Integration in Psychedelic-Assisted Treatments: Recurring Themes in Current Providers’ Definitions, Challenges, and Concerns

Abstract

Integration therapy, an integral part of psychedelic-assisted treatment, usually includes sessions devoted to making meaning of relevant psychedelic experiences after subjective effects have subsided. As the psychedelic renaissance continues, offers for this integration therapy have proliferated. In the present project, semi-structured interviews with 30 integration therapists focused on definitions of integration as well as challenges and concerns that they associated with the practice. A mixed-methods approach revealed 19 themes that coders identified reliably. Prevalent themes included expressing concern about nonresponsive clients, defining integration as a bridge between the psychedelic experience and daily life, and apprehensions about the commercialization of psychedelic psychotherapy. Interviewees viewed integration as a process that begins prior to the administration of substances, never ends, makes sense of the psychoactive experience, creates behavioral change, is personalized, and makes the individual whole. Most participants also discussed issues related to client resistance, unrealistic expectations of psychedelic psychotherapy, problems associated with power differentials, the importance of an integration therapist’s connection to other service providers, and the need for self-care. These data might help the standardization of integration therapy, inform lay impressions of the process, and help generate hypotheses for continued research on this aspect of psychedelic-assisted treatment. These data also suggest that psychedelic integration practitioners would appreciate regular support from a community of like-minded colleagues.

Psychedelic integration challenges: Participant experiences after a psilocybin truffle retreat in the Netherlands

“…In psychedelic parlance, 'integration' is defined as an important process for bringing the insights and benefits from a psychedelic experience back into daily life, and also for assimilating any challenges that arose during the experience (e.g. Aixala, 2022;Bathje, Majeski, & Kudowor, 2022;Earleywine, Low, Lau, & De Leo, 2022;Gorman, Nielson, Molinar, Cassidy, & Sabbagh, 2021;Pilecki et al, 2021;Read & Papaspyrou, 2021). The term 'challenge' is employed as it denotes an experience that is demanding but transient, and that does not result in any serious or lasting harmin fact it may be ultimately understood as cathartic.…”

Therapeutic frameworks in integration sessions in substance‐assisted psychotherapy: A systematised review

“…While difficult to determine when the concept of integration was first introduced, some studies from the initial wave of psychedelic research designated time toward integrating administration sessions (e.g., MacLean et al, 1961;Pahnke et al, 1970;Savage & McCabe, 1973). Earleywine et al (2022) suggest the following definition of integration based on interviews with 30 integration therapists:…”

Changes in EEG Entropy, Alpha Power, and Beta Power Following a VR Psychedelic Journey

“…Integration is thought to be the key to having successful long-term benefits (Brown & Arden, 2020). While integration is a term that is ill-defined in the psychedelic research community (Bathje et al, 2022;Earleywine et al, 2022), theories of consciousness can inform us what integration might look like from a neuroscience perspective. Specifically, integration is defined as the statistical dependency of brain signals (e.g., Tononi et al, 1994), which is the opposite of entropy.…”