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!

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.

It’s not always easy to make the decision to embark on a major transformative experience or healing journey. At Mindbloom we receive many questions from well-intentioned individuals with some concerns or confusion around the process, if this is the right fit, or if there is anything else that they should know.

This piece explores five common concerns about psychedelic therapy, and how to think through them on your own. Ultimately this decision is yours to make, it is for your process and your healing journey. Seeking out additional information like this to make an informed decision is a great first step to take.

“How Do I Know If Psychedelic Therapy Is Right For Me?”

You’ve explored traditional treatment options

Many people come to explore psychedelic therapy after they have exhausted other routes to alleviate symptoms of conditions such as  depression, anxiety and PTSD. This could include traditional psychiatric medicines, such as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) or talk therapy. The first FDA designation for ketamine was actually for people who have tried several other treatments like SSRIs and not had a significant reduction of their depressive symptoms.

Aside from looking at the alternative treatment options out there, it could also be helpful to look at what you are doing currently as a form of treatment and your overall health. Have you spoken to your current prescriber about other medications or adjusting the dose of what you may be currently taking?

If so, has there been some effect, an unwanted effect, or little to no effect? Have you been on antidepressants, participated in a sleep study, changed your diet, or even explored herbal and other non-Western remedies? Have you had thorough medical evaluations that include things like lab work, genetic testing, or in some cases, digital imaging studies, to rule out possible medical reasons for your symptoms?

Evaluations by licensed practitioners are generally required for psychedelic treatment in a clinical setting. At Mindbloom, you will have an initial consultation with a clinician who will monitor your progress through your course of treatment to provide you additional support when needed, assure that the therapeutic benefits of the medicine are maximized, and assess your well-being.

You’ve considered the options

Just as with making medical decisions, it is important for you to do research, get multiple opinions, and weigh your options. It is likely that different medical professionals will have different medical opinions in regard to your course of treatment and even your diagnosis. Perhaps you will want to look for a psychiatric clinician who specializes in psychedelics, or a practitioner who thinks “out of the box” regarding traditional Western medicine, or maybe you have chosen to follow the more traditional models of psychiatric treatments.

At Mindbloom, we do not require you to have exhausted other treatment options and currently receiving other forms of treatment or therapy would not automatically disqualify you. What is important is that you approach this treatment opportunity with an open mind to the nature of this process and a commitment to yourself to do the growth work around the medicine, through integration, with the support of your clinician and guide team.

The opinions of medical professionals, friends, and researchers are indeed important. But, in the end, only you can decide what is right for you, and if you are ready to take a new step in your treatment.

You Have Set Intentions or Goals in Mind

Mindbloom believes in looking at ketamine treatment as an integrative process. Any insights you may experience during your hour-long sessions may become more therapeutic or longer lasting through journaling, meditation, talk therapy, and other proven integrative tools.

One of the integration exercises that Mindbloom asks of its clients is to set intentions before each session and for your overall treatment: how do you hope to grow or heal through this experience?

The same question may be used in choosing to explore psychedelic therapy. What has brought you to look at psychedelics as a therapeutic tool? What are your intentions for healing or behavioral change?

“How Do I Know Which Psychedelic is Best For Me?”

The Legal Options

You’ve decided that you are interested in psychedelic therapy. Which treatment or medication is best for you?

There are many factors involved in making an informed decision as to which is right for you, such as: availability, accessibility, legality, and methodology. Outside of participation in research studies, Ketamine is the only legal option currently available. Clinical trials that are using psilocybin and MDMA as a treatment for a variety of conditions are another legal avenue to explore these medicines. However, keep in mind that they follow rigorous selection protocols, defined by the nature of the study.

The discussion around psychedelics like these, and others such as LSD and ayahuasca, continue to be explored as the scientific community searches for safe and effective treatments for a variety of conditions.

If you want to try the route that is most readily accessible, ketamine therapy may be right for you. As of this date, ketamine is the only psychedelic approved by the FDA for therapeutic use, though FDA approval for psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA is currently in progress, and for some specific designations have been granted “break-through therapy” designation for specific indications in current clinical studies. Private companies like Mindbloom offer a professional, and safe experience, in the privacy of your own home.

Ketamine treatments can also be shorter-duration experiences than the other psychedelics. Ketamine therapy typically lasts about an hour (not including the time spent on journaling, meditating, and integrating the experience), and the medicine’s effects wear off fairly quickly. The effects of other treatments such as psilocybin and MDMA could last for several hours.

Some Resources

There are excellent documentaries, podcasts, videos, and books to be found on each of the psychedelics, as well as on psychedelic therapy and concepts like microdosing, in general.

‍More news outlets are reporting on first-hand treatments and experiences. You can also hear the stories of Mindbloom clients in their own words here on our own site, and in major publications.

“How Do I Obtain Psychedelic Medication?”

If you have determined with your care team that a psychedelic medicine other than ketamine is the appropriate next step for you — you will need to apply and enroll in clinical trials. There are a number of ways to do this, view this resource for more information. Keep in mind that during COVID-19, clinics and trials may be operating in a different manner.

Another option, albeit one not likely during this time of COVID, is to seek treatment options outside the US, where other options may be available. But even in pre-Covid circumstances, this could be a costly and time-consuming endeavor.

Mindbloom, which currently provides ketamine treatment specifically, sends you a kit called a “Bloombox”,” that has everything you will need: the medicine, a journal, an eye mask, and a heart monitor, as well as an online portal that serves as your digital guide with time sequenced integration exercise, education, and audio programming, as you progress through the course of treatment. Each session is accompanied by a curated soundtrack that aids in taking you through your journey.

“What Are the Risks?”

Potential Medical Risks During the Experience

As with any substance introduced into the body, it is important that you are screened by a medical professional to rule out risks and assure safety before continuing.

At Mindbloom, we follow a scientifically backed dosing protocol based on your weight and titrated based on specific clinical markers. Our ketamine is in the form of tablets that are produced by regulated compounding pharmacies that are held to the highest of quality standards.

There is great risk in self-medication through the purchase of ketamine via other channels, as there is no control for dosage and quality. More and more, substances such as ketamine when being sold on the “streets” are being cut with deadly, high potency, substances such as fentanyl. Various reports showing this occurring in as much as 40% of the supply.

If you are considering ketamine as a treatment option, we recommend you make an appointment to consult with a clinician. Psychedelics have a variety of physiological effects and during a consultation, the clinician will determine if any of these effects are possible risk factors for you. They will also provide you with the education, tools, and support to manage some of the side effects in a safe way.

Risks of Surfacing Trauma During, or As a Result of, the Experience

For some, the goal of psychedelic therapy is to find healing around traumas that may be buried deep within our psyches or up in the forefront of our consciousness. Maybe then, also finding relief from the secondary effects of the trauma that can be manifested in a variety of ways such mood (depression and anxiety), PTSD (which includes a collective of symptoms) and somatically (felt physically in the body). As Stated by Dr. Stanislav Grof, one of pioneer researchers and practitioners in the therapeutics of non-ordinary states of consciousness states, psychedelics can be understood as “non-specific amplifiers of the contents of consciousness.”

‍In this context, we can understand how these medicines can, in a sense, stir things up from deep within us, bringing them to the surface. In many ways, this is the point. To access this content so that we can heal through closure, acceptance, change in perspective, and even just a release of pent-up psychic energies. For some, things may get worse before they get better. However, with proper support with set/setting, processing, and integration this does not have to be an unsettling process which is why professionally trained support along the way is vital.

People have a variety of experiences with these medicines. Some experience love, empathy, and a connection with something greater than themselves. When working with trauma, there is a possibility of coming into contact with a part of you where trauma lives which can be overwhelming without thoughtful set/setting and plans for processing and integration support.

This is one of the things that will be discussed during your consultation with a clinician prior to moving forward with treatment at Mindbloom. Based on your needs, your clinician may make recommendations to establish care with a therapist outside of Mindbloom prior to moving forward with this treatment. The first two treatments are facilitated by our guide and clinician teams. It is also a requirement that you have a trusted person at home with you when you take the medicine. This person is referred to as a “peer treatment monitor” and they are a vital component of safety in set and setting.

What if I Don’t Feel Any Benefits from Ketamine Treatment?

Some people do experience dramatic changes immediately after a single dose. But, for some, the benefits come later in the week, or after many weeks and multiple doses. Psychedelic therapy is often a journey of life-long healing work after the start of treatment.

Whether you continue to seek this treatment on a regular basis, or work with its potentially long-lasting benefits after your last session, it has the potential to reward you through lasting growth and behavioral change.

You will know when you feel you have gained benefits or not. And, if not, you may choose to try a different treatment. Like most things in life, we don’t always get it right the first time. But, also like life, the only way to know is to try.

In the context of psychedelic therapy or psychedelic medicine, the role of “Guide” comes up often. Let’s explore what exactly this role entails, and how a Guide helps on your healing journey at Mindbloom.

What Exactly Is a “Guide?”

In working with psychedelic or dissociative medicine, a “Guide” wears many different hats. 

On one end of the spectrum, this can be a person who does nothing more than sit for a journeyer, or client in a modern context. On the other end, considering the adaptation of this role historically, this might be a Shaman who traditionally would enter and navigate the medicine space for the person seeking help, but today more commonly holds and facilitates the space for journeyers by preparing and serving the medicine —sometimes offering prayers, songs, rituals and blessings— and stepping in to facilitate challenging scenarios when needed. 

At Mindbloom, the role of your Guide is to support you in preparing both your mindset and physical setting for each journey, answering any questions that arise throughout your process, and holding space for anything you’d like to share and support you through your integration process. 

What Is Integration and How Does a Guide Help With This Process? 

Think of integration first as the process of receiving, unpacking and processing each experience and then setting goals and establishing practices to work towards these goals. We do this to maximize benefits from each experience by taking any insights gained and implementing them into our daily lives to facilitate lasting transformation. 

Let’s provide an overview of what each of these steps will look like:

1. First, unpacking is the process of writing down or expressing any thoughts, emotions, visualizations, sensations or anything else that arises in your journeys. 
2. Next, with the support of your Guide, you will process what you’ve received by digging into what you’ve unpacked and feeling what it means for you. With this, there may be one to several key insights or takeaways that are drawn from this processing. 
3. After that, perhaps there is a smaller goal that is feeling achievable that will help work towards the original reason you were called to this treatment. Your guide will support you in feeling out a goal that feels approachable, and will then help you to decide on a daily or regular practice that will support in reaching this goal. 

These experiences can be incredibly powerful and transformative, but without integration, they eventually become nothing more than distant memories. In order to make the most of treatments, emphasis needs to be placed on the integration process. 

What Will My Experience Be Like and How Can My Guide Support?

Ketamine can be safe and relatively gentle compared to many other psychedelic medicines, however there is still a wide range of “felt” experiences that can occur. Regardless of whether you’ve had a seemingly mild or challenging experience, your Guide will be with you every step of the way to help maximize benefits and gracefully “land” —your return from the felt experience. Each guide works closely with one of our licensed Clinicians to ensure optimal care and support for every scenario possible. 

While it is possible to encounter an emotionally or mentally challenging experience, with attention to and support with integration, these are often opportunities for the biggest steps towards growth and transformation. Your Guide is skilled on how to support you in landing from these experiences and also throughout the integration process.

What Will My Relationship With My Guide Look Like?

Throughout your Mindbloom journey, your Guide will support you both virtually on video and through unlimited text support. Your Guide will also reach out via text throughout your treatment, and you are able to message them at any time, for any reason (i.e. treatment questions, preparation/integration assistance, tech support or anything else).

Below is an an overview of the journey’s flow and your Guide’s involvement: 

Your first session

Your Guide will reach out via text a couple of times before your first at-home Mindbloom treatment, to support you in preparation and intention setting. You will then meet virtually on video before your first session for a preparation call to help you set up for and navigate the experience and also finalize intentions. 

After your first treatment, you will be re-joined on video by both your Guide and your Clinician to ensure your safety, support with integration, and make a suitable plan for treatment moving forward with your remaining five sessions.

Your second session

Your Guide will text you before your second treatment to check-in on your intentions and answer any questions. One to three days after your session, you’ll meet with your Guide on video for an in-depth Integration Coaching Session where they will support you in unpacking the experience, drawing meaning, setting a goal, and deciding on a practice to facilitate your integration process.

Your third through sixth sessions

No need to schedule these sessions with your Guide, but please continue to follow preparation and integration best-practices and coordinate with your Peer Treatment Monitor. Your Guide will still be available by text to support you every step of the way.

You’ll see your Guide again for a final “Wrap-Up Call” following your sixth session, where you’ll tie together insights from the overall experience, get tips for ongoing integration, and answer any questions about treatment options moving forward.

Additional support options during your journey

If you would like to have additional virtual, on video integration support, we have two supportive options. 

First, you will have unlimited access to our Integration Circles following your second session. Integration Circles provide a safe and supported space to share your experiences with the medicine and also hear about the experiences of your peers. These will always be facilitated by one of our Mindbloom Guides.

Additionally, in your client portal you can purchase 1:1 Integration Coaching sessions (45 minutes) with your Guide to go deeper into processing each experience.

Your Guide is Your Dedicated Support System

Your Guide is here to be your unwavering support system throughout this experience. We want to honor you for stepping into this process and making such a beautiful commitment to your healing and your growth while trusting us to guide you on your journey. 

Reddit is a great place to hear first-hand stories from people across the globe, representing any number of communities. Discussion around mental health and ketamine therapy is no exception.

Users are increasingly turning to niche Reddit communities —known as “subreddits”— to share their ketamine and psychedelic therapy success stories. Reddit users are often eager to share their experiences through “ask me anything” (AMA) style Q&A sessions to help other users learn about a topic or experience. These personal accounts are genuine, and often provide insight that helps others make informed decisions about life choices.

What Reddit Users are Saying about Their Own Ketamine Treatment

“I had my socks blown off. All the anxiety, depression, and the weight of all those things was blasted away. I didn’t realize how much of it I carry around day to day, until it was gone. And I mean gone. I suddenly started weeping. All the pain and struggle was completely gone. I managed to text my sister and let her know how amazing it was to feel free of it all. I could not stop crying from the relief…

I hope all of you out there suffering can find the relief I felt. I know it’s cliche, but do not give up hope. Things CAN get better. I really wish this was available to everyone struggling from treatment resistant depression. I know the pain of trying everything you can, and still feeling like it’s some how your fault. Hang in there.”

– u/Sheepsaysmoo‍

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“It’s been over a year since I started and 9 months since my last booster but I the way I used to feel every day is now completely unfathomable. It is impossible to express how light and free I feel today. I have been quarantined alone in a one bedroom apartment for the better part of a year while the world falls apart around me and yet I have never felt so calm, so happy, and so healthy in my life…

I am not the “woo” type but I truly feel like I have been reborn after ketamine treatment. Don’t give up hope — life on the other side is incredible!!”

– u/moutarde_maille‍

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“ I have severe PTSD, which I would characterize as treatment-resistant. In the past few months, I have experienced an incredible amount of mental clarity and mood improvement. I commented on this in therapy, as we’ve discussed in the past what it would feel like “being better.” It is a foreign concept to me, having lived most of my life dealing with trauma, both acute and recurring.

Most noticeably, I have seen an increase in resiliency when confronted by my usual triggers. I say this as I am 2 days away from the anniversary of my most detrimental trauma. The mood elevation has been a nice change. I have more energy to do day-to-day activities. I also notice that I am having improved focus in some areas, while there are others wherein I still struggle.”

– u/onwardtomanagua‍

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“Backstory: 32 years old, male, gay, and have had depression since I realized I was gay at about 12 years old. Never dealt with it, always stuffed it down and beat myself up mentally over it. Been “out” for 5 years. Have accepting family and friends and am navigating a self-acceptance journey, coupled with the depression I’d learned to live with that’s likely partially genetic and partially from environmental stressors. The last two serious depressive episodes were triggered by breakups…

I am coupling this with a therapist who specializes in helping the LGBTQ community with mental health, and I speak to him once a week (have twice so far). I feel optimistic, hopeful, happy, and find myself laughing again. I cleaned my house, have been cooking for myself again. I am not cripplingly sad, I’m in the “normal” range, just grieving the end of a relationship the way my friends seem to. It’s no longer debilitating…

My lows are manageable, my highs are where they should be, and my life is good. I am not suicidal, and my friends and family have commented on my attitude lately, that I “seem like myself again”. I was at a place where I felt like taking a shower was a chore…I look forward to it again. I am ready to tackle life again, instead of letting it tackle me.“

– u/db_1988‍

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“It is still early, but I feel like I am finally able to control my thoughts and emotions. I absolutely have stressors, but I am able to recognize and take the steps to take care of myself. I’m not exhausted anymore from constantly trying to fight or control my mental state…

I’m so thankful this was an option for me. I’ve tried so many antidepressants and don’t function well on them…

Lastly – I am so grateful for this community. THANK YOU for answering my questions and being a source of comfort.”

– u/Dot-Klutzy‍

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“I’ve suffered from depression for 20+ years, with the addition of anxiety in the last 10 or so. I’ve tried numerous prescription drugs, vitamins, minerals, supplements, as well as CBD and THC. Some worked better than others, but I was never able to find any “magic” combination that produced consistent, long term results…

For the first time in years, I feel like a normal-ish human being. Gone are the feelings of dread. My mind is no longer consumed by negative thoughts, playing out every “what if” scenario (“Are people taking about me behind my back? Am I in trouble at work? Why do I feel like a failure? How can I solve this?” Etc). While this isn’t a cure (I’ve had some insomnia and anxiety the last couple days), the improvements are substantial. I’m laughing and smiling a lot more. I can concentrate to a much better degree. I can string two thoughts together without losing my train of thought. I’ve had bursts of energy, enjoying a hobby that I had no interest in for over a year. I’ve noticed that I’m acting much nicer and it is a pleasant feeling.”

– u/BigMikeATL

Ketamine and Psychedelic Therapy Subreddits

If you’d like to do more research and hear first-hand treatment accounts, here are some subreddits specifically devoted to discussion around ketamine treatment, psychedelic therapy and medicine, and psychedelic research:‍

r/TherapeuticKetamine‍

r/KetamineTherapy‍

r/PsychedelicTherapy‍

r/PsychedelicMedicine‍

r/PsychedelicStudies‍

These communities discuss treatments, solutions, news, and general information related to psychedelic therapy solutions.

Each Ketamine Therapy Experience is Different

While most of the conversation around ketamine therapy on Reddit is favorable about the treatment, it’s important to understand that each person’s psychedelic journey is different. The excerpts above represent the positive outcomes of these Reddit users’ healing journeys, but may not paint the full picture of their experience. We encourage you to read their full stories to understand how ketamine treatment has affected their lives.

Additionally, some Reddit users report using different treatment methods such as IV/IM infusions, nasal sprays, or troches / tablets, which can provide different experiences and outcomes as well.

Overall, like the science-backed research around ketamine, feedback around this treatment modality is overwhelmingly positive. We thank these users for contributing their stories and continuing the conversation about how psychedelic medicine can change lives.

If you’re considering ketamine therapy options, we invite you to take a brief survey to see if you’re a candidate for Mindbloom.

When you embark on a great adventure to an unfamiliar destination — trekking the mountains, sailing vast oceans, or experiencing a sprawling city, for example — it’s beneficial to enlist the help of an experienced guide.

A guide is someone familiar with the territory. A skilled, and knowledgeable navigator. They prevent you from getting lost, help you avoid injury, and help you notice or discover things that you might miss by yourself.

If you’ll be exploring your own psyche, as is the case with psychedelic therapy, there is no real difference. The ocean of the mind is vast, and it’s helpful to have an experienced guide with you when working within the psychedelic experience.

What is a Psychedelic Guide?

A psychedelic guide helps provide direction, safety, and security when working with psychedelic or altered states of consciousness as a medicinal experience. They’re also equipped and trained with a specific skill set in case any challenges or obstacles arise along the way.

Psychedelic guides provide a safe and secure “container” —the structure and support to help you focus on your journey. They’re equipped and prepared to help unlock more powerful experiences or deeper truths, ensuring a safe and powerful “trip” together. 

They cannot walk the path for you, but they can walk alongside you, providing assistance, information, or support as necessary. It is this support that makes guides invaluable in the psychedelic experience.

What is a Psychedelic Guide’s Role at Mindbloom?

Here at Mindbloom, you can think of Guides like a peer coach: someone trained and experienced in helping individuals through transformative experiences, and skilled in navigating the psychedelic waters. 

Throughout the program, they help to ensure everything is moving along smoothly —from logistics, to helping prepare the set/setting, refine intentions, and unpack emotions and experiences that may arise in the sessions or as the program unfolds.

We look for a few core characteristics when hiring and training our Guides. They include: experience and understanding of the psychedelic experience, training in coaching, neuroscience, and/or personal transformation techniques, and a high degree of empathy and ability to hold space for our clients.

Whenever you make the decision to move through a transformational process, it is helpful to have support with you. They cannot walk the path for you, but they can walk alongside you, providing support, insight, empathy, and a few laughs along the way.‍

Mindbloom Guides are not licensed clinicians, nor are they licensed therapists. They are a supporting force that, in tandem with our clinical team, help contribute to the remarkable outcomes clients have reported throughout their Mindbloom journeys.

What’s the Difference between a Psychedelic Guide and a Facilitator?

If you’re interested in becoming a psychedelic guide, it’s important to know the scope of your role, while also understanding the roles of other individuals who play a key part in supporting people through psychedelic therapies.

Another role that can be present during a psychedelic experience is a facilitator or, sometimes called practitioner. A facilitator or practitioner is often more involved and plays a more active role in the administration and orchestration of the psychedelic experience itself. Having trained directly in the administration and facilitation of psychedelic compounds and psychedelic experiences — they can be the conductors of the psychedelic symphony.

Sometimes facilitators or practitioners play a very central role in treatment, such as psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy sessions using psilocybin to treat depression. In indigenous cultures, a shaman plays the role of facilitator in psychedelic experiences. Depending on the compound used, and the level of intensity expected during the experience, facilitators or practitioners may not be present.

As part of Mindbloom’s psychedelic therapy experience, our licensed clinicians are the practitioners. They’re certified to prescribe the medicine, in this case ketamine, and are there to assure proper dosing, client safety, and help clients reach their goals for their mental health.

At Mindbloom, the Guides help with preparation for the experience by helping clients prepare their mindset and physical setting, discussing intentions, holding space for integration, while also holding them accountable for integrations exercises, rooting them on when they need encouragement and celebrating wins along the way. 

The Guide works closely with the clinician assuring that the client has a full team dialed in, together, to support their healing process. The roles of Guides, or what the term “Guide” means may vary at other practices.

There are several other primary roles that are an integral part of many’s practice with medicines. Some include licensed psychotherapists or shamans in more indigenous communities. These, like others, are highly specialized roles, often developed over years of direct study and experience.

Just as all members of the band are necessary for an orchestra to sound its best, Guides, in many practices or settings, are an essential and critical part of the psychedelic experience: in preparation, in the experience itself, and in the integration afterwards.

What Qualifications are Needed to be a Psychedelic Guide?

There are no formal qualifications to be a psychedelic guide, nor is there a formal definition of what being a psychedelic guide entails, or an industry-standard training or certification that deems one a “psychedelic guide.”

Working with individuals undergoing psychedelic experiences requires a broad skillset. Due to the deeply transformative nature of the experiences themselves, a safe and secure container is vital. People —such as Guides— in support of others in their space, going through their process with medicine, are a part of this container.

Given that many modern therapeutic and transformative experiences are still being developed inside and outside of clinical settings, there isn’t an absolute list of criteria or a set curriculum that qualifies one to practice in the role of psychedelic guide, safely and therapeutically.

However, there are several categories of skill that are crucial to be a guide and to assist others in these experiences:

• Holding Space: The ability to provide a safe, supportive, and trusted environment for the individual without asserting or projecting individual preferences/opinions on to the individual.
• Crisis Management: The ability to respond quickly and decisively to acute crisis situations, such as psychotic episodes, physical health emergencies, adverse reactions, or the surfacing of traumatic memories.
• Neurobiology/Psychological Familiarity: A comprehensive understanding of the compounds, the range of experiences possible, the connections between mind and body, and resolving common obstacles/challenges/questions that can arise.
• Communication: The ability to clearly and effectively communicate with individuals in sensitive situations, to foster a sense of openness, trust, expertise, and safety for the individual to express and process whatever is coming up for them.

These are the broad categories within which there are many sub-skills or complimentary areas of study and experience to be developed. There are more specific skill sets, and a near endless list of ideal qualities and qualifications that can be suggested for psychedelic guides. 

Overall, a psychedelic guide should be able to set up a safe and secure context and container for the psychedelic experience, and be able to respond effectively and efficiently to any situations that can arise within the individual sessions, to assure both their physical and psychological safety without impeding on their healing process. This applies to both single sessions, and throughout a treatment program that may include a series of treatments.

How do I Learn More or Gain Experience to Qualify as a Psychedelic Guide?

Given the diverse nature of a psychedelic guide’s role from one practice to the next and the range of experiences and qualifications listed above, there are different learning institutions, experiences, and resources that can help to cultivate the skill sets required to be an effective guide.

It’s important to note that this does not apply to the process of becoming a psychedelic therapist. Becoming a therapist has specific educational, clinical and licensing requirements. You can find more information on training to become a psychedelic therapist here.

However, there are a number of outlets that are providing exposure and training to cultivate the skills and qualifications of a psychedelic guide. You can take programming for psychedelic experiences at different universities and institutes, such as the California Institute for Integral Studies, or classes at Naropa University.

There are training and programs focused on psychedelic guiding and sitting, and even psychedelic-specific first-aid programs.

Soliciting feedback from others working in the space, developing mentorship relationships or training arrangements with established organizations or individuals can all help you develop and cultivate the skill sets required to become a psychedelic guide.

What Opportunities are Available for Psychedelic Guides?

Modern psychedelic medicine experiences and psychedelic therapy programs are an emerging field and more openings, companies, and opportunities arise every day. 

There are a number of opportunities already available for psychedelic guides. With a number of new compounds and substances moving through clinical trials with positive results, there are promising signs that more opportunities and varieties of experiences to practice as in this field, will continue to open up in the future.

From supporting individuals through programs like the Guides at Mindbloom do, to becoming a therapist with a focus on integration of psychedelic experiences, psychedelic experience sitter, or to assisting and holding space in other contexts abroad — there are and continue to be new opportunities to support people through their healing journeys with these medicines.

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Disclaimer about Psychedelic Guides: In the emerging space of psychedelic therapy, at present there is no universal agreement as to what qualifies or constitutes a ‘psychedelic guide’. There are a number of different contexts that facilitation and/or guiding is present, and each context will require and work best with different characteristics and qualifications. The information presented is for informational purposes, serving as a high-level overview of some areas in this work, and should not be taken as definitive qualifications or guidelines on how to become a psychedelic guide.

If you’re considering ketamine therapy for the first time, you may be wondering “How does this all work?” or “What is the experience like?”

There are some differences and nuances between other program’s models, such as intravenous infusions/intramuscular injections (IV/IM), or sprays. Mindbloom’s treatment model uses ketamine tablets for oral administration.

Below is a look at a week-by-week overview of the typical ketamine therapy protocol here at Mindbloom, with a specific focus on Mindbloom’s virtual introductory program (or first course of treatment): the Basics.

Ketamine Therapy: Week By Week

Week 0: Fit, Guide & Clinician Introductions, and Medical Evaluation

You’ve completed the pre-candidate survey which has identified that you may possibly be a good candidate for treatment, you have made the decision to move forward in our process to find out if ketamine treatment may be a good fit for you, and your deposit is paid. We’re excited for you!

Your next step is to schedule and attend clinical consultation: the first meeting with your licensed Mindbloom clinician. You can think of this meeting as a psychiatric evaluation, with a specific focus on identifying if this treatment is right for you, and if so what are the important things you need to know before proceeding. Be prepared to discuss how you’re feeling, what your goals are, and an in-depth medical and psychiatric history.

At the end, if the clinician identifies that you are a good fit for ketamine treatment, the first dose will be ordered, and your “Bloombox” —important items related to your experience including a blood pressure cuff, eye mask, and journal— is sent out for delivery.

Once you are approved for treatment, and you have booked your first virtual visit (the first time you take the medicine), you are introduced to your “Guide.” Your Guide will help you prepare, process, and integrate your experience throughout the entire program. The guide does not function in a clinical role. They are not licensed therapists. However, they are trained in a coaching model and the integration of psychedelic medicines and well suited to guide you through your Mindbloom journey with ketamine. 

Initially, they are there to ensure you receive your Bloombox, have prepared your space for the journey, support you in setting intentions, have your Peer Monitor (a loved one or close friend) available, and are feeling comfortable starting your sessions.

Week 1: First session and integration guidance

It’s time for your first session! 

You have your first dose of medication, your essential supplies are by your side, and your Peer Monitor is standing by. You will jump on video and be joined by your Guide to ensure everything is set up to support a valuable and safe experience.

After re-visiting your intentions and taking time to connect with yourself, you and your Guide discuss safety protocols, take blood pressure readings, confirm dosages, and intentions, and make space to address any questions or concerns.

With your Guide available and your Peer Monitor present, you take the medicine and embark on your first session. You may experience a range of emotions, insights, or sensations: From dissociation, to cathartic emotional release, reliving past memories, or novel (new) feelings or sensations. Everyone’s experience with the medicine differs, and how you’ll feel during the experience varies. 

After taking some time to process the experience and doing some integrative journaling, you reunite with your Guide and your clinician on video. You’ll discuss how the experience was, what arose for you, and how you felt about the medicine and your dosage. Based on this, your clinician will adjust the dosage if necessary, and submit the remaining prescription for your next 5 sessions.

Taking some time to reflect and process your session, and to take initial action for integration, will help the rest of the program unfold as smoothly as possible.

Your Guide continues to help you unpack and make sense of the experience in the first week, and will set up some integration activities for the next week. They’ll work with you to get the next session scheduled about 1-2 weeks from the first session date.

Week 2: Second session and initial results / insights

During the week leading up to your second session, you will continue to integrate, and may have a few questions for, or conversations with, your Guide. You’re free to use their expertise and insight to help you make sense of and reflect on the experiences you are having. 

Changes in mood or outlook may occur. You may experience mood elevations, a sense of calm, new relationships or associations with triggers and an openness to new experiences throughout the following days.

It is generally recommended, particularly for the first program, to space the sessions one week apart. This allows space for one treatment to settle and for you to reflect, the benefits to compound, and allows the biological and neurochemical changes to take place, all while hopefully making progress forward with each step along the way.

In Week 2, you return for your second session. You discuss and prepare with your Guide just as you did in the first round, sharing any insights or experiences that have transpired over the past few days. With the medical checks in place and your Peer Monitor present, you head into your second ketamine therapy session.

Once again, you are reunited with your Guide after your experience to reflect on your journaling, share about your experiences, and begin to make sense of anything that has come up for you. Your Guide can help to further unpack the experience, suggest some next steps and integration activities, and hold space for any challenging emotions or memories that arose throughout the experience.

Now at the halfway point of the first treatment program, you have a digital Medical Team Check-In, so that our clinical team can chart your progress, track your experiences, and make any necessary adjustments or interventions that are required.

The next few days are time spent being gentle with yourself, in reflection, and acting on any lessons or experiences that surfaced.

Weeks 3-5: Choosing a guided or self-guided treatment path

In the time leading up to the third session, you may notice positive shifts in mood. You may also receive comments from others about changes they are noticing in you. You might notice new opportunities or ways of thinking about certain areas in your life.

The more you dedicate yourself to the integration time in between sessions, the deeper the lessons settle in, and the more durable the experience and the benefits become in the long-term.

With more experience and a deeper relationship with the medicine, the third session gives you the opportunity to continue with your guide for video supported treatment preparation and debriefing or self-guided (using the medicine on your own at home, with Peer Monitor present), at the discretion of your clinician. The ability to steward your own healing process can provide a sense of autonomy, confidence, and be an important shift in your healing process.

If you choose self-guided sessions, the structure remains the same. Your Peer Monitor is present throughout each dosing session. You can curate your own soundscape for the experience, as you’re familiar with set and setting preparation recommendations, or use the ones that are provided for you. You will leverage your learnings around preparing your mindset by revisiting your intentions, trusting and letting go, and journaling post treatment in support of integration.

You continue to remain in contact with your Guide, who is there to answer questions, offer advice, or simply listen if there is something that needs to be expressed. The option to add on more dedicated integration coaching sessions is also available, promoting ample space to deeply explore the themes emerging and ensure they contribute to lasting change.

Week 6: Final session and check-ins

Following the weekly treatment schedule, you have a few days for reflection and integration before embarking on the sixth and final session of your introductory program. As always, you can refer to the personalized and curated preparation and integration materials provided in your account, or work closer with your Guide to navigate anything still uncertain.

The sixth treatment session marks the end of the introductory program and first course of treatment., and some clients have seen considerable change by this point. This is typically marked by noted elevations in mood and outlook, powerful insights that have helped resolve past challenges or future worries, or a new relationship with yourself and how you see your role in the world —or in your own life.

There is a final medical check-in from the clinical team to monitor progress, and ensure that your care is at the level you need and want. The final step is to schedule a check-in with your Guide to wrap-up the first program.

Week 7: Next steps

This is the final check-in with your Guide for the introductory program. You’ll discuss how you’re feeling, make a plan for ongoing integration, and take a look at what next steps are available.

It’s important that each program has a ‘closing.’ It’s a time to reflect on where you were when you started, and where you are today. You’ll consider what work remains to be done and how to continue to integrate the experiences. Ultimately, you’ll look towards the future and determine what the right next step is for you.

There are 3 paths clients often take at this point:

1. Parting Ways: Some clients have done the work they needed to do, and choose to return to their lives and the world with the knowledge they’ve gained.
2. Taking Time to Integrate: Some of our clients complete an initial course of treatment and feel better at that point. Some may opt to take a few weeks to integrate the themes/lessons/experiences that unfolded. We may then see them a month or two later as the growth has solidified and they hope to find deeper healing or they have identified that their mood has shifted back a bit and it may be time for a treatment booster to bring them back to their new elevated baseline mood.
3. Starting a New Program: Some clients feel like they have built substantial momentum, and are starting to delve into important territory. They want to continue treatment, and move onto another curated 6-session treatment program to continue exploring these themes and making progress to their mental health goals. The process begins again with a check-in with the clinician who works with the client to develop an individualized plan for continuing care.

FAQ about Mindbloom’s Psychedelic Therapy Programs

IF you had any further questions after reading the above, here are some questions that are frequently asked about our introductory program: The Basics.

What does each program look like?

Mindbloom’s programs are structured as a pack of 6 treatment sessions. Each treatment session takes about 2-2.5 hours, depending on the involvement of a Guide or not. Each program—think of this as a digital guide or workbook—has a particular theme, with all preparation and integration content supporting the exploration of this theme. 

How many sessions are there?

Mindbloom programs have 6 sessions. Some IV/IM ketamine clinics may sell single-session options, or larger packs of 5-6. This will vary based on the provider.

What do I need to do?

Although considered a rapid-acting antidepressant (RAAD), Ketamine treatment and therapy isn’t a “magic pill,” Doing the preparation work before following instructions and guidance by your clinician,, and continuing the integration work after sessions is important.

Being willing to make changes, begin new habits, and have important conversations, all deeply assist the effects of the medicine itself.

What’s the time commitment?

The sessions themselves are 2-2.5 hours long, generally spaced 1 week apart during the first course of treatment. A full program will take about 6-8 weeks to complete, and depending on time spent reflecting and integrating, will be about 2-6 hours of work each week.

Can I stretch the program out longer?

To maximize the biological effectiveness of ketamine treatments, it’s helpful to keep each dosing session 1-2 weeks apart, however, this is a conversation that should be had with your clinician as everyone’s treatment is individualized based on their needs.

It is possible to increase the length of time between each individual dosing session, though particularly for the first introductory programs, this is not recommended. There are biological and neurochemical benefits to ketamine as a medicine, which work best when compounded.

Why are there 6 sessions?

Each individual dosing session provides both biological and psychological benefits. By stacking a series of sessions closer together in a shorter amount of time, you can maximize the potential effects of the treatment. Mindbloom has developed our protocol to include an initial course of six treatments to build up a solid foundation of the medicine in your system and help you hopefully achieve a new baseline.