psychedelic integration therapy

“When will you begin that long journey into yourself?”

Rumi

Psychedelic assisted psychotherapy is gaining alot of attention in Australia especially after the recent announcement by the TGA for the legal use psilocybin and MDMA for treatment resistant depression and post traumatic stress disorder. The use of these substances for other means are still considered illegal however people still seek psychedelic experiences at their own risk for their own personal growth and to gain insights in how to better improve their lives. Psychedelic integration therapy provides individuals with a safe space to talk through and explore one’s psychedelic experience. The main benefit of utilising psychedelic integration therapy is to provide the individual with a structure to help unpack one’s psychedelic experience and to integrate it into their day to day life in a constructive way. It is through a supportive process of exploring and sharing insights and challenges that may have arisen during a psychedelic experience that one is able to make sense of their experience.

Integration therapy also involves working with a client who intends to have a psychedelic experience and to help them prepare for their experience. This involves a process of intention setting which is often referred to as set. Having an intention going into having a psychedelic experience can act as an anchor that helps ground and provides direction for the person going into having their experience. An intention can take on many different forms and in essence an intention is what you want to achieve from having a psychedelic experience. Its an idea that encapsulates the most pressing matters in your life that you are looking to connect with, gain clarity on, transform, bridge or create.

Integration as a general definition means “bringing parts together to make a whole.” Psychedelic integration helps to achieve a sense of “wholeness” by helping clients make sense of their experience. Psychedelic integration therapy provides individuals with a safe space to talk through and explore their psychedelic experience. The main benefit of psychedelic integration therapy is to provide individuals with structure to allow users to unpack their journey and integrate it into their day to day lives constructively. It is the process of exploring and sharing challenges and insights that arise during psychedelic experiences. Integration is about creating space to take the gained insights, emotions, feelings, sensations and ideas from an experience and processing them into desired areas of one’s life. In this way, integration therapy increases the potential for personal transformation from having a psychedelic experience.