Psychedelic therapy is entering a renaissance period. A time of renewed interest, scientific vigor, and newfound potential to help and assist those in need of health and healing.

Research and clinical studies being done on psychedelic medicines and therapeutic modalities are reaffirming and demonstrating the safety, efficacy, and profound potential of these healing experiences. When administered safely and properly, psychedelic medicines help treat a range of physical and mental health conditions.

But what exactly is meant by psychedelic therapy? What do the experiences look like? How are they done properly according to current science and collective understanding? This resource will provide some much needed clarity around the key mechanisms and protocols of psychedelic therapy, taking a look at its profile to date, what science is currently underway, and where psychedelic therapy is heading.

With a number of different experiences, practitioners, and modes of administration, the world of psychedelic therapy is nuanced. Understanding these nuances is of the utmost importance to help further collective understanding on how to best serve the communities that benefit from these experiences, and how to truly unlock the healing potential granted by psychedelic compounds, the associated experiences, and the wealth and wisdom of the practitioners who facilitate and administrate them.

Definition of Psychedelic Therapy

At its core, psychedelic therapy is a combination of therapeutic techniques with experiences through psychedelic compounds. These psychedelic compounds induce novel states of consciousness and emotion that assist and augment the therapeutic “containers” they are experienced within.

Let’s begin by looking at the two core terms involved: psychedelic, and therapy.

Psychedelic

Psychedelic refers to a specific class of compounds that are proven to reliably and effectively induce certain non ordinary states of consciousness. There are classic characteristics of a psychedelic experience, including experiences and/or states such as:

• Richness of phenomenological experience
• An experience of selflessness or altered experience of Self
• Timelessness, or a distorted/altered sense of linear time
• New or novel ways of thinking/feeling
• A feeling of unity or connectedness to others and to the world

Each individual’s experience will vary. Some, all, or none of these experiences may happen in an individual psychedelic therapy session. These are generally accepted as notable characteristics of the psychedelic experience and the compounds that reliably induce some or all of these states.

Therapy

Psychedelic “therapy” draws largely on the frameworks of traditional or classic therapy programs and protocols such as psychotherapy, talk therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and similar modalities.

Traditionally a client will enroll with a licensed practitioner and move through a series of sessions with the aim of unpacking, understanding, and healing any unresolved traumas or conditions.

Outside of working with a licensed therapist, there are other examples of “therapeutic experiences” which can provide similar experiences of personal healing and wholeness. One example is Somatic Experience techniques. This, and other novel conversational modalities, can be extended to specific experiences or programs that help individuals work through specific areas of themselves and their lives.

In combining psychedelics and therapeutic frameworks together, we can begin to see a larger picture of what psychedelic therapy currently is, and what it can become. By combining the rich experiences that psychedelic compounds provide —allowing safe access to novel experiences, feelings, and states of consciousness— with the rigor, expertise, and structure of therapeutic programs and protocols, a synergistic realm of healing opens up. This combination has been demonstrated to help previously treatment-resistant cases , and to accelerate and augment the progress and promise of existing therapeutic experiences.

Psychedelic Therapy Modalities

There are a number of different psychedelic therapy modalities, including but not limited to: psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, psychedelic therapy experiences and programs, and individualized psychedelic use with the intention of returning to healing, health, and wholeness.

Though all of these terms do involve the aforementioned combination of a psychedelic compound and a therapeutic structure, the specifics of administration —dosing, frequency of experience, practitioners involved, and supporting variables— vary between each of them.

Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy

Refers specifically to the use of a psychedelic compound either immediately preceding, or during, a classic psychotherapy talk session with a licensed therapist. Through the emotional opening and novel states of consciousness provided by the compound and experience, practitioners and clients are often able to reach new depths in understanding, or cover ground that may have taken longer to arrive at in traditional talk therapy, or that was previously inaccessible to the client.

Psychedelic Therapy Programs

Whether through different therapeutic experiences such as at-home sessions, curated and personalized programming, or orchestrated by the recommendation of an experienced practitioner, psychedelic therapy programs are similar to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. They do not include psychotherapy sessions specifically, and may not involve a licensed psychotherapist. There is often supporting integration work to help understand the experience, it is an important distinction to make that these programs and protocols do not involve licensed psychotherapists.

Individual Psychedelic Therapy Experiences

These can take the form of healing retreats, personal or recreational individual undertakings, or participation in ongoing clinical research studies. This is a category of experiences that may include only individual sessions, exist outside of a clinical environment, or be part of an on-going study to research and validate safety or efficacy profiles for new compounds or techniques that are actively being researched.

If you are considering embarking on a psychedelic therapy program, it is important to know what you are signing up for, the scope and support involved, and to be clear on your own intentions and capacities for the experience. The more clear you are on what is involved, the more personalized the programs become, and the greater potential you have to achieve the results and healing that you wish to experience.

History of Psychedelic Therapy

The history of psychedelic therapy begins in the 1950’s, with the original coining of the term by Canadian psychiatric researchers, including pioneer Humphrey Osmond. Much like our earlier definition, it involved the application of a single high-dose of a psychedelic after a series of psychotherapeutic preparation sessions in the treatment of substance abuse disorders, largely related to alcohol in the early days.

Throughout the 40’s and 50’s a number of psychedelic compounds were being synthesized, or introduced in larger scales to the scientific and “psychonautic” communities. As these were introduced, a series of clinical and scientific study trials inevitably followed. The potential and promise of these substances was not ignored by the academic community in any way.

Despite the closing off of access and study in the 60’s and 70’s, psychedelic therapy and the potential of psychedelic compounds were favorably received and welcomed by the clinical and scientific community in the early days. Some researchers, such as psychedelic psychotherapeutic legend Stanislov Grof, came out with the statement:

“In one of my early books I suggested that the potential significance of LSD and other psychedelics for psychiatry and psychology was comparable to the value the microscope has for biology or the telescope has for astronomy.”

In other words, an important tool with the potential to significantly accelerate and move the entire psychiatric and psychedelic field forward.

Studies began and were completed across a variety of fields and factors: everything from addiction recovery, treating depression/anxiety, inducing mystical experiences, managing substance abuse, and mitigating end-of-life anxiety. Numerous sanctioned studies were done across the globe during these decades. In the process, a number of best practices, protocols, and programs were developed to help systematize and contain what has the potential to be an intense or provocative experience for the client. These studies are the birthplace of “Set & Setting”, a hallmark concept in psychedelic therapy today.

LSD was a focal point for many studies across North America and Europe during this time. This compound was a major focus, given the potency, the ability to synthesize easily in a controlled environment, and the reliability of the method of administration. It also proliferated into the public through illicit channels and became a central piece in the countercultural movements throughout the 60’s, influencing many major figures, and creating ripples in cultural consciousness that would last for decades to come.

After these ripples came large-scale lockdowns and bans against psychedelic compounds and associated research and studies. Alongside this “war on drugs” came sweeping laws and regulations preventing the access, possession, and study of these compounds. The scientific and clinical communities working in psychedelic therapy would enter a dark period for research that would last for over two decades across the majority of the world.

Then, beginning with Dr. Rick Strassman’s work to investigate the effects of N,N–DMT (DMT) in the 1990’s, the academic and scientific communities have increasingly been able to work more and more with these compounds and experiences in controlled studies with FDA oversight. Many have coined this period, leading up to the present day, a “psychedelic renaissance.” Researchers and organizations were able to pick up where the research last left off,and continue exploring the profound potential of psychedelic compounds and therapies in service of helping and healing those who are in need of it.

At present, there are many funded studies underway across private organizations, research institutes, and universities. These institutions are looking at a variety of conditions —such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD— and finding the compounds, protocols, dosages, and experiences that will help alleviate their symptoms.

Funding and public attention is flowing into the space faster than ever before, more favorable legal and regulatory environments are taking shape, and the momentum for increasing access and awareness is gaining momentum.

Safety of Psychedelic Therapy

On the whole, psychedelic compounds are noted to be safe, both to the individual and the societies that they are taken within.

Published by the Lancet, a pioneering journal in the UK, both LSD and psilocybin come in as some of the lowest risk endogenous compounds commonly consumed in modern society. When compared to tobacco/nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine, classic psychedelic compounds have a remarkable safety profile for the individual ingesting them for the experience.

That is not to say that these are panaceas or can be taken by just about anyone. On the contrary, some compounds do have a powerful body load, or direct impact on the body’s natural systems, to contend with. As is the nature of psychedelics, these are extremely potent compounds for the psyche to handle, and must be taken with care and respect to avoid doing more harm than good for the client.

Beyond the general safety profile, the biggest mark and way to ensure client and practitioner safety in psychedelic therapy is honoring and respecting the contraindications of the particular medicine or compound. Contraindications are physical or mental indicators that mean this medicine is not appropriate for the individual.

Each medicine and compound will come with its own list of specific contraindications, so it is important to review these, and to be honest with the practitioner during the intake/screening process.

Some broad contraindications for general psychedelic use include:

• Personal medical history of heart problems
• Personal history of high/low blood pressure
• Personal history of brain or eye pressure
• Family/personal history of manic or psychotic episodes
• Actively working with major/significant depression, suicidal ideation, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia
• Active use of SSRI, MAOI, or other pharmaceutical medications (compound specific)

This list is by no means exhaustive, and does not address specific contraindications for particular compounds, but can provide a general overview as there is a body load from psychedelic compounds (heart rate, blood pressure), and a psychic load from the psychedelic experience. These compounds temporarily alter neurochemistry, so one must be very careful when they are actively taking other medications that work on similar pathways or with similar neurotransmitters.

When taken within a safe and conducive environment with trained and licensed practitioners, psychedelic compounds and psychedelic therapies can be physically and psychically safe.

This is also an entire field of ongoing study, and the first stage of testing for public approval through the FDA — looking at the safety, dosages, quality, and best methods of administration for certain compounds and experiences. As more research is done, these safety precautions and knowledge will expand, continuing to further the efficacy of treatments and ensure the safety of clients and practitioners.

Legality of Psychedelic Therapy

Around the world, the legal environment for psychedelic therapy is starting to open up after widespread bans across the public and private sectors for the past few decades. Fortunately, legal access is emerging for both clients who wish to work with psychedelic therapies personally, and for academics and researchers who wish to use these compounds for studies to expand the scope of scientific knowledge around these medicines and experiences.

Currently, ketamine treatment is the only legal, clinician-prescribed psychedelic therapy option available to the public.

There are legal avenues to work with other compounds in the context of clinical research studies, but there are nuances to research studies that you should be aware of before signing up.

As for the academic and research worlds, legal access has been steadily opening up for study of the compounds themselves, and to conduct clinical research trials for their safety and efficacy in the treatment of different conditions or ailments.

All of the “classic” psychedelic compounds —psilocybin (Mushrooms), LSD, and MDMA for example— currently are labelled as Schedule 1 Controlled Substances by the DEA, meaning they have no currently accepted medical value and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. Other compounds with psychedelic properties are available for licensed practitioners to prescribe only, as is the case with ketamine.

There are organizations like MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), who are pushing towards the reclassification, decriminalization, or legalization for medical use of these different compounds. A number of these compounds are moving through the FDA approval process now, and more on this is covered below in the “Compounds” section.

In the United States, there are local initiatives underway pushing psychedelic legalization movements forward, as well. The recent decriminalization of psilocybin in Denver, CO, as well as Oregon state, and the decriminalization of all entheogenic plants in Oakland, CA, are significant first dominoes to fall in the movement towards increasing accessibility and awareness of the potential of psychedelic compounds and psychedelic therapy programs.

What’s Involved in a Psychedelic Therapy Protocol

Given the different modalities and methods of psychedelic therapy, whether that be psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, or individual psychedelic therapy sessions, the exact programs and protocols may vary considerably. It would be a disservice to present a single, unified picture of a psychedelic therapy protocol, though that does not mean that these programs and protocols do not follow a broad experiential arc from beginning to end. It is this experiential arc that will be explored and outlined below.

Intake/Eligibility

Any psychedelic therapy program or experience will begin with an intake and eligibility process. There are a number of contraindications for each compound, as well as eligibility criteria on top of this. This is to ensure the safety of the client and that they are receiving the right treatment for their specific area of focus. These initial meetings and conversations will be done with a licensed practitioner who will review medical history, discuss intentions and aims, and help provide an overview of the experience and the specific program that the client would be embarking on. If a fit is determined by the clinician, the individual can sign up for the program and begin moving through the experience.

Preparation

A core component of a beneficial psychedelic therapy session and program is the preparation. Psychedelic therapy is not a magic pill, it requires a level of energetic investment from the client as well as the practitioner to ensure safety, comfort, and positive short and long-term outcomes as part of these powerful experiences.

Preparation can include:

• Ensuring a conducive Set and Setting —the physical space and the individual mindset when entering a session/experience
• Clarifying intentions and areas of focus for the individual session and the overall experience
• Taking action on outstanding items in personal life
• Preparing the mind/body for the experiences

Sessions

Depending on the scope of the psychedelic therapy protocol the client is embarking on, the sessions can be anywhere from a single experience to several sessions spaced out over a number of weeks.

This is dependent on:

• The individual
• The medicine being used
• Aims of the program
• Specifics of the protocol/program
• Clinician’s discretion

Each session involves preparation, the experience itself, and integration. Integration can be done individually, with a Guide or support, or with the practitioner/clinician themselves.

Again, this is dependent on the specific program and will vary based on the individual.

Integration

Integration is the process of beginning to explore the insights, experiences, or feelings that arose during the session, and determining how to bring those lessons back into day-to-day life. This is done in the service of personal healing, transformation, and growth.

There will be space for integration after each session, but also at the end of the program’s final session, to begin integrating the entire experience and program as a whole.

Clinical Check-In

Once the client has arrived at the end of the final session or integration phase, it is highly contextual to the individual as to what happens next.

Working with the clinician, the client can determine the next appropriate course of action, which is often one of the following:

• Continuing on with a new program/treatment
• Embarking on a different healing modality such as talk therapy to assist with the integration process
• if the psychedelic therapy protocol feels complete, and they return to life potentially healed or renewed

As this is highly dependent on the individual, their results during the course of treatment, their intentions for the program, and the discretion of the clinician, this step will look different for each individual.

This is a high-level overview of a classic psychedelic therapy program. As new science is introduced, new best practices are established, and this experiential arc continues to evolve and adapt. It also leaves room for personalization, as some individuals may require or want additional integration in-between sessions, for example.

Much like traditional therapeutic contexts, the exact shape and scope of the program will depend on what the practitioner and the client agree upon together, but this provides a generalized insight into an experience with psychedelic therapy in safe and legal contexts.

Neuroscience of Psychedelic Therapy

The neuroscience of psychedelic therapy —what is actually going on in the brain during a psychedelic therapy session— is one of the most actively researched and exciting fields in psychedelic science today.

Some of the fundamental mechanisms are known, but this is still largely an ongoing area of exploration as scientists and academics continue to further our understanding of psychology, biology, phenomenology, neurology, and consciousness itself. The vast expanse of the psychedelic experience touches on all of these major areas, and though science has explored many channels in the caverns of consciousness, there are still areas waiting to be explored and understood.

The first distinction to make is that not all psychedelics work on the same areas of the brain, though many do.

Ketamine, for example, works on the Glutamate system, separate from the serotonergic pathways of other psychedelic compounds. To explore the neuroscience of ketamine further, check out our resource here.

Many psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, work on the 5HT2 receptors of the serotonin systems. By selectively binding to these receptor sites, they increase the amount and reuptake of serotonin primarily, but also including other neurotransmitters. This induces many of the common hallmarks of the psychedelic experience.

Default Mode Network

One of the most notable by-products of psychedelic medicine is a decrease in blood flow and overall activity from a part of the brain known as the Default Mode Network (DMN). This is a network largely responsible for normal consciousness — it’s operational when you aren’t doing very much.

The DMN seems to be involved in maintaining the perceived boundaries of your sense of self, orientation to the progression of time, and other “self-regulating” systems that are largely responsible for the feeling of you being you. With the downregulation of this network, some of the experiences of timelessness, feelings of unity or connection with everything, and distortions in perception and feelings tend to come in.

The more research and studies that are done, the better understanding of the exact mechanisms, impacts, and effects of the psychedelic experience there will be. Continued studies on the neuroscience of psychedelic therapy will help to increase the overall safety profiles of these experiences. This helps create the best possible outcomes for clients, and determines how best to curate therapeutic experiences, and includes the considerations that need to be made.

Subjective Healing Effects or Benefits of Psychedelic Therapy

Everyone’s experience of psychedelic therapy and the results that they see by the end of the programs will be different. They are not guaranteed and the compounds themselves are not magic pills.

The therapeutic container that is established, the level of trust, safety, and readiness the client feels when going into the experience, and the level of preparation, intention-setting, and integration afterwards all play a significant role in driving enduring results to the program.

There are a number of subjective effects or benefits that are being studied as powerful agents for change in the world of managing mental health, which psychedelic therapy can reliably help facilitate in individuals.

Here are some of the positive phenomenological healing effects that can come through psychedelic therapy:

• Emotional Regulation: An increased ability to understand and interact with emotions.
• Cognitive Distance: Feeling more “space” or “distance” between external events and an individual’s reaction to them. This allows for more intentional behavioral responses, the rewriting of automatic triggers, and deeper introspection.
• Embodied Feelings: Visceral emotions and feelings returning to the body, potentially some that may have been discarded or forgotten (joy in a depressed person, for example).
• Novel Insights: Ketamine can facilitate crucial insights that when integrated, can provide powerful and significant changes to how the individual views themselves and the world around them.
• New Experiences: New experiences or states of consciousness can provide motivation, inspiration, or understanding of the next steps. This helps to clarify meaning and purpose and catalyze improvements to mood, emotions, and physical experience.

These effects, when paired with a safe and effective therapeutic container, can provide a powerful catalyst for personal transformation and healing.

When combined together, clients can see small and reliable progress, or sometimes have profound experiences that serve as definitive moments in their healing journeys. Part of the continued research and study into psychedelic therapy is establishing the best practices and approaches that reliably and responsibly bring about the greatest experience and outcomes for each individual.

Psychedelic Compounds

There are a number of psychedelic medicines and compounds actively moving through various stages of FDA and global approval pipelines to become validated and widely accessible treatments for individuals.

This list is not exhaustive, and only includes compounds that can be considered classically psychedelic, given our definitions at the beginning of this article. Active studies, research, and legal approval varies between the various compounds, some are further along and being actively supported by the FDA, while others are in the very early stages of initial safety and efficacy research.

To follow along with this progress, refer to our Psychedelic Medicine Pipeline page.

Ketamine

In North America and across the world, ketamine treatment and therapy programs are the only current clinician-prescribed psychedelic medicine option available to the general public. It’s used primarily as an off-label treatment for conditions like anxiety and depression, though it’s shown promising results for conditions and scenarios such as OCD, smoking-cessation, suicidal ideation, and others.

There are a number of ketamine therapy programs (Mindbloom included), and ketamine clinics that provide safe and legal access to ketamine treatment.

MDMA

There is some debate as to whether MDMA qualifies as a classic psychedelic, as it is often referred to more as an “empathogen” than a “psychedelic” in some circles. However, for the purposes of this resource we feel it deserves to be included. MDMA has shown promising results in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in particular.

With research and legal approval stewarded largely by MAPS, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD has been given “Fast-Track” designation by the FDA, and is currently undergoing Stage 3 clinical trials. This is the final and most exhaustive testing stage before a medicine can become legally available for use by licensed practitioners.

Psilocybin

Psilocybin is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms (psilocybe cubensis), and is increasingly synthesized by scientists and organizations for research and treatment application.

Depending on the condition the study is researching, psilocybin is currently at various stages of the FDA approval process. Some conditions such as end-of-life anxiety or depression, are in Stage 2, while other applications are being actively researched.

Canada has recently granted groundbreaking access for end-of-life cancer patients to use psilocybin. It’s also granted access to some licensed clinicians for personal use, to better understand how to work with this experience in the service of their clients. Some conditions and potential use-cases actively being studied include: end-of-life anxiety, depression, smoking cessation, eating disorders, and generalized anxiety.

LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly referred to as LSD, is a synthesized compound that gained notoriety in public consciousness during its mainstream prominence during the 1960’s.

Despite the subsequent legal and scientific restrictions surrounding LSD, many of the early studies during the 1950’s and 1960’s show promise and potential of LSD to help manage and mitigate conditions such as generalized anxiety, depression, eating disorders, dissociative or personality disorders, among others. There are also early results from studies that have begun again after decades-long restrictions.

While there are studies currently being done to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of LSD, there are few initiatives currently underway to move LSD through the FDA approval process.

Ibogaine

Ibogaine is the active compound found in Iboga, a root bark from the Iboga tree native to Africa. In early studies, and through iboga clinics around the world, this compound has demonstrated promise around addiction recovery, specifically managing opiate addictions and the subsequent withdrawals that come from cessation.

It is one of the only compounds that has shown to facilitate opiate cessation with little to no adverse withdrawal effects or events. Though some clinics in Mexico and Africa have seen promising results with clients who have sought treatment for addiction recovery, there is more research to be done before this begins moving through official approval processes.

DMT

DMT has a smaller body of scientific work and surrounding research, despite its recognition as the first legally sanctioned research study conducted after the widespread research bans in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Similarly to other compounds, it has promising potential for managing and mitigating symptoms of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and OCD, among others.

Collectively, psychedelic compounds are still in the early stages of researching and validating their broad range of potential use-cases and methods of administration. It is expected that more avenues and options will open up as good science continues to unfold in this space.

With new methods of synthesis and research, other lesser-known compounds —potentially as much viable as the ones mentioned above— may come into the scientific view for study. These potential compounds include 2CB, MDA, and other derivatives of LSD or psilocybin.

Where to Find Psychedelic Therapy Treatment

If you are interested in embarking on an experience with psychedelic therapy, there are two legal avenues you can currently take in North America and abroad: registering for a clinical trial/study, or to enroll in a ketamine therapy/treatment protocol.

For an overview to help you determine if the time is right to move forward with a psychedelic therapy program or experience, consider this resource with six guiding questions around readiness.

Clinical Trials

We recently published an in-depth exploration to help you determine if a clinical trial is the right step for you and where to look. At the time of publication, this is the only legal avenue you can take if you would like to work with any of the compounds listed other than ketamine.

Ketamine Programs

There are a number of options available to enroll in ketamine programs.

The first step should be to determine which method of administration is right for you. Please consult a licensed clinician and your primary care provider before making this decision. This is for your health, safety, and overall wellness.

Ketamine has multiple methods of administration: intravenous (IV) or intramuscular (IM) injection, intranasal spray, or sublingual tablets — Mindbloom’s method of administration. For more on these differences, consult our resource on these differences here.

Based on your options, you may be able to find a provider in your town, or a nearby state, if you live in North America. Accessibility and availability will vary based on your country of residence. If you feel called to work with us here at Mindbloom, you can begin by confirming your candidacy through our quick assessment.

These are the current avenues available at the time of publication. As more science is completed, and more compounds approved, it is expected that far more psychedelic therapy services, programs, and outlets will be available moving forward.

The Future of Psychedelic Therapy

Despite all of the activity, potential, and research currently underway and outlined above,  we’re still in the early days of the psychedelic therapy renaissance.

With more favorable regulatory environments, renewed academic and scientific interest in psychedelic compounds, and a growing need to return to individual healing and wholeness, the future of psychedelic therapy has a lot of open room to explore further. Given this, there are a few things one can expect to see in the future.

New Compounds Available

With a number of psychedelic compounds moving through various stages of the regulatory approval process, in the coming years and decades there will likely be more compounds and types of experiences available and accessible to the public.

This allows more personalized programming options, allows new or previously underserved conditions to be treated with psychedelic therapy, and expands the scope and scale of the science of psychedelic therapy overall.

Refined Client Experiences

With the onset of new science and studies, the therapeutic space will begin to refine best practices, hone in on qualifications and skill sets for practitioners, and determine ways to maximize the efficacy of psychedelic therapy programs.

This is all in service of driving exceptional client outcomes and returning more people to health and wholeness faster, more reliably. Alongside this lives the possibility for new experiences altogether, more personalized programming options, and creation of opportunities to merge solid clinical outcomes with artful, human-centred experiences.

Personalized Healing Journeys

All of the psychedelic compounds and therapeutic experiences come with their own unique strengths and areas of best applications.

In the future, clients and practitioners may be able to work together to curate a truly personalized healing journey, working with the best modalities and the best compounds to drive safe, reliable results for clients that are truly life and world-changing.

These touch on but a fragment of the potential that renewed interest and study of psychedelic therapy can bring to the public moving forward. We’re excited to play a part in that journey, and walk towards a bright future together.

You’ve made the decision to embark on the process of psychedelic therapy, and want to honor this commitment to yourself. Part of honoring this commitment is deciding to be fully present for the experience, doing your best to prepare and get the most out of the experience.

But how does one go about preparing for a psychedelic experience, particularly if you’ve never had a psychedelic experience before? There are a number of ways you can prepare for psychedelic experiences without using psychedelics.

This resource explores the process of preparing for psychedelic experiences and psychedelic therapy without the use of psychedelics.

What Does “Preparation” Mean?

Psychedelic therapy and psychedelic experiences can be profound, challenging, healing, and exciting experiences. They can surface novel states of emotion, facilitate the release of deeply held emotional wounds, and bring about new ways of looking at yourself and the world you are in. Overall, this is no small feat. This is the journey of a lifetime, the first day of the rest of your life —and honoring this experience and showing it the respect it deserves is extremely helpful.

Fortunately, the process of preparing for psychedelic therapy and experiences doesn’t need to be a chore or heavy burden. The process of preparation is an entire journey in itself, and this work greatly assists the experiences and the overall outcomes of the program you are embarking on.

Preparation can address and assist two core areas of the experience.

Creating a receptive state

The preparatory process puts you into a highly receptive state for the medicine, and helps to give you a safe, effective, and powerful experience. By preparing the mind and body to be as open and strong as possible, you are in the best possible state to receive the experiences, emotions, and insights from the medicine.

Kickstarting the process

Your healing process doesn’t begin at your first dosing session, it begins much earlier than that. It’s the moment you first heard about the opportunity, or when you decided to move forward with this program/experience.

There are a host of emotions, challenges, and opportunities that arise throughout this beginning process that can be just as important and essential to the process as the medicine sessions themselves.

Noticing the level of effort you put in, how you respond to anticipation, setbacks, or nervousness can be powerful material to work with and explore throughout a psychedelic therapy program. Some of the habits or behaviors you explore during the preparation process may become lifelong rituals and practices afterwards.

The preparation process is a major catalyst and critical part of the process, and should be treated like such. It has the potential to be life-changing. Let’s take a closer look at the practices and processes that can help you prepare for a psychedelic therapy program and an individual psychedelic experience.

Physical Preparation Practices

Psychedelics work on the mind and body. There is a strong and influential connection between the mind and body. It is an integrated system, a complete whole.

If you’d like to influence the mind, you can go directly through the body. If you’d like to influence the body, you can go directly through the mind. This is an ancient connection, and something that is very helpful to work with when approaching your first psychedelic therapy experiences.

One of the hallmark qualities of the psychedelic experience is its ineffable quality —highly challenging to describe through language. As such, it’s difficult to plan on what to expect.

There will always be this “unknown element” as you approach the session, which can lead to nervousness, hesitation, or internal resistance. In response to this, you want to cultivate an internal state that is as open, flexible, and as confident as possible. This is where physical practices come in, there are a number of practices that can help you cultivate these internal emotional states fairly reliably.

Movement

Movement practices, such as taking a walk, doing a light yoga or stretching sequence, or soft exercise can all be helpful at both calming down the nervous system as you approach your session. The more you can deeply inhabit your body, the more receptive, trusting, and open you can be going into the experience. It helps reaffirm you have a reliable, capable body guiding you through the process.

Temperature modification

Working with changes in temperature can also help shift mental states. Whether it’s hot or cold, the after-effects of temperature change is an alert calmness to the body. Hot showers/baths are very effective at calming down the body, while cold showers/baths are effective at bringing steady alertness and strength to the body.

Nature immersion

Being in nature is an extremely centering and grounding practice, and can be an asset in the weeks and days leading up to your session. Taking time to disconnect digitally while experiencing nature is also a reliable method for instilling this open, trusting state which is highly beneficial to go into psychedelic work with. Nature is an ally for you throughout this process, both in the preparation and the integration stages of your journey.

Taking care of the basics

Of course, ensure that you are taking care of the basics for your body. Getting adequate and restful sleep in the days leading up, giving your body the hydration and nutrition it needs to thrive, and getting fresh air and sunlight (another hat tip to nature immersion!) will ensure you have a strong foundation to go into your experience with.

If you’re considering some physical practices to help with the preparation process, check in with yourself and your preferences. Choose activities that you can use that will help bring about these core emotional states: calmness, openness, confidence, and trust. Developing this calm, strong presence is a great way to go into your experiences, rooted in the present, and open to the future.

Contemplative Practices

Working with the body is a great step for preparation, but it’s not the only tool in your preparation kit. As the psychedelic experience is rooted deeply in your psyche and your psychology, there are many contemplative or reflective practices that are highly beneficial in preparing for your first experiences as well.

By contemplative practices we mean practices that are effective at helping you explore, reflect on, or think more deeply about certain topics or motivations within yourself. There are a number of time-tested contemplative practices that are very helpful in preparing for psychedelic experiences.

Meditation practice

Developing, or deepening, a personal meditation practice is a relatively easy first step. Psychedelic therapy experiences are like extended meditative sessions. They allow you to notice and witness with compassion and attention the different sensations that arise in your body, and in your awareness.

Having some familiarity in meditation, the act of simply noticing what arises without judgement, is a very powerful skill to have going into psychedelic experiences. If you already have a meditation practice, a commitment to continue with this, or perhaps explore it more deeply, is a nice way to assist your preparation process.

Open Journalling

Sitting down in front of a blank page, and writing about whatever comes into your mind, is a wonderful process for releasing or processing how you are feeling at the moment. The aim here is to simply express what is on your mind on the page in front of you.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, and it doesn’t have to be a certain length. Consider it like “spring cleaning” for your psyche, just letting go and giving voice to your inner world at that moment. This is a powerful practice to use if you are noticing any nervousness, hesitation, or resistance arise in you as you get closer to the sessions.

Professional Services

Having additional support throughout your psychedelic therapy program is an asset, and can greatly assist the process.

If you already see a therapist or someone similar, bringing this up with them and discussing it can surface many helpful insights or potential areas of focus for your sessions. If you are working with a care team or Guide for your psychedelic therapy program, asking them any questions you may have or best practices they recommend can also be a great help. Ultimately, you are supported in this process, and can lean on the help you have to prepare as best as you can.

Contemplative practices are geared around re-discovering yourself, or seeing what it’s like to be you at that moment. Without judgement or pressure to change, starting to notice these emotions and thought patterns can be beneficial in resolving some outstanding issues beforehand. This helps to provide clear material for your intentions, or to build the muscle of noticing your inner states. Both are benefits from contemplative practices in preparation for psychedelic experiences.

Intention Setting

Clarifying and arriving at a clear intention for your session is an essential and highly beneficial component of preparing for your psychedelic therapy sessions.

It’s a cardinal truth of the psychedelic experience that you can’t control the outcome, you can’t predict what will happen within the session. You do, however, have control over and can influence how you choose to prepare. This includes the level of effort you put into preparing and integrating what the experiences give you.

There is a time-tested mantra in this work that says “You might not always get what you want, but you will always get what you need.”

It’s nice to think of these experiences like a dialogue with the medicine/experience. You ask what you’d like to work on —often through an intention— and the medicine/experience will respond through the experience you receive. Sometimes you get exactly what you ask for, while other times the medicine might give you something else beforehand, a response of “Maybe you should look at this first.”

Both of these outcomes are welcomed, and powerful catalysts for change. But in both situations, there is still the first step of showing up to the proverbial table and to your experience with your own intention. Asking for positive outcomes, to see the best in yourself, to work on specific challenges or internal obstacles, all of these are powerful intentions.

With intentions, the most important step is putting in the work on one that you can influence. Intention setting is a critical and powerful component of preparing for your psychedelic therapy experiences.

Expectations & Environments

With all of this said, it’s important to draw the distinction between an intention and an expectation.

Part of effectively preparing for your psychedelic therapy experiences is letting go of your expectations. Let go of how you think the session needs to go, and the requirements you have for the experience. This allows you to be more open and receptive to what happens in your experience.

An intention is a conversation, or a request. It’s not a requirement.

An expectation is a requirement: “I want this to happen, otherwise I won’t be satisfied.”

It’s important that you do what you can to prepare, and then release expectations related to the final outcome. Attach yourself solely to your input, what you can bring to the table, and not to the outcome, or what transpires.

This is a powerful lesson to learn in life. You are presented with an opportunity to practice this at the very beginning of your process, by showing up for the preparation process fully and releasing expectations for the session experiences themselves.

A final note for preparation is setting up a conducive physical environment. Your practitioners and Guides should provide you with detailed steps on how to prepare effectively, but like we have mentioned before, taking steps that will help you show up more open, calm, confident, trusting, and aware are helpful. Dim lights, soft clothing, and clean spaces all help with this process.

Conclusion

You can’t control the future. And this is okay, because you don’t have to. When preparing for psychedelic experiences, all you are asked to do is to be present. Trust that the experience is working for you, and be open and willing to see and experience whatever the medicine thinks is most beneficial for you at that time.

These medicines and these experiences work with your inner healing intelligence. They work for you, and they are not against you. Sometimes the experiences can be challenging, but these things come up so you can be released from carrying them any longer.

With the preparation process, take the steps to honor the experience you’re about to have and the potential it holds for your life. Work on the things you can control: your physical space, setting your intentions, and preparing your mind/body to be open and alert.

Adequate preparation can go a long way toward creating safe, powerful, and healing experiences for you. You are being presented with an opportunity to be an active participant in your healing.

Psychedelic therapy is not a magic pill, it involves active participation on your end. This involvement starts at the very beginning with how you choose to prepare. Have a wonderful experience, and enjoy the preparation process!

When you begin your journey towards psychedelic therapy and/or ketamine treatment, you may hear the term “container” in your conversations with facilitators or clinical providers.

There are two other containers outside of the therapeutic experience that will be explored below: recreational experiences, and what we will call “intentional” experiences.

These are both done outside of a clinical or therapeutic context and outside of the support and structure that comes with that setting, though there are helpful distinctions to draw between the two of them. To begin, let’s start by taking a closer look at what is meant by the term container, and why it’s a necessary and critical part of psychedelic therapy.

What Are Containers

A container is a metaphor, alluding to the value and importance of structure and systems within any emotionally or psychologically sensitive work.

A classic container is an external structure or scaffolding which holds things together for the contents to be safe within. This is an apt metaphor because it is the protocols, systems, care providers, and best practices that provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals to embark on healing experiences with psychedelic medicines.

Let’s take a moment to acknowledge that experiences within psychedelic therapy can be: challenging, uncertain, overwhelming, awe-inspiring, emotionally-intense, mind-expanding, and a whole lot more. Given the sensitivity, powerful, and potent nature of these experiences, it’s important that they are met with a complimentary amount of balance, structure, and scaffolding. This helps provide a safe and supportive environment for the experience to unfold within.

In this resource, we’ll examine 3 different “containers” that these experiences may come up within, giving an overview of each and then exploring the key differences and critical concerns that can be present within each. To begin, let’s outline what components go into creating a safe and structured container.

Container Components

The exact details will vary with the context, the individual, the medicine, the care providers, and many other factors. There are some common components that go into creating a safe and structured container for individuals moving forward with a psychedelic therapy protocol.

Intake Process

Before the first session, it’s important to ensure client safety through a robust intake process. These include medical and psychological fitness screenings, informed consent, and opportunities to ask questions to the providers.

An important aspect of a safe container is that all parties are fully informed, and have consented to move forward on an agreed-upon protocol together.

Program Structure

Another core component of a safe experiential container is a clear and defined program structure.

This must be acknowledged and agreed upon by all parties involved in the process. The structure includes things like number of dosing sessions, cadence of those sessions, available resources and support, and acknowledgement of boundaries —what is not in the scope of the program.

Quality Assurance

Particularly when using exogenous compounds to alter consciousness, it’s important for the safety and efficacy of individuals that they have trust and confidence in the medicine and compounds they are taking.

Part of this is quality assurance: a mechanism to ensure they are taking quality medicine, from trained and licensed providers, in a safe and evidence based manner.

Ongoing Support

A psychedelic therapy program extends over time, sometimes weeks and months, and a safe container includes access to support along the way.

The level of support may vary, but having access to additional resources, a way to contact the primary care provider, or receive further 1:1 support, is helpful and important.

Set & Setting

As always, making the physical environment and the mental state as open and welcoming as possible for the client is an important component of designing a safe container for the experiences. This can take many forms and will be unique to each individual, but is an essential part of the process nonetheless.

This is not an exhaustive list, as it provides a meta-structure, or some critical components that should be considered when discussing therapeutic containers or psychedelic medicine experiences in general.

Across recreational, intentional, or therapeutic experiences, certain components mentioned above may be heavily considered, lightly considered, or absent from the process entirely.

Recreational Containers and Experiences

The first environment you may encounter psychedelic medicine is in a recreational capacity, and the associated containers and experiences that come with that environment.

Defining the recreational container or experience

Recreational experiences happen with every kind of medicine, from psychedelics, to a variety of prescription medications that may be taken outside of the way in which they are prescribed. Individuals may seek out these experiences for a variety of reasons such as for pleasure, attempts to self-treat, or because of addiction or physical dependency.

The environments, or physical settings that these experiences happen within are extremely varied. They can include being in someone’s home, a friends or stranger’s home, at locations like nightclubs or festivals, and in other public areas.

A core component of recreational containers is that they are set up by the individual taking the substance. Everything from the set and setting, procuring the substance and deciding on dosing, to the support and resources available to them throughout and after the experience — these are all entirely up to the individual, as they are not within a therapeutic or intentional container that may have more support.

Important considerations with recreational experiences

While there are many individuals who take certain compounds and are safe and healthy members of society, there are significant concerns that arise here regarding purity of the medicines, potential for addiction and/or adverse events, and lack of support in case of medical emergency or mental destabilization.

If you are considering a recreational experience, there are important and potentially life-saving considerations that need to be made. You will always be better off consulting with trained professionals in the space to make informed and effective decisions for you and your healing journey.

Intentional Containers

Another context that you may find yourself exploring along this path is that of an “intentional” container. It is possible that this could also be considered a recreational experience within a recreational container, though there are a few common and important distinctions that come up that likely make this worthy of a separate and distinct designation.

They have been named intentional for exactly that reason, they are similar to recreational experience, though a lot more intention, concern, and attention have been paid to specifically designing a supportive container for this experience. The individual may understand the healing potential of the experience and wishes to create a container as conducive as possible for a safe and powerful experience.

Key differences between intentional and recreational containers

Some key differences when compared against recreational containers can include:

• Presence of a “trip sitter” or supportive friend/individual, in case any additional support or comfort is needed throughout the experience.
• Set and setting are more deeply considered, and the experience is often done in a comfortable room, perhaps with soundtracks, eye masks, or comfortable clothing.
• Dosing may be weighed out or confirmed, and/or the compounds tested with testing kits.
• The individual approaches the experience with a specific healing intention in mind, and is comfortable with the psychedelic experience overall.

Though these steps are not exhaustive, and not executed at the same scale as a therapeutic container, there are enough distinct differences between intentional and recreational containers that it feels like the unique designation is justified.

Of course, there are critical steps, particularly the lack of trained support during/after, and limitations of testing drug purity and identifying exact dosages that are missing from something like a therapeutic container/protocol, but they are notable steps beyond those of recreational containers/experiences.

Therapeutic Containers

The final container to look at is that of therapeutic containers. Therapeutic containers have been specifically designed by trained professionals and experts in the space to be safe, secure, effective, and powerful for the clients and individuals who enter the experiences.

Defining the therapeutic container

The therapeutic container is required to have, and designed with, evidence based best practices across all of the container components in mind.

This includes fully formed client intake and consent processes, support and interaction with licensed clinicians, extreme standards for medicine purity and potency, as well as structured programming and supportive resources. These are safe and structured containers designed with client safety and experience as the core foundational principles.

For some, there are concerns that arise around the structure of therapeutic containers. This includes an over-reliance on the systems and structures, which can limit the time and access clients have to practitioners, or force the often nebulous edges of the psychedelic experience into a highly structured container that can miss some of the nuance.

Though these concerns are valid, the teams designing these are able to work with these feedback and build them into the structure of the containers, ensuring safe but consistent improvements over time.

Individuals are trusting companies and clinicians with sensitive and trusted issues such as working through past traumas, managing highly challenging emotions, or opening up the flexibility of their minds. Safe and structured containers are becoming more and more important, to be able to hold the space and experience so that the client can move towards healing and wholeness on their own, at their own pace.

Key Differences & Concerns Between Recreational, Intentional, and Therapeutic Containers

To clearly highlight some of the key differences between all 3 kinds of containers that have been discussed, there are a few areas to draw attention to.

Potency and/or purity of medicine

In recreational experiences, with the compound often bought off of a friend or “dealer,” it is difficult if not impossible to confirm what exactly the compound is, its purity level, and the exact dosages.

With intentional experiences, there may be —but not often— some at-home testing involved, giving a better, but not perfect, sense of the purity of the compound. If it arrives pre-dosed (as is the case in things like LSD tabs), determining dosage is more of an estimate than an exact science.

In therapeutic experiences, clients can be confident that they receive 100% pure compounds, dosed exactly by trained clinicians for their exact circumstances, and produced by regulated organizations and compounding pharmacies.

Set & Setting considerations

Recreational containers may have little to no consideration of set and setting. In environments like night clubs or festivals the decision to ingest a compound may be a spur-of-the-moment decision, and the environment may not be conducive to the intention they have, if they have one at all.

Intentional containers do a better job at this, as there is often intentional consideration given to the specific set and setting of the experience.

In therapeutic containers, there are often specific protocols for adequately and fully preparing for the experiences, with expertly-crafted recommendations to create the most conducive set and setting for the experience.

Additional or professional support

The session experiences themselves are an important part of a psychedelic therapy process, but not the only component that drives safe and effective outcomes. Additional, professional support is a critical part of this process as well.

In recreational experiences, any additional support is largely absent, except for a few friends that may be around or any helpful strangers that are attuned to the individual’s state.

In intentional containers, there may be —though not always— a friend/supportive individual serving as a trip sitter. However they are often not trained in emergency response, crisis management, or navigating psychologically intense experiences. This can be sensitive work, and if not done properly, these experiences can cause harm.

Therapeutic containers ideally have an excess of additional or professional support. This includes trained clinicians for the intake, medical screening, and dosing process. It also includes expert guides or facilitators to support the preparation, dosing, and integration sessions. There’s also typically a library of expert programming or resources available to the individuals as well.

All aspects of safe containers combined drive effective and powerful healing experiences and outcomes for clients. It’s important to consider all of these factors when making these decisions for yourself.

Conclusion

None of this resource is intended to say which container is right or wrong for you, it is simply meant to provide information so that you can make safe and informed decisions for yourself.

Different experiences and different medicines may call for different containers. That is okay. What is important is that you are safe, and that you are receiving the healing that you need.

If you would like to discuss any of this further, or if you are interested in moving forward with psychedelic therapy in a therapeutic container, consider reaching out to us by taking a brief assessment to begin the conversation.

Above all, stay safe, stay healthy, and here’s to your healing!