A few months ago I ran a one-day workshop with the 25/26 CPACT cohort. Even in that short time, I was reminded of something I see consistently when people commit to working together over time in expanded states.
There’s a shift that happens in how people relate to the process, and to each other. Not because anything is being forced, but because familiarity starts to build. People begin to recognise the territory. They’re less focused on managing experience or trying to interpret it, and more able to stay with what is actually unfolding.
What stood out for me wasn’t intensity or dramatic change. It was steadiness. A kind of groundedness that develops when a group has already begun to form a shared language around non-ordinary states - how to enter them, how to navigate them, and how to work with what emerges afterwards. What I loved about this in particular was that the breathwork day was an opportunity for the students to "drop the learning" and allow the deeper elements of the relationships that had been built to emerge.
For me, this is one of the clearest arguments for cohort-based training in this work. Over 12 months, as people move through repeated experiences of breathwork, contemplative practice, and psychedelic education, something deeper becomes available. Trust develops ... not just in the process, but within the group itself. Trust to express need, sit in discomfort and developer deeper atunement to an individuals own themes as they arise.
That relational continuity changes the learning environment. It becomes less about individual sessions or discrete experiences, and more about a shared inquiry into altered states held over time. People begin to know each other’s edges, strengths, and patterns in a way that supports honesty, safety, and depth.
That’s the context in which Alana Roy and Melissa Warner have designed this CPACT training.
The Anam Cara CPACT Training Course
CPACT is a 200-hour, 12-month hybrid training program, co-directed by Dr Lani Roy and Melissa Warner, commencing 21 September 2026.
At Anam Cara Centre, there is a consistent focus on working with altered states of consciousness in a careful and grounded way. This includes states accessed through breathwork, meditation, somatic process work, and psychedelic therapies. It is a serious program with solid philosophical foundations as well as experiential components - lead by two very passionate and experienced practitioners.
What the program covers
The CPACT curriculum brings together several strands of contemporary practice, including:
- Psychedelic science and research
- Trauma-informed psychotherapy
- Clinical skills for working with non-ordinary states
- Indigenous philosophies and cultural frameworks
- Ethics and professional considerations
- The Australian regulatory and legal landscape
- Contemplative and somatic practices
The training is grounded in the Anam Cara philosophy of the “soul friend,” alongside the SWIM and FLOAT therapeutic models and the EMPATHS ethical framework.
Structure and cohort
The program runs over 12 months in a hybrid format and includes two four-day residential intensives in Byron Bay. These intensives are a central part of the learning experience, bringing the cohort together for immersive, experiential work.
Places are intentionally limited to 20 participants per cohort to support depth of learning and supervision.
Applications
Alana and Melissa have offered a very generous discount for past participants of Melbourne Breathwork workshops. Please get in touch via the contact form and I will pass this on to you.