During the preparation stage, you’ll vet your facilitator, cultivate your intentions, create a supportive mindset, and learn what to expect during your experience. Integration bridges insights and breakthroughs into daily life, facilitating lasting healing and growth. Together, they ensure your psychedelic journey becomes a transformative and sustainable tool for personal development. Many wonderful retreats and psychedelic experiences are now being offered across the globe, and I applaud that! Humanity is in a deep state of need for these interventions. At the same time, the level of support offered around psychedelic experiences varies widely. Often, even when integration sessions are available post-journey, it’s simply not enough - journeys like these can be utterly life-changing. I’m here to guide you as you pack your bags for your journey ahead, and to see you through any lingering turbulence post-landing.
Together, we’ll explore how to weave these profound experiences into your daily life, fostering meaningful, lasting transformation, and maximizing your investment in yourself.
Psychedelic Trip Preparation, Integration and ongoing therapy
Psychedelic Preparation
Preparing for a psychedelic experience involves abundant pre-trip self-care, clarifying intentions, vetting, and establishing comfort with the guide, therapist, facilitator or shaman, and understanding what to anticipate during and after the journey. Good preparation also allows you to gain awareness around the infinitely diverse mental states the medicine may induce, and to establish or clarify agreements and boundaries between you and your facilitator.
In short, preparation is about setting a strong foundation for your psychedelic journey. We’ll focus on establishing deep self-care, clarifying your intentions, establishing trust with your guide - including how to vet them properly, and what questions to ask, and fully understanding what to expect - inasmuch as is possible in the realms of mystery. This phase includes exploring your internal, external, and transpersonal resources, evaluating safety and your current mental state, and evaluating reasonable expectations.
“Tell me - what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~Mary Oliver
Psychedelic integration is the process through which you’ll assimilate the insights and self-discoveries you’ve gained during your experience. In contrast to the medical model, which suggests a one-time solution, a one and done pill to swallow, the healing work of psychedelics persists well beyond the journey itself in many esoteric and practical ways.
Psychedelic states of consciousness differ significantly from everyday states, and well-supported integration makes it easier to translate what you’ve learned about yourself and the deep wisdom you’ve gained into your daily life. This phase serves as a bridge connecting the psychedelic journey to tangible, transformative, life-enhancing changes in your ongoing inner roadtrip of life.
In short, integration is where the real healing happens. It’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s about processing your experience, turning insights into lasting change, and incorporating the wisdom gained into your everyday life. Somatic Integration takes things a level deeper, recognizing that complete healing involves mind, body, and spirit. This body-centered approach honors the unity of your whole being, helping you translate the experience into practical, transformative shifts, and know - deep in your bones - what it is you plan to do with your wild and precious life.
Psychedelic Integration
& Somatic Integration
Psychedelically-informed PsychoTHERAPY
I am deeply committed to ethical, harm-reduction practices and to unlocking the healing potential of psychedelic therapy - which extends far beyond the trip itself.
If you are exploring psychedelic realms, or interested in doing so and are seeking a therapist who has been there, I’m honored to be your guide. As a psychedelically informed psychotherapist I understand the diverse mental, emotional, and spiritual experiences that can arise during psychedelic sessions and well beyond.
Whether you’re new to psychedelics or experienced in altered states, I offer compassionate, personalized support tailored to your unique needs. I’m here to support you, whether I serve as your guide or help you prepare for and integrate experiences you’ve had elsewhere. Let’s work together to ensure your journey is safe, meaningful, and profoundly healing.
FAQ
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Preparation ensures that individuals understand the potential psychological and emotional impacts of the experience. A qualified guide helps set intentions, address concerns, and establish safety measures, fostering a grounded mindset and reducing the likelihood of overwhelming or disorienting experiences.
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A mental health professional provides psychological support, helping individuals navigate any difficult emotions or mental health challenges during and after the experience. They offer strategies for managing anxiety, trauma, or insights that may arise, ensuring a safe and productive journey.
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Integration is the process of making sense of the insights and emotions encountered during the experience. A guide or therapist helps individuals understand these insights in the context of their lives, ensuring that any transformative experiences lead to lasting positive change rather than confusion or psychological distress.
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Absolutely. And, while it’s 100% possible to have insights without a guide, having one increases the likelihood of a safe, meaningful, and transformative experience. A guide can help mitigate risks, manage difficult emotions, and offer tools for integrating the experience in a constructive way.
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Without integration, you may struggle harder than you need to to make sense of your experiences. Sometimes, this leads to confusion over where to go next in life, anxiety, or a sense of detachment. Insights might not translate into positive life changes, and sometimes people are left feeling overwhelmed or unsettled by the emotional or psychological shifts that have occur.
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A qualified guide provides emotional support and coping strategies during difficult pre- and post- journey moments. They help reframe or contextualize challenging experiences, offer grounding techniques, and ensure that any distressing feelings are processed in a healthy way, reducing the likelihood of lasting psychological harm.
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A psychedelically informed therapist understands how altered states of consciousness can impact mental health, offering tailored support that bridges the gap between psychedelic experiences and everyday life. They can help clients integrate insights into their healing journey, address unresolved trauma, and support lasting psychological growth.
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Yes. I’m committed to the transformative power of psychedelic medicines. Whether you are obtaining medicine and services at a ketamine infusion clinic, overseas, or anywhere else, I’m here to support you around harm reduction, personal safety, preparing for and integrating your explorations of consciousness.
