There is a world beyond ours, a world that is far away, nearby and invisible.
-María Sabina
Psychedelic therapy has the potential to get us in touch with what is hidden in our psyche so that we can bring it into the light of conscious awareness.
Although psychedelics have only been a part of psychotherapy for the last 80 or so years, they have been part of many cultural practices worldwide. For thousands of years, many indigenous cultures often assisted in healing, rights of passage, spirituality, and ancestral connection.
Unlike the Western pharmaceutical approach of “managing” our mental health with various medications that suppress symptoms and mute emotional capacity, psychedelics are amplifiers of the human psyche. Psychedelics bring symptoms to the surface to be processed and healed through direct experience and integrated for lasting change. For many, this process can be cathartic, uncomfortable, and transformational.
Recent research and clinical trials have shown promising results using psychedelics with participants experiencing existential distress in palliative and cancer care, MDMA for PTSD (including Complex PTSD), treatment-resistant depression, and those diagnosed with autism.
I hold a warm, confidential space for those exploring Non-ordinary States of Consciousness (NOSC). These experiences can be transformative, and require support afterwards to integrate any shifts in perspective.
Psychedelic Preparation
Psychedelic Experience
Integration
Significant changes are not always simply a matter of receiving a gift; instead, work is involved to unwrap it. You could think of Preparation as sowing seeds; the Journey is water, and Integration bears the fruit.
The word integrate is derived from the root integrare, which means to make whole. Psychedelic Integration supports the meaning-making process of your psychedelic experience and supports a deepening of the information you received from the Journey. The psychedelic support offered bookends your psychedelic experience with psychedelic Preparation and Integration.
The preparation phase takes place before your psychedelic experience and involves harm-reduction education and confidential holistic support to prepare you for your Journey.
Integration occurs after your Journey and is a safe, welcoming space for you to make meaning of your experience. We may explore any shifts in perspective or realizations through somatic therapy, expressive arts, Hakomi, IFS, or Gestalt therapy.
Research has shown us that psychedelics help to enhance cognitive flexibility. They open up critical periods of neuroplasticity that can be harnessed for lasting change. You can leverage these critical windows of neural plasticity through psychedelic therapy support to expand the positive potential psychedelics can offer.
Trainings related to Psychedelic Therapy:
MDMA Therapist training (100 hours), issued by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
Core-Competencies in Ketamine-Assisted Therapy, issued by Telos
Healing the Healer issued by Polaris Insight Center
Hakomi Somatic Therapy level 1 (completed) and level 2 (in progress)
Holotropic Breathwork issued by Grof Legacy Training
I am committed to placing safety, ethics, and respect for the Indigenous Wisdom Keepers at the heart of my practice. My intention is to be in right relationship with these profoundly transformative medicines and the people connected to their origins.
To honor my committment, I contribute a portion of my income to the Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund and Blessings of the Forest. I am also a member of the Women's Visionary Council.
*Although this practice does not provide, condone, or support the use of illegal substances, and there can be significant legal and medical risks associated with casual use of psychedelics for some people, it is important to acknowledge that people do sometimes choose to take the risks of using these substances to explore their own minds or spirituality. I acknowledge that harm reduction and psychological support can help ensure someone’s safety with psychedelic compounds. This practice does not include referring to “underground” resources, recommending use, guiding, supervising or otherwise being present with a client during a psychedelic experience. Clients should not attend therapy sessions while under the influence of any psychedelic or any other controlled substance without a doctor’s approval.