Aviva Rabinovici is no stranger to the complexities of the psychedelic healing space. With years of experience as a community builder, advocate, and systems thinker, she’s seen firsthand how the underground world of psychedelic support operates, and where it often falls short. Her latest venture, Guides Collective, reflects a deep belief that healing doesn’t have to follow the corporate playbook to be meaningful or effective.
Rather than chasing scale for its own sake, Aviva and her team are building something different: a values-driven ecosystem that empowers guides and connects them with seekers, while honoring the spirit of the work.
If you’ve spent any time in the psychedelic wellness space lately, you’ve probably seen a strange tension: a growing demand for healing meets a lack of scalable infrastructure. As someone building systems and supporting organizations that aim to change the way we approach care, I found my recent conversation with Aviva Rabinovici both eye-opening and affirming.
Aviva is one of the co-founders of Guides Collective, a loose but growing international network of psychedelic guides. Their mission? Match seekers with the right kind of support, not by becoming another big-tech platform, but by creating intentional systems that respect the roots and purpose of this work.
“Guides Collective started as a suspicion that people in the psychedelic space, particularly guides, were looking for support and wanted a way to expand their own presence,” Aviva told me. “But potentially because they were focused on healing as opposed to business, they didn’t have the knowledge or background for that.”
That sentence alone captures something we often overlook in the tech-for-good conversation: not every movement wants, or needs, to scale the same way as a SaaS startup.
The need is growing, but the tools haven’t caught up
While mainstream acceptance of psychedelics has grown, the systems meant to support it remain fragmented. Legal frameworks are inconsistent, payment processors are reluctant, and medical insurance is mostly out of reach.
“I wish I could say that I’d seen it evolve. I’m not sure it has,” Aviva admitted when I asked her if things had improved in the past few years. “There’s been some micro movement… certain guides in certain scenarios working in legal clinics, like ketamine clinics, now have access to insurance. It’s costly and I don’t know how comprehensive it is, but at least it’s available.”
Even when laws change, infrastructure rarely follows. “We’re seeing legislative movement, but… they’re also not rolling out substantive solutions that allow people to actually turn it into business,” she explained. Colorado and Oregon may be examples, but rollout has been slow, and systems to support legal work are still underdeveloped.
So many guides operate in legal gray areas or underground, often out of necessity. Some relocate to international jurisdictions, while others structure their work around preparation and integration coaching only, avoiding direct interaction with substances.
Expanding access to psychedelic therapy isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. If the people delivering care aren’t properly trained or accredited, and right now, many aren’t, it becomes difficult to meet the growing demand safely and responsibly. We’ve seen this issue before in other fields, and the psychedelic space is no exception.
Meanwhile, some underground guides are already marketing themselves online. “Lots of underground practitioners have websites… but do we need to make sure they’re vetted? For sure we do,” Aviva pointed out. Which brings us to one of the biggest challenges facing Guides Collective today: building trust at scale.
“There are a lot of people out there who are practicing in this space that don’t meet the criteria that we’d be looking for… it’s on us to make sure that they’re reaching the standards that we’ve set,” she emphasized.
And even if guides mean well, keeping standards consistent across a growing and decentralised field is a challenge. Without clear oversight or trusted peer-led supervision, it’s hard to guarantee that ethical, safe, and effective care is being delivered at scale.
Why commercialization isn’t always the answer
The usual playbook, build fast, raise capital, scale, is tempting. But Aviva poses a different kind of question: can we build this industry on a new type of foundation?
To understand why that matters, we need to remember what psychedelics actually do. At their best, these experiences stretch the way we see ourselves and our place in the world. They help people feel more connected, to life, to meaning, to others. It’s not just about fixing what’s broken; it’s about rediscovering what matters.
“Is this really an industry that is supposed to follow a potentially outmoded path towards industrialision or commercialisation?” she asked. “Or is this a call of the earth towards healing where people who are called answer and they just need access to effective resources to help them navigate this pathway?”
This isn’t merely a figurative observation; it fundamentally alters our understanding of the core issue. If the goal is healing, then success can’t just be about market share or monetisation.
That also changes how you fund and build. For Guides Collective, raising money isn’t about getting big fast. It’s about creating tools and systems that reflect their values, things like a proper vetting process, a thoughtful tech platform, and the right team to steward the mission.
“We don’t need a lot, but we need more than we have… to hit critical mass we definitely need to find somebody who can see the vision the way we do,” she explained.
But there is still work to do, and AI might help
One thing I’ve learned firsthand in the last year is how much AI has changed the cost of doing almost anything. Writing proposals, publishing apps, creating marketing systems, it’s all getting faster and cheaper. That doesn’t mean it’s effortless. But it does mean that small teams like Aviva’s might be able to leap over some traditional barriers.
When I asked if they were exploring these tools, she said, “We have plans for leveraging AI as we build out our matching platform… it’ll start with an AI complemented by human involvement, but we hope that it gets to a stage where it’s potentially autonomous.”
That alone opens up a new frontier, one where values-driven platforms can stay small in spirit while scaling in effectiveness.
It also creates the possibility of bridging the gap where institutions have failed. As I mentioned to Aviva, a single loud voice with a strong network and clear plan could pilot a framework in places where laws have shifted but systems haven’t caught up.
The takeaway
There are two competing instincts in every emerging movement: one that pushes toward growth and monetization, and one that urges preservation of the soul of the work. Guides Collective is searching for ways to bridge that gulf in the psychedelic space, and maybe that’s exactly why they’re worth watching.
Their mission is bold: match seekers with the right guides while holding safety and values above all else. That kind of clarity is rare.
As I said to Aviva during our chat, “First you need a network. Then you need a plan. And once you have both, you can move mountains.”
That’s what I see happening here, a community preparing to move mountains, not through disruption, but through alignment.
About the Author
Vlad writes about automation, operations, and the little tweaks that make a big difference in how businesses run. A former game designer turned founder, he now helps teams fix broken workflows and spot the revenue leaks hiding in plain sight.
About Serenichron
Helping businesses grow by simplifying strategy, streamlining systems, and making tech actually work for people. We bring clarity to chaos with practical tools, honest guidance, and just enough curiosity to question the default way of doing things.