PSYCHEDELIC INTEGRATION THERAPY
What is Psychedelic Integration Therapy?
The time of thinking of psychedelics as a dangerous threat to society has passed. In the last 10 years there has been a psychedelic renaissance as researchers have gotten FDA approval to study the impact of psychedelic therapy on complex and often treatment resistant issues such as depression, addiction, and PTSD. For a more in depth read of what is happening in the current research please read my paper. As this research is being published and making its way into the mainstream media, people are taking matters into their own hands and using psychedelics to expand their consciousness and promote their own healing. This is generally a positive experience—except when its not. Sometimes during the use of psychedelics buried traumas and painful truths are revealed. This is when psychedelic integration therapy can be of benefit.
Some reasons people seek psychedelic integration therapy:
Will I be Taking Psychedelics?
No. As of the time of this writing, psychedelic assisted therapy is illegal unless it is being conducted in an official research setting. This is a rapidly changing field, and if all goes as planned MDMA will most likely be legalized for therapeutic use in 2021, with Psilocybin following suit.
What is an Intronaut Journey and How Does it Relate to Psychedelic Integration Therapy?
Intronaut sessions are therapy sessions that mimic psychedelic therapy without the psychedelic. The research has shown that even when individuals get the placebo, there is still statistically significant improvement. This success points to the importance of the process of the therapy, and not just the medicine itself. An intronaut journey includes 3 stages, all of which are equally important.
What Training Do You Have In This Area?
Good question! With all the recent enthusiasm and promise surrounding the psychedelic therapy movement, there are a lot of people wanting to do this work. It’s important to ask whomever you work with what kind of training they have. I graduated from the California Institute of Integral Studies with a certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Research in Dec. of 2019. This program is unique as it is offered by an accredited University, hosted guest speakers that are leaders in the field such as Geoffrey Guss, Jamie Wheal, William Richards, and Michael and Annie Mithoefer, and required a rigorous combination of academic and experimental learning. You can read my final paper from the program here.
Part of what psychedelics do is they decondition you from cultural values. This is what makes it such a political hot potato. Since all culture is a kind of con game, the most dangerous candy you can hand out is one which causes people to start questioning the rules of the game.
It is impossible to understand addiction without asking what relief the addict finds, or hopes to find, in the drug or the addictive behaviour.
Becoming “awake” involves seeing our confusion more clearly.
