Integration Groups: Perils, Promises, & Why EXPERT Facilitators Should Lead
The “blind leading the blind,” is always a call for caution. In the context of psychedelic integration groups, there seems to be a lack of information when it comes to choosing vetted and responsible integration groups. Our recommendation: choose one being led by experts or facilitators.
The word “integration” is becoming as ubiquitous as the phrase “set and setting” with the growth of the psychedelic renaissance. When a term gets thrown around so frequently, it sometimes begins to lose its meaning. Integration is a powerful continuum tool, and it’s not just one thing–it is the contextualization of the discoveries, images, insights, and sensations that occur within non-ordinary states of consciousness. This process allows for the creation of a whole story, and thus a whole sense of self, by making meaning of the experiences and emotions that arise during a psychedelic journey. By reflecting on and processing the material that rises from your non-ordinary state of consciousness, e.g. insights, feelings, sensations, memories, images, etc., one can expand their clarity, perspective, and wisdom gained from these experiences. Oftentimes, it allows us to connect with repressed, dissociated, or forgotten experiences from our childhood that shape the patterns that constrict our daily activities, either consciously or unconsciously. Integration groups or one-on-one sessions can create the long-lasting changes we seek, but in the wrong hands, can have the opposite effect on our minds, hearts, and souls.
A psychedelic integration group is a means of continuing “the work” post-healing journey through connection, community, and intentional practices. It is one thing to share experiences, findings, and insights amongst friends, family, or like-minded individuals, but it is an entirely different matter to use this same avenue of support as an integration group. An integration group should not be peer-led and there are very few exceptions to this perspective. For example, if you are an integration group that is specifically for experienced facilitators or psychedelic professionals, your “peers” would be uniquely qualified. An integration group should be led by a psychedelic expert, facilitator, or relevant practitioner like a therapist or counselor, and even in that case, the therapist or counselor should also be familiar with psychedelic medicine and altered states of mind. Any old practitioner won’t suffice!
“A psychedelic integration group is a means of continuing ‘the work’ post-healing journey through connection, community, and intentional practices.”
Look at it this way: just because your friend has gone to therapy for half of their life, and they seem to be a really balanced, whole human whom you admire and respect, doesn’t mean you should make them your therapist. And yes, it would be very inappropriate if they suggested that to you as well. Psychedelic medicine can technically be used both recreationally and for healing purposes either through one’s own intentions or through at-home telehealth services (a questionable route I have many opinions on), but let’s be honest about the language we use to name these experiences. Healing may happen in recreational or self-administered settings, but the likelihood is far less than in a professional or cultural setting where the medicine, practices, and frameworks have been developed through years of wisdom, science, and innovation. I’ve even heard of psychedelic “healing groups” that have the potential to convert into sex parties. Again, no judgment here–if that is what interests you, stay safe, be informed, express your consent, and respect boundaries. But when we’re talking about psychedelic medicine, we’re talking about traversing the very delicate territory of the mind, heart, intuition, and spirit. It is a holistic health matter, and even if entirely sober (a requirement for integration sessions), we are still susceptible to manipulation, harm, and traumatization. That is the potential danger of integration groups being led by untrained and unskilled group leaders.
Integration group leaders need to be trained and acutely attuned to the sensitivity of these parts and histories of vulnerable people. A well-meaning peer leader can still (and often does) show up with their own biases, unacknowledged shadow, and unhealed trauma. There is a novel theory that psychedelics could offer the flexibility to promote false insights and beliefs under psychedelics (FIBUS), and an untrained, unhealed facilitator may not be skilled enough to discern those discoveries with care, tact, and acumen. There is a well-known phenomena that seems to be prevalent in the psychedelic space: the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which explains the overinflated sense of confidence that develops despite limited experience or competence. It’s not just about having had your own experience with psychedelics, but having encountered, studied, and worked with the altered states of many people’s psychedelic experiences. It is about confidence, wisdom, and integrated intelligence that grows over thousands of hours. Hours, time, experience. This is what an integration group leader should have, the same way our medical doctors, medicine men and women (shamans), therapists, certified counselors, and others whom we deem to be experts all have.
"…when we’re talking about psychedelic medicine, we’re talking about traversing the very delicate territory of the mind, heart, intuition, and spirit."
In a paper published in The International Review of Psychiatry, researchers from New York University, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Oxford write that it’s not uncommon to feel loneliness or isolation after a psychedelic experience. As a result, many are turning to community integration groups where people talk through their experiences together. The authors write, “While integration groups can potentially offer significant benefit to participants, they may also run the risk of exacerbating or compounding any negative effects experienced, or even introducing novel harms.”
Participants in these integration groups vary widely (many are underground and/or consist of relatively inexperienced peers as opposed to trained facilitators). Such people may not know how best to support one another in exploring post-trip emotions (putting it lightly). Group dynamics can allow scientific misinformation about coping strategies to propagate, and may also amplify “cultish dynamics,” the authors note. Opinions are not facts, but without discerning fact-checkers or trained and educated providers, vulnerable peers might not know the difference. They propose more research to study integration groups. The researchers also make recommendations for such groups, which include a call to be more transparent about their values, structure, and cost, as well as having a protocol for involving mental health professionals.
There are a lot of options out there. I encourage you to choose wisely and to share this information with peers, friends, or family who are either participating in peer-led integration groups or are looking to find an integration group that is right for them.
At Soul Surgeon MD, we currently offer private integration sessions while we develop our monthly group integration offering. If you are looking for a regular, i.e. monthly, integration offering, let us know. In the meantime, stay tuned for updates - we will keep you posted! Contact us through this form or reach out directly at heal@soulsurgeon.com.
When America First Dropped Acid in September 1957 to the New Psychedelic Renaissance
The New Yorker published a piece titled, ‘When America First Dropped Acid,’ about a young anonymous woman's live LSD trip alongside regarded researcher Sidney Cohen on CBS television in September of 1957. Even with today’s popularity of psychedelics in the mainstream and their infiltration into Silicon Valley spaces, the idea of broadcasting a person’s non-guided trip seems radical and reckless.
Let’s take a look at what this really meant in 1957 and how this would play out today in what our community knows as the “Psychedelic Renaissance.”
What was happening in America in 1957? America was in the throes of the race to space and the first satellite "Sputnik" was launched by Russia. There was a post-World War II baby boom. Culturally, there was a youthful and ideological rebellion evolving from the Beat Generation. It would only be a short three years later when Timothy Leary would co-found the Harvard Psilocybin Project, taking center stage with his unorthodox evangelism to “spread the word” about psychedelics. Ultimately, this would help to vigorously catalyze the hippie movement and the subsequent Controlled Substances Act, landing LSD on the Schedule 1 list with all of the other substances deemed to have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
This live broadcast was venturesome; a developmental effort to push psychedelics into the mainstream and millions of homes (literally) across America. Although it aspired to convey this was a medicine with massive healing potential for both mental health and associated services, it is unclear if it achieved its intended effect. For those who were curious to learn about or try psychedelics, they “held not only the promise of fixing a clinical problem but of opening those doors of perception to some noumenal realm otherwise hidden to us,” writes the author of The New Yorker piece, Margaret Talbot. This was all before widespread knowledge of the hallucinogenic and transformative qualities of psychedelics were known; in fact, it was right before. A golden precipice that held so much potential, yet it was too good to be true. It all came crashing down as the 60s bled into the 70s, when not only did psychedelics become illegal, but researchers and practitioners were barred from their study or use. For those academics brave enough to soldier on, they did so at the peril of their careers, reputations, and livelihoods.
Now here we are in 2024, in the midst of our psychedelic renaissance, finally making strides (albeit slowly), and the world is finally starting to see psychedelics again as medicines whose efficacy has been proven by respected academic institutions like Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins. Every day, it seems another story or journal is published with astounding, almost unbelievable results for groups whose mental health has long been dismissed, like veterans, PTSD victims, and trauma survivors. From psychedelic prohibition and the moratorium on research to exploring consciousness and spirituality in the context of psychedelics, we’ve come a long way.
I wonder, what would happen if we repeated this social experiment today: live broadcasting a healing journey on mainstream networks? What reaction would our country have to this display and would it benefit the movement? With the internet as it is today and viral scandals happening left and right, I don’t know if it would amount to more than a drop in the bucket of noise. But, the real big “What if?” looms. In a post-COVID world, with wars happening on all corners of the globe, with polarizing perspectives and ideologies clashing, with our youth distrustful and rebelling against the systems that have failed them, with our homeless population rising, to a society pacified with digital technology, amid a mental health epidemic where the need for psychedelic medicine has never been more prevalent…what would be the turning point that would make the leaders of this country deem psychedelics as essential medicines in helping us heal our collective, societal wounding? That could open up the floodgates to researchers and their academic institutions, mystical leaders and their cultural containers, and politicians and their government agencies collaborating and working together? That could soften or break down the divisiveness and obstacles keeping us separate, and instead, draw us closer together?
Maybe we need a reality check (myself as well) to where we really are in September 2024. The battle has not been won just yet. We must be responsible and hold reverence for every inch we are given. We must elevate platforms and raise support for thought leaders and organizations with responsible, professional, and ethical intentions.
The difference between the psychedelic biome in 1957 and 2024 is that we now hold the prescience to learn from our past mistakes. It is up to us to turn this knowledge into wisdom and act on it responsibly.
