Psychedelic Integration

Entheogens, empathogens, psychedelics, mystical non-ordinary states of consciousness. These states are permeating our dominant culture right now. Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy is on the rise. 

I was trained as a Psychedelic- Assisted Guide in 2020, although I am not currently working in this realm, nor do I plan too. The organization I was trained under was unethical and abusive, although at the time, it was world-renowned. I no longer agree with the common psychedelic therapy model, with emphasis on eyeshades and music. From my personal experience, and how I’ve seen it work with others, I find it often silences people’s voices, and the interpersonal realm between guide and client. I trust Andrew Feldmar, R.D. Laing, and Bruce Sanguin’s approach to psychedelics, which emphasizes relationship.

I am a survivor of psychedelic abuse. Because of what I went through, I am a writer on ethics in psychedelic experiences. What I have found over the last few years of healing from psychedelic abuse, is that these substances often bring up our deepest childhood wounding. If we have a significant amount of unprocessed childhood trauma, these wounds will likely be peeled back along the way for us “psychonauts,” and this can lead to intense projections and transference in the client and guide relationship.

Not only this, but psychedelics can blow past our defenses at a heightened level, and without systems of community care, support and integration, this can lead people to feeling immensely dysregulated. It’s common for people who do a lot of psychedelics to swing from having an immense God-complex in one instance, and a strong helpless victimhood in the next. I’ve watched several friends over the years lose ground with reality entirely after too much psychedelic use, and I’ve witnessed the death of a dear friend to a manic-dissociative state during a plant dieta.

I personally feel the obsessive psychedelic hype, and marketing propaganda that psychedelics are some sort of silver bullet for saving humanity, is ungrounded and fake. It reminds me of the Evangelical Church and its proclamation that accepting Jesus into one’s heart will also save humanity. Most of us know what terrible violence this kind of indoctrination has done to the world.

I believe for many, the inability to digest or presence the original wound, which for many people, is having abusive parents in childhood, is what re-enacts trauma and harm in psychedelic spaces. The deformation of the personality that comes from having parents who were emotionally, physically and/or sexually abusive leaves a lasting impact. In my personal experience, I’ve found that telling the truth about what happened to me in my own childhood, has allowed me to heal from the pain and trauma I experienced in psychedelic spaces.

I once was an eager and enthusiastic advocate and proponent of psychedelic experiences. Now, I have a nuanced and balanced view. Sometimes, these substances can be immensely transformative and healing for people, and perhaps just as often, they can re-enact harm, and create too much chaos and overwhelm in people’s bodies leaving them more mentally unstable than before. If you want to read some of my writing on the hidden harms within the psychedelic renaissance, you can check out an essay I wrote that is published in Mad In America: The Hidden Harms Within the Psychedelic Renaissance - Mad In America

You can read more about how I offer integrative support with these services here:  Tara Behr, LPC - Counselor in Colorado Springs, CO · Psychedelic Support 

Or check out my Instagram, where I offer several writings or videos touching on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy:  Tara Rae Behr (@tararaebehr) • Instagram photos and videos