Keeping it Alive
Following the psychedelic experience, clients often report that they want to continue to stay connected and engaged with what has often been a transformative experience.
Keeping it alive can include an ongoing exploration of their meaning-making and content from the session. This can allow the experience to continue to expand and transform their lives.
Strategies for Keeping it Alive
Some ways of keeping the experience alive include:
Please ensure that you read through all slides before proceeding by using the arrow keys on your keyboard or using the navigation buttons at the bottom of each slide.
Developing new practices and rituals. For example, they could engage in:
-
Yoga
-
Meditation
-
Time in nature
-
Visualizing a resourcing moment from their experience when they wake up in the morning
Carving out time for reflection.
Exploring meaning in their day to day lives.
For example, they could engage in journaling.
Creative expression. For example, they could:
-
Create or appreciate art
-
Write
-
Play, write, dance to, or listen to music
Gratitude practices. For example, when they wake up in the morning, they could reflect on 3 things they’re grateful for.
Identifying an object that represents what has been important and using it as a touchstone.
Engaging with a friend through bi-weekly meetings or calls who has had similar experiences.
Health Professional Tip
The importance of community cannot be understated as it supports keeping alive the connection and engagement they feel after Medicine Sessions as well as the guiding approach of connection (beyond the relationship with health professionals). Health professionals should encourage clients to find and engage in a community of individuals with shared interests. These could be online groups or in-person groups of people engaged in psychedelic healing or even joining volunteer associations. Often finding new community connections can be a powerful way to anchor changes in how one is relating to themselves and the world. They can continue to practice and discover their clarified values within the community and have this reflected back to them.
See Numinus’s psychedelic integration circles for more information.
Reflection
What are some other strategies for keeping integration alive beyond the psychedelic-assisted therapy?