​PSYCHEDELIC-ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY

A CONNECTED PROCESS OF CARE.

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy brings together psychological preparation, therapeutic support during the medicine experience, and integration afterward within a continuous therapeutic relationship.

The medicine experience is not treated as an isolated event. The work begins before the session, continues through the experience itself, and extends into the period afterward, when insights, emotions, memories, relationships, symbols, and shifts in perspective can be explored more deeply.
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Depending on the treatment context, Orlando may remain therapeutically present throughout the medicine session while appropriately licensed medical professionals are responsible for the medical components of care within their respective scopes of practice.

THE MEDICINE MAY OPEN THE EXPERIENCE.
THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP HELPS HOLD THE PROCESS.

THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS

​BEFORE. DURING. AFTER.
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Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is more than a medicine session. Each stage can contribute to the therapeutic process.

01 — BEFORE
PREPARATION

Preparation creates the psychological and relational foundation for the experience. Together, we may explore intentions, expectations, concerns, personal history, current patterns, and what you hope to understand or change.

The process may also include contemplative, somatic, or symbolic practices when they are meaningful and appropriate to you.

02 — DURING
THE MEDICINE SESSION

During psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, I remain therapeutically present through the medicine experience—providing a consistent relational presence as the experience unfolds.

The environment is intentionally prepared to support inward attention, safety, comfort, and reflection. Depending on the individual, this may include music, an eye mask, sound, meaningful personal or sacred objects, contemplative practices, or other elements chosen intentionally for the session.

03 — AFTER
​INTEGRATION

After the medicine experience, we explore what emerged and what it may mean for your life. Integration may involve emotions, memories, relationships, behavior, bodily experience, dreams, imagery, existential questions, or shifts in identity and perspective.
The work then becomes translating what was experienced into choices, practices, relationships, and ways of living that can continue beyond the session.

PREPARATION CREATES THE FOUNDATION.
THE EXPERIENCE OPENS THE PROCESS.
INTEGRATION BRINGS THE WORK INTO LIFE.

BEYOND ORDINARY LANGUAGE

​DIFFERENT WAYS OF LISTENING
TO WHAT EMERGES.

Psychedelic experiences do not always arrive as clear thoughts or explanations. They may unfold through emotion, sensation, memory, imagery, dreams, symbols, archetypal themes, spiritual or existential material, and shifts in consciousness.

My approach allows room for these different forms of experience while remaining psychologically grounded. Depending on what is meaningful and appropriate for you, preparation and integration may draw from psychotherapy alongside contemplative, somatic, symbolic, and consciousness-oriented practices.
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The purpose is not to impose an interpretation on the experience, but to create different ways of listening to it.

PSYCHOLOGICAL
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Emotions, memories, relationships, attachment, patterns, identity, behavior, and personal history can provide important context for understanding what emerges.

CONSCIOUSNESS & EMBODIMENT
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Meditation, breath, embodied awareness, sound, imagery, and contemplative practices may support attention to the felt, experiential, and transpersonal dimensions of the work.

SYMBOLIC & ARCHETYPAL
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Dream exploration, metaphor, archetypal inquiry, tarot, astrology, and other symbolic frameworks may be incorporated when meaningful to you as ways of exploring imagery, patterns, questions, and personal meaning.

NOT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS ARRIVES AS AN EXPLANATION.
SOMETIMES THE WORK BEGINS BY LEARNING HOW TO LISTEN DIFFERENTLY.

Symbolic and contemplative practices are used as frameworks for reflection and meaning-making, not as deterministic systems, medical assessment, or substitutes for psychological or medical care.

THE THERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT

THE SETTING IS PART
​OF THE CONTAINER.

The physical environment can influence how supported, grounded, and able to turn inward a person feels during a psychedelic medicine experience.
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Medicine sessions take place in a comfortable setting intentionally prepared for extended periods of inward attention and therapeutic work. The space may include a supportive lounge, music, an eye mask, water, blankets, a journal, and other practical elements that support comfort and reflection.

When meaningful and appropriate to the individual, the environment may also incorporate natural, contemplative, or personally significant elements—such as crystals, prayer or mala beads, sound instruments, rattles, flutes, feathers, sacred plants, candles, or objects brought by the client.
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An altar or space for personal offerings may also be created when this has meaning for the person and fits the context of the work.

COMFORT
A setting designed for rest, inward attention, and the changing needs of an extended medicine experience.
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INTENTION
Music, sound, objects, and environmental elements are selected purposefully rather than used simply as decoration.

PERSONAL MEANING
Clients may bring meaningful objects, photographs, writings, or other items that help connect the experience with relationships, memories, intentions, culture, or personal values.​

THE SPACE DOES NOT CREATE THE EXPERIENCE.
IT HELPS CREATE A CONTAINER IN WHICH THE EXPERIENCE CAN UNFOLD.

COLLABORATIVE CARE

​DIFFERENT PROFESSIONAL ROLES.
ONE COORDINATED PROCESS.

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can bring together psychological and medical care. When medical services are part of treatment, I collaborate with appropriately licensed medical professionals so that each aspect of care is provided within the appropriate professional scope.

THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC ROLE
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My role centers on the psychological and therapeutic process. Depending on the treatment context, this may include:
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• psychological preparation
• establishing therapeutic intentions
• therapeutic presence and support throughout the medicine session
• attending to emotional, relational, somatic, symbolic, and experiential material
• post-session processing and integration
• translating insights into meaningful changes in everyday life

THE MEDICAL ROLE
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When medicine and medical care are involved, appropriately licensed medical professionals are responsible for medical services within their respective scopes of practice. Depending on the treatment model, these may include:
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• medical evaluation and screening
• determining medical appropriateness
• prescribing
• medication administration
• medical monitoring
• medication-related clinical decisions and follow-up

COORDINATION MATTERS.
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The intention is not to blur professional roles, but to coordinate them. Clear communication and collaboration can allow the psychological process and medical care to support the same overall treatment while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.

Scope statement
Availability of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy depends on the medicine, treatment model, jurisdiction, clinical appropriateness, and applicable legal and professional requirements. Not every psychedelic medicine or treatment model is available in every setting.

CONSIDERING THE WORK

​IS THIS THE RIGHT PATH
​FOR YOU?

Interest in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can arise for many reasons. Some people are drawn to the possibility of approaching longstanding patterns differently; others are navigating transitions, questions of meaning, or a desire for deeper psychological exploration.

This work may be worth exploring if you are:

• interested in approaching psychological or relational patterns from a different perspective
• seeking a structured therapeutic process surrounding a psychedelic medicine experience
• willing to engage in preparation before the medicine session and integration afterward
• curious about emotional, somatic, symbolic, existential, or consciousness-related material
• interested in translating insight into changes in relationships, behavior, choices, or everyday life
• comfortable approaching the work collaboratively rather than expecting the medicine itself to create change

​NOT EVERYONE WHO IS CURIOUS ABOUT PSYCHEDELICS NEEDS PSYCHEDELIC-ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY.
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​Psychedelic medicines can involve meaningful psychological and medical considerations. Whether this approach is appropriate depends on the individual, the medicine being considered, the treatment context, and relevant clinical and medical factors.
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When a medicine session is being considered, appropriate psychological and medical screening helps determine whether and how the work may proceed.

THE QUESTION IS NOT SIMPLY,
“COULD I HAVE A PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE?”
BUT, “IS THIS AN APPROPRIATE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS FOR ME?”

WHAT TO EXPECT

FROM FIRST CONVERSATION
​TO INTEGRATION.

Every treatment process is individualized. When psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is being considered, the work generally unfolds through a series of coordinated steps designed to determine fit, prepare thoughtfully, support the medicine experience, and integrate what follows.

01 — EXPLORE
BEGIN WITH A CONVERSATION.

We start by discussing what brings you to this work, what you are hoping to explore, and whether psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy may be an appropriate pathway to consider.


SCHEDULE AN EXPLORATION CALL →

02 — ASSESS & COORDINATE
DETERMINE THE APPROPRIATE PATH.

Psychological and, when applicable, medical considerations are evaluated before proceeding. When medical care is part of the treatment model, coordination occurs with appropriately licensed medical professionals responsible for the medical aspects of care.

03 — PREPARE
CREATE THE FOUNDATION.

Preparation may explore intentions, expectations, concerns, psychological history, relationships, patterns, and the personal meaning surrounding the work.

Depending on the individual, preparation may also incorporate contemplative, somatic, or symbolic practices.

04 — EXPERIENCE
ENTER THE MEDICINE SESSION WITH THERAPEUTIC SUPPORT.

When psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy proceeds, I remain therapeutically present through the medicine experience while the applicable medical aspects of care are provided by the appropriate licensed medical professional.

The session environment is intentionally designed to support comfort, inward attention, therapeutic exploration, and the unfolding experience.

05 — INTEGRATE
BRING WHAT EMERGED INTO LIFE.

Afterward, we explore what arose and what it may mean. Integration can involve psychological processing as well as emotional, relational, somatic, contemplative, existential, or symbolic exploration.

The longer-term work is translating meaningful insight into how you relate, choose, practice, and live.

THE MEDICINE SESSION IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE PROCESS.
IT IS NOT THE ENTIRE PROCESS.

Preparation creates context. Therapeutic presence supports the experience. Integration helps carry the work forward.
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​BEGIN THE CONVERSATION →

BEYOND THE MEDICINE SESSION

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THE EXPERIENCE MAY OPEN A DOOR.
WHAT FOLLOWS MATTERS.

A psychedelic experience can feel profound, clarifying, challenging, beautiful, confusing—or several of these at once. An experience may create new awareness, but awareness alone does not necessarily change how we live.

Integration creates space to return to what emerged with curiosity and perspective. We may explore emotions, memories, relationships, bodily experiences, dreams, imagery, symbols, changes in identity, existential or spiritual questions, and new ways of understanding yourself or your life.

The work then turns toward embodiment: What deserves to change? What needs continued attention? What might be practiced differently?
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Integration is not about forcing every experience into a single explanation. Sometimes the work involves making meaning. Sometimes it involves tolerating uncertainty. And sometimes the most important integration happens gradually through relationships, choices, boundaries, habits, creativity, contemplative practice, and everyday life.

EXPERIENCE → REFLECTION → MEANING → PRACTICE → EMBODIMENT

EXPERIENCE
What happened?

REFLECTION
What continues to stand out?

MEANING
What might this reveal or invite?

PRACTICE
What deserves to be approached differently?
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EMBODIMENT
How does insight become something lived?


THE GOAL IS NOT TO HOLD ONTO
AN EXTRAORDINARY STATE.​

IT IS TO DISCOVER WHAT THE EXPERIENCE
MIGHT MAKE POSSIBLE IN ORDINARY LIFE.

BEGINNING THE PROCESS

​U DON'T NEED TO KNOW
EXACTLY WHERE THIS WILL LEAD.

If you're considering psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, preparation and integration, or simply have questions about whether this work may be appropriate for you, we can begin with a conversation.

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BEGIN THE CONVERSATION →
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Availability of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy varies according to clinical appropriateness, treatment model, medicine, jurisdiction, and applicable professional and legal requirements.