Psychedelic Integration Resources
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Psychedelic Integration Resources ⋆
This is a working list of resources that you can explore for integration of your medicine experience. Integration is perhaps one of the most important steps in psychedelic healing, and can look very unique to each person. Some general ideas:
Body/somatic/energy work in the weeks following your session (e.g. massage, yoga, acupuncture, Reiki).
Creative outlets (e.g. drawing, painting, playing music, using AI-generated art apps to explore imagery that you experienced during your journey).
Listening to some of the music that was played during your session.
If your medicine journey was recorded, listening to the recording of your journey can be an intense but powerful aspect of integration work; it's OK to take your time and digest it in small pieces.
If you are currently seeing a therapist and they are supportive of your medicine work, please use your sessions following your medicine journey to continue integration work and exploring potential shifts/changes that you can make, using whatever modalities you have found that help. I'm a big fan of bottom-up processing and resourcing methods like EMDR, IFS (parts work), mindfulness and somatic/sensorimotor approaches.
Peer Support/Affinity Communities
Fireside Project Psychedelic Peer Support Line:
Call or text 62-FIRESIDE.
Open everyday 11:00 am - 11:00 pm PT.
Autistic Psychedelic Community:
A virtual community of neurodivergent people who who hold regular online and in person gatherings to support psychedelic healing work and education.
Erowid:
A member-supported organization providing access to reliable, non-judgmental information about psychoactive plants, chemicals, and related issues.
Psychonaut Wiki:
A community-driven online encyclopedia that aims to document the field of psychedelics in a comprehensive, scientifically-grounded manner.
Get-Free Learning Community:
In addition to providing training to psychedelic practitioners from an intersectional social justice framework, the Get-Free community also hosts a monthly BIPOC integration circle on the 4th Sunday of each month.
Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund:
Indigenous keystone medicines, traditional cultures and territories are at risk of cultural and physical extermination. As the world comes to embrace their healing potential, IMC works to ensure that the original holders of these sacred medicines are respected and uplifted.
Women on Psychedelics:
A community that centers the voices of women and femme-identified people in the psychedelic healing movement
MushWomb Community:
Founded by Mikaela de la Myco, the MushWomb community offers many supportive services to those who identify was mothers or as people who have menstrual cycles, including an e-book resource on the use of plant medicines to support the entire reproductive process.
Psychedelic Liberation Collective:
A decentralized group of QT/BIPOC folks advocating for collective liberation who host regular psychedelic integration circles and share resources with community.
Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines:
A diverse community of practitioners, researchers and educators who hold regular online and in-person forums on various topics related to psychedelic social justice.
DanceSafe:
A public health organization promoting health and safety within the nightlife and electronic music community.
TripSit:
An online community that promotes open discussion of harm reduction techniques and positive support. TripSit promotes the use of harm reduction tools such as test kits, and offer guidance and support with regards to harm reduction when using drugs.
Further Reading:
Trip Journal and Integration Workbook by Psychedelics Today
Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration, by Kile Ortigo, PhD
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, by Michael Pollan
How to Work with Difficult Psychedelic Experiences: An online community-sources manual by the Zendo Project
Trust Surrender Receive: How MDMA Can Release Us from Trauma and PTSD, by Anne Other
A Dose of Hope: A Story of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy, by Dr. Dan Engle and Alex Young
DoubleBlind Magazine: An online magazine about psychedelics and healing.
Queering Psychedelics: From Oppression to Liberation in Psychedelic Medicine, Edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate, Alexander Belser and Clancy Cavnar
Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences, by William A. Richards, PhD
The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide, by James Fadiman PhD
The Psychedelic Handbook: A Practical Guide to Psilocybin, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, and DMT/Ayahuasca, by Rick Strassman, MD
Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion: An Informative Easy-to-Use Guide to Understanding Magic Mushrooms, by Michelle Janikian
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk
Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis, by Gregg Wrenn. A beautiful 2024 memoir about a queer man living with C-PTSD who finds healing through connecting with nature and psychedelics, and that also addresses our global climate crisis.
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, by Peter Levine
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving, by Pete Walker – check out all the free resources on his website, linked in book title.
The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self, by Alice Walker
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents, by Lindsay Gibson
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, by Stephanie Foo
The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, by Francis Weller
The Integral Guide to Well-Being: An online tool developed by a person living with complex PTSD
Further Watching/Listening:
Trip of Compassion: A 2019 documentary that follows actual participants in the MAPS MDMA research trials in Israel.
MDMA for the treatment of trauma: a clinical trial therapist's perspective. This is an excellent presentation by MAPS clinical trial therapist and trainer Marcela Ot’alora, MA, LPC, that gives a very accurate overview of the fundamental principles and approaches underlying MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of trauma.
Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories podcast with Craig Heacock MD: Craig is a KAP (ketamine-assisted psychotherapy) provider and experienced psychonaut who explores mental health, healing and psychedelics.
Fantastic Fungi: A 2019 documentary about mushrooms and their healing properties
How to Change Your Mind: The docuseries version based off of Michael Pollan's book, which includes an episode about MDMA-assisted treatment
Psychedelics Today podcast: A substantial resource for learning more about psychedelic healing – also check out the Psychedelics Today website for great resources.
Further Practice:
Psychedelic.Support: A directory of trained practitioners in psychedelic-assisted medicine and integration
ThirdWave Psychedelic Directory: Another directory of trained practitioners in psychedelic-assisted medicine and integration
Journey Clinical: A referral and prescription service for working with KAP (ketamine-assisted psychotherapy) providers; the KRIYA Ketamine Research Institute also has a directory of KAP providers.
Synthesis Institute: provides safe, evidence-based psychedelic retreats in the Netherlands.
Spiritual Emergence Network: provides individuals that are experiencing psychospiritual difficulties a specialized mental health referral and support service.
Holotropic Breathwork: a technique developed by Stanislav Grof that uses accelerated breathing with the support of trained guides to achieve a non-ordinary state of consciousness. (You can also check out the Wim Hof Method and Effiji Breath)