People often ask us what it really means to work with a psychedelic integration coach. Like our intro post to integration coaching says, it’s all about helping people work through the insight gained during a therapeutic a psychedelic session. The coaching sessions help you make sense of the experience and understand how it translates to daily life.
The benefits of unpacking your psychedelic experience with a coach include working with someone who:
operates from a non-judgmental space
has compassion for what you’re trying to heal
can help you connect the dots of seemingly unrelated things
offers ways to create positive change based on the insight from your experience
Because psychedelic experiences can feel dissociative, it’s really hard to put them into words. It’s like trying to explain a really vivid dream: you remember some parts and not others, time feels fast and slow, you’re jumping from vision to vision, interacting with inanimate objects, reality feels strange (or non-existent) and it’s challenging to remember everything. Your psychedelic integration coach is trained to help with all or these nuances.
Here’s an example:
The Psychedelic Experience
During one of my own experiences, I was having a conversation with my house. Part of my home is a log cabin built in 1910. One of the wood beams across the ceiling was telling me his story. I asked him about the day someone cut him down from the woods and asked whether it was a sad memory. He said that he wasn’t upset about it, but it led him to do a different job.
When he lived in the forest, his job was to help harness the wind through the trees. It was an exhilarating responsibility, but at times it felt dangerous, a little scary and unknown. He was very thankful to be doing something different. He explained his current job as one that supports the house and protects the people in it - and, in return, he feels more protected.
The Integration Coaching
After a long conversation with my integration coach, we uncovered several key themes based on that experience:
being forced into transition and/or moved from your current home
detaching from the emotions that come with sudden transition
not viewing transition as personal, but as something matter-of-fact: “I used to be that, now I’m this, and it’s all ok.”
letting go of what you were is necessary to become what you are
extending gratitude for both the past and the present
All of those themes, by the way, are from the mind of my integration coach. But they completely encapsulate what I gained from that experience. When I’m having a lousy day, I use these themes as a reference point to feel a little less emotional and a little more “big picture.”
Overall, I love the idea that psychedelic integration coaches are all about integrating new perspectives. The perspective gained from a ketamine or psilocybin session is often life-changing and can enable significant positive change, which is often one of the most difficult things for us humans to do.
If you’re curious about how we can help, book a free 20-minute (and no obligation) call:
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