The Purpose of Integration
- Process and talk about a psychedelic experience
- Help resolve confusion and increase understanding
- Smooth the return to ordinary life
- Make practical changes informed by psychedelic experiences
- Increase a sense of embodiment, emotional and somatic expression to support greater presence and understanding
- Cope with interpersonal challenges that might emerge in the days and weeks following an experience
- Normalize fading of experience
- Help prevent regression and/or relapse to older behaviors
- Provide skills or support in coping with lingering distress
- Reduce feelings of being alone or isolated
- Support awareness and curiosity of insights or experiences that may arise in the days and weeks following an experience
- Rebalance the nervous system if there was energy released and/or stored from the journey
- Feel connected to a larger psychedelic community embedded in values of personal growth and change
- Avoid “spiritual bypass” (i.e., the tendency to use generalized spiritual practices to sidestep specific unresolved emotional conflicts, psychological wounds and/or unfinished developmental tasks)
Integration can involve a range of tools and practices. Here is a list of some of the common activities that can promote integration. Please note that many of these practices can be conducted alone, with family or friends, in a community, or with a trained professional. While integration may include therapy or some other work with a trained professional, it encompasses a much larger set of tools and practices.
Practices for Integration
- Making or viewing art
- Spending time in nature
- Play or spontaneity
- Physical activity or exercise
- Yoga or other movement practices
- Meditation or mindfulness practices
- Somatic practices
- Journaling
- Listening to or playing music
- Self-care activities related to sleep, food, and water
- Reflecting and understanding the experience
- Methods of self-expression
- Processing strange or overwhelming aspects
- Coping with distress
- Creating a daily practice
- Identifying values and priorities
- Deciding on values-based changes to make
- Implementing desired changes
- Spiritual or religious practices (e.g. prayer)
- Goal setting
- Ritual
- Seeking support from others
- Intimacy with loved ones
- Psychotherapy
- Body or massage therapy
- Energy work
- Shamanic work
- Increasing social connection and community
- Working with divination, archetypes, symbols