Psychedelic Integration Guide: Coaches, Circles, & Therapists
Many are changed by psychedelics. Not only do people widely report using such substances for personal development, scientific research has confirmed that a single psychedelic experience can result in lasting personality change [1]. For many, however, altered states are readily dismissed as “crazy drug experiences” that are of no significance to their daily lives. With the renaissance in psychedelic research showing great potential for psychedelics to heal and change people for the better, how can you ensure you get maximum benefit from an entheogenic voyage of self-discovery? Well, there’s more to the use of psychedelics than the trip itself. Considering harm reduction before is crucial in order to ensure things go in the most positive direction during the experience but equally important is the time after the experience. Psychedelic states can produce peak experiences and profound insights, but in order for these to result in transformative change, you’ll need to focus on integration after the experience.
What is Psychedelic Integration?
Psychedelic integration refers to any activity that a person undertakes following a psychedelic experience with the intention of incorporating the insights from the experience into everyday life. Activities performed as psychedelic integration include meditation, yoga, spending time in nature, setting boundaries, focusing more on certain relationships and anything else that promotes positive change in line with the experience. A whole range of beneficial insights and experiences can happen in altered states and their specific nature will inform the kind of integration that’s appropriate. Someone might get in touch with memories that they typically avoid thinking about, reevaluate a relationship in their life or connect with the present moment in a way that they had never done before. The experiences that come up in the psychedelic state reflect something about yourself, whether it’s a repressed memory, an unhealthy behaviour pattern or untapped potential. Once you’ve seen the terrain of your mind, you have a choice. You can try to continue avoiding certain parts of yourself or you can face them and learn from them. If you choose to learn from them and take steps to ensure there will be lasting change, you are performing psychedelic integration - you are integrating the insights, lessons and experiences into your everyday life.
Difference between Psychedelic Integration therapy and Psychedelic Assisted Therapy
Our minds evolved to keep us alive and safe and they therefore typically try to keep us from changing. To the evolved brain, whatever you’ve done so far has kept you alive so it’s best to stick with that, even at the expense of your happiness. Such quirks of our psychology make it tricky to pull off perfect integration by ourselves. Following the experience we may know exactly what we need to do and we may have every intention of meditating for two hours a day, going vegan and calling our family every night - but putting these plans into practice is another matter. This is where help from others can be of great use.
There are therapists who specialise in assisting people with the integration process following psychedelic experiences. These therapists have no role whatsoever in providing or facilitating psychedelic experiences themselves but can offer help in the crucial period after the experience, where the real change can happen. Psychedelic states can put people in touch with significant traumas and can catalyse profound psychological healing. For people trying to integrate psychological material of this kind, as opposed to just trying to live more healthily for example, psychedelic integration therapy with a trained therapist may be the best option.
Psychedelic assisted therapy differs from psychedelic integration therapy in that it is an end-to-end process that takes someone through a preparation period with one or two therapists, provides the experience in a therapeutic context and assists the participating individual through the subsequent integration stage. As of 2020, psychedelic assisted therapy has yet to become widely available due to legal hurdles that are yet to be cleared but psychedelic integration therapy faces no such issues and is currently available through standard directories for therapists.
Why is Experience Integration Necessary?
Behaviour change is hard. Without conscious, intentional planning of how to change for the better, we typically slip back into old behaviour patterns. Where this is the case, the experience becomes just a memory, an incredible experience that had the potential to be life-changing, but wasn’t. With appropriate integration however, people can experience truly transformative change for the better.
According to Dr. Neal Goldsmith, a therapist in private practice in New York, the psychedelic state can align individuals with healthy, natural ways of being, but the real challenge is in not losing this new alignment after the experience. “When you come down and in the coming days, your job, your family, your everything is going to pull you back into the old configuration. You now have a choice, either your mind is going to go back to the old way and fit with the environment, or the environment is going to shift to the new way of being that the psychedelic has temporarily shown you. So how do you do that? The integration coach is really about helping you change your life, so that the insights don't have to be twisted back into the old configuration, but can stay because now your life is supporting them.” says Dr. Goldsmith.
When Does Integration Begin?
Integration begins immediately after the experience has ended. In practice, however, the next days and weeks is where a lot of the action happens. In the hours following the experience it is good advice to go easy on yourself and give yourself a chance to recover - no need to roll out the yoga mat right away if that’s your particular integration resolution. The key thing to be sensitive to in the immediate aftermath of the experience is unhealthy patterns that you might want to change. If you realised your alcohol consumption is a problem, don’t zone out in front of the TV with a beer. Take the time to let the experience sink in in a healthy way.
The day after the experience is prime time to strike when it comes to integration. While the experience is still fresh you may want to journal and write down your reflections from the trip. Many people find drawing is useful here too, even if they don’t typically draw, as it helps convey feelings that can’t be put into words.
The days and weeks to come will be the key time for putting your grand plans into action. Try your best to hack your behaviour to make the changes stick but don’t be hard on yourself, personal growth is usually hard won.
Ways to integrate a psychedelic experience
Integration Circles
Integration circles are groups of people who come together to discuss their psychedelic experiences in order to share insights and guidance on the integration process and harm reduction strategies, as well as to offer emotional support.
Therapist/Coach Lead
Some circles are led by an individual with specific training in integration. They might be a psychotherapist or coach who can help the group to explore how to best integrate their experience into their life in a structured way.
Community Lead
Many circles are organised by a community and may have no particular individual leading the group. Some community integration circles are peer-led, however, in which case an experienced member of the group who is particularly familiar with integration will facilitate the flow of sharing and discussion around the circle.
Psychedelic Integration Coach
Some people feel they would benefit from one-to-one guidance from someone who specialises in psychedelic integration. For people who feel they want to focus on general behaviour change rather than the psychological work that is typically the focus of psychedelic integration therapy, a coach might be the best fit. A psychedelic integration coach is someone who guides clients through their integration process in order to assist them in maximising the benefit from their psychedelic experiences. They will typically discuss the material from the experiences with the client and will help them to structure their integration effectively in order to help them achieve their goals.
According to Dr. Goldsmith “integration coaching is very helpful but it's not at all optimal.” He points to the added benefit that comes with having a therapist take someone through the entire process from beginning to end, which can enrich the integration phase. The current models of coaching and therapy are likely to change dramatically over the coming years as the legal status of psychedelic substances are rescheduled. “I don’t know if there are going to be integration coaches in 10 years” says Dr. Goldsmith.
Integration Techniques
Psychedelic experiences vary wildly from person to person and, similarly, the appropriate integration approach will depend on the person, the experience and their goals. Certain themes are common however, making some integration practices more routine than others.
Spiritual Practice
For many, psychedelic states can be the first time the individual is confronted with the spiritual. A profound sense of the sacred, blissful recognition of the mystery of being and a deep sense of connectedness to the rest of the world are all common psychedelic experiences. By going far beyond one’s usual range of experience, these peak experiences can illuminate the most positive areas of our psychological terrain and leave individuals with a new sense of what kind of mental state they would like to inhabit day-to-day. Cultivating a spiritual practice can be a way of navigating back towards these psychological spaces in daily life and could include yoga, meditation or chanting, as well as many other practices found in the world’s religions and spiritual traditions. Finding a practice that resonates with you can be a deeply satisfying approach to integration.
Mindful Practice
Mindfulness is perhaps the most widely adopted integration practice in the psychedelic community. This may result from its relevance to fundamental aspects of our minds that are shared by all of us. We typically live in a distracted state where we are not present and in control of our minds but are instead thinking about the past or the future. Mindfulness meditation [3] and psychedelics [4] have both been found to suppress activity in the brain’s default mode network, a constellation of brain areas that mediates mind-wandering and one’s sense of being a separate self. Mindfulness can act as a wonderful method for connecting with and integrating insights into the nature of the mind acquired in psychedelic states.
Protocol or Certification for Psychedelic Integration Therapy
As psychedelics become increasingly mainstream, there is going to be an increasing demand for qualified psychedelic integration therapists. After becoming a qualified psychotherapist, one can specialise in psychedelic integration therapy by enrolling for the 8-month Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
FAQ
Where can I find a certified psychedelic integration therapist or coach?
Several directories list psychedelic integration therapists but, with the absence of widespread training programs, many who appear on such directories are not certified. Check the qualifications of any therapist you are considering working with if you are looking for a certified therapist. Many coaches offer insight based on their personal experience and research rather than professional training.
Where can I find psychedelic integration circles near me?
If you are based in the Bay Area, Tam integration in Marin County offers regular psychedelic integration circles every Wednesday. If you are based in Los Angeles, PsychedeLiA Integration offers regular integration circles throughout the city. Community meetup groups such as the San Francisco Psychedelic Society also offer integration circles and similar groups can be found across the world.
Where can I find psychedelic integration therapy in Los Angeles?
A directory of psychedelic integration therapists can be found on the website of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), at psychedelic.support or trippingly.net. In addition to private therapists, InnerSpace Integration in Santa Monica offers one-on-one counselling as well as community integration circles.
Where can I find psychedelic integration therapy in San Francisco?
In addition to the online directories mentioned above that can be used to find private therapists, the My Doctor Medical Group offers psychedelic integration therapy in San Francisco.
Where can I find psychedelic integration for ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca! Now what? offers online counselling options for integrating your ayahuasca experience.
Where can I take psychedelic integration training courses?
After becoming a qualified psychotherapist, one can specialise in psychedelic integration therapy by enrolling for the 8-month Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. In the private sector, one option is to attend a workshop from Fluence, an online educational program that offers training in psychedelic integration. Also in the private sector, Being True To You offers training and certification for psychedelic coaches with a focus on addiction recovery.
Links to add
https://tamintegration.com/psychedelic-integration-circles/
https://www.psychedeliaintegration.org/
https://psychedelic.support/network/
https://www.trippingly.net/lsd-studies/2018/6/14/psychedelic-integration-list
https://mydoctorsf.com/psychedelic-integration/
[1] Bouso, J. C., dos Santos, R. G., Alcázar-Córcoles, M. Á., & Hallak, J. E. (2018). Serotonergic psychedelics and personality: A systematic review of contemporary research. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 87, 118-132.
[2] Brewer, J. A., Mallik, S., Babuscio, T. A., Nich, C., Johnson, H. E., Deleone, C. M., ... & Carroll, K. M. (2011). Mindfulness training for smoking cessation: results from a randomized controlled trial. Drug and alcohol dependence, 119(1-2), 72-80.
[3] Carhart-Harris, R. L., Erritzoe, D., Williams, T., Stone, J. M., Reed, L. J., Colasanti, A., ... & Hobden, P. (2012). Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(6), 2138-2143.