By Michelle Janikian
Psychedelic integration is a phrase tossed around a lot when folks speak of using psychedelic substances for healing and personal growth, but what is it? I had the same question when I was first exploring this space as a reporter over six years ago. Sure I had heard of entheogens like mushrooms and MDMA and knew they were being tested in clinical trials for conditions like depression and PTSD. But it wasn’t until I got into the healing side of psychedelics for my own personal growth that I fully understood its worth, which I later explored in my book, Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion.
What Is Psychedelic Integration?
Essentially, psychedelic integration is the process of preparing for a psychedelic experience, and then after, dissecting and processing your feelings about what you experienced. It can take a lot of forms, such as talk therapy sessions with life coaches and therapists, journaling about goals for your trip, meditating on the things you experienced, and even attending group therapy-like meet-ups to share your experience with others.
In my book, I define psychedelic integration as “making sense of a psychedelic experience, mining it for lessons or insights, and then applying those teachings to your everyday life” (Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, pg. 131). In my own personal experience, this can be tricky. Sure we have big psychedelic experiences where lessons seem crystal clear when we’re under the influence, but once the substances wear off, it can be hard to use those insights for lasting change.
Psychedelic Preparation
That’s why the first step of psychedeli integration should come before the trip. If you want to have a psychedelic experience for healing or personal growth, it’s important to set those goals first. In the psychedelic lingo, many refer to this as “intention setting” and it’s a big part of what psychedelic integration coaches and guides do to help clients. Essentially, checking in with yourself and getting a clear picture of what you want out of the experience will help you immensely during the trip and after.
In an article I wrote for Playboy magazine in 2020 on the topic of integration, I interviewed Circa Survive guitarist Colin Frangicetto who told me he began his psychedelic integration journey with a traditional talk therapist seven whole months before he planned on attending an ayahuasca retreat in Peru. This helped him get more out of his psychedelic experience, and also helped him prepare his mind for what might come up.
“If something causes you fear when you’re not ‘in the medicine’, then it’s a good indicator that it will cause you a lot more fear in the medicine,” he told me. “It’s about facing all this stuff head on.”
After seven months of preparation, he was ready for the lessons ayahuasca wanted to teach him. “I was so aware of everything that was in the dark corners [of my mind] that they weren’t scary at all... I was in the zone. Completely comfortable and really didn’t have that same disorienting kind of chaos that I would encounter a lot before.”
Post-Trip Psychedelic Integration
The next crucial step of integration comes after your psychedelic experience, and this is when it’s time to “make sense” of what happened to you. Sometimes, this can be tricky because the psychedelic experience can be so different from our normal everyday reality.
But the first step is trying to find the lessons from your experience, and there are a bunch of techniques that can help you with this. Things like journaling, meditating, going to meet-ups, practicing yoga, and of course, talking about your trip with like-minded friends, meet-ups or coaches and therapists can help you tremendously.
Then, the next step is enacting those lessons. However, this can be the most difficult part. When I spoke to experts about integration as I was reporting my book, Elizabeth Nielson, Ph.D and Co-founder of Fluence, emphasized how intense psychedelic trips can be, and how the new knowledge people access about themselves or life in general can feel “sort of ephemeral, fragile, or even easily discounted depending on the context.”
“And so integration is really about taking those insights and investing in them,” Nielson told me. “Figuring out which ones are valuable and how they’re valuable. And then remembering them, practicing them, making longer term changes based on them in a way that should be positive and promoting longer term health and wellness (Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, pg. 133).”
Psychedelic Integration Coach
One of the most valuable ways you can integrate a psychedelic experience is by talking with a coach or therapist. Speaking with someone who understands what the psychedelic experience is like and who has techniques for interpreting it really helps folks get the most out of their experiences. Plus, just like in therapy, you end up realizing a lot about what the trip meant to you just by talking it out honestly with someone else.
There are plenty of psychedelic integration coaches and therapists, so it’s important to have a preliminary call first to see if it’s a good fit. You’ll want to make sure you’re comfortable with this person, that they listen and are empathetic, and of course that it feels like a good fit. To learn more about how to choose a psychedelic guide, check out this article I wrote for DoubleBlind magazine in 2022.
If you want to learn more about the kinds of services a psychedelic integration coach can provide you, consider contacting Manan for a free 30 minute consultation.
About the Author
Michelle Janikian is a journalist and the author of Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, the down-to-earth guide that details everything you need to know about taking magic mushrooms safely and mindfully, published by Ulysses Press. Michelle actively covers psychedelic and cannabis education, harm reduction, and research in her work. She wrote a column for Playboy about psychedelics and cannabis, and has also contributed to Rolling Stone, High Times,DoubleBlind Mag, Psychedelics Today, Herb, and others. She’s passionate about the healing potential of psychedelic plants and substances, and the legalization and destigmatization of all drugs.
Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, Michelle studied writing and psychology at Sarah Lawrence College before traveling extensively in Latin America and eventually settling down in Southern Mexico. In 2020, Michelle was awarded the Cosmic Sister Emerging Voices Award for her work covering the psychedelic renaissance. Michelle is also the co-founder of CrazeMakers, a content marketing studio founded by creatives who specialize in supporting the cannabis and psychedelics industries.
When she’s not writing or speaking publicly about the magic of mushrooms, she can be found wandering the woods with her two rescue dogs or enjoying her third cup of coffee with a good book. You can read more about Michelle’s work on her LinkedIn, or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.