Expanded states of consciousness can open the door to powerful emotions, memories, insights and new ways of seeing yourself. While psychedelic medicines by large evoke these non-ordinary states of consciousness, they are not limited to psychedelic experiences. Expanded states may also arise through intensive breathwork, somatic sound bath, deep meditation, other experiential practices, or sometimes spontaneously.
But having a profound experience and integrating that experience are not the same thing. Without adequate preparation and support, an intense experience can leave you feeling confused, overwhelmed, emotionally unsettled, or unsure what to do with what came up. Even positive and meaningful experiences can gradually become a distant memory rather than translate into meaningful change.
Preparation and integration therapy helps create a bridge between the experience and your everyday life. Whatever brought you into an expanded state, integration offers a grounded space to make sense of what emerged, process what may still be unfolding, and explore how the experience can inform meaningful change moving forward.
What Is Psychedelic Harm Reduction?
At A Time To Heal, we believe in creating confidential and supportive spaces for individuals to safely explore their choice to undergo psychedelic journeying. We embody a 2-phase harm reduction approach: our psychedelically-informed therapists can help you understand the complexity of expanded states of consciousness, minimize potential risks through adequate preparation and help integrate your experience into everyday life.
Who Is This Service For?
Psychedelic preparation and integration therapy does not involve the use of any psychedelic substances during therapy session. Our service is available for individuals intending to undergo psychedelic journeying for therapeutic reasons and personal transformation, or for those who have already explored psychedelic journeying and are seeking to integrate their insights with the help of a professional.
What Can This Service Offer?
It is important to note that accessing psychedelic states is not without risks, and should be approached with caution and guidance. Our harm reduction approach has two key phases:
1) Preparation. Since psychedelic substances can bring about intense and wide range of inner experiences, preparing yourself as to how to navigate these expanded states of consciousness is critical. Adequate preparation is also the best way to increase therapeutic benefits of a psychedelic trip. Harm reduction sessions are dedicated to educate, set intention and build resources in preparation for an expanded state of consciousness journey.
2) Integration. Psychedelics when done properly and safely enable neuroplasticity in the brain. Without adequate integration, psychedelic journeys can feel like a fleeting memory that holds no long-term gains or growth. Post journey sessions are dedicated to help you make meaning of your psychedelic experience, process residual positive and negative emotions, and integrate lessons learned during your psychedelic trip into your daily life. We use somatic therapy, IFS, music, art, movement and/or mindfulness therapies to integrate these new insights. Integration is also integral for individuals who have had challenging or frightening psychedelic experiences and can help them make sense of the difficult feelings often stirred up by intensive mind-altering experiences.
MTA, RP, Registered Psychotherapist, Sound Therapy Practitioner & Sensorimotor Somatic Therapist
MSW, RSW, Registered Social Worker & Psychotherapist, Sensorimotor Somatic Therapist & PSIP Trained Therapist
Risks of Skipping Integration Therapy After a Psychedelic Experience
A meaningful psychedelic experience can create an opening, but an opening is not the same as lasting change. Psychedelic integration therapy provides space to understand what emerged, navigate what happens after the experience, and translate insights into meaningful and sustainable changes in everyday life.
Rapid relapse — Improvements after a psychedelic experience can sometimes fade quickly. Old symptoms, behaviours, or ways of coping may return, particularly when life circumstances or emotional triggers pull someone off course.
Zig-zagging between expansion and contraction — A period of openness, connection, insight, or relief may be followed by a return of fear, avoidance, old patterns, or difficult symptoms. Integration can help people understand these shifts rather than seeing them as evidence that the experience “didn’t work.”
Disappointment after the experience — When the changes someone hoped for do not last, disappointment can be significant. It may also bring up older experiences of hope, loss, unmet expectations, or feeling that something has failed.
Feeling lost after getting better quickly — Rapid improvement can sometimes be surprisingly difficult. When a longstanding struggle suddenly shifts, a person may find themselves asking, “Now what?” There can be a period of feeling disoriented or unsure of who they are without the problem that previously occupied so much of their life.
Spiritual bypassing — Spiritual or transcendent interpretations of a psychedelic experience can sometimes become a way of avoiding unresolved grief, trauma, conflict, accountability, relationship difficulties, or other painful psychological material.
“Flight into health” — Feeling dramatically better can lead someone to believe that their psychological work is finished. The improvement may be genuine, but feeling better does not necessarily mean that underlying patterns have been fully understood or changed.
Taking the experience too literally — Images, sensations, memories, symbols, or insights that arise during psychedelic experiences can feel incredibly real and meaningful. Without integration therapy, there can be a tendency to treat them as concrete facts rather than experiences that may need time, curiosity, and context to understand.
Guilt about getting better — Healing can sometimes bring unexpected guilt. Moving toward greater freedom, joy, or wellbeing may feel like leaving behind family members, relationships, communities, or even earlier parts of oneself that remain connected to suffering.
Difficulty making sense of powerful or symbolic experiences — Psychedelic experiences can bring up themes related to identity, death, rebirth, vulnerability, power, connection, darkness, or meaning. Even when these experiences feel profound, understanding how they relate to everyday life can take time and support.
Important: What We Don’t Do!
At our clinic, we embody a harm reduction stance towards psychedelics. We are not gate keepers, nor underground psychedelic trip sitters. We do not provide psychedelic substances in therapy, and we do not offer information on where to access or buy controlled substances. We cannot recommend, promote or advise regarding psychedelic use. We will however provide you with research-based education and understanding on reducing harm if you choose to access non-ordinary states of consciousness through psychedelic substances, breathwork and intensive meditation. Our therapists will also help you cultivate ways of embodying transformations gained after your independent use of these powerful medicine.
The research indicates that when used safely, with adequate preparation and for certain mental health challenges, psychedelics can be transformative. However, we are in an era, when TV shows, social media and news articles are characterizing mind altering substances as quick fixes for anxiety, depression and trauma. This depiction is both unrealistic and irresponsible. Best-practice research indicates that the most helpful outcomes of psychedelics come from using them with guidance of informed therapists as well as safe and intentionally cured settings.
Psychedelic Research & Access!
New clinical research is showing promising results for the use of psychedelic substances in combination with psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD, anxiety, depression, addictions, and other mental health conditions. Please visit the MAPS website for the latest finding on psychedelic research. Currently, these interventions are only available in Canada through ketamine clinics, clinical research trials, or Special Access Program or Section 56 medical exemption. A Time To Heal does not provide referrals to any of these programs.
Since both our mind and our body remembers difficult events, good therapy must go beyond just talk. The neuroscience research of trauma and attachment now offers other possibilities. Our psychotherapy and counseling services in Vaughan, Woodbridge, Thornhill & Richmond Hill offer a new path forward and away from emotional pain. Speak with one of our psychotherapists to guide you through your therapy journey.
