Psychedelics have been gaining a lot of attention for their use in treating everything from anxiety to post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the basis of psychedelic integration therapy is not just the medicine, but how you engage with the experience afterwards that may be just as important. This option can help you turn a single psychedelic experience into lasting change
What Is Psychedelic Integration Therapy?
Psychedelic integration therapy is a talking therapy that happens before and after a psychedelic experience. It usually involves preparation sessions before you take the substance, and follow-up work to explore the emotions that came up during your ‘trip’. The idea is to help you make sense of what it all means with support from a professional therapist. You might engage in psychedelic integration therapy while undergoing clinical ketamine treatment, or following a personal experience with non-legal substances.
The science behind psychedelics
Drugs like psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and ketamine affect the brain in different ways (ketamine isn’t a classic psychedelic, but is generally considered one in this context.) Each of these substances can induce visual and auditory distortions or hallucinations.
However, they also increase neuroplasticity: they have the power to loosen rigid thinking patterns and allow your brain to make new connections. If you’re dealing with a condition like treatment-resistant depression or PTSD, this can be life-changing. However, it’s not just the psychedelic experience alone that creates change. You must make sense of and “incorporate the insights, emotions, and changes that may arise during a psychedelic journey into your everyday life,” as MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) puts it. That’s what psychedelic integration means.
Where Is It being used?
In the US, ketamine therapy is already available off-label across the country, not only by clinics, but also through virtual services where the dose is self-administered at home. In the UK, use is more limited and progress has been slower, mainly due to expenses.
The UK’s first ketamine clinic, Awaken Clinic, closed its doors in 2024 after four years of operation. Despite clinical success, there weren’t enough patients who could pay the £6,000 needed for treatment, and the NHS was unwilling to fund it. However, new clinics have since popped up, and even the NHS offers a self-pay ketamine service through the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Information for clinicians
Psychedelic integration therapy isn’t just for clinics offering the medicine itself. If you’re a mental health professional or clinician, like psychotherapists and counselors, you can offer it too. For instance, clients may be looking for integration therapy after a legal ketamine session elsewhere, or after taking a psychedelic on their own or on a retreat.
Either way, they may need support to process what happened. Training for specialisms like KAP (ketamine assisted therapy) is starting to appear in the UK through online portals. There’s still a way to go before it’s widely available, primarily because ketamine is still an “off-label” treatment.
Endnote
Post-COVID, mental health needs are higher than ever. And in situations where traditional medications and therapy aren’t working, psychedelics offer a new path backed by growing science. Used with integration therapy, they’re changing how we think about healing and helping us move away from symptom-treating toward deep, mind-body healing.
Feature photo by Shannon VanDenHeuvel on Unsplash