become your own greatest ally with internal family systems
Prepare & Integrate Psychedelic Experiences
People all over the world—we're talking about 9% of the global population—at certain stages of their lives, turn to psychedelic experiences to explore expanded states of consciousness, in a recreative setting or to transform limiting or painful internal patterns that have been ingrained for years, resistant to traditional medications and therapies, and that have a significant impact on their daily lives.
This is known as psychedelic medicine, or plant medicine, which has been used since prehistoric times and has been scientifically studied for over 70 years.
Used by medical professionals in a therapeutic setting, it has been used since 1950 to effectively treat pathologies and disorders such as alcohol and heroin addiction, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and to improve the well-being of terminally ill cancer patients, among many others.
In 1970, US President Nixon declared psychedelics Schedule I controlled substances, deemed dangerous, without any medical benefit, and subject to strict control. Scientific studies on the effects of psychedelic medicine were interrupted; they did not resume until 2000.
These psychedelic experiences, whether or not assisted by therapy, now take place in countries where their use is legal. In Europe, these substances are used within a medical framework in Switzerland and Portugal for example. In the Netherlands, supervised, non-therapeutic retreats are organized.
If you feel you'd like to be guided for your preparation or/and integration, let's talk !
The psychedelic journey is a potent amplification of your perceptions, allowing you to free yourself from very old and sometimes unknown wounds and access direct Knowing about life, death, love, nature and Reality.
Amplification of what ? It is your inner world that gets amplified. Thus, your innate qualities are amplified, and so are your wounds. This phenomenon thus allows deeper self knowledge, and also deeper feeling of wounds that you are not used to be close to in your everyday life, or even that you avoid most, thanks to your defense mechanisms. This amplification is what allows the healing of profound, old wounds and the shifting of your defense mechanisms into advisers and supporters, instead of armed soldier like guardians.
Preparation, weeks before the experience and integration, the weeks after, are paramount to infuse consciousness and safety in the experience itself, and support the unfolding of your insights and healing and of change in your everyday life.
IFS is psychedelic* in itself, as it allows to access the Mind in a direct way *(etymology : from the Greek "that reveals the soul", "that manifest Spirit")
It is only natural that this model be so well adapted to prepare for and integrate psychedelic journeys.
Preparing for and integrating a psychedelic trip is honoring yourself, your transformation and the medicine as well. Thus, it needs to be prepared, experienced and integrated in one's life with reverence and care.
IFS allows you to get familiar with the aspects of yourself that need healing (exiles) and the ones that are rigid or uncontrollable (defense mechanisms), that you wish to see transform.
You start having conversations with your inner parts, hear the ones that have concerns, hopes and expectations and learn to function in alliance with them. They eventually feel prepared themselves for the coming experience. We obtain their consent and the relationship to them allows them to be on board with the coming medicine session.
During the psychdelic trip, you can access Self and connect to the Greater Self, you observe, feel and go with the flow of your exiles being healed by Self, your protectors being off line thanks to your preparation and the substance.
Afterwards, during 2 to 6 weeks, your neurological structures are "plastic" : you are in a period of great opening and learning. Let's honor and take advantage of this time !
This is the integration phase, when you start changing your habits, adding new ones everyday that foster self care and support the integration of the parts of you that were healed. You learn to function from Self more and more each day, in a deep and respectful alliance with your protectors who can evolve.
Here, with IFS, we thank protectors for their trust and update them with the changes that occurred to other parts. We listen to their concerns about these changes and the future. We can also support them in transforming, that is changing roles. In oder to do so, we might have to check if they carry any burden that could prevent this retirement of their job. We support the harmonization of the whole inner system.
When preparation and integration are well guided, when the psychedelic experience itself takes place in a safe and supporting context (the Set & Setting, your mindset and your environment), because you're surrounded by people who know what they're doing, each experience is a new step on your Path towards You, freeing you from very old hindrances and enriching your life with precious Knowledge. It opens you up to new possibilities for your life, your future, your relationships and your purpose in this world.
If you are not very familiar with your inner system (wounds and defense mechanisms), IFS is a great model to learn to navigate your inner territory with safety, and train yourself to relate to these different aspects of yourself, ones that you like and ones you are afraid or ashamed of. The disconnection with our inner parts leads to confusion, fear and coping mechanisms that are usually out of our control. Learning to connect with these sub personalities allows us to harmonize our inner system, leading to more clarity, resources, calm and compassion for ourselves and others. We learn to meet our parts and help them transform, rather than avoid them, shut them down or be led by their roles and/or burdens.
