integrating psychedelics
why is integration important?
Integration is an essential part of psychedelic journeys. It sets the stage for new things to spring and grow and extends the insights and healing gained through medicine work into the mind and life of an individual. Without integration, these experiences just come and go with little or no lasting benefit.
After an experience with a psychedelic medicine, there is a unique window of opportunity to recreate one’s state of mind, lifestyle, strength of character, and response patterns in one’s life. Integration keeps you awake, mindful, and in your process so that the learning and application of insights continues to unfold.
WHAT IS INTEGRATION?
In a general sense, integration means to make something whole again. Integration brings you back into balance and harmony or in the direction of your true matured state. The process of integration ideally starts shortly after a transformational moment such as an entheogenic experience, however it is also a daily practice. Integration is an ongoing process where you continuously learn to harmonize the unharmonized, connect the disconnected, heal the unhealed and resolve the unresolved through mindfulness and action steps.
Integration offers a fresh start, a new beginning, and a reawakening of the next phase of life unfolding. It helps one to remember their values and passions, and find meaning in their life, suffering, and past experiences.
benefits of integration
Integration is where the fruits of a psychedelic journey have the opportunity to blossom in one’s daily life. The benefits and opportunities can be described as “endless” because there is so much potential and possibility to grow within each of us. A person cannot understand or fully know what benefits they are going to receive. This is why integration is key. This is the point where you begin to recognize and identify what seeds were planted through the experience and make a conscious choice to water those seeds such that they can sprout, ripen and even flourish.
Here are some possible benefits of a well integrated psychedelic experience:
Spiritual connection, release of fears, activation of love, acceptance of life as it is.
Fresh start, new beginning, reawakening, remembering values, higher awareness.
Clarity, realizations, new perspectives, answers, solutions, ideas
Self love, acceptance, confidence, reassurance, hope, ambition, courage
Connection, sense of belonging, security, feeling of love & peace.
Inspiration, motivation, purpose, meaning
integration coaching
The main goal of an integration coach is to help you integrate the transformational experience or psychedelic experience. We might start by tapping into your felt experience throughout the experience or jump right to insights. Together we will explore where you can draw meaning and insights from your experience. We will work together to identify potential changes you’d like to make and consider what is most pressing on each particular day.
The core of this work stems from the preparation work and intentions outlined combined with their emerging insights. My job is to listen for richness in all forms and to keep the process going for as long as it serves you and your goals.
Roles & Principles
Your Role:
Learn about integration
Set your aftercare plan up before you undergo the experience
Draw as many insights and meaning as possible from your experience
Accept and work through the homework the medicine leaves you with
Take advantage of the transformational tools and tracking systems made available
Continue to engage in integrative activities like meditation, journaling, mindfulness, rituals, expressive arts, conscious conversation
Stay in your process to the best of your ability
My Role
Keep you engaged in the integration process
Serve and guide you with the intention of maximizing benefit from the experience
Help you integrate your insights and everyday experiences in meaningful and productive ways.
Accountability to your standards and personal commitments.
Provide unconditional compassion, empathy and acceptance.
Acute listening and act as a sounding board
When thinking about the process of integration, it is helpful to look at it from the lens of what is being integrated. Integration can mean many things to people.
Integration can mean:
Integration of the mind, body, heart, spirit, and soul
Integration of different parts or levels of the psyche
Integration of traumatized parts of the self
Integration of self, other, and mother nature
Integration of the inner and outer worlds
Integration of the past, present, and future
Integration of old and new self
Integration of life’s principles into real life
Integration of spirituality and science
Integration changes into existence
Integration of a truer perspective over the former
drawing meaning from a psychedelic session
Visions, sights, sounds, scenarios, stories, voices, feelings, observations, experiences
Thoughts, mental chatter, emotions, emotional cycles, behaviors, habits, themes
Signs, illustrations, metaphors, memories, insights, ideas, concepts, perspectives
Passions, interests, goals, desires, needs, obsessions, addictions, outcomes in life
Problems, conflicts, breakdowns, blocks, obstacles, pain, trauma, loss, suffering
Fears, judgements, jealousy, insecurity, resistance, denial, blame, sadness, guilt, shame, projection, abandonment
Truths, intuitions, instincts, feedback, epiphanies, ah-ha’s, breakthroughs, clarity
INTEGRATION QUESTIONS
How do you feel about your experience?
What are your most notable memories from the journey?
What themes came up? What was highlighted?
What were your areas of breakthrough or insight, if any?
Were there areas of resistance or difficulty?
Did you experience visions, imagery, symbols, signs, or observations?
What did you learn about yourself or your suffering?
What shortcomings or attachments can you identify?
What ideas, opportunities, or doors opened up?
What else came up for you? What is coming up for you now?
What does this all mean to you, if anything? What can you take from it?
What have you learned, gained, or discovered?
How can you take what you have learned and implement it into your life?
What homework did the medicine leave you with?
READY TO GET STARTED?
Book your FREE 40 Minute Discovery Call to explore if Psychedelic Facilitation & Integration Coaching are a good fit for you.