The Psychedelic Integration Therapy Process

Some people feel nervous before a psychedelic journey. Others find the psychedelic experience itself to be mysterious.

Most of the time, the most difficult part of the psychedelic journey is neither preparation nor the ceremony.

It's the time after your experience called "psychedelic integration".

In some ways, the real work for psychedelic healing starts after the actual psychedelic medicine session.

Most clients journey with psychedelic substances and emerge with profound insights. Then begins the real work of healing and integration.

For this reason, psychedelic studies include psychedelic assisted therapies before, during, and after the experience.

Psychedelic integration is indeed a process. It's not a one-and-done moment or activity; it takes place over time.

In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview of the concept of integration based on our experience providing psychedelic integration therapy and psychedelic harm reduction.

You'll learn about the importance of integration, types of integration, the best tools for integration, and integration benefits and challenges.

What Is Integration?

Psychedelic experiences can be extremely powerful. They can elicit intense visuals, powerful emotions, and/or personal insights and realizations.

In many ways, psychedelics amplify our inner worlds. Typically, this results in a clearer sense of one's mental health and inner world.

These experiences can come from various healing practices, such as psilocybin assisted therapy, ketamine assisted psychotherapy, or work with sacred medicines in non-clinical spaces.

As guides and mental health professionals, we at Pivot often see clients emerge from psychedelic experiences feeling refreshed and renewed. It's as if a weight has been lifted off of their shoulders.

Most clients feel that they gain insight into their mental health and the human experience. Lots of people feel positive about their well being.

Joyful as this time is, it's crucial that clients recognize it's the start of psychedelic integration therapy.

They may have amazing visions, ideas, or new perspectives from the altered state. However, their psychedelic learnings and positive feelings will fade if they're not processed.

Through deliberate care and support, people can start make sense of their experience and translate it into meaningful change.

This process is what defines psychedelic integration and calls people to ask how do they integrate these positive feelings into lasting changes?

We'll cover this and more in the article.

Why is Psychedelic Integration Important?

What you experience or learn on a psychedelic journey will not last forever.

The positive feelings and perspective shifts can get lost with time.

In such cases, you could find yourself back to your initial mental health state.

Luckily, profound experiences with psychedelic medicines can stick with us and continue to teach us if we're open to them.

We once worked with a client named Rosanna who realized psychedelic integration was crucial to her personal healing.

Rosanna went into the psychedelic experience with the intention of improving her relationships with loved ones and co-workers.

After the experience, she felt like her beliefs and opinions of others were very different. She was gentler and cared more about what other peoples had to say.

In that first week, she felt extremely positive about her life and relationships.

Over time though, negative thoughts crept back up for Rosanna. She felt like she was going back to her previous self and she wanted help.

We worked with Rosanna through integration in psychedelic therapy to help her remember what the psychedelic experience taught them.

Through mindfulness activities and journaling, Rosanna could access her inner world and her kind, caring social self. She reconnected with her psychedelic teachings, even though the experience happened months ago.

Psychedelic therapy and integration services are critical because they allow us to actually make the lasting changes we seek.

Psychedelic research suggests that adequate psychedelic integration therapy after a journey leads to positive improvements in mental health.

Types of Psychedelic Integration

There are several ways someone can go about integrating their psychedelic experience and there's no "right way" to do it.

You might feel drawn to do several activities or just one. You might be interested in one activity today and another tomorrow. Again, there's no wrong way to do it.

Since psychedelics can affect so much of us, almost anything could be considered "integration". But that can get overwhelming!

So, we've made a short-list of the most popular types of integration activities.

Journaling

Writing out your insights from a journey is one of the most common forms of integration.

Psychedelic experiences often help us think or feel differently. You might communicate this to your psychedelic therapist or guide via words, spoken or written.

When you journal, you give your mind the space to think deeply about your experience. This activity can help you process your insights and solidify your new attitudes, emotions, and perspectives into lasting change.

For more on psychedelic journaling and integration, check out our blog article Psychedelic Integration Journaling Prompts.

Mindfulness

One of the best ways to return to the psychedelic experience is through mindfulness.

Simply put, mindfulness is the deliberate focus on the present moment.

During a psychedelic journey, many people naturally experience mindfulness. They might think about how the body feels or how their emotions flow.

As an integration activity, mindfulness can call us back to the feelings we had on the journey.

It can also clue us into the different components of us. Maybe we feel into the part of us that runs from challenges or those that help us lean into them in healthy ways, similar to parts in internal family systems theory. CITE

Being mindful of your thoughts, emotions, and sensations is all it takes to practice mindfulness in normal life.

Some specific mindfulness tools are meditation, breathwork, and yoga.

Physical Movement

Psychedelics can help us feel more alive in our bodies. People report that they're more likely to exercise, go on walks, and enjoy the outdoors.

One possible reason for the change in physical movement is that our bodies store our psychological energy. This can inhibit us from moving in healthy ways and even lead to injury.

Then, when someone journeys with psychedelic medicine their nervous system releases this energy. With these blockers removed, they can move more freely.

Integration therapists often work with clients to recognize their somatic psychology or how emotions are stored in the body.

One of the most common ways to integrate your experience physically is to go on regular walks. This simple, full body movement can be extremely restorative for one's wellness.

Other activities could include dancing, yoga, or more intense cardiovascular exercise, such as running or swimming.

Diet & Substance Use

Changes to your physical sensations might extend to your diet.

The saying You are what you eat, can seem super real following a psychedelic experience.

It's also common for people to engage with alcohol and drugs, including illegal substances, in new ways (typically healthier ones).

In general, clients find themselves more thoughtful about what they consume following a journey.

This can be helpful for folks working through disordered eating or substance use disorders, but almost everyone benefits from being thoughtful about consumption.

You might find that you're just naturally compelled to be more thoughtful.

Perhaps, you're not as interested in one type of food late at night because it will disrupt your sleep. In another case, you might get a water at a bar in lieu of a second alcoholic beverage.

If you notice that you're consuming food, drinks, or substances in a way that's more aligned with your health goals, then integrating this into consciousness effort will help you keep this habit.

We recommend tracking your progress towards your health goals and working with mental health professionals and doctors as appropriate.

Media

Just as psychedelics remind us of what we consume for energy, they can also influence how we consume media content.

People often report changes in their interests in TV shows, books, and even social media. It's as if non ordinary states help us 'wake up' to the pervasive function that internet, TV, and cell phones play in our lives.

One client we worked with named Russell spent much of his day on his phone looking at social media and news.

He went into a guided psychedelic experience to work on his PTSD. The journey commenced, it brought him immense clarity on his life, and he began his integration journey thereafter.

While he did not enter the experience looking to change how he used social media, this became his biggest life improvement.

Russell told us immediately how refreshed he felt using his phone less.

Changes like this can come up with our without intentional goal setting.

If you're integrating an experience, you might ask How is my media consumption in line with my life goals?

Some media integration considerations include movies, TV shows, music, news, magazines, and social media.

Spirituality

For some journeyers, psychedelics open up their connection to others, including the divine. These experiences are highly personal, so how this happens is different for everyone.

Spiritual learnings could come up during the actual experience or after during integration. They could be vivid, such as a perceived direct interaction with a deity or sprite. They could be more abstract, like a deep meaningful connection to one's ancestors or archetype of humanity, such as those proposed in transpersonal psychology.

One general approach for integrating spiritual insights is to ask How do you feel called to connect to your spiritual energy?

One journeyer answering this question may engage more (or less) with a religious practice in community. Another person might make it a habit to meditate at a nearby park.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach, so we invite journeyers to stay open and follow whatever calls them.

Social

One of the most popular things we hear from clients after a psychedelic ceremony is that they feel more connected.

Psychedelic medicines have this uncanny tendency to open us up to new ideas and even new relationships.

Sometimes folks feel more socially connected to their loved ones, friends, family members, or even colleagues.

A journeyer might find that they're more interested in other people that they've previously dismissed.

Another common occurrence is that people feel more forgiving and more kind, while less angry and judgemental. These are all considered pro-social characteristics, meaning that they encourage sociability.

Some, all, or none of these things may occur for you after a journey.

We encourage clients to pay attention to these changes in their social lives and relationships. By staying mindful of your social interactions, you might find you're enjoying life more.

After all, humans are very social creatures.

Best Psychedelic Integration Tools

The best time to consider integration is actually before the journey with psychedelic medicines.

If you have the ability to prepare for the variety of integration possibilities, you can set yourself up for quick wins following your journey.

Don't worry if you've already had your experience!

You still have ample time to integrate your psychedelic experience and gain insight from it.

In fact, some professionals in the mental health field believe integration is a forever ongoing process of learning and development.

These are some of the best tools to help you attend to your needs with self care and maximize your psychedelic integration experience:

• Journal - Have a dedicated journal just for your psychedelic insights. Writing is an incredibly powerful tool for processing thoughts and emotions. It can also help you track your progress.

• Meditation or Mindfulness Object - Use some sort of grounding item to help you center yourself for meditation or prayer, or even the psychedelic experience itself. This could be a rock or crystal, wooden object, spiritual symbol, photo, or art.

• Physical Tool - Consider using a tool that excites you and helps you develop healthy habits. You might obtain a good quality yoga mat, a blender or smoothie maker to encourage the consumption of fruit, or comfortable running or walking shoes.

• Support Person - Okay, well we wouldn't consider a person a "tool" necessarily, but social support is critical for integration! Do you have someone in your life that can support you after your journey? The care of psychedelic integration therapists, social workers or other experienced professionals can be immensely helpful, but you can also seek support from a loved one or family member.

Take inventory of your integration practices and see how these tools might further support you. If you feel like you'd like additional help, then consider psychedelic integration therapy.

Benefits of The Integration Process

One of the primary benefits of psychedelic integration is that you have ample time to engage with aftercare.

Psychedelic medicines have a real sticking power and you can access your insights for weeks, months, and even years after a psychedelic journey.

Psychedelic integration provides a generous window for healing.

Another advantage of integration is that it can take on many different forms and evolve over time.

For example, one client Jo found that they were most focused on their physical habits and behaviors after their psychedelic journey.

They were focused on drinking less alcohol and they made great strides changing their relationship to drinking.

As time progressed, the focus of Jo's integration shifted towards spirituality and meaning. Jo found themselves thinking more deeply about their purpose and their time on earth. They went on to support people using illegal substances as a substance use counselor.

While they used to reject these things, their psychedelic integration unfolded in a way that now called them to embrace them.

By working with a psychedelic integration therapist, you have a great sense of the broad possibilities with psychedelics and integration.

At the same time, there are no magic cures out there and cultivating integration practices into daily life can be difficult at times.

Challenges of Integration & Reconciling Healing

We're of the opinion that you can boil all of the challenges of psychedelic assisted healing into one main idea: our contemporary society does not promote psychedelic integration.

In America, our social structure promotes ideals like:

• Chasing capital profits above all else.

• Having a perfect-looking physical body.

• Holding rigid beliefs and stereotypes about what certain people can or cannot do.

• Consuming infinite amounts of media content.

Along with the importance of an individual lived experience, these factors compound and can lead to mental health conditions.

Fortunately, psychedelics flip these things on their heads.

Here are some actual psychedelic insights we've heard from clients:

• Chasing capital profits above all else.

  • Caring for other people and our own well being.

• Having a perfect looking physical body.

  • Engaging in healthy behaviors like eating plants and moving our bodies.

• Holding rigid beliefs and stereotypes about what certain people can or cannot do.

  • Doing what feels right and building other people up.

• Consuming infinite amounts of media content.

  • Spending free time in nature, talking with friends, and simply being

After a psychedelic experience, things we take for-granted in society can seem a whole lot less appealing.

In these ways, society seems to stand in contrast to many of our psychedelic learnings. It's as if psychedelics help us reshape our human experience.

Psychedelics often call us back to what's natural and feels right. Some people refer to this as our "inner healing intelligence."

It's as if psychedelics promote within us a natural healing that was with us all along, but faded as we matured in the world.

Psychedelics invite us to live more fully.

Then, we're faced with the challenge of integration: how do we live in this new, healthier way knowing that much of our society won't support us?

Luckily, you don't have to go through this reconciling alone.

The Role of A Psychedelic Integration Therapist

Navigating your personal healing can be a huge task. There will likely be moments of success and failure. There might be times of triumph and trial.

Couple this with social unraveling discussed in the previous section, e.g., caring more for your health than your acquisition of capital, spending time in nature instead of on social media, and psychedelic integration can be the most challenging component to the psychedelic journey.

We recommend that all journeyers find a psychedelic support person or professional who can provide counseling and harm reduction to help them maximize their therapeutic benefits.

Ideally, your person is well experienced with altered states of consciousness, has gone through their own journey of psychedelic integration, and can practice non-judgment to help you.

One challenge here is that most everyone in your life, even your best friend or loved one, likely brings their own conscious and subconscious biases into your experience. It's not their fault; it's just human nature.

Alternatively, clients who work with a psychedelic integration therapist or coach for their journey might encounter fewer personal barriers that impede healing.

We encourage you to pay attention to a practitioner's level of experience, therapeutic orientation, and philosophy of care to ensure it aligns with what you seek.

At Pivot, we assist clients in understanding integration before their psychedelic experience and in prioritize their goals.

We also create a customized psychedelic integration process to help you make the most out of your journey.

Regardless of your approach to non ordinary states, be it psychedelic assisted therapies or personal journeying, we can explore integration services with you.