Whether you’re in the process of deciding to embark on a journey of healing with psychedelic therapy, or are currently moving through a therapeutic protocol, you may find yourself in situations where you want to explain the process in more detail. Perhaps a friend is asking you, a family member is inquiring, or you’re trying to explain the process to a colleague at work.

Whatever the reason may be, it’s not always easy to put your experiences, intentions, outcomes, or aims into words —and it’s not always necessary to do so. This piece explores the process of explaining psychedelic therapy in general, and your unique experiences, to others who may be asking or are interested.

Do I Need to Share My Story?

To begin, it’s important to address whether or not you need to share your experiences or reasons for treatment at all.

The decision to enter any therapeutic program is a personal one. It is a decision made by yourself, for yourself. First and foremost, this experience is for you, your healing, and your wholeness. If there is any aspect of sharing that you feel moves you away from the healing process, honor that feeling and instead choose to keep your stories your own.

There is a reason for this: we are social creatures. We react to and value the opinions of others, it’s a built-in response mechanism. If you have a transformative experience or an important moment throughout your program, it is not received as you may have expected or wished when sharing, the other person’s reaction to this news can impact you.

As you can be in a sensitive integration window while sharing this news, these reactions can remove some personal enthusiasm about the experiences, foster doubt in the significance of the experience, or have you question the benefits you received. It’s not a guarantee that this will happen. Sometimes sharing your story can be highly generative, where you benefit greatly from sharing. However, this is something worth considering before sharing the personal details of your experiences.

You don’t owe anyone an explanation, and if you don’t feel comfortable sharing something, you can simply draw a boundary and say that you’d like to keep that information private or don’t feel like sharing at that time. You can also communicate that perhaps at another time in the future would be better for you.

This is individual work, and the decision to share or not is your individual choice. It should be made with your best interest in mind.

On the other hand, it is relatively common that after a significant experience in a session or during the integration period, a motivation to share this experience with others can arise. You may have experienced a great benefit from this work, and would like to give others the awareness and the opportunity so that they might also benefit from the experience.

This is well-intentioned, and it’s helpful to ensure you provide relevant, accurate, and contextual information so that all individuals can make informed, effective decisions for their own healing processes.

Talking with Different “Stakeholders”

Just as with any interpersonal dynamics, you will likely have varying levels of relationships you wish to share more with. This could be: an intimate partner, close family members, interested friends, or inquisitive colleagues, or even sharing online in discussion groups.

These “expanding circles of care” can, and often do receive varying levels of openness and vulnerability from people. You share the most with the people you are closest with, and share more broad or general overviews with those who are further removed from your day-to-day life.

Relationship or close partners

Your partner may know a fair bit about this process, or they may not and this is something you’d like to bring up.

When sharing, it’s helpful to stick to what is true for you. What is true in your life that makes you interested in embarking on this healing journey? What did you experience that was beneficial or significant for you? No one can deny the truth of your own experience, and it is simply reporting or sharing what happened.

It can be helpful to share with your partner, at least at a high level, so that you can be supported throughout the process. Although this is individual work, you are not alone in this process, and having a robust support system around you throughout the process can be highly generative for your overall experience and outcomes, and this can start with a trusted partner.

Family members

Depending on your relationship with your family, this first circle of proxy is yours to decide how much you wish to share. If you’d like, you can say you’re embarking on a therapeutic experience, designed to help you reconnect with yourself and with the world, to become a more whole individual for those you care about.

You are working with experts, in structured experiences, to help unlock and unblock parts of yourself. If you’d like their support or understanding, you can choose to share more about the clinical or guided nature of the experience. If not, you don’t need to share anything you are not comfortable with.

As always, having a support network around you throughout this process can be helpful, but only if you find personal value in it.

Friends

Friends are often individuals that genuinely enjoy your presence and care about your wellbeing. If you are excited about this new healing journey, you can share with them. Oftentimes, some clients may notice that friends or family start to notice small or large shifts in personality, mood, or ways of acting. They may inquire as to what has brought this about, and you can share at whatever level you’re comfortable with.

You can say you’ve been doing some work on yourself, that you’re working in a new therapeutic model, or that you are moving through a psychedelic therapy protocol with a practitioner and a particular compound.

An important note here is just because you have shared some information, that does not obligate you to share everything. If at any point you feel uncomfortable, or don’t feel you have an adequate answer, you can simply decline to share further. Your friends are a support system, and they should honor that request.

Primary care providers

A core relationship that you may want to discuss psychedelic therapy with is your primary care provider, your family doctor, therapist, or relevant medical professionals. Some providers are receptive to augmenting your care with psychedelic therapy, while others may not have a definitive opinion on it, and others may be firmly against it.

First and foremost, it’s very helpful to bring this conversation to the surface. This is a new development that impacts your health and wellbeing, and it’s helpful for your primary care provider to have complete information so that they can also help make the best decisions for your ongoing healing and health.

If they have questions or concerns, pointing them to the current science, and explaining your rationale for starting this program are good starting points. However, this is not something you need to tackle yourself, and you can ask your psychedelic therapy practitioner to contact your primary care provider so that all parties can come to an agreement, understanding, and make the best decisions possible.

Acquaintances / general public

Regarding the broader public, it’s less likely that you are asked directly about your experience from someone, and more likely that you are excited or interested in sharing information publicly about your own experience. Here, it’s important to honor the experience, communicate contraindications, and the right contexts for individuals to embark on this work.

Despite some common parlance, psychedelic therapy is not a panacea or “magic pill” experience, and some individuals are not suited for psychedelic therapy. It’s important to remember these points as you go out and plan on sharing your experiences publicly.

Following the science, citing your sources, respecting the differences in people are all important notes to remember when beginning to share more publicly about your process and experiences.

Common Questions & Responses around Psychedelic Therapy

Is this psychotherapy?

This depends on the specific program you are working within. There are psychedelic-assisted psychotherapeutic programs that exist, where you work alongside a therapist in familiar talk therapy dynamics. The difference being that you’re being assisted by psychedelic medication to surface important insights or catalyze novel emotional states. If you are working in one of these programs, yes, this would qualify as traditional therapy.

Most often, the answer would likely point to the idea that these experiences are inherently therapeutic. They provide the structure and experiences that are beneficial in helping you understand more about yourself, heal disparate parts of yourself, and cultivate a deeper relationship with yourself, others, and the world around you. Some experiences, such as individual sessions, are not specifically therapy as they do not involve talk sessions with a licensed therapist, though they can absolutely provide therapeutic outcomes and benefits.

Many psychedelic therapy protocols and programs involve the combination of psychedelic medicine sessions, and interactions and discussions with trained clinicians, facilitators, guides, or practitioners.

Why are you doing this?

This is a highly personal question, and it’s up to you to determine the level and depth of information you are comfortable disclosing. Once again, this is your process, and you should not feel obligated to share anything. This is a personal decision and it can remain personal.

If you would like to share more, you can allude to the fact that you are working through some things personally, and have found a safe and effective method to help with that process.

You can mention it’s to augment and assist the existing personal and therapeutic work you’re already doing, or simply that you had found some supportive science around the experience and wanted to see if it could be beneficial for you.

What are the effects?

This is another question where it is at your discretion to disclose what you are comfortable with.

Sometimes this question can refer to what effects and/or benefits you have noticed in yourself personally. Other times, it can be a question to learn more about the potential effects of psychedelic therapy in general. It can be helpful to confirm the intent of the question if there is any confusion. If you’re not comfortable sharing your personal story, you can default to sharing some of the common effects and benefits that clients may see throughout a program.

Some potential effects and/or benefits of psychedelic therapy can include:

• Deeper sense of self-acceptance, self-love, self-image
• Improvement in baseline mood, reduced depressive / anxious symptoms
• Novel insights, emotions, thoughts, feelings
• Space to process and heal old trauma, habitual patterns, ways of behaving
• Working through addictions or addictive tendencies

Is this safe / effective / legal / well tolerated?

It’s important to keep in mind that these answers will vary based on two main factors: the medicine that you are working with, and the specific program that you are embarking on.

Questions around safety, tolerability, and legality, these answers vary depending on the compound and the programming surrounding the experiences.

Safety

You can refer those inquiring to our article on ketamine safety for more information on the specifics of ketamine treatment. Also, you can refer to ketamine’s contraindications to demonstrate that if you are not contraindicated, psychedelic medicines themselves are well received and safe in the majority of individuals.

Effective

Psychedelic therapy has been growing in awareness and interest the past few years specifically due to its efficacy in treating a number of mental health conditions, including previously treatment-resistant cases. For a growing number of individuals and specific conditions like depression and anxiety, psychedelic therapy is proving highly effective in helping individuals on their journeys towards healing and wholeness.

Tolerability

Depending on the particular compound, psychedelic medicines are largely well-tolerated in healthy individuals. There are certainly contraindications —specific markers that would make someone ineligible or not recommended to use psychedelic therapy— but without those contraindications, psychedelic medicines are largely well-processed by the body with manageable side-effects in the short and long-term.

Legality

At the time of publication, ketamine is currently the only legal psychedelic medicine available to the general public. There are a number of other compounds and medicines moving through various stages of the approval process, though these are only available in academic or clinical studies at the time. If you are working with ketamine treatment in North America, or are in a country where the laws allow for, or are enrolled in a clinical study, these experiences are legal under clinical supervision.

Honoring Yourself and Your Process

If you do decide to share some of your story, some of the process, or a deeper look at psychedelic therapy protocols, here’s a gentle reminder on how these messages may be received.

Depending on an individual’s unique viewpoints, they may be doubtful, express concerns, question psychedelic therapy’s legitimacy, or they may not react in any major way. All of these are okay.

These reactions are not a reflection on you or your process, and it’s important to return to your direct experience, the feelings and outcomes you realized during your treatments. The validity of your experience is never in question, even in the face of doubt or concern from someone.

These can be grounds for fruitful conversation, but you do not need to “sell” anyone on the benefits. Your experience cannot be invalidated, and these experiences are not meant for all individuals. Overall, exercise discernment and personal sovereignty when opening and sharing your experiences with others.

Scientific Validation

There may be some well-intentioned individuals who become curious or passionate about what you’re doing and would like to explore this for themselves. You’re welcome to share any results, scientific validation and research, or any supporting points concerning psychedelic therapy.

Fortunately, there has been a host of studies over the decades within psychedelic therapy and ketamine treatment that point to the potential of these experiences and medicines to be catalysts and aids in mental health treatment and healing.

There are a host of resources on the Mindbloom website regarding ketamine treatment, including resources on the neuroscience of ketamine, various clinical studies, and explorations into ketamines ability to aid anxiety and depression, and direct stories from clients who have completed the program.

There are various universities and institutes who are spearheading ongoing research on the efficacy and potential of psychedelic therapy, in everything from inducing mystical experiences, smoking cessation, managing depression & anxiety, and many other symptoms.

These can serve as resources you can provide, and also become a gentle reminder that the academic and clinical worlds are now able to begin much deeper study into the use and outcomes of these experiences, and more science continues to emerge.

Conclusion

Psychedelic therapy can be transformative in individuals’ lives. Whether it’s sharing stories publicly, or being asked or sharing directly with people in your life, it’s important to honor your own process, to follow the science and what it demonstrates, and to exercise your own boundaries and discernment.

Your work in this field is beautiful and individual, you are not obligated to share, though it can be very beneficial to have a support system and to open up to others who you care about. With a balanced approach, and with an open heart, you can begin to open up these conversations to more people, and bring psychedelic therapy to those who stand to benefit from it.

Psychedelic therapy and the psychedelic experience are entering a period of renewed individual and collective interest, most notably for the initial evidence pointing to their ability to catalyze individual healing and transformative processes.

As interest and public awareness of these experiences grow, naturally a curiosity arises to learn more about what the psychedelic experience is, and how it serves as this catalyst for inner transformation. But how do you define a psychedelic experience? Are there classic hallmarks that are common across a wide spectrum of individual experiences?

Although all experiences are different, each individual will have their own unique experience when working with psychedelics or within psychedelic therapy, and each experience itself will be unique for that person. There are a few consistent hallmarks, or defining character traits, that we can point to that provide a general overview of what the psychedelic experience is and what it can do.

Defining a Psychedelic Experience

Let’s begin with a simple definition of terms. The term “psychedelic” was originally coined by English psychiatrist Humphry Osmond in a letter addressed to Aldous Huxley back in the 1950’s.

It is a combination of the Greek words “psyche” (mind) and “delos” (to reveal). This gives us the common definition of psychedelic as “mind-manifesting”. Clinically, psychedelic refers to a class of compounds that reliably induce this state in individuals at certain dosages.

When combined, the psychedelic experience is a direct, embodied experience of how an individual’s mind works. This sets the foundation for the deeply introspective potential that these compounds and experiences have to offer individuals.

Psychedelic experiences often provide individuals unique insight, emotions, or experiences of why and how they are the way that they are. They discover where patterns of behaviors emerge from, how they relate to themselves, others, and the world, and the current state of who they are at the time of the experience.

Factors of a Psychedelic Experience

There are a number of common traits, or hallmark characteristics, of a psychedelic experience. Psychedelics are often also said to be able to induce a “mystical experience” —a profound experience with a number of unique qualities not often afforded in day-to-day waking life.

It is important to note that for several decades there has been an interest in officially defining a universal taxonomy of characteristics of the psychedelic experience, but there is no currently universally accepted taxonomy to date. These are simply common traits and generally accepted definitions from those across academic disciplines.

Factors of a Mystical Experience

William James, a prominent American Psychologist, is often credited at having compiled a robust overlook at the hallmarks of a mystical experience, many of which apply to the classic traits of a psychedelic experience. These are:

1. Ineffability: A sense of being unable to effectively or adequately put the experience into words or language. A sense of the experience being “beyond language”, something that cannot be described in words, but rather must be directly experienced at the level of the individual.
2. Noetic Quality: The sense that the experience provides insight or access to information or sensations that were previously inaccessible at the level of normal, waking consciousness.
3. Transiency: The fact that these experiences are often fleeting, and are not often sustained for more than a few minutes or hours at the most.
4. Passivity: The distinct sense that the mystical or psychedelic experiences happen to an individual, that it is outside the realm of direct control or influence by the individual.
5. Unity of Opposites: A feeling of wholeness, the reconciliation of paradoxes or opposites. A felt sense that everything both internal and external to the individual is part of a greater whole.
6. Timelessness: An experience of being beyond time, outside of the confines of the linear progression of time in a realm that is realm, but not bound by limitations of time or space as it is commonly understood.
7. The True “Self”: A distinct sense that the experience unfolding here is extremely real, that the “Self” you see is perhaps a more “real” or “true” Self than normal waking consciousness.

These seven hallmarks of a mystical experience are commonly included in the understanding of a psychedelic experience, and you will notice many similarities here, with a few variations or alternative manifestations, in the classic markers of a psychedelic experience.

Factors of a Psychedelic Experience

There are several similarities in psychedelic experiences and mystical experiences, as part of what provides the profundity of psychedelic experiences is that they can induce mystical experiences in individuals.

1. Ineffability: A common overlap between the mystical and the psychedelic is that they both appear to be beyond language as an adequate description. It is challenging to encapsulate the totality of the experience into language and phrasing.
2. Novel Experiences/Insights: The psychedelic experience can provide or induce novel experiences, emotions, insights, revelations, or connections that were not previously known, understood, or embodied as reality.
3. Ego Dissolution: A distinct trait of the psychedelic experience is the dissolution of the sense of being an isolate, separate Self, an ego.
4. Timelessness: Another overlap with the mystical experiences, psychedelic experience can often bring about a sense of timelessness, that the experience is taking place outside of time.
5. Higher Order Reality: A sense of “seeing True Reality” or a higher order reality than what is commonly available in ordinary waking consciousness. A distinct feeling that whatever is experienced as being almost “hyper-real.”
6. 3rd Person Perspective: Psychedelics and their mind-manifesting nature can often bring about a third person perspective: a sense of looking back at yourself and your psyche as if from a detached observational position. It is this perspective that helps include the novel insights, emotions, or understandings that can arise in psychedelic experiences.

Biological Markers of Psychedelic Experiences

The psychedelic experience is largely phenomenological, or subjective. The effects are felt largely within your mind and direct experience, though with that said, there is emerging science around the neurobiology of psychedelic experiences.

Perhaps one of the most promising aspects of neurobiology impacted by psychedelic compounds is lowered activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN is most active when you aren’t actively engaged with your external environment. It’s responsible for orientations through spatial awareness, helps provide autobiographical memory, and gives the sense of your body ending at the point of your skin —overall, it gives you the sense of being you.

With many psychedelic compounds, and in the psychedelic experience, there is a lowering of activity in the DMN, and an increased connectivity throughout the rest of the brain. Given the definition above, the sense and definition individuals have of being a single body moving through space can begin to lower as well. This is often the catalyst for the sense of “unity” or being “connected to everything” that commonly arises in the psychedelic experience. By expanding the locus of Self, individuals have the sense that they are everything around them, or that they are deeply connected to (not separate from) everything around them.

The second major neurobiological pattern that arises is a plethora of new connections being formed. In normal waking consciousness, many disparate parts of the brain may not talk to each other. Through psychedelic experiences, they may begin to connect and send signals.

This can provide the fertile ground for novel insights, experiences, and emotions. An example of this is the experience of synesthesia, or the mixing of sensory perceptions. Individuals might be able to “see” sound as a color, or taste the flavour of a painting. This is in part due to the new connections being formed.

As more science and research is done on the nature and mechanisms of psychedelics and the psychedelic experience, you can expect to see a deeper understanding of the neurobiology of these experiences emerge as well.

The Totality of Experience

Everything listed above may sound powerful. New brain connections? Novel emotions and feelings of unity? A mystical experience beyond time? When listed out like this, these sound like a beautiful, accessible experience — why wouldn’t you want to try?

It’s important to recognize that psychedelics can provide a totality of experience. Nothing is off the table. This is an important realization when approaching this work for personal healing or growth. There are parts of yourself or patterns of behaviour that you may have hidden away, that you don’t want to look at.

Experiences like the dissolution of the individual ego, though it can grant access to a more expansive sense of Self, can also be a challenging process to go through if you have never had an experience like it before.

Psychedelics are not panaceas or “magic pills,” the work is often not easy or straightforward. Working with the experiences and fully integrating them afterwards can take some real effort. It’s important to recognize this point, and it can be an important life lesson itself: Increasing your exposure to sensitivity and positivity also increases your exposure and sensitivity to challenging emotions or experiences. All of these aspects of being are a part of you, and the psychedelic experience will often present you with the full range of the human experience.

The depth of the experience is what makes them powerful and beautiful at times. To be struck by its beauty is to come out of the fear of being alone, and to see and love yourself fully as you are right now. These are important aspects, but the path is not always an easy one to walk.

When moving forward with powerful experiences, be safe, work with trained professionals, and take the time energy to prepare adequately and integrate fully afterwards.

What if I Didn’t Have These Same Experiences?

Although the characteristic hallmarks and neurobiology of the psychedelic experience listed above are commonly understood as defining traits of the experience, this does not mean that each one happens every time.

Everyone’s experience is unique, and a timeless mantra of this work is that “you don’t get what you want, you get what you need.” For some individuals, deep emotional healing is what’s necessary, and there may be some cathartic release in the experience, rather than the mystical experience of unity with everything.

If you have had an experience that didn’t feel like this, don’t worry. Nothing went wrong, you have to trust in your body’s inner healing intelligence to deliver what you need and that it knows as well what is needed for the experience and for your healing journey.

Everyone’s experiences are different, reading someone’s story does not mean that you will have the same experience —whether the individual’s journey was positive or negative.

Your experiences can also vary from session to session, as you are a constantly growing and evolving individual. Each time you embark on a psychedelic experience you will have a different experience.

Some may be more mystical, some more emotional, others more cognitive, and potentially, others with little activity at all. This is why working with trained and experienced practitioners is important. They can help you prepare for and integrate the experiences properly, to help you reframe the experiences and weave it back into your day-to-day existence.

Conclusion

The psychedelic experience is becoming a major player in the treatment of mental health conditions. It is providing those in need of treatments, and those previously resistant to others, a path forward.

Perhaps it is specifically due to the largely ineffable nature and ability to reveal our true selves to ourselves that makes psychedelics so powerful. As more individuals are introduced to psychedelic medicine, it is helpful to have shared definitions, shared understandings, so that all individuals can make informed and effective decisions for their own healing journeys.

Psychedelic therapy as a form of mental health treatment has yet to become mainstream, though ongoing research continues to show promising results. This is hopeful news, especially for people who have hit a wall in their efforts to treat chronic and debilitating mental health conditions.

Here are insights from four psychologists, with experience in psychedelic therapy, on why it could be the next frontier in mental health treatment.

Psychedelics Provide an Experience People Learn From

Matthew Johnson, PhD is a professor in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He says psychedelic therapy is the new frontier in mental health therapy based on the results researchers have produced over the last few decades, in combination with the findings from when these compounds were researched in the 1950s and 1970s.

“The drugs biologically facilitate psychotherapeutic processes,” he explains. “They prompt an experience that people learn from and that learning has long term, behavioural impact. That’s fundamentally different from the treatment of surface level symptoms that you see with virtually all other psychiatric medications. Most psychiatric medications treat the symptoms, they don’t treat the core of the illness.”

The core of the illness is typically psychological in nature, Johnson says.

For example, the medications that treat addiction, which are approved by the FDA, by and large work by interacting with the receptor system in the brain that mediates the rewarding properties, the craving, and the withdrawal you get from that drug. This is treating symptoms but the nature of addiction is not simply the withdrawal state. It’s far more than that.

“You name the drug, there’s a lot of people who’ve gotten past the withdrawal and relapsed,” Johnson says. “It’s a deeper seeded psychological issue. With psychedelics, they prompt experiences which people learn from, which is the goal of psychotherapy. But it’s often not that powerful. Psychedelics biologically enhance what’s possible with psychotherapy.”

Johnson admits there’s still a lot of groundwork to do when it comes to regulating psychedelic therapy. A big component of that is the Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program required by the FDA.

“You need people trained in treatment,” he says. “There’s a whole number of factors that are going to need to be worked on…There’d need to be new clinics. What needs to be figured out is how to keep clinicians on the rails without delving into or adopting the role of priest or shaman, which is a danger in this area. There’s a whole field of professional development that needs to come along.”

While psychedelic therapy might not be for everyone, Johnson says the data holds up that it could help a lot of people. But it’s crucial that they be used in the right way that mitigates the risks.

Psychedelics Provide Another Access Point for Behavioral Change

Norman Farb, PhD of Psychology is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and the director of the school’s psychedelics studies research program. He explains that psychedelic therapy accesses another door into human behavior, revealing the deeply automated patterns of the mind.

“There’s lots of schools of thoughts on how you can give people insight or access to noticing those habits and potentially to work with what they notice,” he says. “From my perspective, psychedelics provide another one of those access points. You can have diary entries, meditation, you can talk it out with people, you can do dream analysis. Psychedelics is potentially another tool in that toolkit to help reveal the deeply automated patterns of the mind.”

This type of treatment isn’t anything new, Farb explains, as cultures have been using psychedelics for thousands of years. Now that there’s interest in its potential to treat mental illnesses, there’s commercial interest in what the next big antidepressant or antianxiety drug will be, especially since there hasn’t been much movement in that area for years.

Farb believes there can be a lot of benefits from psychedelic therapy if used in the right way, especially for people who aren’t particularly introspective on their own.

“It’s a way to fast track into having some insights,” he says. “There’s probably a lot of reason why people either automate or condition themselves to avoid having access to some of these experiences and there’s a lot of learning that will have to be done on the therapist’s side to live up to the promise of providing safe, introspective experiences that lead to some sort of positive transformation or insight or growth.”

Farb says his optimism around the use of psychedelics as psychotherapy is “guarded.”

“Once you get someone to be open to new ideas and new perspectives on things and you work on testing some of those ideas and looking at the functional outcomes of relating to other people…that is the therapeutic arch. [Psychotherapists] can definitely empower that arch. But the drugs aren’t going to do that work.”

Mental Discomfort is Rising, Psychedelic Therapy Could Help

Dr. Gabor Maté is an internationally renowned expert on addiction and mental illness. In an interview with YouTube channel Rebel Wisdom, Maté explained why psychedelic therapy could have potential, based on the prevalence of mental illness in society and the lack of treatment options that makes a lasting difference.

“Why are we even looking at psychedelics? For two reasons. Mental illness is burgeoning in society, anxiety is the fastest growing diagnosis on both sides of the Atlantic and more and more people are depressed…for social reasons, mental discomfort is rising,” he says.

“Number two, there’s the largely complete failure of the Western medical system, of which I was trained and practiced, to deal with the crisis of mental health. We don’t understand it. Fundamentally we’re in denial about the unity of the human soul and the mind and the body. We’re in denial about the social nature of human beings, we look upon mental illness as [solely] biological problems. So people are looking for solutions beyond the mainstream as they have to, because even within the mainstream the responses and the preventions are so inadequate.”

Psychedelic Therapy Goes After the Root Causes of Problems

Rick Doblin, PhD is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). In a 2019 TED Talk, he speaks on how we’re experiencing a global renaissance of psychedelic research.

“Psychedelic psychotherapy is showing great promise for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, depression, social anxiety, substance abuse and alcoholism and suicide,” he says.

“Psychedelic psychotherapy is an attempt to go after the root causes of the problems, with just relatively few administrations, as contrasted to most of the psychiatric drugs used today that are mostly just reducing symptoms and are meant to be taken on a daily basis. Psychedelics are now also being used as tools for neuroscience to study brain function and to study the enduring mystery of human consciousness. And psychedelics and the mystical experiences they produce are being explored for their connections between meditation and mindfulness.”

So you’ve made the decision to embark on a psychedelic therapy program… what now?

How do you adequately prepare yourself and your environment to be as conducive and helpful as possible to the process?

There are many terms that may be new or unfamiliar as you embark on this adventure of healing and wholeness: intentions, Set and Setting, dosages, subjective effects, and more. This list is long, and getting into the right relationship with the preparation process is an important undertaking worthy of your consideration.

This article makes the assumption that you have already selected a medicine and program to work with, have begun the program, and have been paired with a practitioner or clinician. The focus of this resource is to discuss the space between your initial registration for the program/experience and the first session of the program.

Update Your Clinician on Health Changes

An important start to the preparatory process is notifying your clinician/practitioner of any major changes to your physical and mental health throughout this process.

As there are certain contraindications —reasons to withhold treatment— for each medicine and experience. Changes outside of healthy ranges for factors like blood pressure or heart rate, or any changes to your physical or mental health should be relayed to your clinician as soon as you have this information. It is important that they have complete information so that you remain safe, and that the experiences are healing and help you realize the outcomes that you agree on.

Examples of some changes to report can be:

• Major increases in anxiety or depression levels
• Suicidal ideation or suicidal attempts
• Newly discovered family health history information (ie: history of bi-polar)
• New clinical diagnoses of physical or mental health conditions
• Major shifts in resting heart rate or blood pressure levels
• Newly prescribed medications (including changes in dosages)
• Newly pregnant or possibility of pregnancy

Your health and safety are the number one priority in any psychedelic therapy program. Your clinician/practitioner will make key decisions such as your eligibility for the treatment entirely, the medication dosage, level of additional support required, and other factors.

For these reasons, it is essential and imperative that they have a complete picture to begin the program, and remain informed of any changes as they unfold before, during, and after the experiences and throughout the entire therapeutic program.

Ask “Why Am I Choosing This Path?”

Before diving in, getting clear on your “why” is also important.

Why are you doing this? What is going on in your life and your inner world that has called you to embark on this healing journey?

Sometimes you are brought to things that your inner healing intelligence knows are the next step, without full conscious clarity as to why.

Being clear on why you are doing this, what the aims and aspirations are, in clear conscious communication, is an important first step. Set aside some time with yourself, perhaps talking to a loved one, writing in a journal, or just speaking out loud “Why am I doing this?

The helpful step is going through the earnest attempt to put it into linear language. Intentions, motivations, and internal drives that live swirling around in your head as impulses, images, disparate words, or memories can be vague and unclear.

Take the time, and make the initial investment in this entire process, to unpack and put into language your “why” is an important first step. If you feel like you can use some assistance with this process, this is also something that your clinician or practitioner can help with early on in your intake process.

Consider Your Set and Setting

“Set and Setting” emerged as a cornerstone concept in early clinical trials in psychedelic science throughout the 1950’s and 60’s. This concept has had a profound influence on the power and experiential journey in psychedelic experiences to date.

“Set” Explained

Set refers to your individual mindset going into the experience. It is helpful to approach your first session in a calm, trusting, and open mindset. As an example, a less than conducive mindset may include things like feeling hectic from a busy day beforehand, extreme doubt or fear of the experience, or being angry or upset about other areas of life.

Taking the time to prepare your mindset in the days and hours leading up to an experience helps create the most favorable conditions for powerful experiences and positive outcomes.

Mindset preparation steps include:

• Getting restful sleep the night before
• Taking time to journal and feel relaxed and composed
• Resolving any questions beforehand to feel informed and trusting
• Meditating or walking beforehand to feel calm yet alert throughout the experience

“Setting” Explained

Setting on the other hand, refers to the physical environment that you will have the experience in. This may be the office of a clinician/practitioner, or in the comfort of your own home. Having a welcome, safe, quiet, and uninterrupted environment will once again help to create the most conducive conditions for a safe and powerful experience.

Setting preparation steps include:

• Dimming the lights to turn your focus inward
• Cleaning up the room, putting things in their place, and ensuring there is a clear, unobstructed path to the washroom
• Asking any roommates to kindly refrain from entering the room before, during, and just after the experience (unless they are required to do as a Peer Monitor, in which case just asking them to remain quiet when doing so)
• Keeping any pets or children out of the room during the experience
• Wearing comfortable, loose-fitting clothing
• Adding your own comforting touches, such as an eye mask, calming scents, any sentimental or important items that help create a calm, open environment

It is very easy to underestimate the importance of Set and Setting and the influence they have on the safety, efficacy, and outcomes you experience during psychedelic therapy. Just a few minutes of preparing your mindset and physical setting contribute greatly to the overall experience you have.

You will likely receive some Set and Setting recommendations from your clinician/practitioner. If you don’t, it is worthwhile to inquire about this beforehand. If none are provided, the recommendations above will help this preparation process.

Set Your Intentions

Intentions are a cornerstone of the psychedelic experience, and an essential component of the process of preparing for your sessions.

An intention is a simple statement that articulates the way you would like to show up for the session, the themes in your life you would like to address, or states of being you wish to embody.

An important point is that an intention is fundamentally different from an expectation. An expectation can be perceived as a requirement, and you may spend the session time waiting for your expectation to arise and come to pass. The experiences will unfold naturally, in conjunction with your internal states and your inner healing intelligence. Though we cannot dictate the experience, we can meet it halfway, in open dialogue. This is the role of an intention. Learn more about setting intentions and read examples in this resource.

Intentions are highly personal, and they vary also from session to session. Your intention for one session may be entirely different for the next one. Each experience is unique, and so each intention should be as well.

It is helpful to spend some time working on your intention in private, but you can, and should, work to clarify and refine with your clinician/practitioner before embarking on your experience.

Learn to “Clear House”

If you are prone to rumination or distracting thoughts, it can be helpful to take some time to “clear house” before embarking on your psychedelic therapy program/experience.

This means taking a bit of time to tackle any outstanding tasks that have been slipping. It can literally be taking the time to clean up your living space. It might be addressing a few dusty tasks on the to-do list, like giving friends or family a call or check-in. The sooner you can address things that might catch your attention during the experience, the more you arrive in full presence for the experience you are about to have.

If you don’t have the available time, energy, or resources to take care of everything, or if some tasks are much larger undertakings, there is no need to stress about this. This is just a caring suggestion in case you are looking for additional ways to prepare for your experience.

For example, if you have recently had a disagreement or argument with somebody, or if there is something left unsaid that continues to arise in your awareness, taking some steps to resolve this beforehand can be very helpful. You’ll notice that taking care of these minor “clearing house” tasks go towards preparing a more conducive Set and Setting.

Trust, Let Go, and Be Open

“Trust, Let Go, and Be Open” (or TLO) is a time-tested mantra developed through ongoing work in psychedelic science, and the early clinical research done during the advent of psychedelic medicine.

Early clients faced the same concerns, fears of the unknown, and anticipatory excitement that arises in the weeks and days before embarking on a psychedelic therapy program. Through continued refinement and establishment of best practices, TLO came about as a useful framing to help prepare yourself for your experiences.

Trust

Trust comes first. Trust that the experience(s) you will have will contribute to your healing and surface any relevant emotions or insights to help you on your way. Trust that you are safe, working with appropriate dosages, and that you’ve enlisted the help of skilled and experienced practitioners. Trust in your inner healing intelligence to be serving you and active during your process. Trust in yourself as being ready and able to move forward in your journey of healing and wholeness.

Let Go

Letting go helps us fully arrive and be present with the experience as it unfolds for us. Holding on to preconceived notions of what the experience will be like, or gripping tightly to expectations of what we require, can hinder progress or make certain experiences more difficult than they need to be. If you are already trusting, you can let go of ideas, concerns, and expectations, and receive the experience exactly as it wants to appear for you.

Be Open

Once you have let go of the particular requirements or ideas you may have, you are able to fully be open to the experience. Be open to the possibility that you can realize your intentions for this program. Be open to the idea that you can heal and move towards wholeness. Be open to the understanding that the experiences and emotions are arising for a reason, and that through the integration process you will be able to recognize important insights and bring these into a new way of being for yourself.

With your “why” clearly defined, Set and Setting ready, intentions set, and TLO at the front of your mind, you are more than ready to embark on your healing experience in psychedelic therapy. These preparatory steps will serve you well, and though the experience may not go as you plan, it will always deliver what you need. Experiences can be intense, they can also be mild. They can be clear and direct, they can also be vague and nebulous.

Preparing for psychedelic therapy will help provide the best possible conditions for your experience, but the experience will always emerge as wants. Doing your due diligence to prepare is a helpful part of the process, and most importantly, it is the one aspect that is in your control. An important first step of showing up fully for psychedelic therapy is to show up fully for the preparatory process.

Enjoy the Process!

A final note is to enjoy this process. It is a great honor, privilege, and opportunity to be able to do this work for yourself. To have the means, energy, and resources available to continue your journey of healing and wholeness with psychedelic therapy.

Though the healing process can feel like hard work at times, and there will most certainly be challenging moments, it’s important to enjoy this process. To take pride in showing up for yourself in this way, and to express gratitude for this level of self-love and self-acceptance that you are showing yourself. It is a beautiful gift to give yourself, so enjoy the process and recognize yourself for choosing this journey.