Integration and Closure

One or two days following the Medicine Session, the client will return for an Integration Session.

Video: Integration

1:22

During integration, clients will work with the health professional to make sense of their experience and integrate what they learned into their everyday life which is what is discussed in this video.

Question

What are the key considerations for integration as mentioned by Dr. Devon Christie in the video?

Some of the key considerations include:

  • Meaning making
  • Processing emotions and challenging experiences
  • Allowing emotions to continue to shift
  • Clarity on meaning making within the context of the client’s values before and after therapy (Bathje et al., 2022; Gorman et al., 2021)

Closure

Once the health professional and client have concluded integration (and the client is equipped to continue integrating their experience in a context outside of psychedelic-assisted therapy), there may be a brief closure session to bring it to a close. Integration doesn’t stop with the closure of psychedelic-assisted therapy. It is a process that clients will continue to do after therapy has ended.

We think of psychedelic assisted therapy as a brief psychotherapeutic intervention. Of course, there may be therapists who have long term psychotherapy clients and practice where the opening and closing phases may be slightly different because the therapist is already quite familiar with their client and may continue therapy long after psychedelic-assisted therapy. At Numinus and other clinics, health professionals typically welcome back clients in the future if they are looking for another experience, to continue integration, or revisit work from a prior experience.

Interested in Being a Participant in a Clinical Trial for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy?

Visit Numinus’ Cedar Clinic Research to learn more about becoming a study participant and the current open studies.

Learn More

In the Fundamentals of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy course, we take a deeper dive into the arc of psychedelic-assisted therapy including key considerations for each phase such as

  • Topics (like inner healing intelligence) and agreements (like therapeutic supportive touch) to discuss during Preparation Sessions
  • Safety considerations for Medicine Sessions
  • Approaches to facilitate Integration Sessions

References

Bathje, G. J., Majeski, E., & Kudowor, M. (2022). Psychedelic integration: An analysis of the concept and its practice. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.

Gorman, I., Nielson, E. M., Molinar, A., Cassidy, K., & Sabbagh, J. (2021). Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration: A Transtheoretical Model for Clinical Practice. Frontiers in psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.645246