Prepare, Integrate, Learn
They challenge us, enchant us, and open us to new worlds of healing and joy. And then there’s the other side, where they may terrify us, leave us adrift between two worlds, or even just plain disappoint us. What kind of sense can we make out of these substances that have such impossible to predict effects? There is much to do after we take the medicine, but our culture is not well grounded in that work, either turning it into a medical enterprise or borrowing wholesale from indigenous cultures that have totally different meaning systems to our own.
Psychedelics wake us up to the soul’s journey, what C.G. Jung called the process of individuation, and what spiritual, philosophical and artistic traditions have been engaged in for time immemorial in a thousand different ways. This exploration of our being brings us to new perspectives and challenging questions such as: who am I, do I have a purpose, what more might I give to the world? Psychedelics are far more than tools for mental health repair, they give us extraordinary experiences and have us face the essential questions of life.
This is not something our culture prepares us for, and we hardly even have the language to understand it, but understand it we can, with therapy methods that take us ‘inside’ just as the psychedelic did. Taking a psychedelic is a brief jump into the deep end of the Unconscious, and after you have done your deep dive, you will want to consider the things you brought back!
I am a psychotherapist, and I’ve been working with psychedelics since 2003, quite a while before the current Psychedelic Renaissance made them so popular. We can work together on preparing for, and then integrating, your experience; or longer-term, we can explore the issues and questions that brought you to the medicine in the first place. You can set up a low-cost consultation with me and you can also join the Disintegration Group, where you can meet fellow traveler in this journey of ours.
Here’s What We Can Do:
· If you are just exploring the idea of a psychedelic, weigh the pros and cons of whether or not it’s something for you
· Join the Disintegration Psychedelic Support Group (Tuesday nights at 7:00 Eastern Time, $30)
Help prepare for a psychedelic experience
· Process it afterwards and put it into the context of your life moving forward
· And if you wish, explore issues of healing and meaning, moving forward.
The tool I use for this is Holistic Psychotherapy. This kind of therapy invites you into a calm and centered state so you can go inside yourself, explore your own imaginal realms and keep the psychedelic healing going. You can also integrate your plant medicine experience by reconnecting with its imagery and by going on new journeys of self-exploration and self-acceptance.
I have been working with people who have taken psychedelics since 2003, and I have been doing therapy since 1996, using methods such as Internal Family Systems Therapy, the Clean Language approach, the Emotional Freedom Technique (“tapping”) and Harm Reduction. I use plant medicines myself, and so I am drawn to helping folks navigate these extraordinary catalysts for healing and change.
$30 for 30 minutes
Introductory Session
Contact me with your questions, concerns and ideas. I offer a $30 for 30 minutes consultation so that you can prepare for or process a psychedelic experience, or just find out more about the way I work. I am located in New York City but these days I am operating purely online, so we can talk by phone, FaceTime, Zoom, or any other platform you are comfortable with. Any communication you make with me comes under the aegis of psychotherapy and is completely confidential. I don’t share any of your information with anyone.