousness.”
A few years later, SW found himself in Peru, drinking ayahuasca and San Pedro in the jungle during a sabbatical from his high-tech job. “I came back, and everything looked the same—same house, same job—but I had changed. I made a plan to retire early so I could pursue medicine work with my whole self. Then, to my delight, my firm downsized me and I was able to get out of high-tech right-away.” SW immersed himself in working with 5-MeO-DMT, but he quickly began to see a problem: too many people were being traumatized by high-dose experiences.
“People were thrashing, screaming, coming back confused. And some never integrated what had happened. I realized there had to be a better way.”
The Problem with ‘Blast-Off’ Dosing
Traditional approaches to 5-MeO-DMT facilitation often follow the “handshake, hug, full embrace” model: a small introductory dose, a mid-level dose, and a full breakthrough dose designed to launch the participant into total ego dissolution. While this method can be profound, SW saw firsthand how it could also be overwhelming and, in some cases, traumatic.
“If I blast you off and take you to Level 10 right away, we skip over all the things that might need attention at levels three, five, or seven. But what if trauma was sitting at Level three? If we rush past it, we never address it.”
“Or what if you don’t have any significant trauma? And I take you right to Level 10? There’s an assumption that people are traumatized by heroic doses of 5-MeO because they have trauma that comes out in an unmanageable way.” Says SW. “But trauma can also happen to any person – even the most well person – if they lose consciousness and are missing time when they come back.”
Through experimentation, SW and other facilitators found that a slow, incremental approach allowed participants to process their experience in real-time. This led to the co-discovery of the StepWise Protocol as a more effective and harm-reducing method. It was the foundation for what would become the StepWise Protocol.
How StepWise Works
Instead of one massive dose, StepWise introduces 5-MeO-DMT gradually, layering small increments of vaporized medicine, frequently in five to eight-minute increments. This low and slow approach allows the nervous system to adjust incrementally to the medicine.
“The nervous system can only handle so much change at once. If we exceed that threshold too quickly, we risk traumatization or retraumatization,” SW explains.
Compared to the currently dominant handshake, hug, full-embrace dosing approach, StepWise is a layered experience that SW describes as “handshake, handshake, handshake—all the way up. It’s like climbing a mountain instead of being dropped on the peak by a helicopter. Same summit, different approach.’”
StepWise starts with an extremely low dose and check-in, followed by a waiting period to see how the participant responds. “If they feel good, we go a little deeper,” says SW.” If something comes up—trauma, emotions, somatic responses—we pause and work with that before moving forward.”
StepWise key principles:
Participants begin with a very low dose and assess how their body and mind respond.
Each subsequent dose is self-administered when the participant feels comfortable.
If material (such as trauma) arises, the facilitator pauses and allows processing before continuing.
A peak experience is not required; if achieved, it is gentle rather than forced through a single high dose.
A Deeper Look at Trauma and Healing
One of StepWise’s most profound discoveries is its ability to help participants navigate past trauma in a manageable way.
“Most trauma happens in moments where we had no personal agency,” SW explains. “StepWise is the opposite. At every stage, you have the ability to say yes or no. You have agency over your experience. Would you like to go deeper? Yes or no? That choice alone is a form of healing.”
By moving gradually through different layers of experience, participants often find that trauma, emotions, or insights that arise early in the process can be revisited and reframed at deeper stages.
“One participant reached a peak state, then as the effects wore off, they re-encountered the same emotional material they had faced earlier, but now with a completely new perspective. That kind of reprocessing is rare in high-dose, single-shot approaches.”
SW also discovered that trauma frequently surfaces when participants have between two and four active milligrams of medicine in their system. “It’s almost predictable,” he says. “That’s when a tremendous amount of material shows up. If we can hold space for that, rather than pushing past it, deep repair work happens.”
Different Participant Types and Their Motivations
StepWise is attracting diverse participants, from trauma survivors to psychonauts. Says SW:
“First, you have the psychonauts—the ones chasing peak experiences. They want cosmic oneness, ego death, the big moment. And that’s fine, but I think StepWise offers them a more nuanced path.”
“Then there are the people working through trauma. They need something gentle. If they’ve had difficult experiences with other psychedelics or traditional high-dose 5-MeO sessions, StepWise helps them approach the medicine safely.”
“And then you have people who had a really bad experience with psychedelicsin the past and are hesitant to try again. StepWise is a way for them to rebuild trust with medicine.”
Common Misconceptions About StepWise
Since StepWise takes a more gradual approach, some assume it’s less powerful than traditional methods.
“People think it’s weaker, but that’s not the case,” SW says. “You can still reach deep states, but you’re doing so in a way that your nervous system can integrate. If anything, it’s more precise.”
Another misconception is that facilitators using traditional high-dose approaches are getting the same results. “The reality is, if you’re still using handshake, hug, full release, you’re going to traumatize some people. StepWise reduces that risk.”
The Future of Psychedelic Therapy & StepWise’s Role
StepWise is quickly gaining traction among facilitators who see the benefit of a gentler, more intentional approach to 5-MeO-DMT. While SW remains underground and doesn’t advertise publicly, word is spreading.
“I don’t have a website or advertise publicly, but people who are meant to find this work will find it. That’s how this world operates. At the end of the day, StepWise isn’t about me—it’s about creating a safer, more effective way to work with 5-MeO-DMT. The more people who learn and apply it, the better.”
Thank you for making this approach to 5-MeO more well known. It's the approach I took personally before I even know it was a protocol. Just because it felt more natural and responsible to do it that. I thought I could always take more if I wanted, but I can't take less once I have ingested too much.