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    Psychedelic integration ICEERS study

    Deepening Psychedelic Integration

    08.01.2025

    Deepening Psychedelic Integration: Exploring Complex Settings, Understanding User’s Struggles, and Implementing Safe Interventions

    Author:
    Marc Aixalà.

    Book:
    Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences

    Year:
    2024

     

    About the study

    This chapter takes a transdisciplinary approach to examining psychedelic integration across diverse contexts, including clinical trials, neo-shamanic, traditional, and recreational settings. The author aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of integration, distinguishing between maximizing potential benefits and addressing adverse reactions. The chapter highlights the importance of tailored approaches depending on the unique challenges presented in each context.

    Drawing from the experience of the ICEERS Integration and Support Service since 2012, the chapter explores practical aspects of clinical interventions. It identifies the profiles of individuals seeking support, focusing on challenges such as lack of preparation, unresolved experiences, difficulties with facilitators, traumatic psychedelic episodes, exacerbation of pre-existing mental health conditions, and repetitive psychedelic use without proper integration. These insights underline the complexity of integration work and the varied needs of those involved in it.

    The chapter also presents a clinical intervention method emphasizing core values of psychedelic work, incorporating these into a brief and focused methodology. This approach is designed to adapt to the specific needs of each individual, enabling effective integration and support. By blending structured methods with a deep understanding of individual struggles, the chapter offers a practical framework for safe and meaningful psychedelic integration.

     

    Abstract

    This chapter adopts a transdisciplinary approach to explore the concept of psychedelic integration, considering its various contexts ranging from clinical trials to Neo-shamanic, traditional, and recreational settings. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding and description of integration, distinguishing between the needs of maximising potential benefits and addressing adverse reactions. Psychedelic Integration is a widely used term that refers to a variety of practices commonly employed after psychedelic experiences to help ground the benefits or address the challenges that arise from them. Although the term is broadly accepted, it lacks a precise definition, and a wide range of practices and techniques, often quite different from one another, are included under this category. Drawing on the experiences at the ICEERS (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education Research and Services) Integration and Support Service since 2012, the chapter highlights the practical aspects of clinical intervention.

    The chapter delves into the profiles of individuals seeking integration support, focusing on the primary challenges they encounter. These profiles include lack of preparation, unresolved experiences, difficulties with facilitators, traumatic psychedelic episodes, the exacerbation of pre-existing mental disorders, the emergence of previously unknown traumatic events, repeated psychedelic use without proper integration, and perceptions of being attacked or possessed by entities.

    Moreover, an overview of a method of clinical intervention that underscores the fundamental values inherent in psychedelic work is presented. This approach aims to integrate these values into the intervention process, employing a brief and focused methodology. By tailoring the intervention to the individual’s specific needs, this method facilitates effective integration and support.

     

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    Categories: Studies & papers , Psychedelics
    Tags: scientific research , study , psychedelics , hallucinogens , integration , psychedelic integration