Psychedelic Integration

Psychedelic therapy: we’re almost there!

Psychedelics such as MDMA, LSD, ayahuasca/DMT, mescaline, and psilocybin are currently being researched for their therapeutic potential. Most psychedelics are classified as schedule I substances and are therefore illegal. I do not currently offer guided psychedelic therapy sessions or promote the illegal use of these substances. There is always risk of harm when ingesting psychedelics, even in controlled settings.

Psychedelic integration therapy is different than psychedelic therapy where there is a therapist or guide present during the actual psychedelic experience. In contrast, psychedelic integration therapy is the process of making sense of and reducing any harm associated with a previous psychedelic experience within the context of an ongoing therapeutic relationship. 

As a psycho-spiritual psychotherapist and integrationist in Oakland, CA, I help people to better understand, recover from, and make use of their experiences with psychedelics as part of their therapy. I’m here to support those who are looking for a safe, non-judgmental, and informed place to explore their previous experiences with powerful psychedelic substances such as MDMA, LSD, ayahuasca/DMT, psilocybin, cannabis and ketamine.

If psychedelics have been part of your healing, but they’ve turned your world inside-out, you’re in the right place!

What does “psychedelic integration therapy” mean?

Although humans have been using psychedelic substances for millennia, current mainstream culture lacks much awareness about both their healing potential and their dangers.

Psychedelics are inherently dis-integrating. They can disintegrate your ego or your sense of self. Things can feel like they’re coming apart. You may have lost a sense of reality as you knew it.

After such an intensely fragmenting experience, coming back together can feel like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, blindfolded, with your hands tied behind your back. Everything may feel new, different, suddenly very wrong, or suddenly very right. Maybe you’re not even sure what you experienced. It may have been the single most spiritual and wonderful experience of your life, or it may have been terrifying and traumatic. Having the support of someone who’s informed about the different ways psychedelics can impact the psyche, and who can sort through your unique experience with you, can make all the difference.

Integrating can mean continuing to process and make meaning out of what you experienced, finding ways to ground and be present in your body, restructuring your life on various levels, bringing awareness to what might be new for you, or paying attention to your dreams (where the journey may resume). 

If you’ve had insightful or mystical experiences with psychedelics, I can help you further understand and integrate these experiences into your everyday life. Your journey may continue to unfold for weeks, months, years, or a lifetime. 

Perhaps you had a powerful vision, but the meaning isn’t clear to you yet. Maybe you’re struggling to hold onto the message you received. You may even feel greater sensitivity to noise, smells, toxins, and people.

Because psychedelics can make our unconscious minds more accessible, possibly even exposing us to experiences with different realms or beings, sometimes this is just a lot for our bodies and psyches to handle. You may have found yourself suddenly faced with traumatic memories, overwhelming feelings, revelatory insights, or an existential crisis. In our integration work together, I can help you process this intense, profound material that may have arisen in seemingly bizarre and unexpected ways. Even if you've had a challenging experience in an expanded state (see below for bad trips), psychedelic integration therapy can lead to deep transformation by slowly exploring the feelings, images, sensations and thoughts that came up for you.

One definition of healing is to make the self whole again. This is exactly what integration work involves. Let's get started. I'd love to hear from you.  

Bad Trips: Psychedelic Trauma and Harm Reduction

"I had a bad trip. Will I ever be the same again?"

Psychedelics can put people into extremely vulnerable states, therefore exposing folks to risk of all kinds of unintended outcomes. Although there is no way to avoid all risk with psychedelic use, there are ways to minimize it. I can help inform you about these risks, and I can assist you in overcoming the harm that may have come from the use of these substances.

In some cases of psychedelic use, there can be complex layers of trauma when you’ve ingested something unwillingly, you were totally unprepared, something terrible happened while you were “tripping,” someone violated you, you experienced a level of terror or horror you can’t make sense of, or you’re continuing to experience unpleasant/unwanted after-effects such as derealization, depersonalization or HPDD.

It can take time to recover from bad trips, and medical intervention and support is often necessary in the early stages.

Psychedelic Trauma

Sadly, people can be traumatized by psychedelic experiences and then suffer from a form of psychedelic-induced PTSD. If this happened to you, you might be experiencing flashbacks, panic attacks, insomnia, paranoia, feeling disconnected from your body and/or detached from your surroundings.

I am so sorry if this happened to you, and I want you to know it is not your fault. It might take time, but I do believe that people can heal after being traumatized in this way.

*Unfortunately I am unable to provide an appropriate level of care for folks in the acute stages of crisis after a problematic or traumatic psychedelic experience. Medical interventions or hospitalization may be necessary in those cases to reach stabilization. Once there has been an extended period of stability and functioning (I suggest at least 6 months), I can then offer to assist with further processing and psychedelic trauma recovery in psychotherapy.

Reach out to discuss how I can help you minimize risk, reduce harm and/or overcome the unwanted effects of your psychedelic use. 

Please note: Consultations are strictly for people interested in psychotherapy with a therapist who has expertise in psychedelic experiences that take place independently of our therapy together. I will not respond to inquiries about where to find guides, ceremonies, or any other ways of possibly accessing illegal substances. There is always risk of harm or adverse effects with psychedelic use even in legal, research, or controlled settings. If you are coming for therapy, please do not attend under the influence of any consciousness-altering substance unless prescribed by a physician.

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