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Discerning the Ayahuasca Teachings
Reflections From My Clinical Practice
I have supported people through the integration of ayahuasca experiences and other master plants for over 20 years. In this presentation, I will share my reflections on the possibilities and pitfalls we encounter as we dive into a relationship with Ayahuasca. Ranging from somatic, to psychoemotional, spiritual experiences, and a combination of them all, the discernment of the teachings and healings received in contact with this master plant requires sustained after work and the willingness to remain open and nourish their unfolding. We will practice a sequence that allows us to anchor what I call optimal states of being.
Dr. Susana Bustos
Susana Bustos, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and music therapist trained in Chile. She co-directs the School of Psicovegetalismo, which offers education and clinical supervision to Spanish-speaking professionals whose clients work with master plants. Susana teaches and mentors students in the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at the California Institute of Integral Studies and in other international programs; developed the Ancestral Entheogenic Traditions curriculum for the Psychedelic Facilitation Training at the Berkeley Center for the Study of Psychedelics; and she also serves as a subject matter expert for the Board of Psychedelic Medicines and Therapies.
For over twenty years, Susana has oriented her clinical work, academic teaching, and research to exploring the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness, including their extreme manifestations (such as spiritual emergencies), and to the art of integrating these processes in daily life. As well, she has delved into the entheogenic shamanic traditions from the Americas, working and advocating to build adequate bridges between these traditions and Western psychotherapy.
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Embodied Imagination®Â
for Psychedelic Preparation & Integration
In this presentation you will learn about and practice Embodied Imagination®, a dreamwork practice based on ancient healing practices, depth psychology and mimesis as it applies to preparing and integrating a psychedelic journey. We'll open up the lines of communication with the collective unconscious and archetypes as guides and helpers.
Dr. Katherine Lawson
Dr. Katherine Lawson is an Integrative Mental Health Specialist, a certified Embodied Imagination® practitioner, consultant, psycho-spiritual counselor, and an international speaker. She has spent nearly two decades examining the intersections between healing, dreaming, mysticism, and psychedelics. As a BIPOC woman, cancer survivor, and the parent of a son who she nearly lost to addiction, she teaches and utilizes holistic therapies for PTSD and other types of unprocessed wounds, as well as sharing stories of healing. She is fascinated by the interactions between the brain, mind, body, and personality, as well as the powerful ways in which societal and spiritual factors affect health and happiness. She has recently published Dreamwork for Growth and Healing: A Guided Dream Journal.
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Herbal Allies for Entheogenic Journeys
Plants play an integral part of our daily lives and can be thoughtfully woven into journey work.
 In this interactive workshop, we will get to know a few botanical medicines that can be incorporated in the prep, integration, and journey itself. We will discuss use in ritual, supporting the nervous system, providing nourishment, and potential pitfalls when working with herbs for harm reduction and benefit maximization.
Dr. Elena Roemer, L.Ac
I am a California Licensed Acupuncturist and Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. I received my degree from ACTCM at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. My love of nature and plant medicine, inspired by my upbringing in Tahoe, is at the heart of how and why I practice natural and holistic medicine. Over the past 10 years, I have studied various lineages of plant medicine including Chinese medicine, Western herbalism, Indigenous plant medicine traditions, and California’s native medicinal plants. My fascination with human development, eclectic spiritual philosophies, and exploring how we meaningfully embody this human experience has also greatly guided my path in medicine. Alongside my clinical practice, I love to teach herbal medicine, especially orienting folks to the medicinal plants that grow around them to build a deeper relationship to the natural world.
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Relational Touch in Psychedelic Therapy
Touch, often regarded as our earliest form of communication and referred to as 'the mother of all senses,’ holds profound importance in human development, particularly during the formative years of life. In psychedelic-assisted therapy, clients frequently revisit their early developmental experiences as a pathway to healing.
While touch can offer healing for developmental trauma, it remains a topic of controversy within the therapeutic field for fear of causing harm. Thus, there is a need to learn the importance of a safe, embodied, and ethical touch, especially within the context of psychedelic therapy.
Relational Touch, grounded in the therapeutic relationship between the therapist and client, represents a nuanced approach to touch. Establishing Relational Touch requires careful preparation and the cultivation of trust and safety between the client and therapist. This presentation aims to provide insights into the principles of safe, relational, and ethical touch, exploring its potential application within the framework of psychedelic therapy.
Shirley Dvir
Shirley is the founder and lead teacher of Relational Somatic Healing and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT 44258). She is currently earning a PhD at California Institute for Integral Studies in Somatic Psychology and is writing her dissertation on the use of safe touch in psychotherapy. She earned an MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University and a BA in Social Work from Haifa University in Israel. For over 10 years, she taught as a Certified Hakomi Teacher at the Hakomi Institute of California, John F. Kennedy University, California Institute for Integral Studies, and Shiluv Center in Tivon, Israel. She has also supervised associates pursuing MFT licensure and currently mentors licensed practitioners. Shirley has been practicing psychotherapy since 1997 in agencies and private practice, seeing families, children, couples, and individuals. She has training in psychodynamic work, attachment, EMDR, Sensorimotor Trauma Therapy, the Enneagram, family therapy, CranioSacral Therapy, and Body Mind Centering (Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen). Her main work today focuses on healing relational wounds with safe embodied touch. Her spiritual practice and meditation support how she holds her work and her teaching. She has a private practice based in Berkeley, CA.
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Internal Family Systems for Psychedelic Healing & Growth
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is at the forefront of a paradigm shift in the landscape of mental health treatment, particularly in the realm of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Through a combination of didactic presentations, experiential exercises, case studies, and group discussions, participants will gain practical tools and insights to integrate IFS principles into their therapeutic approach and/or for your personal therapeutic journeys. Led by a leading expert clinician in both IFS and psychedelic therapy, you'll learn how the IFS model and techniques will equip you with valuable insights to enhance your psychedelic-assisted work, before, during and after psychedelic sessions, empowering you to facilitate more effective healing and integration. Whether you are new to IFS or already familiar with its principles, this workshop offers a rich and dynamic exploration of its application in the realm of psychedelic therapy.
Dr. Nick Brüss
Dr. Nick Brüss is a paradigm-shifting psychedelic therapist, researcher and trainer who is whole-heartedly invested in helping people heal, grow and live free in their lives (with and without the use of psychedelic medicine).
He is passionate about teaching people how to free themselves from suffering, to live in their body, and to engage a creative and meaningful life. He does this by supporting and challenging clients to re-experience themselves as whole, by building life-changing programs, training the next generation of clinicians and educating the public about the vast benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapies.Â
Nick is a therapist and clinical supervisor on the ground breaking FDA Phase III clinical trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD sponsored by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Having provided ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) since 2017 and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy since 2013, he is a leader in psychedelic-assisted IFS therapy. He is a co-founder and lead clinical trainer at the Psychedelic Coalition for Health (PCH), a psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy trainer at TheraPsil, and a volunteer with MAPS’s Zendo Project.
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Collaborative Integration
Developing An Interdisciplinary Team for Mind, Body, Spirit Integration
Join Courtney Watson with friends Devon Burton and Hunter Pietrzak for a workshop on Collaborative Integration, focusing on interdisciplinary treatments that support psychedelic therapy. This session will demonstrate how a therapist, chiropractor, and acupuncturist can work together to support clients in integrating psychedelic experiences. Participants will witness an actual integration session, where the therapist help process the experience with a client. Based on the conversation and their knowledge of their crafts, the chiropractor will provide an in vivo adjustment, and the acupuncturist will administer supportive acupuncture points for integration. Following the demonstration, participants will be divided into categories of practitioners and asked to exchange information with 2 practitioners in different fields to start a collaborative integration relationship. This workshop is for providers offering integration services who are interested in expanding their understanding of collaborative integration in psychedelic therapy.
Courtney Watson, LMFT
The dynamic founder of Doorway Therapeutic Services, Courtney, is not just a highly qualified therapist but a passionate advocate for those she serves. Her love for her work is deeply intertwined with her dedication to serving marginalized communities, particularly Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer Folx, trans/gnc/non-binary/2 spirit Folx, those exploring non-traditional relationships, and sex workers.
Courtney’s passion lies in her service to her community and has led her to transform her solo practice into a group practice of predominantly Queer, BIPOC and TGNC providers offering their therapeutic expertise as a beacon of understanding and guidance to the community.
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Transcending Western Individualism
A Mythosomatic Approach to Integration
Psychedelics can illuminate the interdependent reality of the cosmos, yet the power of these insights are often lost due to a lack of integration. It’s all well and good to know oneself as living cosmos, but how do those gnostic realizations move out into the world? While integration may be a Western concept, the liberative possibilities of the practice lie in applying a rites of passage frame to psychedelic work. In this presentation we’ll explore a rites of passage orientation to integration and move through a mythosomatic practice to experientially ground and embody our own individual knowings.
Valeria McCarroll, PhD, LMFT
Valeria McCarroll, PhD, LMFT, is a psychedelic educator, writer, and speaker. Formally trained as a guide in expanded states of consciousness, she teaches critical courses on psychedelic humanities in the Integral and Transpersonal Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Her interests lie at the intersection of nondual wisdom traditions, somatics, psychedelics, and social and transformative justice. When not synthesizing and refining liberative systems for deconstructing the patriarchy, she enjoys playing outdoors and creating beauty.Â
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The Power of Community
Integration Tools for Groups
Leading integration processes after group experiences is a potent way to deepen the relational field. The group members' experiences and reactions become points of connection to further weave the group together. In this presentation you will learn and practice somatic, expressive arts and relational techniques to help people further explore their processes in the hours and days immediately after a group expanded state experience.
As the last presentation of the weekend, we will be using the material of the weekend as the basis for integration. In other words, we will be integrating the Summit itself.Â
Alexander Warnow
I am a LMFT and guide working in Oakland, CA. I've been working with expanded states and leading groups for more than 10 years. As the organizer of Harvest Integration, I'm passionate about bringing people together for healing, community and fun.Â