The Effects of Expectations in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Sessions
It’s not unusual to have expectations going into your first psychedelic experience. In fact, they’re quite normal. However, when it comes to psilocybin assisted therapy, it becomes essential to examine both your conscious and subconscious expectations as they play a significant role in shaping your journey and perhaps even your integration process.
The Impact of Conscious and Subconscious Expectations in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Sessions
Your subconscious expectations, for instance, might revolve around desiring a blissful and mystical journey filled with fabulous experiences. You might yearn for a divine connection, possibly because you’ve heard of others’ experiences or you’ve tasted it before and are uncertain about recreating this connection independently. These anticipation can often double up as subconscious intentions.
”Expectations, conscious or subconscious, can act as a lens through which you perceive your psychedelic journey.”
What happens when the psychedelic “medicine” kicks in? An expectation could hinder you from going with the flow and truly absorbing what the medicine has to reveal. You might find yourself resisting the journey, attempting to control the evolving circumstances or even desiring to alter the direction. It’s similar to swimming against the current–tiring and ultimately unwieldy.
The Struggles of Surrendering in a Psychedelic Therapy Session
Under such circumstances, surrendering to the emotion or the ongoing situation becomes extremely difficult. As you try to veer away from specific feelings, the medicine highlights them even more – it could be an emotional trigger causing the perceived disconnect from the divine, or the persistent hurdle that keeps you from feeling universally connected.
The Role of a Psychedelic Facilitator or Integration Coach to ease challenges during the Psychedelic Experience
A psychedelic facilitator or a therapist who is experienced with altered states of consciousness can be tremendously helpful in navigating these tricky waters. Not only can they assist during the actual psychedelic assisted therapy session helping you break free from a looping mindset and navigate towards a state of surrender, but they can also provide valuable support following the session.
Post-session, you might grapple with disappointment if the journey didn’t meet your expectations, or you’re trying to comprehend and analyse what transpired. Your integration coach or therapist can bring clarity to these aspects and help identify your expectations, understand how they influenced your experience, and how to integrate this awareness into your daily life.
“Integration coaches or therapists can help make sense of your psychedelic journey by understanding your expectations and reflections.”
The Risk of Devaluing your Psychedelic Journey
Imagine you’re about to embark on a psychedelic experience, brimming with hope that this will be the profound alteration you’ve been searching for. Maybe, you think, you’ll emerge from it a different person, or at the very least, sans a persistent issue that’s been plaguing you. It’s understandable to harbor such strong expectations if you’ve been dealing with suffering for years, tried countless therapies, and experimented with various healing modalities, but still find yourself struggling.
Such an intense anticipation, while entirely normal, may have unintended consequences. The danger lies in the risk of devaluing your psychedelic experience because of your lofty expectations. You might not fully appreciate the gifts and insights you receive during it, considering them insignificant in the pursuit of a significant transformation.
This is often due to limiting beliefs we’ve ingrained over time, such as “nothing works for me” or “this didn’t work for me.”
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Limiting Beliefs
Suppose you find yourself, a few days or weeks post-experience, feeling unchanged. Your issue still persists, and you believe that, once again, you’ve tried something that didn’t work for you. This in itself reinforces that limiting belief, strengthening its hold on you and creating a vicious cycle.
Further, this may cause you to lose the motivation to integrate the experience into your life. Why bother putting in the effort to incorporate something you believe didn’t help you?
The Role of a Psychedelic Integration Coach or Therapist
This is where the importance of working with an integration coach or therapist becomes evident. An experienced coach or therapist can aid in uncovering the patterns and limiting beliefs constraining you, helping to transform them, and allowing you to truly value the insights and gifts from your psychedelic experience.
“A coach or therapist will assist in not just seeing the value in your experience, but integrating it into your life.”
In conclusion, while it’s natural to harbor high hopes for a life-changing psychedelic experience, especially if you’ve been struggling for a long time, it’s essential to manage these expectations to avoid devaluing the journey.
Working with an integration coach is invaluable in dealing with entrenched limiting beliefs, facilitating the understanding and appreciation of the experience’s value, and incorporating the gained insights into your daily life. This way, you can break free from negative patterns and pave the way for genuine change and growth.
Remember, it’s not about steering the trip but about surrendering to the journey.
Stay tuned for more insights and discussions on the exploration of psychedelic experiences.
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