What is psychedelic integration?
By Ben Kagedan, PsyD, Director of Clinical Training
As psychedelic medicine moves more and more into the mainstream, a new speciality has sprung up in the mental health world - psychedelic integration. In this post we’ll explore just what psychedelic integration is all about, and how a psychotherapist can play an important role in the integration process.
Psychedelics and Neuroplasticity
A psychedelic experience, by its very definition, is one that takes us temporarily out of ordinary consciousness. What is ordinary consciousness? We have a limited number of neurons in our brains, and those neurons are linked in circuits which, by the time we are adults, are fairly stable and unchanging. The idea that each of us has a personality is the outward expression of this biological situation. We are relatively predictable to the people around us and to ourselves, and the stability of our individual and group lives pretty much depend on that predictability.
But when we introduce a psychedelic molecule into the brain, a marvelous thing happens. As borne out by countless first-person reports, and as is now being established by neuroimaging studies (e.g. Carhart-Harris et al, 2012; Tagliazucchi et al, 2016), psychedelic molecules open the doors of neuroplasticity, unleashing the brain’s ability to change its default settings. A massive level of neuronal inter-connectivity, what Dr. Carhart-Harris calls “unconstrained cognition,” enables new neural pathways to form and old ones to reroute.
My favorite analogy for this phenomenon is the image of a ski slope at the end of a busy day. Skiers have been descending the slope all day, cutting grooves in the fresh snow with each run. As the hours pass, gravity and inertia pull skier after skier into these same pathways, cutting them a bit deeper each time. By evening, it is almost impossible to get down the slope without drifting into one of these well-worn paths (that’s us in ordinary consciousness). But now imagine a winter squall moves in, and within minutes, the mountain is frosted over with a fresh coat of powdery snow. The grooves have all been filled in, and the surface of the slope is flat and even. On a psychedelic journey, you are the skier and your mind is the slope. Freed from the hold of old beliefs and habits (the grooves), you may turn anywhere, try anything, and with each turn can arise new, untold possibilities.
When the journey is over, the brain returns to its ordinary way of being, meaning that we go back to being habitual creatures- although potentially with new neural pathways and new corresponding habits. Sometimes folks come out of a psychedelic journey feeling genuinely transformed, and return to their lives possessing profoundly new beliefs, motivations, and even behavior patterns, which then remain stable over time (e.g. quitting cigarettes). Much of the time, though, we arrive back into ordinary consciousness with a clearer awareness of a change that is needed or on the horizon, but that has not yet taken root in our lives.
This is where we start to talk about integration. We have climbed the inner mountain or gone deep into the inner wilderness and seen, heard, or felt something of utmost importance. Now the task is to bring this clarity of vision and purpose back into everyday life. What is not helpful at this point is to become harshly demanding of ourselves to transform in a particular way or in a particular amount of time. What is supportive is to find ways to easefully bring our attention back, and back, and back again to the truths that were revealed on the psychedelic journey, as well as to find the people, situations, and tools that will help us energize and manifest these new possibilities. In shorthand, you can think of these two aspects of integration as the need to first “put in on paper” and then to “call it in.”
Put it on paper
Every revelation experience that’s ever mattered to human civilization has been written down or depicted in some fashion. As powerful and transfixing as they are, psychedelic experiences fade from awareness just like any other intense experience we go through. They may sit securely in our long-term memory storage, but will become less detailed and harder to recall over time. This is simply the nature of memory. But by translating the experience into language and/or imagery (or even music, if you’re so inclined), a record is created that is free from the erosion of time. The fuller and more vivid the record, the easier it will be down the road to recall and re-experience the richness of the original journey.
It is especially valuable to capture the things that felt new or different - new realizations about myself and the world, new perceptions of life and the universe, new feelings of forgiveness and acceptance, new feelings of freedom or satisfaction connected to movement, voice, expression. It is by revisiting these revelations over and over again that they become more established in our neural circuitry, and more within reach when we need them.
Call it in
Once you have made a record of the important aspects of your psychedelic journey, the next step is to look at the shape of your outer life as it is - your roles, relationships, commitments, affiliations, networks, and cultures. Which contexts or relationships are already supportive of the self-development you want to undertake? Which distract from or even work against the development? What in your life helps you center and realize the values that you hold most dear, and what draws you away from those values? Where do you go to feel belonging, and what are the conditions of that belonging? Where can you show up as your full self, with all of your power and aliveness, and all of your vulnerability and imperfection?
If you need to move your body more, is there a local dance or conscious movement group to join? If you need to create more, is there an area in your home that can be dedicated as creative space, with a clear surface, materials and supplies at the ready? If your spiritual life needs energizing, is there a friend who is similarly striving for spiritual growth who you could check in with regularly? Integration becomes much less daunting a task when we decide to call in all the potential support that already exists around us. The journey lights the way forward, but it is up to each one of us to design a life that incubates our dreams and facilitates the expression of our innermost truths.
If you are already in psychotherapy, your weekly sessions make for an excellent forum to return to the journey experience and unfold its meaning with your therapist’s help. If not, coming out of an especially powerful or mystifying journey could be a great reason to start therapy. Another option is to locate a psychedelic integration group online or in your area, which many practices and institutes have begun to offer. Doing the work of integration within a caring and understanding community can enhance and support your process, and you learn from and inspire one another, and offer each other witnessing and gentle accountability.
Interested in learning more?
Our therapists are knowledgeable and affirming of the therapeutic value of psychedelic medicine, and we would be happy to support your integration process.