Preperation
There are three major pieces to this work: preparation, the medicine experience and integration. Often, preparation can be overlooked, and setting ourselves up well in the first step can make a big difference in continuing the work along the way.
I offer one-to-one sessions to help people prepare for medicine experiences.
The focus in Preparation Sessions can include:
Supporting Informed Choices and Promoting Harm Reduction
Clarifying & Refining Your Intentions
Addressing Hopes and Fear
Deepening the Self Inquiry process
Developing Resources
Information about the Medicine and/or Shamanism
psychedelic harm reduction
Sometimes, people don’t know if they are ready or a good fit to do this work. Psyceldic harm reduction is an approach to support clients to make informed choices, to reduce potential harm for those curious about working with psychedelic medicines, and to maximize the therapeutic potential of this work.
Clarifying & Refining Intentions
Intention is an essential part of working with medicine. Working with intention can really help ground the experience, process it, and focus it. It can be both a compass and an anchor during and after the medicine experience. I work with people in preparation for their journeys to frame their Intentions, both in terms of what they want to achieve and identify blockages holding them back.
Often, people have a long list of Intentions about what they want to get from their work with medicine. Equally often, I find an underlying essence that consolidates their list of intentions into the real core of what they are looking for, making it from a long and fragmented list into something concise, clear, and focused.
It is also about how this medicine is approached. Intention opens us up to a field of possibilities and allows us to work with what comes. We can compare it to expectations attached to a certain outcome.
Deepening Self-Inquiry & Addressing Hopes or Fears
In coaching with compassion, questions, and prompts, we can start the process of connecting present-day reality to past experiences. Often, the most prominent ways and core wounds that are impacting the way we see, move, and interact with the world are rooted in the past and triggered by the present. Inquiry work is to help people come to their own conclusions and connect with their own inner wisdom. It is a guided and empowering way to start connecting the dots of self-exploration.
Everyone who does this work has hopes and fears. By addressing some of these in preparation, we can start to uncover any expectations that could get in the way. We can also make fears explicit and address any protective parts. Addressing our protector’s fears can support a deeper sense of safety and connection within a medicine experience.
Developing Resources
Resources are our tools for regulation inside and around the medicine experience. Together, we can identify some internal and external resources that can support navigating the medicine experience and how you might use them.
The Medicine, Jungle & Shamanism
Sometimes, people want to ask practical questions about medicine, logistics, how to approach this system, and the style of work with plants. We can talk about these things, too.